10 Episodes to Put You Into the Halloween Spirit

Ah, All Hallows Eve. Goblins and ghosts, witches and spirits, monsters and aliens. A time for scares and frights. Halloween is likely a day where we have some of the most fun with playing with our fears, be it haunted houses or scary movies. Star Trek has given us more than a few frights over the last five decades, so I thought I would revisit a few of them. Yes, this is not an exhaustive list (I’m thinking of doing another one in a year or so), but here are ten that will give you some scares for those dark, scary nights leading up to October 31.

1. Catspaw (TOS) – let’s start with the original Halloween-inspired episode. When a member of an overdue away team returns to the ship dead with an ominous warning of a curse, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to the planet and find the perfect recipe for an intergalactic Halloween party. Spooky castle, skeletons hung up in the dungeon, spectral witches, and the token black cat. Add to that a pair of aliens with immense power a penchant for playing games with zombie-like Scotty and Sulu, and you get a light-hearted romp on the weird side. The cheese factor is high, but sometimes that is what Halloween is all about.
   
2. Genesis (TNG) – Data and Picard leave the Enterprise to recover a lost torpedo. When they get back to the ship, they find it adrift and low on power. As they search the ship, they initially have trouble finding the crew. When they do find them, they have all de-evolved into primitive evolutionary ancestors. While the science behind it might seem a bit weak, the make-up effects are great. Riker is a Neanderthal, Troi some weird amphibian, Barclay a cool-looking spider, and Worf some armored poison-spitting prehistoric Klingon. With a great intense chase-scene of proto-Worf pursuing Picard, we see some campy monster fun. The story might have as many holes as Charlie Brown’s ghost costume, but it’s still a fright bit of fun.
   
3. The Haunting of Deck 12 (VOY) -What’s Halloween without a good old-fashioned ghost story? Well, Voyager gives us that in its sixth season. The ship is powering down as it is about to enter a nebula. Neelix is assigned to watch over the recently rescued Borg children. They pester him with questions about Deck 12, which they have heard is haunted. Neelix gives them a story of a mysterious entity that came aboard the ship a few months earlier. As the story progresses, we cannot help but wonder how much of the tale is real and how much of it is made up. The viewer is left guessing until the end, and we get some great action.
   
4. Frame of Mind (TNG) – A psychological thriller that has Commander Riker wondering what is real. While Wil is jumping back and forth between his life on the Enterprise (focusing on a disturbing play he is in) and his life as a mentally unstable criminal (that mirrors the play he is in), we the audience are trying to ascertain which reality is real. I mean, we know who he is…or do we? This episode keeps the mind games going until the end, and it is a thrilling ride for all.
   
5. Doctor’s Orders (ENT) – Doctor Phlox is left alone on the ship to guide it through a region of space that is dangerous to the rest of the crew. With T’Pol and Porthos as his only companions, the good doctor starts to feel the eeriness of the solitude. He begins to hallucinate and is soon struggling to maintain a hold on his sanity. Of course, the twist at the end of the episode gives us all a “what the…” moment that is nest left unspoiled for those who haven’t seen it yet.
   
6. The Thaw (VOY) – What better way to celebrate the Season of Fear than with Janeway and her crew confronting the personification of Fear itself. The crew of Voyager discover a planet that had suffered a devastating disaster and find some of the inhabitants in stasis. When Harry and B’Elanna hook themselves up to the neural network, they meet the Clown, deliciously played by Michael McKean. The two officers soon find themselves in a struggle for their lives, and Janeway must confront Fear in order to save everyone. Clowns have often been seen as scary, and this one does not disappoint.
   
7. Empok Nor (DS9) –Chief O’Brien is sent with a team of engineers and security officers to salvage some essential parts from an abandoned Cardassian space station called Empok Nor. They soon find themselves in fight for their lives against a pair of super soldiers and, surprisingly, one of their own. Garak, who was brought along to help disarm Cardassian booby traps, is exposed to a psychotic chemical that turns him into a sadistic killer. As members of the team are hunted down one by one, Miles is pushed to his limits by the devilishly clever and sinister Garak/ Andrew Robinson has always played Garak with relish and finesse, but here is taps into a darker side of our favorite Cardassian that makes us wonder if this is the end of the road for the resident tailor.
   
8. Wolf in the Fold (TOS) – The specter of an ancient horror finds the Enterprise and its crew an irresistible target. Framing Scotty for several murders of women, this alien entity feeds on the fear of women as he murders them. It is revealed that the entity, known in this iteration as “Redjac”, has been roaming the galaxy for centuries, moving from world to world, killing women as he went. He is giving different names, the most chilling being the one he was given when he was on Earth, Jack the Ripper. This is one of the few times that the crew goes up against what can only be described as pure evil, and it undoubtedly leaves its mark as it jumps from person to person, and even into the computer of the Enterprise.
   
9. Conspiracy (TNG) – An alien parasite has taken control of key authority figures in Starfleet Command. The only Star Trek episode prior to Star Trek: Discovery to be given a viewer’s discretion warning, we get a lot of gore and violence here. Aside from the mystery of who to trust, we see some pretty gruesome special effects, including an exploding head and a deteriorating corpse. Definitely worth a watch leading up to Halloween.
   
10. The Darkness and the Light (DS9) – Kira Nerys, just days away from giving birth, is witnessing the deaths of her friends and former resistance comrades. As she and the crew of DS9 try to figure out who is responsible, she herself is kidnapped by the perpetrator. The killer, a disfigured Cardassian named Silaran Prin, piles on the creep factor as he discusses with Kira his plans to save the unborn child before killing her. It has all the elements of a psychological thriller and we are left wondering if the baby is going to be saved in the end.
    

 
So grab your bowl of candy, curl up with someone you can scream with, and enjoy these extra spooky episodes. Oh, and yes, I know there are some left out. Gotta save something for next Halloween. Let me know if your favorite scary episode has been left out and I will make sure to include it next year. Stay safe my friends.