10 Biggest Jump Scares In Star Trek
Don't worry! In Star Trek, you can always replicate a new set of underwear.
Are you sitting uncomfortably? Good. Then we'll begin. For this list, you will need to be perched right at the edge of your furniture, preferably with a pillow ready if your cardio-pulmonary systems are not Borg-reinforced. Things are about to get scary. Things are about to make you jump more than zero-g combat training.
A relatively long-time horror genre staple, the jump scare has become one of its most overworn tropes. Done well, this cinematic device still has the power to surprise and to chill. Done to excess, or done poorly, it might merely hang a few dissonant chords on what we already saw coming. By and large, Star Trek has used the jump scare sparingly and to great effect. As a rule, the franchise's switch to streaming has widened the palate for gore, but not the possibility for a good old-fashioned fright.
Shock horror, there will be no shocks from Genesis, nor terrors from Night Terrors, nor scares from Impulse or Schisms on this list. We have covered those episodes extensively in '10 Scariest Star Trek Episodes Ever' and '10 Most Horrifying Star Trek Moments'. Have no fear… or do! There are several others to choose from. So, strap in! Black alert. Get ready to jump! In Star Trek, the only thing to fear is the fear of fear itself.
10. Turbolift's Tension
The Haunting of Deck Twelve was Star Trek: Voyager's take on the camp-fire ghost story. With a title like that, you can't really be shocked about being shocked. Ship's systems were infected by a strange entity from a now no-longer nebula. The crew got more than a few shocks of their own…. or did they?
If in doubt, do leave Neelix alone in the mess hall. That's not episode-specific, just general advice. Following protocol, were you Harry? Yeah. Sure, sure! After more than four hours in the dark with nothing but his kitchen utensils for company, Neelix ventures out in search of a mysterious noise. Curiosity has never harmed anything with whiskers, after all!
Neelix proceeds towards the turbolift at the end of the corridor, its doors on classic malfunction mode — open and close, open and close. The menacing score accompanies the hiss. If you want to break the tension for yourself before the scare, just imagine the members of the production crew pulling and pushing on either side!
Ready? Right at the threshold of the turbolift, the camera flips round, the music blares. It's Tuvok in an oxygen mask! "Calm yourself, Mr Neelix." Good advice for us all! Later, there was nebula for Neelix in the Jefferies tubes and beneath the cloche. That is, unless the whole thing was made up just to make the Borg kids jump.