Star Trek: Voyager - 10 Most Anxiety-Inducing Episodes

10. Cathexis

We begin our list with a less-than-favourable encounter with a nebula (and no, it does not involve coffee this time). After Chakotay encounters a nebula and is left brain dead, a mysterious force begins taking over the minds of the Voyager crew.

When taken over by the force, crewmembers begin sabotaging the ship's efforts to go back to the nebula where they believe they will find the cure to Chakotay's condition. The crew becomes convinced it's a malevolent alien preventing them from helping Chakotay. It is not until the last few minutes of the episode they realise the "alien" was in fact Chakotay's spirit trying to warn them about the nebula.

However, before we find out that the force is in fact Chakotay trying to save the crew from the effects of the nebula, we are left to worry where the force is. It can jump from crewmember to crewmember, and no-one knows where it is at any time until the affected crewmember sabotages something.

Adding to the anxiety is that crewmembers have no memory of their actions while under the force's influence and they do things they wouldn't normally do. It's an episode that shows just how vulnerable the crew is in the Delta Quadrant where they have no knowledge of what resides there. Unknown forces are everywhere and no-one is immune to their effects, and that's terrifying.