10 Biggest WTF Moments From Star Trek: The Next Generation

The Next Generation has had it's fair share of disturbing death scenes, but few were as shocking as Lieutenant Van Mayter's sudden demise in the episode In Theory.

Van Mayter was a minor background character who was previously seen working on the Enterprise in the episodes Galaxy's Child, Half A Life, and The Mind's Eye. During In Theory, the Enterprise encountered a series of subspace deformations that made it possible for stuff to pass through solid objects. Picard noticed that his personal items in his ready room had somehow ended up on the floor, and things just got stranger from there. An entire planet popped into existence seemingly out of nowhere, and all over the ship there were reports of more incidents, but Lieutenant Van Mayter experienced the worst one.

She went with La Forge to investigate possible structural damage, but La Forge heard a horrific scream as Van Mayter turned the corner, and when he returned to her, he saw that the anomaly had opened up the ground below her, and consumed half of her body. As the ground rematerialised through her, her body was crushed and she died almost instantly.

While this probably wasn't the most painful death in the show, it absolutely sticks in your mind, given the unique body-horror of the scene.