10 Scariest Star Trek Episodes Ever

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 1, Episode 25

By and large, light-entertainment space adventures only really lend themselves to one type of horror. That classic psychological trope of the terror being implied considerably more than it's seen, leaving your imagination to do all the heavy lifting and, thus, saving money on expensive ghoulies and not upsetting the network.

All of that went out of the window though in the first season of The Next Generation, when the show decided instead to go for a full-on Cronenbergian nightmare complete with exploding human heads and a grotesque alien monster. A quick word of caution, this is easily the most viscerally disgusting thing Star Trek has ever devised, outside of this man's swimwear choices.

Uncovering a plot at the very highest levels of the Federation, Picard and Riker successfully overcome a series of terrifying parasites that have taken over the bodies of Starfleet's decision makers. It all culminates in a disgusting feast of live maggots, an exploding human head, a dissolved chest cavity, and whatever the hell that thing above is supposed to be.

The episode carried a viewer discretion warning before it aired, and the proders were told to reign the gore in for Season 2.