10 Star Trek Moments You Never Saw Coming
5. There Are Four Lights!
This was a shock that runs in a similar vein to the revelation of Locutus of Borg, but for entirely different reasons. In the seminal two-parter Chain of Command, Captain Picard is captured by the Cardassians and brought before Gul Madred, state torturer for the Central Command. There, he undergoes days of brutal psychological and physical conditioning, all with a view of breaking the man into revealing Federation secrets.
While this pushes the definition of a moment to its limit, the entire exchange between the great actors Patrick Stewart and David Warner was something few people ever thought they would sit through. Stewart, a long-time advocate for human rights, reviewed tapes of torture provided by Amnesty International, to better prepare for the part. Perhaps the most shocking moment though of the story comes not during the exchange, nor during Picard's tortured roar of there are four lights, but from the confession that he makes to Troi in the end.
Madred managed it. He broke the captain. He would have revealed anything, just for a break in the pain. More than that, by the final moments of his ordeal, Picard really had begun to see five lights.