7 Terrifying Episodes Hidden In Unscary TV Shows

1. Frame Of Mind - Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek has never shied away from horror. Seriously, the first episode of Trek ever aired had a freaking vampire in it. Deep Space Nine took on the real-world horrors of postcolonialism and refugee life. Voyager turned a guy into a salamander one time. (He got better.)

Salamandrification notwithstanding, it was Next Generation that really drove home horror, and with all due love to the Borg and David Warner’s four lights, the dark streak peaked in Frame of Mind. The episode put every aspect of the show at risk, locking us into the viewpoint of Commander Riker as his sense of reality, and ours, slowly unraveled. This was Star Trek as black box theatre, turning the fourth wall into a portal invariably leading to more confusion and pain. Mainstream TV hadn’t been this stripped down, surreal and shamelessly artificial since the experimental peaks of Twilight Zone, echoing classic episodes like The Obsolete Man and Five Characters in Search of an Exit.

Above all, Frame of Mind was shocking. It broke the show’s utopian setting, its self-consciously intricate production design, even the core qualities of its characters, to deliver a real exploration of a disintegrating mind. Most Trek fans don’t turn on the show in hopes of masterful psychological horror, but Frame of Mind delivers on every level.