Den of Geek has ranked more episodes of Star Trek’s Voyager and The Next Generation in the top ten scariest episodes list than any other Trek shows.
With Halloween just a few weeks away, it’s always fun to dive into the spooky side of life. It can be fun to be scared in the right setting and Star Trek knew this as well as any show on the air. That’s why some of their episodes are downright horrifying. For some. So when Den of Geek released their top 25(ish) scariest episodes of Star Trek, it was a bit surprising that Star Trek’s Voyager and The Next Generation had the most selections of the Top 25.
With honorable mentions included at the end of their column, Next Generation and Voyager tied with seven selections each. Including honorable mentions for the rest, Deep Space Nine and The Original Series had five, Enterprise had three selections, while Discovery had two, and Picard and Lower Decks both had one.
Granted, the Lower Decks selection was a stretch. The top three picks were Voyager’s Scientific Method at No. 3, Next Generation’s Schisms at No. 2, and Voyager’s The Thaw at No. 1.
It’s really not a surprise that Voyager got so many selections. Part of their entire premise was being cut off from help of any kind. If you’ve ever seen a horror movie or played a survival horror game, the scariest part is seeing the character you’ve invested time into, heading into a situation by themselves.
The isolation is always the worst part of horror films. That fear that no one knows where you are or can help you if you need it. That’s why so many horror franchises utilize that idea of keeping the character away from groups. Voyager naturally lends itself to situations where the crew was stuck dealing with things with no real chance of help to save them. That would amp up the levels normally.
That seems to be why many of the top 10 are where they are, as most of them seem to focus on a character or characters being cut off from the rest of the crew. Isolation can be a truly terrifying thing.