7. “Genesis” – Star Trek: The Next Generation
If you’re a fan of visceral body horror, then Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s “Genesis” is for you. If you’re horrified by body horror and you’re looking for a good spook and scare, then Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “Genesis’ is for you as well.
The episode is TNG’s version of The Fly, where a re-awaken T-Cell in Reginald Barclay ends up infecting the rest of the ship and causing them to de-evolve into horrifying creatures not seen since The Island of Doctor Moreau. The ship’s crew either turns or gets killed in the ensuing chaos, leaving Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Data alone to try and save the crew from either being stuck like this permanently or killing more people.
This is easily one of the harder episodes to watch in all of Star Trek, as the details for the prosthetics used are very lifelike. It really does stay with you. While not all of it works, Worf’s spider breath for one, the prosthetics do enough to really make you feel like these grotesque abominations are very capable of being real.
The episode is best not watched with small children, because the creature design is, as the internet would say, “nightmare fuel”.