Halloween: 3 episodes that should've been scarier than they were

Star Trek has some great horror episodes and this year on Halloween we've looked at some of the best, some of the more scary, and some that are just hard to sit through. This time, we're looking at more episodes that are hard to sit through, but for a different reason.

Horror, like all things in entertainment, is subjective. What may frighten you doesn't frighten others and vice versa. So some of the more haunting episodes may not do it for you and these are three that just didn't do it for me.

They may scare you but I found these three rather dull in that regard.

Voyager: The Thaw (2x23)

Star Trek: Voyager's "quintessential" horror episode in the eyes of many is The Thaw, the 23rd episode of season two. It sees Harry Kim and B'lanna Torres get stuck in a virtual reality world filled with computer programs that want to kill them. It's a solid episode of Star Trek, but it's far from what I would call scary. It's an episode I remember watching live when it first premiered. Even as a youngster, I didn't see the horror in it that so many do. Some episodes truly do move me with some dread and terror, but not this one. It was too dry at times and Michael McKean, who plays the Clown, came off as a copycat of other clown-like horror characters from around the same time.

The Next Generation: Night Terrors (4x17)

In this episode of The Next Generation, the entire crew begins to hallucinate aside from Data and Deanna Troi. This causes the crew to experience waking nightmares with the intent of scaring the audience. It doesn't. In fact, a floating Troi is often everyone's most remembered moment from the episode, which is pretty telling. Not because it's scary but because of how not-scary it is. It's rather comical. Despite the episode not being the terror-fest so many wish it was, it does feature a truly haunting moment where Beverly Crusher is in a room filled with dead bodies, covered in sheets, who all sit up at once in a truly chilling moment. I just wish the rest of the episode had that type of horror in it.

Picard: Monster (2x7)

Stuck in a coma-like state, Jean-Luc Picard has to face his worst memories in order to wake up. Pretty sure we've told this story before. This time, however, the show had the budget needed to do the horror aspects of the series justice. And it was just fine. The Jester was unique and there was a weird, almost unearthly coloring to a good chunk of the episode but the writing was lackluster, the scares were tepid at best and there just wasn't anything truly unique about the episode to make it stand out. It's why it has a 5.4/10 on IMDB.