Halloween: 3 Star Trek episodes that aren't horror but will haunt your dreams

When we think of horror, especially horror within Star Trek, our minds usually go to the more common things. Thoughts of spooky things, terrifying stories, and often unsightly scenes are what most people truly imagine. Especially during Halloween. Yet, you don't need to have a horror story to engage in something that haunts your dreams.

Star Trek has developed a long list of episodes that, while not horror, will stay with you and disturb you well past the credits. The types of episodes that really cement what it means to feel something. Far beyond the normal range of emotions.

We're talking about the episodes that change you, almost intrinsically. Giving you some sort of burden or grief to carry, because what you felt was very real even if what you just watched was very fake. So these are three episodes that, while not horror in nature, will linger on your soul long past the end.

Deep Space Nine: Hard Times (4x19)

After running afoul with an alien government, Chief Miles O'Brien is sentenced to 20 years in prison. In that time, O'Brien meets and befriends his cellmate, Ee'char. A man that he comes to respect and even like. Yet, at the end of his time in prison, he murders his cellmate. Only to be then reunited with his crew and family, with only mere hours pass after his arrest. It hadn't been 20 years, but only a few hours. Yet, despite very little time has passed at all, O'Brien lived a lifetime and murdered the only friend he had. All for it to not have happened at all. The dread and existential nightmares that come with such a concept are clearly depicted. The brilliance in the storytelling will have you wondering how you'd handle the same scenario.

The Next Generation: Best of Both Worlds Part 1 and 2 (3x26 & 4x1)

Much like Hard Time, the Best of Both Worlds episodes depict what can happen when technology truly takes over. Jean-Luc Picard is snatched by the Borg, implanted with cybernetic technology that dwarfs anything the series had ever seen at that point and turns him against himself and those he cares most about. What happens when technology takes command of your life and forces you to behave against your better instinct? This two-parter tackles that and so much more. If you're not worried about what could happen to our society as technology evolves unchecked, this two-parter will make you worried.

Enterprise: Doctor's Orders (3x16)

What happens to you when you've completely cut yourself off from those you love most? Doctor's Orders tackles that. Stuck on the Enterprise while most of the crew sleeps, Phlox has to deal with isolation with very few others on the ship. For the majority of the episode, he only has T'Pol and the captain's dog, Porthos for company. On a ship so big, it's easy to lose yourself when there's no one really around to remind you of who you are. The ease with which you can disappear while still existing is made abundantly clear in this unnerving masterpiece from Enterprise's third season.