4th Annual 30 in 30...Day 20 - It's a Star Trek Halloween!!!

There aren't many episodes of Star Trek that would classify as "horror" per se, but there are a few that contain some horror elements. I've always wanted to have a Star Trek "night" during one of my 30 for 30 marathons...last night was IT!

First off, the Enterprise season 3 episode "Impulse" - during their search for the Xindi race in the Expanse, the crew comes upon a stranded Vulcan ship. They discover the crew has suffered terminal mental illness from overexposure to an element called Trellium that exists in copious amounts in the region. The Vulcan crew have basically de-evolved into zombies as they try to hunt down and eliminate the Enterprise boarding party. Creepy!







A pretty good 'Halloween' episode for Trek and one that would have ramifications for certain crew members later in the season. Unfortunately, Archer discovers the Vulcan zombies are beyond help and has to destroy the Vulcan ship as they escape in a shuttle pod.



Next up is one of my favorite, campy early TNG episodes. Season One's 'Conspiracy' episode! Picard is called to a clandestine meeting with some of Starfleet's highest ranking officials as he is informed there is something "strange" going on at Starfleet headquarters. Soon after, one of the starships that he meets with is found utterly destroyed and Picard races to Earth to find out what exactly is going on. What he discovers is an alien race of parasites that have infiltrated and taken over the highest ranked officers at the heart of the Federation. Their ultimate goal is to prepare Earth and its allies for total domination.

Special mention goes to Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes 2 and other old horror films) as one of the Captains warning Picard of imminent danger.



"We seek peaceful co-existence!"



This was a gruesome episode, esp for Star Trek back in 1987. The mother creature and its host get blasted into pieces at the end!







The little parasites are basically stop motion creatures, but the campiness is so great...Ah, the late 1980s...



The episode ends with the parasites exposed and eliminated - but not before Data discovers a homing beacon was sent to an unexplored region of the galaxy, suggesting the parasites would return in force one day. Unfortunately, they never did.

Oh and speaking of scary Trek...this used to freak me out as a kid...BALOK!