When did Star Trek scare you?

[Paul Weaver]

some of the scariest things are the ones that we know all too well and that we will all face at some point (like the death of a parent

The alternative to not facing the death of a parent is far worse.

Frame of Mind is the worst by far for me. I refused to watch that again for decades.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

In both series, there are all of these fantastical elements but in the end some of the scariest things are the ones that we know all too well and that we will all face at some point (like the death of a parent or loved one), and it's even more horrific than any demon or alien that they could ever imagine.

I know.

 

[Catarina]

I don't think I've been scared. I'd say grossed out. The Borg getting implants or that episode called "Faces" on Voy when the alien wore that officer's face. ewww.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Ah, yes, Frame of Mind. I was just about to bring this episode up.

I have an autographed copy of the script, if I remember right.

*****

Did anybody answer the question about what "The Lights of Zetar" was all about? If not, here's my take on it:

Scotty has a love interest. A Lt. Mira Romaine, a computer engineer on her way to install some new upgrades to Memory Alpha (the in-universe facility, not the real world web site). And when the Enterprise arrives, every living being there turns out to have been murdered by a non-corporeal entity, with the last one dying (and glowing in odd colors, and uttering unnatural vocalizations) in the presence of the landing party.

Mira is having strange premonitions. She'd seen the Memory Alpha deaths before they'd happened. And she has one of Scotty dying.

The non-corporeal entity returns, It turns out to be the surviving life force of the last few beings from the planet Zetar, where all corporeal life had been wiped out. And they're looking for a body to possess. Mira's.

Mira's brain circuitry pattern is changing. Becoming a match for the Zetarians. She is exorcised (by, of all things, being placed in a decompression chamber, with the artificial gravity neutralized, and pumped up at a rate that would likely have shattered her eardrums. Somehow, for reasons Ms. Lewis never bothered to explain, that drove out the Zetarians, and killed them.

I never found it particularly scary. Just very melodramatic and soapy.