Star Trek: The Next Generation's Scariest Episode Is A Body Horror Extravaganza

When the world of Star Trek was mostly confined to our TV screens, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was a staple amongst fans. Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the rest of the Enterprise crew were all about trading violence and disorder for civility and optimism. But every TV show has one or more episodes that run counter to the narrative grain, and TNG is no exception. We're not saying that Picard and his colleagues started brawling over lunch, but a simple shoving match may have been preferred to what creatives tried toward the end of Season 7.

We're specifically referring to an episode titled "Genesis," a moniker that may have just raised some goosebumps for old-school TNG fans. When Picard and Data are forced to disembark the Enterprise to retrieve a misfired torpedo, they discover upon returning that the ship's crew have devolved into primitive monsters. Caused by a synthetic T-cell that spread across the Enterprise in their absence, the show goes full body horror with the T-cell mutations; Troi has become some type of amphibian, Riker is now a caveman, and Lieutenant Barclay has turned into a tarantula.

As it turns out, Barclay is the one to point fingers at for the cataclysmic devolution. Days earlier, he had visited Dr. Crusher for medical treatment for what turned out to be a mild case of the flu. What no one knew was that Barclay's genes would reject the T-cell, causing all his dormant genes to activate. The mutation also made the T-cell transmissible, which is how it spread to the rest of the crew. You just can't trust anyone in space. 

The "Genesis" episode likely came as a real shock to steadfast TNG fans. Still, the creatives were seven seasons in and probably looking to try something new. So, Star Trek made a mini-horror movie, and its viewership reacted accordingly. While the TNG community is quick to point out the implausibility of the T-cell debacle, others were simply along for the ride. Because, however rooted in science TNG was, it was still a "science fiction" show. The episode was also directed by Gates McFadden, a series regular who provided some inside baseball on the production.

The episode was filmed around the time of the 1994 Northridge, California earthquake, which damaged sets and destroyed the homes of several crew members. This left McFadden with a relatively bare-bones team to work with, and the horror genre is the perfect playing field for combating limitations with innovation. And even if many TNG fans consider "Genesis" to be silly, one thing is certain: they all remember the episode. It also wasn't the first time that TNG decided to "loosen up."

Just one season before, the TNG creatives took a stab at Charles Dickens in an episode titled "Tapestry." Swapping Scrooge for a dying Picard, an extraterrestrial named Q brings Picard back in time to right some wrongs. The writer of the episode, Ronald D. Moore, even wanted to call it "A Q Carol" before executive producer Michael Piller suggested "Tapestry."