Terror Trek – The Hidden Horrors of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’

Your Life is Worthless

Episode: Skin of Evil

In the TNG episode Skin of Evil, a sentient, malevolent, psychokinetic ooze envelopes a crashed shuttlecraft and holds the occupants hostage for its own amusement, while further tormenting the rescuers who land and try to reason with it. It outright kills Tasha Yar when she tries to step over it and spends a good deal of time reveling in this one senseless act of murder. It has no real purpose for any of this other than the fact that its a dick, but eventually, through her superior skills as a ship’s guidance counselor, Troi, who is trapped in the shuttlecraft, weakens it enough mentally that the Enterprise can rescue her and the random, nameless red shirt inside. It’s a very stark, clear reminder about the most inviolable law of nature and the universe: your life is absolutely worthless.

Seriously. Despite the fact that the mission of the Federation is to have non-interference and peaceful contact, sometimes you come across something elemental that literally does not care one iota about your or anything else’s existence. Seem harsh? Tell that to the spider you smashed in your living room the other night. The fact of the matter is, life only has a value when it is assigned a value, and the realization that, in the eyes of supposedly superior beings, our own lives mean nothing is the most terrifying concept of all. There are people in this world, psychopaths mostly, who wouldn’t hesitate to take a break from their day to murder someone. Predators in the wild rarely if ever give a second thought to the things they kill and eat. The idea that there could be life in the universe that views us as insignificantly as this creature viewed Yar and the Enterprise crew is horrifying, and that it would actually take joy in our pain makes it the galactic equivalent of that kid with a magnifying glass burning ants.

I have so many more great examples, but I’m well beyond my word count. Star Trek created hope for a better future but has never shied away from the reality that the universe is a bizarre and utterly terrifying place. Life is cheap and most of us traveling this long, star-specked trail are likely wearing red shirts. Star Trek: Discovery is in its first season and has birthed all new forms of physical and psychological terror, with its new take on the Klingons as well as the mad scientist slant that the research vessel seems to ride on. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.