Follow TV Tropes

Following

History NightmareFuel / StarTrekDeepspaceNine

Go To

OR

Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* In one episode, Sisko is trapped on a planet with Dukat, who's having hallucinations--imagine, being trapped on a (probably uninhabited) planet with a sadistic villain who is also hallucinating. Yipes!

to:

* In one episode, Sisko is trapped on a planet with Dukat, who's having hallucinations--imagine, being trapped on a (probably uninhabited) planet with a sadistic villain who is also hallucinating. Yipes!Yipes!
* Tying in to the above mention of Vedek Yasim's suicide, we have Kira's realization in that episode - the Dominion and Cardassians may not have reopened the ore processors, Bajorans may not be executed in the street on the whim of a Cardassian, the labor camps haven't reopened, but this is still an occupation, and, as she sits there, as invaders walk outside her door, as the Federation and Klingons fight the Dominion on multiple fronts (and having to retreat from them), her inaction makes her a collaborator. It's a perfect encapsulation of the sheer mundanity of evil - the more you're surrounded by it, the more you're inured to it, the less it fazes you, the less action you feel you need to take. It's chilling to realize how passive and numb one can become when, day in and day out, you're faced with these horrors, and, as it goes on, it just stops impacting you and you go about your business.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* In one episode, Keiko notices that O'Brien is drinking coffee in a recording and decides that it's fake because [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness O'Brien doesn't drink coffee.]] However, despite the recording ''being fake'' and them saving the day, the episode ends with O'Brien stating that she's wrong and he's always liked coffee. Kind of funny, but still.

to:

* In one episode, Keiko notices that O'Brien is drinking coffee in a recording and decides that it's fake because [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness O'Brien doesn't drink coffee.coffee in the afternoon.]] However, despite the recording ''being fake'' and them saving the day, the episode ends with O'Brien stating that she's wrong and he's always liked coffee. he absolutely drinks coffee in the afternoon sometimes. Kind of funny, but still.also FridgeHorror -- if she had known his habits a little better, she never would have realized the recording was fake (which was true, even if her reason for thinking so was wrong) and Sisko wouldn't have showed up in time to save O'Brien and Bashir from getting killed.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* The way the series started: [[CurbstompBattle Battle of Wolf 359]]. Ships swoop in firing at the Borg cube. And then the cube fires back, wrecking all of them with dismissive ease. The ''Saratoga'' gets blown to pieces. Sure Jake was knocked unconscious, ''but what about the other civilians?'' The ship then explodes as Cmdr. Sisko watches from his escape pod. And the Borg just keep moving....

to:

* The way the series started: the [[CurbstompBattle Battle of Wolf 359]]. Ships swoop in firing at the Borg cube. And then the cube fires back, wrecking all of them with dismissive ease. The ''Saratoga'' gets blown to pieces. Sure Jake was knocked unconscious, ''but what about the other civilians?'' The ship then explodes as Cmdr. Sisko watches from his escape pod. And the Borg just keep moving....
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* The [[CurbstompBattle Battle of Wolf 359]]. Ships swoop in firing at the Borg cube. And then the cube fires back, wrecking all of them with dismissive ease. The ''Saratoga'' gets blown to pieces. Sure Jake was knocked unconscious, ''but what about the other civilians?'' The ship then explodes as Cmdr. Sisko watches from his escape pod. And the Borg just keep moving....

to:

* The way the series started: [[CurbstompBattle Battle of Wolf 359]]. Ships swoop in firing at the Borg cube. And then the cube fires back, wrecking all of them with dismissive ease. The ''Saratoga'' gets blown to pieces. Sure Jake was knocked unconscious, ''but what about the other civilians?'' The ship then explodes as Cmdr. Sisko watches from his escape pod. And the Borg just keep moving....
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
Eh, Garak manages to make "contacts" even later in the episode, including one that can produce authentic Cardassian Data Rods........which by his own admission require government access to whatever produces them.......on Cardassia Prime itself....this easily implies he was lying, whether or not he really was.


** Garak did get this himself earlier in the episode when Sisko wants him to use his old contacts on Cardassia to get some information. Garak reaches out to spread the word...and just ''one day'' after talking to him, ''every'' one of his contacts is dead. While he tries to be light talking about it, it's clear Garak is rocked that just ''knowing'' him constitutes a death sentence on the Dominion-run Cardassia.

to:

** Garak did get this himself earlier in the episode when Sisko wants him to use his old contacts on Cardassia to get some information. Garak reaches out to spread the word...and just ''one day'' after talking to him, ''every'' one of his contacts is dead. While he tries to be light talking about it, it's clear Garak is rocked that just ''knowing'' him constitutes a death sentence on the Dominion-run Cardassia. Although it's {{Implied}} that Garak was just saying this to [[XanatosRoulette manipulate Sisco]], that level of manipulation and intrigue carries its own Nightmare Fuel.

Added: 655

Changed: 29

Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* In an episode in which someone is killing Kira's resistance cellmates, they send her messages saying "That's one", etc. as each person is killed, in a deeply creepy Saw-type distorted voice. Even creepier? [[spoiler:They use Kira's voice.]]

to:

* In an episode "The Darkness and the Light", in which someone is killing Kira's resistance cellmates, they send her messages saying "That's one", etc. as each person is killed, in a deeply creepy Saw-type distorted voice. Even creepier? [[spoiler:They use Kira's voice.]]


Added DiffLines:

** Another round of BodyHorror ensues earlier in the episode, when the murderer plants a "remat[erialization] bomb" on one of Kira's former resistance friends, which [[TeleporterAccident goes off]] when she and O'Brien try to beam the woman up to a runabout. For added ParanoiaFuel, the device is described as being two cubic millimetres in size, which makes it easy to plant and conceal on the target. And unlike the victim simply vanishing back to their origin point (as happened in ''[[Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture The Motion Picture]]''), their remains are left smoldering all over the transporter pad while Kira continues to investigate the cause.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None

Added DiffLines:

** Let's not mince words: This WAS reality. This isn't subtext, this isn't metaphor, and hell, this was probably a sanitized version of how life would have been for a black man in the 1960s. Meaning within the lifetime of plenty of the audience. This wasn't some alien culture, this is humanity's face. To deny it is to deny our own history.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None

Added DiffLines:

** The mere fact that at least one of those starships was a lightly-armed ''Oberth''-class, designed for scientific research, shows how friggin' desperate TheFederation was to stop the Borg with ''anything''.

Changed: 68

Removed: 345

Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* In "The Quickening", Bashir thinks he's cured a blight that has affected a planet for centuries. Needless to say, he realises he hasn't when ''people start screaming''.
** But he DID cure it in a sense. While the cure didn't work on the pregnant woman, it DID cure her unborn child. So by using his treatment, the next generation would be free of the disease. This is pointed out to Bashir repeatedly, but he still feels guilty that he wasn't able to cure the current generation and promised to keep working on it.

to:

* In "The Quickening", Bashir thinks [[HopeSpot thinks]] he's cured a blight that has affected a planet for centuries. Needless to say, he realises he hasn't when ''people ''hideous boils start screaming''.
** But he DID cure it in a sense. While
erupting on people's faces and the cure didn't work on the pregnant woman, it DID cure her unborn child. So by using his treatment, the next generation would be free of the disease. This is pointed out to Bashir repeatedly, but he still feels guilty that he wasn't able to cure the current generation and promised to keep working on it.screaming begins''.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None

Added DiffLines:

*** Except the Klingons ''did'' nearly launch an attack on Earth, as shown in the first season finale of ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery''. That said, with the Empire highly fragmented at the time, the records might have been lost to history over the intervening century-or-so.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* In "Distant Voices", Bashir is in a coma, [[AdventuresInComaland on an imagined version of the station]], with an alien trying to kill him and himself undergoing RapidAging. Another alien, pretending to be Garak, keeps trying to make him doubt himself. Thankfully, Bashir doesn't listen to the doubt alien.

to:

* In "Distant Voices", Bashir is in a coma, [[AdventuresInComaland on an imagined version of the station]], with an alien trying to kill him and himself undergoing RapidAging. Another alien, pretending to be Garak, keeps trying to make him doubt himself. Thankfully, Bashir doesn't listen to the doubt alien.alien.
* In one episode, Sisko is trapped on a planet with Dukat, who's having hallucinations--imagine, being trapped on a (probably uninhabited) planet with a sadistic villain who is also hallucinating. Yipes!
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None

Added DiffLines:

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/odo_odo_11070443_692_530.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ''This'' is why you shouldn't let a Changeling hold their shape for more than 16 hours.]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None

Added DiffLines:

** Garak did get this himself earlier in the episode when Sisko wants him to use his old contacts on Cardassia to get some information. Garak reaches out to spread the word...and just ''one day'' after talking to him, ''every'' one of his contacts is dead. While he tries to be light talking about it, it's clear Garak is rocked that just ''knowing'' him constitutes a death sentence on the Dominion-run Cardassia.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


** The fact that there is a man like [[spoiler: Marritza. It is easy to see the Cardassians are evil and wicked, as monsters who invaded Bajor and murdered its people. But Marritza forces Kira and the audience to realize there were victims on their side too... people too scared to do something and now tortured with the knowledge of what happened. How many other 'weak, whimpering' Cardassians are out there, haunted by the pleas of the Bajorian children... [[/spoiler]]

to:

** The fact that there is a man like [[spoiler: Marritza. It is easy to see the Cardassians are evil and wicked, as monsters who invaded Bajor and murdered its people. But Marritza forces Kira and the audience to realize there were victims on their side too... people too scared to do something and now tortured with the knowledge of what happened. How many other 'weak, whimpering' Cardassians are out there, haunted by the pleas of the Bajorian children... [[/spoiler]]Bajoran children...]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None

Added DiffLines:

** Bit creepier if you consider that this is a show with, as mentioned above, aliens capable of possessing people against their will, shapeshifters who can [[ReplicantSnatching kidnap and replace you]] without even your closest acquaintances noticing, and of course, [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Q]].
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None

Added DiffLines:

** There's also Keiko's side of things.
--->'''Keiko''': "It was more like having something coiled around inside my head. I could see and hear through it, but any time I tried to do anything, it was like being stuck in sand and squeezed."

Added: 394

Changed: 1

Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* The [[CurbstompBattle Battle of Wolf 359]]. Ships swoop in firing at the Borg cube. And then the cube fires back, wrecking all of them with dismissive ease. The ''Saratoga'' gets blow to pieces. Sure Jake was knocked unconscious, ''but what about the other civilians?'' The ship then explodes as Cmdr. Sisko watches from his escape pod. And the Borg just keep moving....

to:

* The [[CurbstompBattle Battle of Wolf 359]]. Ships swoop in firing at the Borg cube. And then the cube fires back, wrecking all of them with dismissive ease. The ''Saratoga'' gets blow blown to pieces. Sure Jake was knocked unconscious, ''but what about the other civilians?'' The ship then explodes as Cmdr. Sisko watches from his escape pod. And the Borg just keep moving....moving....
** After disabling ''Saratoga'', the Borg seemingly ignore her for the next several minutes. Presumably, with her out of the fight, the Borg simply focused their efforts on swatting the rest of the Federation flotilla. Which meant that the Borg's destruction of the ''Saratoga'' a minute or two later indicates how long it took the Borg to destroy or disable over thirty battle-ready starships.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* In "Crossover", humans (aka Terrans) are enslaved and thought of as soulless. Quark's executed for showing sympathy to them, Sisko is heartless, Odo has no respect for humans, and Molly has never been born.

to:

* In "Crossover", humans (aka Terrans) are enslaved and thought of as soulless. Quark's executed for showing sympathy to them, Sisko is heartless, Odo has no respect for humans, and Molly has never been born.born.
* In "Visionary", O'Brien has radiation poisoning that is making him see the future. Trouble is, he keeps seeing {{Bad Future}}s. He saw his own death ''twice'' and the station's destruction (with several people still on it) once.
* In "Distant Voices", Bashir is in a coma, [[AdventuresInComaland on an imagined version of the station]], with an alien trying to kill him and himself undergoing RapidAging. Another alien, pretending to be Garak, keeps trying to make him doubt himself. Thankfully, Bashir doesn't listen to the doubt alien.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* In one episode, Keiko notices that O'Brien is drinking coffee in a recording and decides that it's fake because [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness O'Brien doesn't drink coffee.]] However, despite the recording ''being fake'' and them saving the day, the episode ends with O'Brien stating that she's wrong and he's always liked coffee. Kind of funny, but still.

to:

* In one episode, Keiko notices that O'Brien is drinking coffee in a recording and decides that it's fake because [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness O'Brien doesn't drink coffee.]] However, despite the recording ''being fake'' and them saving the day, the episode ends with O'Brien stating that she's wrong and he's always liked coffee. Kind of funny, but still.still.
* In "Crossover", humans (aka Terrans) are enslaved and thought of as soulless. Quark's executed for showing sympathy to them, Sisko is heartless, Odo has no respect for humans, and Molly has never been born.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* "Business as Usual" at first tries to downplay Quark's role in selling weapons, until his conscience catches up to him in a bad way when a client wants a weapon that can kill 28 million people. He has a nightmare in which the animated corpses of the station staff, including O'Brien holding his dead infant son, accuse him of murdering them. The stress and guilt cause him to take an action which risked his own life just to put an end to this.

to:

* "Business as Usual" at first tries to downplay Quark's role in selling weapons, until his conscience catches up to him in a bad way when a client wants a weapon that can kill 28 million people. He has a nightmare in which the animated corpses of the station staff, including O'Brien holding his dead infant son, accuse him of murdering them. The stress and guilt cause him to take an action which risked his own life just to put an end to this.this.
* In one episode, Keiko notices that O'Brien is drinking coffee in a recording and decides that it's fake because [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness O'Brien doesn't drink coffee.]] However, despite the recording ''being fake'' and them saving the day, the episode ends with O'Brien stating that she's wrong and he's always liked coffee. Kind of funny, but still.

Added: 387

Removed: 387

Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* "Second Skin," a solid hour of {{Gaslighting}}. Kira wakes up as a Cardassian - yes, ''Kira,'' who fought in the Bajoran resistance for years - and is told, for days, that her whole life as a Bajoran has been a lie and that she was ''born'' Cardassian, with her captor continuously giving her stories and evidence until she reaches a DespairEventHorizon. [[ParanoiaFuel So messed up.]]


Added DiffLines:

* "Second Skin," a solid hour of {{Gaslighting}}. Kira wakes up as a Cardassian - yes, ''Kira,'' who fought in the Bajoran resistance for years - and is told, for days, that her whole life as a Bajoran has been a lie and that she was ''born'' Cardassian, with her captor continuously giving her stories and evidence until she reaches a DespairEventHorizon. [[ParanoiaFuel So messed up.]]

Changed: 21

Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* The [[CurbstompBattle Battle of Wolf 359]]. Ships swoop in firing at the Borg cube. And then the cube fires back, wrecking all of them. The ''Saratoga'' gets blow to pieces. Sure Jake was knocked unconscious, ''but what about the other civilians?'' The ship then explodes as Cmdr. Sisko watches from his escape pod. And the Borg just keep moving....

to:

* The [[CurbstompBattle Battle of Wolf 359]]. Ships swoop in firing at the Borg cube. And then the cube fires back, wrecking all of them.them with dismissive ease. The ''Saratoga'' gets blow to pieces. Sure Jake was knocked unconscious, ''but what about the other civilians?'' The ship then explodes as Cmdr. Sisko watches from his escape pod. And the Borg just keep moving....
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


** The fact that there is a man like [[spoiler: Marritza. It is easy to see the Cardassians are evil and wicked, as monsters who invaded Bajor and murdered its people. But Marritza forces Kira and the audience to realize there were victims on their side too... people too scared to do something and now tortured with the knowledge of what happened. How many other 'weak, whimpering' Cardassians are out there, haunted by the pleas of the Bajorian children... {[/spoiler]]

to:

** The fact that there is a man like [[spoiler: Marritza. It is easy to see the Cardassians are evil and wicked, as monsters who invaded Bajor and murdered its people. But Marritza forces Kira and the audience to realize there were victims on their side too... people too scared to do something and now tortured with the knowledge of what happened. How many other 'weak, whimpering' Cardassians are out there, haunted by the pleas of the Bajorian children... {[/spoiler]][[/spoiler]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None

Added DiffLines:

** The fact that there is a man like [[spoiler: Marritza. It is easy to see the Cardassians are evil and wicked, as monsters who invaded Bajor and murdered its people. But Marritza forces Kira and the audience to realize there were victims on their side too... people too scared to do something and now tortured with the knowledge of what happened. How many other 'weak, whimpering' Cardassians are out there, haunted by the pleas of the Bajorian children... {[/spoiler]]
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None

Added DiffLines:

** More subtle than Empok Nor, and all the more terrifying for it, is Garak's handling of Tolar, the holo-forger from "In the Pale Moonlight." The episode makes much of Garak's assassination of Vreenak, a Romulan senator, but for that Garak required Sisco's full, albeit unwitting, cooperation. In contrast, Garak "disappeared" Tolar, off-screen and without attracting attention from ANYONE, not even Odo, over the course of two days. It's only realized he did so when Sisco makes the disturbed inference that this side of Garak would never allow dangerous witnesses to live past their usefulness.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* In its way, the look on Kira's face as she walks down the corridor to Odo's quarters at the end of "Behind The Lines," after Odo failed to deactivate the security monitors leading to Rom's arrest by the Dominion. There is a look of absolute fury and murder in her eyes, and she POUNDS on the door panel to his quarters to demand admittance. Considering that Odo is one of her best friends, the fact that this is directed towards him specifically...

to:

* In its way, the look on Kira's face as she walks down the corridor to Odo's quarters at the end of "Behind The Lines," after Odo failed to deactivate the security monitors leading to Rom's arrest by the Dominion. There is a look of absolute fury and murder in her eyes, and she POUNDS on the door panel to his quarters to demand admittance. Considering that Odo is one of her best friends, the fact that this is directed towards him specifically...specifically...
* "Business as Usual" at first tries to downplay Quark's role in selling weapons, until his conscience catches up to him in a bad way when a client wants a weapon that can kill 28 million people. He has a nightmare in which the animated corpses of the station staff, including O'Brien holding his dead infant son, accuse him of murdering them. The stress and guilt cause him to take an action which risked his own life just to put an end to this.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None

Added DiffLines:

* "Second Skin," a solid hour of {{Gaslighting}}. Kira wakes up as a Cardassian - yes, ''Kira,'' who fought in the Bajoran resistance for years - and is told, for days, that her whole life as a Bajoran has been a lie and that she was ''born'' Cardassian, with her captor continuously giving her stories and evidence until she reaches a DespairEventHorizon. [[ParanoiaFuel So messed up.]]

Added: 450

Changed: -2

Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


** Cranked UpToEleven in "Empok Nor", when you find out just how terrifying Garak really is once you take away the smiling façade. The whole episode is a horror movie in space.

to:

** Cranked UpToEleven in "Empok Nor", when you find out just how terrifying Garak really is once you take away the smiling façade. The whole episode is a horror movie in space.space.
* In its way, the look on Kira's face as she walks down the corridor to Odo's quarters at the end of "Behind The Lines," after Odo failed to deactivate the security monitors leading to Rom's arrest by the Dominion. There is a look of absolute fury and murder in her eyes, and she POUNDS on the door panel to his quarters to demand admittance. Considering that Odo is one of her best friends, the fact that this is directed towards him specifically...
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


* When the team go to save Kira in ''Second Skin,'' Entek tries to shoot them in the back while they're leaving. Quick as a shot Garak fires first, disintegrating him, then casually comments "[[BondOneLiner Pity; I rather liked him]]," before hurrying off, leaving Kira and Odo to share an aghast look.

to:

* When the team go to save Kira in ''Second Skin,'' "Second Skin," Entek tries to shoot them in the back while they're leaving. Quick as a shot Garak fires first, disintegrating him, then casually comments "[[BondOneLiner Pity; I rather liked him]]," before hurrying off, leaving Kira and Odo to share an aghast look.



** Cranked up to Eleven in ''Empok Nor'', when you find out just how terrifying Garak really is once you take away the smiling facade

to:

** Cranked up to Eleven UpToEleven in ''Empok Nor'', "Empok Nor", when you find out just how terrifying Garak really is once you take away the smiling facadefaçade. The whole episode is a horror movie in space.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:
None


Cranked up to Eleven in ''Empok Nor'', when you find out just how terrifying Garak really is once you take away the smiling facade

to:

** Cranked up to Eleven in ''Empok Nor'', when you find out just how terrifying Garak really is once you take away the smiling facade

Top