History NightmareFuel / StarTrekDeepSpaceNine

** Also bear in mind that [[BrokenBird Major Kira]] [[ChildSoldier was 14]] when she helped liberate the Gallitep labor camp.

* "Covenant" throws Dukat's creepy personality into the mix to make him an all-too-believable Jim-Jones-style cult leader. What's most nightmarish of all about this cult is that they're ''not'' kidding and neither is Dukat (though he's not being straight with them about his actual motives for serving the Pah-wraiths either). As Kira states at the end of the episode, he really ''does'' believe in his new-found religion, which just makes him all the more dangerous.

* Another 'O'Brien must suffer' episode, 'The Assignment', brings us the very memorable first appearance of the Pah-Wraiths. One of them possesses Keiko and uses her as a hostage in an efficient and sadistic manner that's all the more unsettling for how ''casual'' it is. The sequence where the Wraith calls O'Brien about his rapidly-approaching deadline whilst combing Molly's hair is especially terrifying.

* "Covenant" throws Dukat's creepy personality into the mix to make him an all-too-believable Jim-Jones-style cult leader. What's most nightmarish of all about this cult is that they're ''not'' kidding and neither is Dukat (though he's not being straight with them about his actual motives for serving the Pah-Wraiths either). As Kira states at the end of the episode, he really ''does'' believe in his new-found religion, which just makes him all the more dangerous.

* The Pah-Wraiths in general, in fact, are just plain creepy, as are their followers.

* "Strange Bedfellows" ends with Kai Winn turning away from the Prophets and choosing the Pah-Wraiths. Throughout her previous appearances, she's been a BitchInSheepsClothing who acts with HolierThanThou SugaryMalice that's creepy enough, but her final speech in this episode casts all of that away and shows her true self-serving, egotistical darkness.
** Winn in general has many shades of this, mostly in the fact that she is a very real, very mundane evil - the evil of zealotry. She dresses it up in the robes of the cloth, attaining the rank of Vedek before her introduction, and ends up elevated into the highest position in the Bajoran religion, a religion that most Bajorans we meet in the franchise have some level of belief in, is frequently consulted on matters of politics, even attempts to take the political position of First Minister at one point. And it cannot be argued that she is a zealot - her introduction featured her as a conspirator, plotting to lure a rival out in the open in order to assassinate him, and then abandoned her catspaw to the wolves once the effort failed. And it's what makes her turning from the Prophets all the more chilling - the Prophets, in not speaking to her after the message from the Pai-Wraiths, are conveying that she must step down from the position as Kai. So, when faced with the decision of following the religion that she has devoted her life to and has reached the ascendancy of, or turn from them, embrace their devils, and hold on to power... She cannot conceive of surrendering power. If her gods won't give her power, if they don't want her to retain it, then she denounces them for ones who will.

** A more unnerving aspect relates to an unpleasant parallel that can be drawn to a character in a previous episode. A Bajoran politician had come to Deep Space 9 to petition for the right to return to Bajor, due to having been exiled for collaborating with the Cardassians during the occupation, signing lists of names of Bajorans who would be worked to death in the mines. Despite knowing of the suffering that the occupiers were inflicting on others and that many were fighting to oppose it, he never spoke a word in protest, and even Gul Dukat called him "His favorite Bajoran" because he always did as he was told. Now the entire Bajoran race was doing something similar, capitulating to a conqueror to protect themselves, while others suffer and die for the sake of their eventual liberation, and now Kira herself was playing the role of Dukat's "Favorite Bajoran". [[{{Hypocrite}} And yet, when the Dominion came, the Bajoran people did the same thing, knowingly trading their own safety for the blood of others.]] And worst of all, Kira being Dukat's "Favorite Bajoran, albeit for very different reasons.

* In "Statistical Probabilities", the Jack Pack, a group of highly intelligent genetically-engineered humans, give us their long-term projections for the Dominion War: [[HopelessWar The Federation has no chance of winning]] and ''900 billion'' people will die if the conflict continues. As such, the only smart thing to do would be immediate surrender. They determine that, after five generations of Dominion rule over the Alpha Quadrant, an Earth-based rebellion will overthrow them and establish a stronger Federation...the very same conclusion that Dukat and Weyoun reached a few episodes earlier, and the reason Weyoun concluded that [[FinalSolution the Dominion should completely sterilize earth after their victory]].

* Dukat's obsession with Kira was creep enough to nauseate the actress playing her. The scene in the captain's office during 'A Time To Stand,' where Dukat places his hand on Kira's cheek can easily be seen as a prelude to him attempting to rape her. Remembering that to the Bajorans, Dukat is essentially Hitler makes it unsettling, even before factoring in his relationship with her mother.

** The Jem'Hadar soldier who comes to DS9 casually walks through a force field like it's not there, then presents a list of vessels that have been destroyed for violating Dominion space. Kira identifies the PADD the list is on as coming from the New Bajor colony in the Gamma Quadrant, which had been mentioned several times throughout the season as a Bajoran victory in their effort post-Occupation. The Jem'Hadar casually acknowledges that the colony was wiped out, though he does praise their efforts in fighting back. The dismissive and casual description of wiping out a colony of people, of Bajorans who'd settled this new world after surviving the Occupation of Bajor...

* "Tribunal", being another "O'Brien must suffer" episode has the scene where, after being taken prisoner by the Cardassians, O'Brien is "processed", for a crime he has supposedly committed (except no one will tell him what that crime ''is''). He is ordered to [[ShamefulStrip remove his clothes]] and when he refuses, instead stating his name, and rank, and asserting he is a Federation citizen, he is forced against the wall by two guards who proceed to forcibly rip his clothes off him. He is then forced onto the floor where a retinal scan is taken (and from O'Brien's reaction, it's suggested the scan is painful) before he is dragged to a rather sinister-looking operating table. He briefly tries to escape but is punched in the face by a guard and restrained. Then he appears to be drugged with some sort of hypospray, while a lock of his hair is cut off and a tooth is forcibly removed, without the use of anesthetic. It's even more graphic and unpleasant to watch than what Picard went through with Gul Madred in TNG, and this is before we even get to the mockery of justice that is [[KangarooCourt Cardassian jurisprudence]]. Earlier in the season, during The Maquis two-parter, Dukat had arrogantly boasted about the "perfection" of the Cardassian legal system (that the verdict is always decided beforehand, it's always guilty, and that "trials" are really nothing more than scripted televised farces designed to show the terrifying power of the Central Command, and also, it's implied, as a twisted form of entertainment for the public who enjoy seeing "justice triumph over evil") except now we actually get to see how terrifying this system actually is.

** 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 Sisko]], that level of manipulation and intrigue carries its own Nightmare Fuel.

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"Covenant" throws Dukat's creepy personality into the mix to make him an all-too-believable Jim-Jones-style cult leader. What's most nightmarish of all about this cult is that they're ''not'' kidding and neither is Dukat (though he's not being straight with them about his actual motives for serving the Pah-Wraiths either). As Kira states at the end of the episode, he really ''does'' believe in his new-found religion, which just makes him all the more dangerous.

** As show in the page picture, when Garak tortures Odo using a quantum stasis device in "The Die Is Cast," Odo is unable to regenerate, and his appearance becomes horrific.
* In "Facets", Dax interacts with each of her previous hosts in the person of her friends. Most of these are cute, sweet or funny, but then we get to [[AxCrazy Joran]]. Not only does Avery Brooks use an incredibly creepy voice to HannibalLecture Jadzia, he uses the security forcefield to Inflict ElectricTorture on Sisko. When Jadzia drops the field, Joran!Sisko attempts to strangle Jadzia with one hand.
** Apparently, there's a take of Joran that's even creepier - because Avery Brooks spoke his lines in a nigh-inaudible whisper which ''really'' creeped the directors out, forcing them to re-shoot the scene.

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* "...Nor the Battle to the Strong" has Jake knocked out by Klingon shelling. He wakes up on the remnant of a battle, surrounded by bodies of Klingons and Starfleet personnel. At one point, you can see a bat'leth sticking nearly vertical out of a Starfleet corpse.

** The morphogenic virus created by Section 31 deals a ''serious'' dose of {{body horror}} to Odo and the Female Changeling in the latter episodes of season 7. Their physical deterioration is visually disturbing.
*** And made even more disturbing when you compare the deterioration with that of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox smallpox]] (thankfully an eradicated disease) and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leprosy leprosy]] (that is ''not'' eradicated, and still difficult to treat).
** When Garak tortures Odo using a quantum stasis device in "The Die Is Cast," Odo is unable to regenerate, and his appearance becomes horrific.
** Let's not forget Mirror!Odo's [[LudicrousGibs messy explosion]] when Bashir shoots him with a phaser in "Crossover."
*** Lovingly called "Explodo!" by the fans.
* In "Facets", Dax interacts with each of her previous hosts in the person of her friends. Most of these are cute, sweet or funny, but then we get to [[AxCrazy Joran]]. Not only does Avery Brooks use an incredibly creepy voice to HannibalLecture Jadzia, he uses the security forcefield to Inflict ElectricTorture on Sisko. When Jadzia drops the field, Joran!Sisko attempts to strangle Jadzia with one hand.
** Apparently, there's a take of Joran that's even creepier - because Avery Brooks spoke his lines in a nigh-inaudible whisper which ''really'' creeped the directors out, forcing them to re-shoot the scene.

* The Pah-Wraiths in general, in fact, are just plain creepy, as are their followers. "Covenant" throws Dukat's creepy personality into the mix to make him an all-too-believable Jim-Jones-style cult leader. What's most nightmarish of all about this cult is that they're ''not'' kidding and neither is Dukat (though he's not being straight with them about his actual motives for serving the Pah-Wraiths either). As Kira states at the end of the episode, he really ''does'' believe in his new-found religion, which just makes him all the more dangerous.
* Number three for O'Brien's suffering on the page, we have "Whispers". Long story short, the O'Brien narrating the episode is actually a clone, who is killed at the last minute of the episode. The terror is that ''no one'' realizes just how perfect a clone he was. Except for the mental command to attack a senator, the clone O'Brien is in no way different from the real one. Same memories, same emotions, and with ''no'' evil tendencies. He's just... killed. Unceremoniously. No one in the room cares that he's dying. He did absolutely nothing to deserve his fate. In fact, his efforts to prevent the attack (he didn't realize that ''he'' was the one who was supposed to carry it out) are extremely heroic. Dying scared, confused, and alone.
* The Death of MirrorUniverse Odo in "Crossover."
* The Breen. They only appear in a handful of episodes, but they [[OneSceneWonder certainly make an impact]]. For one, their technology is different, more advanced, than anything the Alliance has, able to destroy the ''Defiant'' in only five minutes. Second, we know NOTHING about them; their culture, motives, even what they look like under those suits, all are left mysterious. And finally, ''we don't even know what they're saying''. The Universal Translator seems to translate their speech, but it's all R2-D2 Speak to the audience. All we take from them is what we see: they're clever, unpredictable killing machines with [[TheUnfettered absolutely zero mercy]]. The Breen ''epitomize'' NothingIsScarier.
** The first Breen contribution to the Dominion's war effort is to launch a successful raid on Earth--the heart of the Federation, and a planet so heavily fortified that the Klingons never even ''considered'' attacking it.
*** 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.
* In "The Quickening", Bashir [[HopeSpot thinks]] he's cured a blight that has affected a planet for centuries. Needless to say, he realises he hasn't when ''hideous boils start erupting on people's faces and the screaming begins''.

* "Far Beyond The Stars" is just full of terrifying concepts. The denial of freedom, social ghettos, and sickening racial prejudice accompanied by dehumanization being shown as reasonable common everyday occurrences is bad enough, but Ben screaming ''"I'm a human being!"'' and ranting in despairing protest is highly disturbing in more ways than one. That it really brings home the horrifying reality of being stuck in a world where you are treated as subhuman and inferior just because of your skin color (or gender... or any other distinguishing genetic [=feature/s=] which manifests in a phenotype that contributes to appearance) is just an added bonus, of course. The accompanying FridgeHorror that even nowadays racial tensions in America are still a serious social undercurrent is just not helpful.
** 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.
* Dukat's obsession with Kira gets creepier and creepier. The scene in the captain's office during 'A Time To Stand,' where Dukat places his hand on Kira's cheek can easily be seen as a prelude to him attempting to rape her. Remembering that to the Bajorans, Dukat is essentially Hitler makes it unsettling, even before factoring in his relationship with her mother.
** Gets all the creepier when Ziyal returns to the station and Dukat basically starts trying to turn them into some sort of twisted family unit, with him and Kira as "parents" to Ziyal. And, to Kira's horror, she actually DOES start falling in to that trap for a moment. And, just to put the gross cherry on top, Dukat gets Kira a dress for a dinner between the three of them. Kira rejects it, making Dukat take back the dress... And Dukat immediately turns around and gives the dress to an unaware Ziyal.
* "Tribunal", being another "O'Brien must suffer" episode has the scene where, after being taken prisoner by the Cardassians, O'Brien is "processed", for a crime he has supposedly committed (except no one will tell him what that crime ''is''). He is ordered to [[ShamefulStrip remove his clothes]] and when he refuses, instead stating his name, and rank, and asserting he is a Federation citizen, he is forced against the wall by two guards who proceed to forcibly rip his clothes off him. He is then forced onto the floor where a retinal scan is taken (and from O'Brien's reaction, it's suggested the scan is painful) before he is dragged to a rather sinister-looking operating table. He briefly tries to escape but is punched in the face by a guard and restrained. Then he appears to be drugged with some sort of hypospray, while a lock of his hair is cut off and a tooth is forcibly removed, without the use of anesthetic. It's even more graphic and unpleasant to watch than what Picard went through with Gul Madred in TNG, and this is before we even get to the mockery of justice that is [[KangarooCourt Cardassian jurisprudence]]. Earlier in the season, during The Maquis two-parter, Dukat had arrogantly boasted about the "perfection" of the Cardassian legal system (that the verdict is always decided beforehand, it's always guilty, and that "trials" are really nothing more than scripted televised farces designed to show the terrifying power of the Central Command, and also, it's implied, as a twisted form of entertainment for the public who enjoy seeing "justice triumph over evil") except now we actually get to see how terrifying this system actually is.
** It's only made worse by O'Brien's counsel trying oh so hard to make him throw himself on the mercy of the court. Hearing a proud fascist guilt-tripping an innocent man into confessing to a crime he didn't commit "for the sake of the children" -- one of the favorite justifications for real-world fascists -- sends chills down the spine.
** It also makes the plot of "Duet" make sense in a rather sickening way- Maritza thought that he would have a Cardassian-style trial, where he would be told "You're guilty, send him to the execution!" After pointing out all of his crimes, of course, which would expose the cruelties of Cardassia to the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. In a way, it makes it far more heartbreaking what actually happened- he expected he'd only need to keep up the charade for a short time, and his already broken mind shattered completely once the ruse was exposed. He went there to die, to be free of the nightmares... but they didn't play according to the rulebook he knew...

** Cranked up to eleven 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.
** 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 Sisko'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 Sisko makes the disturbed inference that this side of Garak would never allow dangerous witnesses to live past their usefulness.
** 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 Sisko]], that level of manipulation and intrigue carries its own Nightmare Fuel.

* "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.

** Winn in general has many shades of this, mostly in the fact that she is a very real, very mundane evil - the evil of zealotry. She dresses it up in the robes of the cloth, attaining the rank of Vedek before her introduction, and ends up elevated into the highest position in the Bajoran religion, a religion that most Bajorans we meet in the franchise have some level of belief in, is frequently consulted on matters of politics, even attempts to take the political position of First Minister at one point. And it cannot be argued that she is a zealot - her introduction featured her as a conspirator, plotting to lure a rival out in the open in order to assassinate him, and then abandoned her catspaw to the wolves once the effort failed. And it's what makes her turning from the Prophets all the more chilling - the Prophets, in not speaking to her after the message from the Pai-Wraiths, are conveying that she must step down from the position as Kai. So, when faced with the decision of following the religion that she has devoted her life to and has reached the ascendancy of, or turn from them, embrace their devils, and hold on to power... She cannot conceive of surrendering power. If her gods won't give her power, if they don't want her to retain it, then she denounces them for ones who will.

* "...Nor the Battle to the Strong" has Jake knocked out by Klingon shelling. He wakes up on the remnant of a battle, surrounded by bodies of Klingons and Starfleet personnel. At one point, you can see a bat'leth sticking nearly vertical out of a Starfleet corpse.