Star Trek’s So-Bad-It’s-Good 46-Minute Episode Is Still the Perfect Gothic Horror Watch

Published Oct 19, 2026, 12:00 AM EDT

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“So bad it’s good” is, in many ways, a genre unto itself. Film largely dominates, best exemplified by the likes of Plan 9 from Outer Space and Troll 2, but there have been TV series like Riverdale or Baywatch, the latter of which is being rebooted on Fox in 2027. Every once in a while, even the most well-respected series have an episode or two that fall into the category. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for one, had Season 4’s “Beer Bad,” where an enchanted beer turns characters into cavemen. There’s also a Season 7 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that any fan of “so bad it’s good” fare needs to see.

In Season 7’s “Sub Rosa,” the USS Enterprise orbits Caldos IV, where a Scottish-themed colony is established, in order for Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) to attend the funeral of her grandmother, Felisa (Ellen Albertini Dow). She returns to the Enterprise with several mementos from Felisa’s home, including some diaries where she discovers her 100-year-old grandmother had relations with a 34-year-old man, Ronin (Duncan Regehr). Beverly returns to her grandmother’s home, where she’s confronted by the groundskeeper, Ned (Shay Duffin), who warns her never to light Felisa’s candle, as doing so will awaken a ghost.

That ghost is Ronin, who takes form and tells Beverly that he loves her, as he has all the women in her family. Ronin continues to manipulate Beverly’s mind, eventually coercing her into lighting the candle and abandoning her post on the* Enterprise* to stay on Caldos IV with him. Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) reluctantly agrees to let her go, but shortly after visits Beverly at her home, wanting to get to know Ronin. Ronin, however, doesn’t like the line of questions Picard is asking and attacks, leaving as she tends to her unconscious captain.

Meanwhile, an energy source that is wreaking havoc with the colony’s weather modification is found by Data (Brent Spiner) and Geordi LaForge (Levar Burton) … in Felisa’s grave. They exhume the body, which comes to life and zaps them both. Felisa isn’t actually alive, though, but rather is possessed by Ronin. By now, Beverly has figured out the truth: Ronin is an anaphasic alien whose survival hinges on the plasma-based candle that is his energy receptacle. Just as Ronin goes to possess her, Beverly destroys the candle with her phaser, vaporizing Ronin.

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