Television Review: Night Terrors (Star Trek: The Next Generation, S4X17, 1991)

Night Terrors (S04E17)

Airdate: 18 March 1991

Written by: Pamela Douglas & Jeri Taylor
Directed by: Les Landau

Running Time: 46 minutes

The perspective of those who create art and those who consume it is invariably different. Nowhere is this dichotomy more evident than in Night Terrors, the seventeenth episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation's fourth season. According to various cast and crew members, including Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis herself, this episode ranks among the worst—if not the absolute nadir—of the entire series' run. Yet for many devoted Trekkies, the episode proves rather more divisive: whilst few would claim it represents the franchise at its zenith, many viewers find it to be, at worst, a serviceable entry that simply falls beneath the exceptionally high standards of a series then experiencing its golden age.

The narrative commences with the USS Enterprise-D being dispatched to an unexplored binary star system to investigate the inexplicable disappearance of the USS Brattain, a Miranda-class starship. Upon arrival, the vessel is located, and an away team beams aboard to make a thoroughly grim discovery: thirty-four crew members lie dead, all bearing marks of violence, with the sole survivor being Andrus Hagan (John Vickery), a Betazoid who has lapsed into a catatonic state. Further investigation yields an even more disturbing conclusion—the Brattain's crew members murdered one another, their sanity having been eroded by some inexplicable phenomenon.

The nature of this phenomenon becomes increasingly apparent to the Enterprise crew when their attempts to tow the derelict Brattain to Starbase 230 for comprehensive investigation prove futile, as both vessels find themselves trapped within a space-time anomaly known as the Tyken Rift. The Enterprise crew begins exhibiting pronounced mood swings, mounting irritation, and vivid hallucinations. Dr. Crusher ultimately identifies the root cause: the crew is being deprived of REM sleep—the phase of slumber during which dreaming occurs. Curiously, Counsellor Troi remains the only individual still experiencing dreams, though hers are plagued by cryptic visions of a disembodied voice speaking of "eyes in the dark, one moon circles."

As the crew members progressively lose their ability to function rationally, Data, being an android and thus immune to the psychological deterioration afflicting his shipmates, assumes temporary command and strives to find a solution. When Troi discovers that Hagan experienced identical visions, she realises that these dreams constitute a message—a telepathic communication from an alien species trapped on the opposite side of the Tyken Rift, themselves victims of the same phenomenon and desperately seeking a means of liberation for both vessels. The phrase "one moon circles" is ultimately decoded as representing a hydrogen atom, which Data employs to trigger an explosion sufficient to propel the Enterprise free from the Rift's grasp. With the ship restored to safety, Data, in his capacity as acting captain, finally orders Captain Picard to get some much-needed rest.

The episode, scripted by Jeri Taylor and Pamela Douglas, finds its most appreciative audience among horror enthusiasts, as it represents one of The Next Generation's more explicit forays into that genre territory. The fear of losing one's rationality constitutes one of the most primal anxieties exploited within horror, and this is reflected effectively in scenes depicting Enterprise crew members behaving irrationally and utterly out of character. The normally stoic Worf, for instance, becomes so overwhelmed by fear and shame that he seriously contemplates suicide—a stark departure from his usual warrior's composure. Equally effective is the sequence in which Dr. Crusher works in the morgue surrounded by the Brattain's corpses, only to witness them rise from their slabs; her subsequent struggle to maintain composure demonstrates genuine psychological horror.

Conversely, certain elements of the episode decidedly misfire. The most egregious offender is Troi's dream sequence, which features the counsellor floating through a nebulous space whilst repeatedly intoning "where are you?" This scene, which required Marina Sirtis to be suspended by wires, is employed repeatedly throughout the episode and, through sheer overuse, transforms what might have been unsettling into something unintentionally comical. Director Les Landau has reportedly refused to discuss this episode in interviews, and one suspects these creatively bankrupt dream sequences may number among his reasons for such reticence.

The script, whilst functional, relies upon a rather convoluted explanation for the phenomenon inducing the Enterprise crew's descent into madness—a telepathic message serving as the catalyst. This proves somewhat derivative, as the earlier episode Sarek employed an identical narrative device. However, the notion that REM sleep deprivation functions as the mechanism for madness represents one of the rare instances wherein The Next Generation utilises genuine scientific principles with reasonable accuracy, lending the premise a degree of plausibility often absent from the series' more technobabble-laden resolutions.

"Night Terrors" ultimately emerges as a thoroughly watchable episode that should satisfy most Trekkies, provided they approach it without expecting excellence. It possesses genuine moments of atmospheric horror and psychological insight, even if these are somewhat undermined by tonally inconsistent dream sequences and a derivative central premise. The episode may not represent Star Trek at its finest, but it scarcely plumbs the depths that its creators have subsequently suggested.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

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