1 Star Trek: Voyager Episode Borrowed 2 Terrifying Things From TNG

Summary The Star Trek: Voyager episode "Scientific Method" was inspired by the TNG episodes "Schisms" and "Where Silence Has Lease."

Each episode involved alien experimentation on an unwilling crew, and Captains Janeway and Picard both had to put their ships in danger to get their respective antagonists to back off.

However, the humanoid aliens in Voyager's episode were less scary than the non-humanoid aliens in TNG, affecting the episode's level of horror.

One of Star Trek: Voyager season 4's creepiest episodes drew inspiration from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Voyager season 4 was arguably where the show began to pick up momentum, releasing more consistently good episodes than those with mixed or bad reviews. This was likely thanks to the addition of Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) and Voyager's cast of characters and the creative team hitting their stride and beginning to feel like a cohesive unit. Whatever the reason, season 4 contained some great episodes that are ranked among some of Voyager's best.

One of Voyager season 4's better episodes was "Scientific Method," which had a decidedly unsettling premise. During the episode, the USS Voyager's crew began acting strangely and eventually discovered that they were being experimented on by unnamed aliens who could pass invisibly on the ship. After unsuccessfully attempting to get the aliens to back off, Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) was forced to fly the ship on a dangerous mission between two binary pulsars to intimidate the uninvited guest into leaving. The premise of "Scientific Method" was terrifying, but it also wasn't a new concept to the Star Trek timeline.

Related How To Watch All Star Trek TV Shows In Timeline Order The Star Trek TV franchise has existed for 57 years and consists of 12 shows (and counting). Here's how to watch them all in timeline order.

Star Trek: Voyager’s “Scientific Method” Combines 2 Of TNG’s Scary Episodes

"Scientific Method" drew from "Schisms" and "Where Silence Has Lease"

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"Scientific Method" was essentially a mash-up of two of Star Trek: TNG's scariest episodes, "Schisms" and "Where Silence Has Lease." The main plot of the Voyager episode was most closely related to "Schisms," since both episodes featured their respective crews being experimented upon by unseen aliens who had managed to infiltrate the ship without anyone knowing. The methods of infiltration differed, but the result was the same, and the moments of reveal when each crew realized what was being done to them were equally horrifying.

Voyager borrowing from TNG wasn't an uncommon occurrence, and similarities between episodes from Star Trek's 1990s era signaled the interconnectedness of the franchise.

In terms of "Where Silence Has Lease," "Scientific Method" has the same ending. Both Captain Janeway and Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) were forced to put their ship and crew in mortal danger to get the alien that was toying with them to back off. Janeway accomplished this by flying Voyager into the pulsars, while Picard activated the USS Enterprise-D's self-destruct. Voyager borrowing from TNG wasn't an uncommon occurrence, and similarities between episodes from Star Trek's 1990s era signaled the interconnectedness of the franchise. However, in "Scientific Method," Voyager did one significant thing differently than TNG.

1 Big Difference Between Star Trek: Voyager’s “Scientific Method” and TNG

There was still a big difference between "Scientific Method" and its TNG counterparts

"Scientific Method's" alien villains ended up being a lot less scary than TNG's for one important reason: they were humanoid. In both "Schisms" and "Where Silence Has Lease," the aliens the Enterprise-D crew encountered were decidedly non-human, making them a lot more unsettling. The “Schisms” aliens in particular were terrifyingly non-humanoid figures with unclear motives, and the being in "Where Silence Has Lease," although able to communicate intelligently, had the advantage of appearing as no more than a large face in space, making it much less relatable.

Although the aliens in "Scientific Method" were never named on-screen, the episode's shooting script revealed that they were called the Srivani.

In contrast, once they had been exposed, the aliens experimenting on Voyager's crew in "Scientific Method" weren’t nearly as scary. Their motives may have been unpleasant, and a commentary on unethical experimental practices, but they ended up packing much less of a punch than something like the beings in "Schisms." This didn't make the Star Trek: Voyager episode any less interesting, but it did stop "Scientific Method" from devolving into true nightmare fuel.