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

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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.

What Is 'Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Sub Rosa" About?

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.

'Star Trek: The Next Generation' Does "So Bad It's Good" Perfectly With "Sub Rosa"

"Sub Rosa" is a greatest hits package of what makes a project "so bad it's good." There's the Scottish groundskeeper played by an Irishman whose accent and fervent speech are hilarious. The scene where Felisa rises from the dead brings to mind Tor Johnson's spotty resurrection in the aforementioned Ed Wood classic. Beverly talking with Troi (Marina Sirtis) about her Big O and how she finds her grandmother's diaries erotic (the perfectly-timed shudder from Picard is the cherry on top). The whole side story about the weather inadvertently creates an ironic situation where the colony wants to mirror Scotland, just not its weather patterns.

Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars

Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive.

💊The Matrix

🔥Mad Max

🌧️Blade Runner

🏜️Dune

🚀Star Wars

TEST YOUR SURVIVAL →

You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.

APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone.

NEXT QUESTION →

In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.

AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely.

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What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of.

AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run.

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How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.

ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen.

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Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.

AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches.

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Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.

AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts.

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Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of.

AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are.

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What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.

AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot.

REVEAL MY WORLD →

Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In…

Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.

The Matrix

You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things.

You're drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines' worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door.

Mad Max

The wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you.

You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you're good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.

Blade Runner

You'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.

You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either.
In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything.

Dune

Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.

Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they're survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn't just survive Arrakis — you'd begin to reshape it.

Star Wars

The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way.

You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn't something you're capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

The one element that this Season 7 episode shares with its "so bad it's good" kin is earnestness, which prevents such fare from being simply bad, and everyone involved with "Sub Rosa" is all in. Yes, it's campy and largely eschews the series' sci-fi leanings in favor of a Gothic horror love story (the psycho-babble about the whole anaphasic alien thing is one of a few attempts to bridge the two), but it's fun, which is exactly what McFadden herself has come to realize:

“When I saw the ‘Sub Rosa’ script, I was like, ‘You are kidding me.’ Patrick hated it. He was like ‘This is absurd’ and all. And when you read it, there are so many completely absurd things in it. And it’s more like a little Gothic, I don’t know horror or something, but yeah, now I embrace it because I think it is hilarious. I mean, I just, I’ve learned to love the green-eyed orgasm that Crusher has, you know? I mean, that doesn’t happen every day, a green-eyed orgasm…”

In defense of "Sub Rosa," there are scenes that are legitimately spooky, particularly before Ronin reveals himself, with Felisa's old home well-suited for creating that haunting atmosphere. Up until its final moments, the episode gets full marks for embracing the supernatural aspect, much of which falls on an excellent performance from McFadden, who sells the fears and joys that overcome Beverly throughout. The most spooky thing about it all? The thought that Beverly's 100-year-old granny was getting some sweet ghost lovin' from a seemingly 34-year-old man. Cue the Picard shudder.

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