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With the 10th anniversary of Airlock Alpha 10 months from now, and today being the 10th day of the 10th month of the year, I thought it would be nice to discuss science-fiction in 10s.

We can discuss television shows and movies in the sci-fi/fantasy genres that have aired in the past 10 years (starting with 1998). We can also talk about lists of 10 – the top 10 shows of the past 10 years, or the worst 10 episodes of our favorite shows. Sometimes the lists will be fun and frivolous, while others may take on more serious aspects of sci-fi.

Since we are in October and Halloween is creeping up on us, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss the 10 Scariest Episodes On Science-Fiction/Fantasy TV.

Now I’m doing this with some provisos. One is that since I have not seen every single episode of every single science-fiction series on television in the past 19 years, I may not mention one that you recall. If there happens to be others that I neglected to mention, you get to discuss and add to the list in our forums. The list is in no particular order, because I love all my sci-fi/fantasy series equally.

1. "Hush" -- Buffy the Vampire Slayer

"Can't even shout, can't even cry
The Gentlemen are coming by.
Looking in windows, knocking on doors,
They need to take seven and they might take yours.
Can't call to mom, can't say a word,

You're gonna die screaming but you won't be heard."

Children’s nursery rhymes can be scary – especially when sung by a creepy little girl!

Ghoulish floating skeletal demons, the Gentlemen and their mummified hencethings steal the voices of everyone in Sunnydale, and proceed to cut out people’s hearts while they are still alive – but no one can scream. The Gentlemen try to collect seven hearts – though why was never clear. Written by Joss Whedon, this was simultaneously the most frightening and one of the funniest episodes of the series.

2. "The Thin Dead Line" -- Angel

Zombie cops in East L.A. brutally beat and murder inner city street kids. Despite this series being about a vampire detective fighting demons, vengeful gods, and other evil forces, rarely was it as frightening as it was in this episode.

3. "Blink" -- Doctor Who

While this third season episode was an episode that barely included The Doctor (David Tennant), there are few things scarier than statues that move and get all ugly-faced and threatening when you aren’t looking at them. It reminded me of when I was 5 years old and wouldn’t let my parents put any pictures on my walls with faces on them, because I could swear the mouths moved when my parents weren’t around.

I might sleep with the lights on tonight.

4. "Don't Look Back" -- Heroes

This show has some of the scariest characters of any on television. Who could argue that Sylar (Zachary Quinto) isn’t a super-psychopath? My kids swear that Claire coming out of her burning house all charred and disfigured was pretty disturbing. The Company and Mr. Linderman were/are formidable nasties; Angela Petrelli is the mother from hell; and Niki/Jessica’s ability to tear people in half has resulted in my losing 30 pounds from a loss of appetite; and the unseen character who can see Molly Walker when she thinks of him is someone to fear.

None of these, however, are as frightening as the scene of New York City blowing up at the end of the second episode of "Heroes." Nuclear holocausts generally yield a sense of panic and doom. In "Heroes" it was the catalyst for the story arc over the entire first season.

5. "Travelers" -- The X-Files

Almost every episode of this series belongs in the Halloween Hall of Fame (if one exists), and it was nearly impossible to settle in on just one. Frankly, the scariest episode of the series was "Eve," about a bunch of clones of the bad seed. Another reminder of how macabre little girls can be! I don’t include it in this list, though, because that episode premiered before 1998.

"Travelers" was one of those standalone episodes that still tied into the overall mythology of the series, cleverly, yet gruesomely, equating communism with an alien parasite that entered peoples mouths, ate up their insides, and took them over. While as a sociologist whose specialty is the socio-political issues of that time, I might argue with the validity of the metaphor here, it did make the search for communists in the 1950s seem absurd when something clearly much more deadly was spreading throughout the land. There was also an ick-factor here.

6. "Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 2" -- Battlestar Galactica

Aside from the unexpected time jump to one year in the future for the crew of Galactica, most of whom were now settled on the rough terrain of New Caprica, the most chilling moment of this episode was when New Caprica was invaded by Cylons – not so much the scantly-clad voluptuous ones as the ones that look like walking toasters with high-tech weaponry attached.

7. "Pilot" -- Dead Like Me

The premiere episode for this dark comedy featured yet another horrifying little girl, and taught us all a lesson about not allowing people to die when their time comes. We also learned later in the series that killing evil Eric McCormacks before their time leads to creating gravelings – and we really don’t want to do that! We also learned that grim reapers dress up on Halloween so nobody will recognize them.

8. "All God's Creatures" - Invasion

The shock of learning that the mysterious creature who has been lurking around the Varon home is really part of replicated Tyler Labine may have been the biggest "what-the-f ...?” moments of the creepsome series. I still wonder what pregnant Larkin would have given birth to had the show been allowed to continue.

9. "Pilot" -- Jericho

There is nothing more frightening than seeing a mushroom cloud. It’s worse when you see several of them. One of the biggest fears of children (and lots of adults, too) in the United States is dying in a nuclear war. In the pilot of "Jericho," we’ve witness what it might be like to survive a nuclear holocaust. I think what might make the show more frightening is seeing the consequences for more of the people from areas that didn’t do so well. We’ve seen more of the social consequences than physical/medical consequences, but far too many people on the show are perfectly healthy. Still, just as the show had begun, the cliffhanger last episode of the first season (not the last episode of the series!!!) was just as scary.

10. "The Man Behind the Curtain" -- Lost

Who or what is Jacob? Where is he and why can’t anybody see him? And why is he so violent?

“Lost” is another show that can be strange and frightening throughout. From the pilot episode on, the Flight 815 survivors have encountered an invisible entity that has killed; a moving black cloud that has killed; a polar bear that has killed; a sequence of numbers that has killed; people with bare feet that have killed; and so on. It seems virtually every new entity or dilemma that the Losties have encountered has killed someone. The show that leaves us asking more questions than it answers is “Alice In Wonderland” in hell. Or purgatory. I still want to know what the deal is with the giant four-toed foot.

So what do you think? Which episodes of what series in the past 10 years do you consider to be the scariest? Talk about it here.

Coming in November: What are the 10 weirdest or most unusual pregnancies on sci-fi/fantasy TV? E-mail your thoughts to me on this subject at rbrownfield@airlockalpha.com. I may even include your ideas in the next column!