"Conspiracy" vs. "The Neutral Zone"

[suarezguy]

Which episode do you think works better as the season 1 finale (in terms of story, themes, continuity)?

"Conspiracy" definitely feels like a conclusion (the cliffhanger teasing aside), in part from going back to Earth, but there's also something cool about how much is started and not resolved in TNZ.
"Conspiracy" also kind of makes sense as the finale, given season 2, as it would make more sense for Crusher to have transferred while they were around Earth.

 

[Spectral]

Conspiracy might indeed work better as the first finale for those reasons you mentioned. Also, going to Starfleet headquarters as well would have been a nice set piece for the first season finale.

But, I really just like the Neutral Zone so much better as an episode, so I like it as a way to end season one. I'm a sucker for that corny first season slapstick and I love the 20th century Earth people B plot. The tense last moments with the investment guy storming onto the bridge just as the Romulans are squaring off with the Enterprise is great to me. It's almost like they were nudging the viewer, "Imagine what your reaction to this would be." And the following dialog when they hail each other onscreen is also priceless. I just thought it was a fun, dramatic, fast-paced episode.

 

[wulfio]

I didn't like Conspiracy that much because it insinuated there would be more to come, but they obviously scrapped that series arc.

 

[MikeH92467]

I didn't like Conspiracy that much because it insinuated there would be more to come, but they obviously scrapped that series arc.

The audio fan production Star Trek: Excelsior picks up some of those loose threads and develops a long story arc about one possible future for those elements.

 

[MacLeod]

From memory, S2 was supposed to open by introducing what would later be the Borg, but the writers strike meant that didn't happen. So the S2 opener would have resolved the mystery of the disaperaing bases/colonies on both sides of the RNZ.

 

[Trek Survivor]

Definitely "The Neutral Zone":

"Our mission is to go forward. And it has only just begun."

Much better season ender, although I enjoy both episodes.

 

[SPCTRE]

TNZ FTW.

 

[wulfio]

I didn't like Conspiracy that much because it insinuated there would be more to come, but they obviously scrapped that series arc.

The audio fan production Star Trek: Excelsior picks up some of those loose threads and develops a long story arc about one possible future for those elements.

I really only consider canon.

 

[Nebusj]

My problem with ``The Neutral Zone'' is they forgot to have something happen. They set up a lot of pieces of stuff with the 20th Century People showing how far we've come by having personalities in the face of Our Heroes sneering at them, and then there's this mystery and there's Romulans lurking around and then, in the climax they all … figure they'll deal with this sometime later, bye all! See you after summer!

 

[Lance]

I think it's a shame that the writer's strike hit when it did. "The Neutral Zone" feels like a first draft. It's a pity they didn't get to weave in all the plot pieces better, the insect aliens sending their message into deep space in "Conspiracy", the outposts being destroyed in "The Neutral Zone", and then the Romulans and Starfleet investigating together to uncover a new alien menace (the Borg, although originally conceptualized as insects) in early season two. Might've been cool to have had that kind of interlocking plot bridging the first season/second season gap. But it was not to be.....

 

[Mytran]

Ah TNZ, home of the shortest Starfleet/Romulan alliance ever!

Picard's final speech in TNZ aside, Conspiracy would have made a far more chilling season ender.

 

[Hypaspist]

My vote is for The Neutral Zone.

It has some ridiculous dialogue, and unlike the Bond villain convention at the end of Conspiracy, it isn't entertaining or funny...just smug.
Still it's a good episode overall. I like the way they discovered and went into an ancient vessel. I like the way they introduced the Romulans. I like the music. Both episodes are good, but mind control bugs aren't very sustainable as a villain to me.

 

[Maurice]

The bugs were too easy to detect. I mean, check everyone for the "blue gill" and done.

 

[wulfio]

The bugs were too easy to detect. I mean, check everyone for the "blue gill" and done.

It was season 1. If they kept going with the arc I'm sure they would have contemporized it.

 

[Unicron]

The bugs were too easy to detect. I mean, check everyone for the "blue gill" and done.

And yet the biofilter in the transporter seemingly didn't detect the one infesting Quinn, or the one he was carrying to infect Crusher. In fairness, though, at least one could assume the case was made of some insulating material that would give it protection.

 

[Crisp Conditions]

Which episode do you think works better as the season 1 finale (in terms of story, themes, continuity)?

"The Neutral Zone"

I never liked "Conspiracy", for all of the reasons given in-thread, plus it seemed largely like a gratuitous Alien knock-off.

On the other hand, "The Neutral Zone" has always been my favorite first season episode, even though it's really not that great an episode. Picard getting upstaged by Offenhouse during the Romulan confrontation is probably my favorite moment of the first season. That moment provides a much-needed contradiction of the prominent contention throughout the first season that 24th century mankind is intrinsically superior to the 20th century variety, and it's a nice segue into the later seasons when that attitude is deemphasized, even if unintentional.

As for the question of continuity, in hindsight obviously "The Neutral Zone" has a place in continuity, as its threads involving both the Romulans and evidently the Borg were followed up on later, whereas "Conspiracy" has essentially none at all, the beacon at the end being of the GNDN variety and getting as it were Chuck Cunninghammed.

 

[erastus25]

Wow...surprised TNZ is getting so much positive feedback here. I found it to be uninspired, at absolute best. The "fish out of water 20th Century character" contrivance can work (e.g.: Capt. Christopher), but in this episode it's generally just an excuse to have the crew act smug and elitist. Plus, I could do without the bad comedy. That being said, having the Romulans come back is a nice touch.

I think it's intersting that both episodes had cliffhangers that were more or less dropped. We never see the Conspiracy aliens again, and the Borg plot foreshadowed in NZ was completely scrapped, more or less. Too bad they dropped both - seemed like either could have been a great arc.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Conspiracy really did feel like it fell off the map. I remember for some reason getting the feeling that this guy would be returning at some point...



That never happened, either.

 

[Memory Alpha]

In all honesty? Both are objectively bad.

TNZ - this is much ado about nothing and the subplot involving the rescued Earthlings from the past is not very good. I like a subplot to kind of sort of have something to do with the main plot, but this is just a distraction. And I don't really know that the outposts that disappeared are the result of the Borg (that's the usual explanation?). Why would the Borg stop at that and where did they come from? So this mess of an episode is used to reintroduce the Romulans. Yawn. Yawn a lot, actually.

Conspiracy - This episode is just good old B-movie fun, but really? It's really objectively subpar. I will say, though, that if the effects of TNG are ever redone or remastered, this episode would benefit. Yeah, it should have been a two-parter with some backstory as the Part I.

The season one finale should probably have been "Datalore," but goodness sakes, lose the champagne scene.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

TNZ - I like a subplot to kind of sort of have something to do with the main plot, but this is just a distraction. And I don't really know that the outposts that disappeared are the result of the Borg...

Well, you could kinda-sorta say the plots did interweave, though admittedly not really until Offenhouse (sp.) wound up on the bridge near the end...

Didn't another episode reference this event? Something about some kind of destruction 'like the outposts along the border' or something like that? I believe in that case it was the Borg. So I suppose, if true, you could say this episode is noteworthy for introducing the Borg (albeit in a shadowy-figure-in-a-comic-book-subplot sort of way), and reintroducing the Romulans.

I will say, though, that if the effects of TNG are ever redone or remastered, this episode would benefit.

Those crawling creatures' stop-motion type movements actually add a bit of alien creepiness to them for me, though I'm pretty sure it wasn't exactly intended as such.