Why didnt Conspiracy get a follow up?

[Khan 2.0]

I always thought Conspiracy was one of the best episodes and I'm surprised they never did a sequel episode in later TNG seasons or in DS9/VOY, even a ENT prequel, or even given it the Space Seed treatment as a TNG movie . Ok they couldn't do it after FC as that was a sequel to an ep and had horror elements, but maybe they could've done it instead of NEMESIS. Star Trek does Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Hard PG13 horror (even more than FC) with eeriness like the IOTBS 1978 remake, and Alien/Khan level gore etc.

Then again I guess not having done a follow up has left the aliens steeped in mystery (like the Space Jockey pre Prometheus)

 

[inflatabledalek]

I've read claims the original intent was the bugs would be connected to the new big bad intended for season 2 that The Neutral Zone also set up, but as the original concept of big space insects got changed so drastically (and the writer's strike knocking everything for six anyway) to a different sort of hive mind the link was lost. I've no idea how reliable that is though.

 

[Count]

Maurice Hurley claimed in interviews that the conspiracy aliens eventually became the Borg, because showing the insect-like alien race was apparently too expensive.

 

[C.E. Evans]

There's a part of me that's glad that "Conspiracy" didn't get a follow-up because I think it wouldn't have been as good--and even further installments might have led to "dwindling returns." Sometimes less is more, IMO.

Then again I guess not having done a follow up has left the aliens steeped in mystery

If only that philosophy had been applied to the Borg...

 

[Reaper63]

I think we were due at least one follow up here. Yes, on the TV budget TNG had it might have been hard to do a Bug World. but another attempt to take over, with a more definite ending would have worked well.

I know the bugs did come back in the Novels though, DS 9 Novels as the Anti Trills I believe.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

There's a part of me that's glad that "Conspiracy" didn't get a follow-up because I think it wouldn't have been as good--and even further installments might have led to "dwindling returns." Sometimes less is more, IMO.

Then again I guess not having done a follow up has left the aliens steeped in mystery

If only that philosophy had been applied to the Borg...

I totally agree with you gents. On the other hand, it is a bit disappointing nevetheless that when some totally fascinating aliens appear, such as the subspace beings in Schisms, they're never seen again.

But again, better the mystery lingers, than the groans of character fatigue...

 

[Unicron]

I've always kind of liked the non-canon followup even though I haven't read the specific books.

Spoiler: DS9 book spoilers

The conspiracy parasites are an offshoot of the Trill, from a colony that suffered a natural disaster. The symbionts were radically altered in an attempt to preserve them, but the process also drove them insane and they became totally parasitic.

 

[Lance]

I've read claims the original intent was the bugs would be connected to the new big bad intended for season 2 that The Neutral Zone also set up, but as the original concept of big space insects got changed so drastically (and the writer's strike knocking everything for six anyway) to a different sort of hive mind the link was lost. I've no idea how reliable that is though.

Maurice Hurley claimed in interviews that the conspiracy aliens eventually became the Borg, because showing the insect-like alien race was apparently too expensive.

Yeah, these are pretty much the gist of it. Hurley has said he wanted to create more an arc structure, with lots of episodes referencing other episodes (we see some of this in season one with things like Remmick in "Coming Of Age" back-referencing a bunch of previous episodes, and then "Conspiracy" leaving the origin of the insect creatures a mystery, and then the outpost along the neutral zone being attacked by enemies unknown, with season two explicitly picking up this thread with the Borg, etc). But the writer's strike ended up throwing many of those plans into the wind.

The time anomaly in "Time Squared" was supposed to link directly into "Q Who" as well...

 

[Dukhat]

Maurice Hurley claimed in interviews that the conspiracy aliens eventually became the Borg, because showing the insect-like alien race was apparently too expensive.

Hold on a sec, that's not what I heard. "Conspiracy" was itself a follow-up to "Coming of Age," where Admiral Quinn and Remmick are interviewing the Enterprise crew because of an internal problem within the Federation. The original intent was that members of Starfleet themselves were trying to launch a political coup against the Federation, and there were no little bug aliens stuck in people's necks influencing them. But Roddenberry didn't like that, so when "Conspiracy" came around, this was changed to the bugs. Since the aliens were never supposed to be part of the original intent of the "Coming of Age" angle, they were dropped.

As for the Borg, yes, the original intent was for them to be insect-like which was then changed to humans with cybernetic implants due to budgetary reasons, but I've never heard that they were specifically supposed to be the same bugs from "Conspiracy." If there was a direct quote by Hurley where he says this, I'd like to know.

 

[Lance]

Maurice Hurley claimed in interviews that the conspiracy aliens eventually became the Borg, because showing the insect-like alien race was apparently too expensive.

Hold on a sec, that's not what I heard. "Conspiracy" was itself a follow-up to "Coming of Age," where Admiral Quinn and Remmick are interviewing the Enterprise crew because of an internal problem within the Federation. The original intent was that members of Starfleet themselves were trying to launch a political coup against the Federation, and there were no little bug aliens stuck in people's necks influencing them. But Roddenberry didn't like that, so when "Conspiracy" came around, this was changed to the bugs. Since the aliens were never supposed to be part of the original intent of the "Coming of Age" angle, they were dropped.

As for the Borg, yes, the original intent was for them to be insect-like which was then changed to humans with cybernetic implants due to budgetary reasons, but I've never heard that they were specifically supposed to be the same bugs from "Conspiracy." If there was a direct quote by Hurley where he says this, I'd like to know.

Hmm, that's actually very true. I've just done a quick search on Google for "the next generation conspiracy aliens borg", and while there are countless fans sites hypothesising the theory that the parasites and the insectoid Borg were meant to be linked before the writer's stike killed it, there is nothing by way of actual hard evidence that this was the intention. It's just possible that this story was one of those suppositions within the fandom which has since taken on a life of it's own.....

 

[EnriqueH]

Maurice Hurley claimed in interviews that the conspiracy aliens eventually became the Borg, because showing the insect-like alien race was apparently too expensive.

I was going to say, but Count beat me to it, that I understand that the Conspiracy Aliens morphed into the Borg over time, but I agree: it's a great episode and a stand out for the First Season.

I thought the Starfleet invasion by aliens and the whole Starfleet paranoia thing was effective, but they ultimately came up short because nothing ever became of it.

 

[Wingsley]

How ironic that Mr. Roddenberry, who got TNG off the ground in the Reagan era, shot down the notion of a radical offshoot of Starfleet (which would've made "Conspiracy" into a direct commentary on the Iran-Contra Affair, given the timing) but in the early-to-mid 90s, TNG and DS9 would go back to that same well in creating the Maquis.

In all fairness, it is probably best that TNG did not use "Conspiracy" to make a radical offshoot of Starfleet, as the turnover in writers and the lack of overall direction of the show would have made any attempt to show the radical offshoot at work (breaking the Prime Directive, or other Federation laws) would have been too difficult for them to keep on track. We did get to see something vaguely like this pop up with Section 31, but that was never thoroughly explored.

 

[Lance]

The original conception of 'Conspiracy' sounds suspiciously like about a half-dozen different Star Trek episodes since. So even though they didn't get to do it in 1987/88, they certainly did much later on (particularly DS9's "Homefront"/"Paradise Lost").

 

[Khan 2.0]

Maurice Hurley claimed in interviews that the conspiracy aliens eventually became the Borg, because showing the insect-like alien race was apparently too expensive.

I was going to say, but Count beat me to it, that I understand that the Conspiracy Aliens morphed into the Borg over time, but I agree: it's a great episode and a stand out for the First Season.

I thought the Starfleet invasion by aliens and the whole Starfleet paranoia thing was effective, but they ultimately came up short because nothing ever became of it.

it definitely could've done with a follow up the way QWho got BOBW (but not the rest). But the fact its a standalone maybe makes it even more effective/eerie... I remember being genuinely scared watching it in 88 or thereabouts (ok I was fairly young), it wasn't just the grossness of the aliens (in fact back then I only saw the UK TV version with the Scanners/bodyburster ending heavily edited) it was more the general feeling of unease/dread throughout, the eerie score, certain scenes - the opening meet up, Walkers ship being revealed to have blown up (later Contagion would have a similar shocking ship destruction. In fact that's another fairly scary underrated episode), Data revelations in the conference room and the scary implications of how SF got infiltrated like that, Riker vs superQuinn (especially liked Rikers fight training coming into play there delivering two vicious head kicks that would ordinarily put someone down but have no effect) , the neck scene in sickbay, and of course the end banquet scene (which felt abit Texas Chainsaw), leading to the shocking Scanners meets Alien ending. And then the open ending..

Basically Trek does Body Snatchers/Alien with a dash of TWOKs eel stuff (I was surprised it got rated PG when the unedited version came out on video, was expecting it to be 15 like TWOK)

 

[Lance]

They should've connected them to the aliens in "Schisms".

 

[Unicron]

I was recently reading part of a much earlier draft of the story which became "Conspiracy," known as "The Assassins." It included some similar themes, with a non-insectoid form of mind control going on at Starfleet. One of the more interesting changes is that when the Enterprise arrives at Earth, there's a lot more traffic and the crew isn't sure how many ships (potentially all of them) are under the conspiracy's control.

 

[Lance]

The original concept was more like "Paradise Lost" on DS9: an attempted military coup of the Federation (although in the case of "Conspiracy" the coup would have been successful).

 

[bbailey861]

I, too, think this episode deserved a follow up. The morphing into the Borg story notwithstanding (and in understanding of it as well) my opinion stems soley from the fact that I clearly remember how different and exciting "Conspiracy" was when it first aired. This clearly wasn't 'your daddy's Trek' (my Trek) and definitely charted new ground. I would loved to have seen it continue. It was fresh, daring, and most certainly all grown up.

 

[Khan 2.0]

^
yes exactly. I seem to remember reading somewhere (might've ben the TNG Companion or one of the Altman/Gross books) that Conspiracy wasn't very well received at the time was considered too graphic and 'unStar Trek' by the audience or the writers or both and as a result continuing the story was dropped

 

[jaime]

The other ongoing continuity of trek, i.e. star trek online, does feature them. Since am using a tablet touchscreen and don't know how to hide spoilers with bbcode, I wontbsay where. XD