I don’t think that “We’ll completely take over your brains, but your bodies will remain alive to service us” is the kind of peaceful coexistence the UFP has in mind.
Conspiracy
- Thread starter chris32482
- Start date
The Borg were originally intended to be the insectoid race, but were altered because it would have been too expensive and difficult to do more extensive insectoid effects then. The hive mind was the only element that was kept. The parasites were followed up on in some of the DS9 novels, and were said to be related to the Trill. That works for me too.
Let's not also forget the short story from The Lives of Dax, "Sins of the Mother" which is where the Parasite/Trill connection is first established and utilized in an extremely effective, disturbing way.
RobertScorpio
Pariah
Just came across this post..Are these books just 'barely' mentioning the parasites from Conspiracy? Or is it really dealing with them. if so, I will go get these books today. Sounds interesting...
Rob
Mission Gamma Book 4, Unity, and WoDS9: Trill form an effective trilogy for the parasite story. It's one of many plots in the Mission Gamma series (and actually begins in Book 3 I think), it's the dominant plot of Unity, and it's followed up and fully explained/explored in WoDS9: Trill (there's more than the Parasite story going on in the Trill book, but its behind all the other events and the connection between the Parasites and the Trill is completely spelled out). If you're mostly just interested in the Parasite plot, you should be good with those, but jumping into the Mission Gamma four parter 3/4 of the way through may be somewhat confusing at first. I would say Mission Gamma Book 4 is around 30% about the conspiracy aliens, Unity about 75% - 80%, and WoDS9:Trill about 75%.
As Lives of Dax is an anthology, only one of the stories deals with the parasites, "Sins of the Mother" which is about Audrid Dax. I'm pretty sure it's the first time in TrekLit that the connection between the Trill and the Parasites is made, and it features Christopher Pike too as a bonus. And the rest of the stories are quite good too.
RobertScorpio
Pariah
Mission Gamma Book 4, Unity, and WoDS9: Trill form an effective trilogy for the parasite story. It's one of many plots in the Mission Gamma series (and actually begins in Book 3 I think), it's the dominant plot of Unity, and it's followed up and fully explained/explored in WoDS9: Trill (there's more than the Parasite story going on in the Trill book, but its behind all the other events and the connection between the Parasites and the Trill is completely spelled out). If you're mostly just interested in the Parasite plot, you should be good with those, but jumping into the Mission Gamma four parter 3/4 of the way through may be somewhat confusing at first. I would say Mission Gamma Book 4 is around 30% about the conspiracy aliens, Unity about 75% - 80%, and WoDS9:Trill about 75%.
As Lives of Dax is an anthology, only one of the stories deals with the parasites, "Sins of the Mother" which is about Audrid Dax. I'm pretty sure it's the first time in TrekLit that the connection between the Trill and the Parasites is made, and it features Christopher Pike too as a bonus. And the rest of the stories are quite good too.
Great..thanks for the tips. I will get them all and read the lives of DAX first since, I assume, it happens first in your chronology of the books...
Rob
Mission Gamma Book 4, Unity, and WoDS9: Trill form an effective trilogy for the parasite story. It's one of many plots in the Mission Gamma series (and actually begins in Book 3 I think), it's the dominant plot of Unity, and it's followed up and fully explained/explored in WoDS9: Trill (there's more than the Parasite story going on in the Trill book, but its behind all the other events and the connection between the Parasites and the Trill is completely spelled out). If you're mostly just interested in the Parasite plot, you should be good with those, but jumping into the Mission Gamma four parter 3/4 of the way through may be somewhat confusing at first. I would say Mission Gamma Book 4 is around 30% about the conspiracy aliens, Unity about 75% - 80%, and WoDS9:Trill about 75%.
As Lives of Dax is an anthology, only one of the stories deals with the parasites, "Sins of the Mother" which is about Audrid Dax. I'm pretty sure it's the first time in TrekLit that the connection between the Trill and the Parasites is made, and it features Christopher Pike too as a bonus. And the rest of the stories are quite good too.
Great..thanks for the tips. I will get them all and read the lives of DAX first since, I assume, it happens first in your chronology of the books...
Rob
Enjoy!
RobertScorpio
Pariah
Totally agree. I still remember sitting there with my friend and watching it the first time and being totally floored. Especially since GR was running the show in those days. And there was this perception he was this big softy/communist/ dude (not all had that image of him, but many did) and for him to let that kind of scene on his show was just..well...fascinating.
That same kind of feeling came again when they actually let Worf kill Durass. i remember when Work swung that Batleth and I told my friend, "nah, the blade landed to the right of Durass's head"...but no....HE DID IT. (I still think he got away with Murder and Picard showed how wishy-washy he is)...but still a great scene...
Rob
That was pretty much put to bed at the end of the Ep. I believe that Picard and Riker were using the Stun setting initially. So Captain Scott and the rest would have been fine. Then they changed to Kill when they faced Remmick and the Queen. As far as all that had been infected, here is the quote from the script:
PICARD (V.O.)
Captain's log, stardate 41780.2.
Admiral Quinn is expected to make
a full recovery...
90 INT. SICKBAY - QUINN
is sitting up in bed, being fed liquid by Beverly.
He seems weak but in general okay as he flashes her
a small smile.
PICARD (V.O.)
(continuing)
There is no trace of the parasite
which took control of him. We'll
never know how many of these
life-forms infiltrated Starfleet,
but it seems they could not
survive without the "mother
creature" which had taken over
Commander Remmick. Still, the haunting question
remains... Who were these
beings... and will we ever have
to face them again?
So we could assume all the victims survived the departure of the creatures - since otherwise Starfleet could easily count how many had been infected, simply by counting the number of officers that suddenly dropped dead. 
Did the victims survive the phaser blasts of our heroes? Crusher found out the setting needed to defeat a possessed victim without killing him. Riker and Picard were told of this setting (Crusher called it "kill", but it didn't vaporize the target). So it stands to reason that all of their victims would have survived their marksmanship. Certainly Picard's phaser misses didn't cause any damage on the walls of Starfleet Command...
Timo Saloniemi
Did the victims survive the phaser blasts of our heroes? Crusher found out the setting needed to defeat a possessed victim without killing him. Riker and Picard were told of this setting (Crusher called it "kill", but it didn't vaporize the target). So it stands to reason that all of their victims would have survived their marksmanship. Certainly Picard's phaser misses didn't cause any damage on the walls of Starfleet Command...
Timo Saloniemi
RobertScorpio
Pariah
So we could assume all the victims survived the departure of the creatures - since otherwise Starfleet could easily count how many had been infected, simply by counting the number of officers that suddenly dropped dead.
Did the victims survive the phaser blasts of our heroes? Crusher found out the setting needed to defeat a possessed victim without killing him. Riker and Picard were told of this setting (Crusher called it "kill", but it didn't vaporize the target). So it stands to reason that all of their victims would have survived their marksmanship. Certainly Picard's phaser misses didn't cause any damage on the walls of Starfleet Command...
Timo Saloniemi
i wonder if all the victims knew they had been...victims. And yeah..what about those walls. Nary a scratch!!!
Rob
it was a pretty dark episode and could have ramped the paranoia factor in TNG as technically it is a external threat that seeped it's way into the Federation with little notice.
Kinda makes you appreciate what section 31 does a bit better, doesn't it?
Kinda makes you appreciate what section 31 does a bit better, doesn't it?
I think the ep was pretty good--the tension build-up was BRILLIANTLY crafted--
Untill the bugs start popping out of people's mouths.
And of course...the writers just HAD to write in the all-too-convenient, Roddenberry-esque "Oh, by the way, it isn't a REAL conspiracy--just an alien mind-control-type sabotage operation. After all, it HAD to be, because in the 24th Century, Humans have grown beyond such greed and power-lust."
How convenient.
This was, of course, before Rick, Mike, and Braga were comfortable with making episodes with REAL conspiracies, like "The Pegasus", or "Homefront/Paradise Lost" (DS9). Not to mention The Maquis and Section 31....
Ah well.
I REALLY like, though, Data's implication at the end...that the parasites would one day be BACK!!!
Untill the bugs start popping out of people's mouths.
And of course...the writers just HAD to write in the all-too-convenient, Roddenberry-esque "Oh, by the way, it isn't a REAL conspiracy--just an alien mind-control-type sabotage operation. After all, it HAD to be, because in the 24th Century, Humans have grown beyond such greed and power-lust."
How convenient.
This was, of course, before Rick, Mike, and Braga were comfortable with making episodes with REAL conspiracies, like "The Pegasus", or "Homefront/Paradise Lost" (DS9). Not to mention The Maquis and Section 31....
Ah well.
I REALLY like, though, Data's implication at the end...that the parasites would one day be BACK!!!
