Conspiracy- the aftermath

[Solarbaby]

I love this episode sooooooo much. Especially watching it twice it in HD last week. It had laid such a great premise for a future storyline and then was never mentioned again!!!

I am just wondering what people think would have happened to the Federation after Picard stopped the neural parasites invasion in Conspiracy

Would the Federation government have informed the citizens of the threat? I think it would have done. The Federation is not akin to the US government which would probably hide such information from the public to prevent panic. The Federation is more open about it's dealing with invasion and attacks. The danger is all the more real in the 24th century and can be on your doorstep at warp speed. So it is better to be informed to deal with such a problem.

Certainly I believe all the Starfleet top brass and ship crews would have training on the tell tale signs of the neural parasites implanting officers. I doubt the parasites would implant civilians unless in positions of power and influence - so I am not sure it would make any difference to warn the public.

What do you think about this?

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

I really wanted a sequel to this episode, that perhaps could've addressed some of these issues. A missed golden opportunity to follow up and expand on this excellent story IMHO.

 

[R. Star]

The DS9 relaunch novels address these creatures as villains. They flesh them out so to say, pardon the pun, and give them a very unique background. They show up again in the later part of the Mission Gamma books and in Unity.

 

[T'Girl]

Would the Federation government have informed the citizens of the threat?

In the episode Family, Robert Picard wasn't exactly sure what happen with the Borg cube that exploded over Earth. While it's possible he simply doesn't monitored the news, it also might indicate that Starfleet is closed mouth about it's operations.

The Federation is more open about it's dealing with invasion and attacks.

We actually don't know that one way or the other. Still it would be difficult to conceal the destruction of a Starship. Unless that so common an occurrence that the populace no longer notices.

Certainly I believe all the Starfleet top brass and ship crews would have training on the tell tale signs of the neural parasites implanting officers.

Looking for the parasites would be programmed into the transporters bio-filter certainly.

I doubt the parasites would implant civilians unless in positions of power and influence - so I am not sure it would make any difference to warn the public.

The parasites might regroup and try again with government, business and social leaders. It would be difficult to imagine not informing the general public, who the federation of course works for.

What do you think about this?

Think about what?

 

[davejames]

I'd love to know the full story behind why this was never followed up on. Was it because of that gory ending? Did Berman and the studio feel that it was too dark a storyline for TNG?

Or could the writers just not think of a good enough sequel?

 

[Unicron]

The origin of the parasites was followed up in some of the DS9 books. At the time the episode was originally made, the parasites were intended to lead into the threat that became the Borg. The insectoid SFX were a problem in terms of budget for the proposed follow-up, so the Borg ultimately were modified into a new AOTW who did possess a hivelike mind.

 

[Timo]

Looking for the parasites would be programmed into the transporters bio-filter certainly.

One would think the transporters would automatically spot the parasites, and would have to be specifically programmed to ignore them. This is why the infiltration would have to proceed slowly, and through individuals who were in a sufficient position of authority to pervert transporter programming.

It's worth noting that when Admiral Quinn comes aboard via transporter, it appears that LtCmdr Remmick down on Earth is the one operating the system, rather than any of the E-D personnel. And that's supposedly the only time a parasite moves by transporter in the episode.

The parasites might regroup and try again with government, business and social leaders. It would be difficult to imagine not informing the general public, who the federation of course works for.

OTOH, the first attempt seemed to involve an extremely narrow time window and a very tenuous hold, which is no wonder because those possessed people wouldn't have passed muster for very long under any circumstances. The creatures needed a short-lived approach corridor where Starfleet wouldn't be shooting at them much, so that they could perform a conventional invasion of Earth (and perhaps then take all Earthlings hostage to secure their hold of the world - or then they only had quick raiding in mind, or wanted to destroy Earth, or whatever).

It's very difficult to imagine these unconvincing half-zombies deviously influencing the civilian structures of the society so that Earth somehow becomes more fertile ground for their rule...

The other possibility is that they indeed sought peaceful coexistence (albeit under certain unappealing terms), and were undermined in this by the fact that they couldn't control the faces and voices of their victims too well and thus appeared way more sinister than they wanted to.

Curiously enough, it's not as if they really explicitly killed anybody. The loss of the Horatio is in unclear circumstances, Quinn never kills anybody in his possibly benevolent demonstration of the great physical advantages of accepting a parasite, and every one of the people down at Starfleet Command appears to have their phaser on stun.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[CommanderRaytas]

I honestly don't think that Starfleet would have gone public with this. It would cause panic and turn our natural paranoia up a notch or two....and what purpose would it serve, other than to scare people? "Don't worry, you lot, we almost got taken over by alien brain parasites, but in the end, they got blown up and now all is well again".

I guess stuff like this would be strictly need to know....and I for one would probably not want to know this kind of scary shit. Ignorance, in some cases, is indeed bliss.

 

[Drago-Kazov]

At least people would be alert and more likley to inform the authorities if something unusual would happen regarding people in high places.

I guess stuff like this would be strictly need to know....and I for one would probably not want to know this kind of scary shit. Ignorance, in some cases, is indeed bliss. __________________

Why not? Sealing these kinds of imnformations is the road too 1984

 

[Timo]

The point about the UFP "living in an age of scary shit" holds: informing about things like this might not be all that different from informing about the Cuban missile crisis or running Duck and Cover infomercials. Or telling people about Hurricane Ermintrude and how to protect against it, or the next one.

Most people might just shrug and say things like "That's nothing, kids. Back in the eighties, Daddy lived through the whole Whale Probe thing. Now that was scary. Grandmother had this little house in Leningrad, you remember, the one where she had invented Daddy's drink? Now, these huge clouds started coming in..."

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Solarbaby]

Looking for the parasites would be programmed into the transporters bio-filter certainly.

Aside from the transporter which didn't detect the parasite inside the live host or in its stasis container, it appears that tricorders can't detect them either. Crusher had Quinn on the bed and was using the overhead scanning equipment to inspect Quinn's body and still didn't detect a parasite. She said she needed to do a deep tissue scan. It was only later that she was able to display a scan showing the parasite attached to the host on the spine.

So I would imagine people who were told about the parasites would know to look for protruding gils and odd behaviour and memory loss from hosts

What do you think about this?
Think about what?

About whether the Federation would have informed the civilian population of the parasite's threat.

 

[Timo]

Aside from the transporter which didn't detect the parasite inside the live host or in its stasis container

...But it was the Starfleet HQ transporter, not the E-D one!

Crusher had Quinn on the bed and was using the overhead scanning equipment to inspect Quinn's body and still didn't detect a parasite.

Good point. Then again, at that point, all we know Crusher had scanned for was Quinn's identity, i.e. retina pattern match. It was probably the very earliest part of her inspection of the patient - she was just pointing the tricorder at Quinn's eyes to get the retina pattern, and was about to begin the actual study of the body (with the first witnessed keypress on the scanning frame over Quinn's torso) when she noted the telltale breathing tube.

Previously, she had only superficially glanced over Quinn at the cabin before rushing to inspect Riker. "Tricorder failure" thus need not really be assumed.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[CommanderRaytas]

At least people would be alert and more likley to inform the authorities if something unusual would happen regarding people in high places.

I guess stuff like this would be strictly need to know....and I for one would probably not want to know this kind of scary shit. Ignorance, in some cases, is indeed bliss. __________________

Why not? Sealing these kinds of imnformations is the road too 1984

I suppose that I believe that there is a difference between keeping the public dumb and exposing them to almost catastrophes that will, imo, turn them into a paranoid and xenophobic lot. That would really be the road to 1984 - people telling on their neighbours and family members because they suspect they're being possessed by zombifying slugs from outer space.

Don't get me wrong; I think that public awareness of certain dangers would be beneficial....but like some huge motherfucker of an asteroid racing toward Earth, the government is unlikely to disclose information regarding huge global disasters for fear of the repercussions. That's what I think would happen - they'd keep the lid on this.

 

[Use of Time]

How informed did the Federation keep the populace in the Homefront/Paradise Lost episode? I would expect the policies to be somewhat consistent.

I am really disappointed that they didn't follow up on this episode as it really was a season 1 standout.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

Yeah me too....I think that it would have been interesting to see some paranoia sprouting among Starfleet people / general populace...but that would have gone against the "no conflict" policy between the core cast in the first few seasons.

I think that due to the fact that in Homefront/Paradise Lost people were being forcibly screened, informing them at least partially would actually curb any panic, whilst simultaneously encouraging paranoia. Seeing real consequences of this would have been great.

 

[Drago-Kazov]

Raytas posted:

I suppose that I believe that there is a difference between keeping the public dumb and exposing them to almost catastrophes that will, imo, turn them into a paranoid and xenophobic lot. That would really be the road to 1984 - people telling on their neighbours and family members because they suspect they're being possessed by zombifying slugs from outer space.

A bioscan probably can prove if someone is possesed or not. So there would not be a huge whichunt or anything like that.

Don't get me wrong; I think that public awareness of certain dangers would be beneficial....but like some huge motherfucker of an asteroid racing toward Earth, the government is unlikely to disclose information regarding huge global disasters for fear of the repercussions. That's what I think would happen - they'd keep the lid on this.

If there would be an asteroid coming people probably would not care, the same way we caqn have a nuclear holocaust anytime, but the hell with i ain't going to live in fear because of the possibilty.