Parasites of Conspiracy

[Maurice]

I wonder if they will clean up any of this animation for TNG-R!?

Im not proposing all new cgi effects (though i wouldn't be opposed) but certainly something could be done to smooth out the choppy stop-motion fx footage shot, along the lines of how they smoothed out the 'morphing' of deformed Vina at the end of The Menagerie.

That's actually relatively simple, as they can just add motion blur the the moving parts if the bugs to get rid of the staccato look of the stop-motion.

 

[A Little Otter]

While I watched TNG during its first season with joy at having Star Trek back on TV, "Conspiracy" was the first episode that truly made me excited about the show. It was dark and violent, with Picard and Riker finally kicking some butt instead of just talking through their problems. It also hinted at a larger story during a time when story arcs just weren't done on TV. The fact that they brought back previously seen characters lent of feel of continuity, and it was implied that the conspiracy went through all levels of Starfleet. I was really looking forward to a follow-up episode that delved deeper into discovering who was involved with the conspiracy, but unfortunately they never returned to this story thread. At least in the Romulan "we're back" final episode of the series, they planted the seeds for the Borg to arrive as well as re-introducing the pointy-eared villains. I also got my conspiracy fix with Undiscovered Country.

By the way, the idea that the people who were taken over by the worm things had a little tail sticking out of the back of their necks was lifted directly from the '50's alien invasion flick Invaders from Mars, which used the exact same plot device.

 

[Alienesse]

I agree, had they returned they would have been just another enemy that becomes lamer and less threatening every time.

I agree that the overuse of a character leads to a loss of its punch. That is what happened to the Borg, obviously. However, I think one question arises here: in order for an antagonist to become a notable one, don't they have to appear several times? If they are seen in one episode only, as is the case of the "Conspiracy" creatures, they are indeed scary, but they can't hold that great of an importance. So, I think it's sort of self-defeating to say that an enemy becomes lamer the more it appears, because it requires several appearances to establish a character as a feared enemy. Well, that was a more general comment there.

I loved the grim idea behind "Conspiracy", but the stop-motion animation used to render the parasites seemed a bit inappropriate to me because it appears more suited for comical productions. It makes it too obvious that the creatures are a fabrication.

I disagree. The Borg were pretty mental scary in Q-who, and would have remained so after if they weren't de-clawed later.

What exactly do you disagree with?

 

[Captrek]

The thing is, the parasites were already defeated in their introductory episode. There's no way they could threaten the Federation again, not with everybody knowing to check for a snorchel at the neck of an oddly behaving superior or underling.

The interesting second episode on them would be the one dealing with their UFP membership application... How would a species like that fit in? It's the ages-old fantasy question - how do vampires, cannibals or the like become part of the society? Are they forever condemned to be enemies or perhaps prey because of a biological imperative?

Timo Saloniemi

I don't think the Federation would want those parasites as members, unless they can give a good reason why the Federation should trust them after their last encounter.

I agree that a membership application anytime soon is far fetched, but there may yet have been interesting stories to tell with them.

For example, imagine the following scenario.

Starfleet discovers a planet that has been completely overrun by the parasites for generations. Except for a few scattered bands of refugees living in hiding, the entire population is infected. Starfleet knows that if they locate and destroy all the queens, the parasites will die and “free” their hosts, but these hosts have never had free wills of their own. They have spent their entire lives trapped as helpless observers in their own bodies. They have never fed themselves, bathed themselves, worked, or made decisions, and are therefore not prepared to do so. You can’t just kill their parasites and expect them to survive on their own. There are billions of them, so you can’t put them all in assisted living facilities. What, if anything, can the Federation do to help them?

 

[Timo]

...Browse the records for what happened to Vaal's children after Kirk popped their dad?

Do we know the parasites will die when the local queen is killed? All we learned from "Conspiracy" is that the one that invaded Admiral Quinn disappeared without a trace - perhaps escaped by leaping onto one of the medical personnel?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Captrek]

Do we know the parasites will die when the local queen is killed?

It's stated in a Captain's Log near the end of the episode: "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."

 

[Timo]

Their plan couldn't survive. It sounds implausible that their biological lives would have been in any sort of jeopardy due to Picard gunning down a creature dozens of lightyears away!

If Picard is right (and we have no reason to believe he would be), then all the related questions appear academic, as the species has now gone extinct... But if so, why did the infiltrators bother to send a message to "an uncharted part of the galaxy"?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[SWanda]

Thank God Picard gunned them down!
One less type of monsters in the universe. Always a good thing to do.

 

[byron lomax]

Man, did this episode creep me out as a youngster. Back then I was happy not to see them again, but now looking back it might have been cool to have some follow up, provided it was done properly. I doubt the parasites would give up that easily.

In one of DS9's "Section 31" episodes, I remember a scene where Dr Bashir is staying in his quarters (for reasons I can't recall), but he receives a dinner, which, when he opens it up, reveals to be a mass of writhing worms. It turned out he got Klingon food by mistake, but I suspect that was an intentional callback to "Conspiracy".

 

[USS Excelsior]

Back then they didn't have the special effects to create creatures like in later episodes like Species 8472 or Insectoids.

 

[The Castellan]

Man, did this episode creep me out as a youngster. Back then I was happy not to see them again, but now looking back it might have been cool to have some follow up, provided it was done properly. I doubt the parasites would give up that easily.

In one of DS9's "Section 31" episodes, I remember a scene where Dr Bashir is staying in his quarters (for reasons I can't recall), but he receives a dinner, which, when he opens it up, reveals to be a mass of writhing worms. It turned out he got Klingon food by mistake, but I suspect that was an intentional callback to "Conspiracy".

Would not be surprised if stupid section 31 knew about the creatures, long before they infiltrated Starfleet. If they kept hush hush on the Borg for 200 years, I could easily see them do something similar with those little buggers.