Star Trek The Next Generation: Conspiracy
May 9, 1988, this episode was written and filmed at the end of season 1, when there was talk of a writers’ strike happening soon after this season in Hollywood. Conspiracy was an episode set up by an episode earlier in the season named Coming of Age. A character in the episode mentioned that something or someone was attempting to control Starfleet. In this episode, Picard makes a choice to get to bottom of it by going back to Earth and investigating the conspiracy himself.
Gene Roddenberry nixed the idea of a group of Admirals wanting to take over the Federation because they felt Starfleet was too weak to defend itself from an invasion. He felt the Starfleet people would never act in such as way in the 24th century. That was when the bug-crab-like creatures were brought in as part of the main conspiracy. (Strangely enough, this exact storyline would be brought up During DS9’s run)
After a stupid opening between the bridge crew, an old Captain Friend contacts Picard to a remote planet where two other captains try to convince Picard that something strange is happening to Starfleet. It is only after the destruction of his friend’s starship that Picard does something about it.
Cliff Bole does a masterful job of making this one of the darkest episodes of the troubled first season. Due the darker lighting, the sets feel closed in, which added tension to the already serious subject matter. Patrick Stewart does amazing job of hiding his true intentions during his meeting with the evil Admirals. Tracy Tormé’s writing is very sharp and tight, only giving us enough information to keep the tension going.
Then, there are the famous gore scenes at the end when the main villain shows up. On normal syndicated TV, we get to see someone’s head explode and their chest burst open with a giant worm coming out of their body. For a child, me, this was really shocking and nearly came out of nowhere. Some say by adding the aliens to storyline, it weakened the character moments and conflict. Wouldn’t have been scarier if just normal human beings simply wanted to take over Starfleet for idealistic reasons instead of crab aliens? In the 80s, that would never fly, but in a post 911, I’d say yeah. This was Gene playing it safe.
There are a few things that really are not so good about the episode. The fight between Riker/Worf and a 70 year old Adirmal is pretty poorly done, and none of it is convincing either. (I did like Data getting cut off by the ship’s computer.) There are a few first season problems that show up here and there.
However, I really liked the fact the producers went all out with the gore. Plus, the dark ending with the beacon from Earth was an interesting way of keeping the threat open for a follow up story, which never happened in any shows after this one. It was dropped for the bigger threat in the form of the Borg, which were foreshadowed in the next episode.
Grade: B
Hey, just ignore the fact that these creatures look a little like the ones from Star Trek II. For real, don't mention it._________________________________________________________
Picard: “Oh, crap, I left the XBOX on all night.”
Picard: “Mr. Data, how long has this blue lettering ‘Conspiracy’ been floating around the bridge?”
Data: “Right before you came onto the bridge, sir. Shall I attempt to remove it?”
Picard: “No, perhaps it is a clue to something ahead of us. Leave it there, for all we know it could be alive.”
Note: Notice the burnt pink baby creatures on the floor. They’re usually purple. Yeah, this was shown on TV, before the X-Files.
Big Momma is pissed.
This is truly a disturbing image.
There is nothing wrong with his neck, nothing at all..._______________________________________________
At least they don't enter through the ear like Khan's creatures.
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6 comments:
Wow, what a memory throwback. Yeah, it was quite a copout to make the admirals under the power of creepy bugs, but that was rectified later, especially in Star Trek VI with some actual rogue Federation traitors.
Yeah, once Gene moved away from Trek the writers were able to write some corrupt people into the scripts. DS9 and even some later TNG had some corrupt Admirals. I just saw this ep like a month ago, and it still holds up.
hard to believe TNG is 20 years old now. creepy but cool episode. roddenbury would have never approved of section 31.
paul
Gene always hated having his prefect world put in a bad light, that I think it hurt the storytelling. We finally got more corrupt characters and conflict once he moved away from the show during the second season.
Yeah, his mind wouldn't take section 31. He was really upset over ST VI before his death.
I don't know if you can really review a tv show like this now and not be jaded or biased.
It's not meant to hold up THAT well since the technology of making TV and the technology of a distant future trying to be extrapolated will obviously be different.
I don't really think it's fair to review something as harshly when it's not being watched within it's usual airing season.
For Heaven's sake Semaj!!! it's almost 20 years old.
lol, yeah you're right, Mayren. Surprisingly, this episode holds up really well, given it was shown in the 80s. The biggest problem I had was the patch work that Gene did to the script. I think he was so protective of his work that he harmed it.
There are things that Gene put into the show that simply don't age well. But, the content of governments getting taken over by a shadow group is still important today.
This episode has some great moments that shocked the hell out of me back in the 80s.
Man, 20 years...I feel old.
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