FULL DISCUSSION - Star Trek TNG S1E25 - Conspiracy

Appreciate the love for season 1. It’s my third least favorite season (behind 2 & 6) but it deserves nowhere the hate it gets.

Remik was the only one, there was nothing to indicate there where more

The ending wasn’t saying there are more on earth. It was the message that remik was sending before they killed him. They explained none of them could survive without the mother creature inside remik

I met Michael Berryman at Monsterfest a few years ago in LA. Absolute gem of a fellow. We had a drink with him. He has a condition where he’s hairless and doesn’t sweat- you shake his hand and it feels like sandpaper. Just a nice guy, hitting the fest circuit and living an interesting life.

I don't know if this episode was positioned second to last for the season because it was considered too intense to end the first season with (like 'City On The Edge Of Forever'). I can't address the next episode yet (or certain episodes in season 2). This does lead to a bit of confusion as to what exactly TNG was building up to at that point in time. Which idea was the one that the writers intended to be the main continuing story, or did they just change their minds rapidly.

I enjoyed this one. If i had to make a guess I'd say this was inspired by the movie Invaders From Mars, down to the neck, . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmRY-htbjIk . Thomas Paine was a founding father. This one is in my top 2 or 3 of the season. Regarding serialized tv, wasn't it The Sopranos that changed everything?

The fight scene is the worst part of this episode. Being able to see the stunt doubles so well is another side effect of a show that was meant to be seen on a grainy 32" CRT TV being converted to HD. It does make it a lot more fun though! Glad you guys enjoyed this one. It's one of my favourite early episodes as well.

Alex thinks they will follow up with these aliens. Josh thinks they won’t. One of you is right.

This is one of my favorite episodes of TNG and the first episode in a string of them that venture into the horror/mystery genre which fits Star Trek and TNG extremely well. I would have liked for there to have been more episodes with a horror flavor to them. It also continues and plays off of the last episode we saw these two in as well with their "something is wrong" motif.

Ooh...to be fair, I understand why you guys liked this episode so much. But unfortunately I can't fully get behind it, if only because its weak plot driven by a misguided concept. The music score, direction, acting, makeup, sets, and effects (both composited and practical in this case) are all above average for television of this era in general, and a good sign of things to come for this show in particular, but the creepy, almost cartoonish nature of the threat strays too far into camp horror territory, and comes off like a rejected Outer Limits script 🤷‍♂️ Interestingly, the original concept for this story involved a more down-to-earth a military coup by renegade Starfleet officers acting of their own free will, which despite possibly making for a more interesting story, I don't think would fit the Trek format any better, as Roddenberry at the time and many others since can attest to. On the plus side, the follow-up on characters and storyline from "Coming of Age" is a welcome development...will the continuity links continue? Only time will tell 🖖

"kayfabe is dead" lmao

8:36 They're not necessarily dead. Quinn survived and he had been "infected" and was subdued by phaser. The creature's infestation made the victims very resistant to phaser fire (somehow) so that high phaser settings had the same effect as stun on a normal person.

IIRC this episode was originally banned in the UK due to the head exploding/alien chest scene. I believe it was even banned in syndicated reruns and was only finally available to the Brits when Star Trek became available to stream on Netflix. *Edit* - So it wasn't this episode that was banned in the UK but a later one. The UK however did cut some of the graphic elements from this episode before airing it.

3:45 The characters we saw before were not "infected" in their prior appearance. That happened between then and now.

I think the first qtr of s2 is weaker due to the strike and reusing old phase 2 scripts.

TNG was filmed with the intention of airing on standard definition analog TV, we are now watching these episodes remastered in high definition. They didn’t care if camera could see the stunt double’s face because in low standard definition it was a lot less obvious it wasn’t the original actor.

Henry Darrow, who played the Vulcan admiral, guest starred on almost every TV show in the 1960s and 1970s. Look him up.

There is a documentary where Tracy Torme' states he wrote this script to piss off Roddenberry, who notoriously was against dark cynicism for his humanist future. However, Gene was at the time pissed off at the studio censors for coming down hard on his sex-episodes and the half nudity therein during the first half of the season. So, much to Torme's surprise, Gene greenlit this episode, exploding skull and all.

I have to say this one of the worst of season 1. I try to forget it exists and for good reason. The writers sure did

37 years ago when I was 18 years old this was a fave of mine too. In the intervening years since Ive come to realize that Trek is much more well thought-out than this ep. It definitely is well-done in pacing and tone but plotting and logic are out the door. ;)

This was amazing. I remember my parents and I talking about it. THIS was the episode where we thought we might not have just fun Trek-lite, but something special.

This was my favorite episode of the first season and it was just as much a WTF moment in 87 as it is now. Plenty of Dark Trek to come.

I MADE THE CUT!!!!!

So now a couple hours after watching this I'm eating leftover pizza. Yummy. I said in the Patron Takes that this wasn't Remmick's fault or any of the others. Once they were infected they had no free will of their own anymore. And I don't believe they were already infected in CoA.

Respectfully, you guys are misunderstanding the homing beacon ending. If I'm following your comments in both videos, you seem to think the ending is a hint that there's more of the parasites still on earth or something to that effect? That's not what it's getting at. The point is that before they killed him, Remmick/parasite turned on a beacon that is supposed to lead his species from their far away system back to earth. It's a hint that the parasites will be able to find earth in the future. ominous pause..... roll credits

As much as I should not do this.....but ....well, maybe I should ask the other patreon members if i should reveal the spoiler about this episode...or more like the antispoiler.

My thought was that the captains that got hit with kill phaser, causing the bug to come out of their mouths are okay, since Beverly used the kill in that guy and he's okay once the mother creature is killed. I believe those 2 were taken over after Coming of age .

Trek from the 90s to 00s was never serialised as such but they had some multi-part episodes and story themes (mostly centred around the main characters) that are revisited as each of them develops. I think it’s the perfect balance because key stories get more time but a new viewer will be able to enjoy the show.

The score, yes, can we give the composer, Dennis McCarthy, some love for the terrific score in this episode? Excellent! And Cliff Bole does his (mostly) usual good job directing. Even the final scene with the Enterprise cruising by and the radio signal in the background was great. Applause all around. I have never read that Remmick and Quinn were meant to be hosts of an alien invasion. I think Roddenberry's original idea was more down-to-earth and meant to just be "human" conspirators within Starfleet. Dr. Crusher: "Why bring fists to a phaser fight?" Thanks guys!

I'll never get over how Riker calls for security help and Worf and Geordi show up unarmed. Then they call for medical assistance and Crusher shows up with a phaser ready to rock. The Enteprise computer is the worst 911 dispatcher ever.

I have been waiting for your reaction to the head explosion/alien style chest bursting scene and I was not disappointed.

If you guys like things in 'episodic' episodes coming up relevant in later episodes in a show...let me tell you about Babylon 5 ;)

Not to spoil anything, but TNG does have some great spooky episodes to come. Some great mind jobs. Wonderful atmosphere. Surrealism. Most of the time it is an optimistic look at the future, but those peppering of the unnerving/surreal/horror/dark mystery are so much the better as a result. There are people out there who downright *hate* Conspiracy. It's the difference between the general pop culture that exists out there and Trek fans. In pop culture "odd movies are bad" for example. but you quickly find among Trek fans that there are fans of everything. Everything. Except And The Children Shall Lead. Nobody likes that episode.

Glad you guys enjoyed the first season, can't wait to watch you guys get into the real meat of the show. S2 is a lot like s1. Mostly forgettable with occasional gems. In fact my favorite episode is in s2