‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ Retro Recap – ‘Conspiracy’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

For the most part, Star Trek: The Next Generation is a series that worked hard to keep things pretty family friendly. After all, this was a story about mankind’s future amongst the stars, and how we had become noble creatures that worked to better ourselves through exploration and discovery over anything else. But from time to time, the chance to go dark on this series presented itself, and if dipping into the shadows meant that a quality and powerful story could be told, the writers’ room wasted no time in diving into more complex and ugly matters and for proof, well then look no further than the next chapter in this storied tale. 

For ‘Conspiracy’ is quite the twisted story, one that offered up serious trouble for the Federation by way of an incredible threat. One that the crew of the Enterprise doesn’t fully uncover until they arrive at Earth, to further investigate the surprise destruction of the U.S.S. Horatio and the strange orders that Starfleet Command is sending out to their subordinates. And as it turns out, their investigation yields some horrifying results when they discover a chitinous and scorpion-like parasite has entered the bodies of Starfleet’s Admiralty and these creatures have plans for the future of the Federation, the kind that the crew has to end violently and that’s really all we’re going to discuss today in regard to the overall plot. Because some key elements present in this story, deserve greater attention. 

For example, the fact that this is the first real ‘sequel’ story present within the framework of TNG. Because Admiral Quinn made mention to Captain Picard of some concerns he had about a growing force in Starfleet in ‘Coming of Age’ and well, this is quite the way to follow up on the admiral’s worries. Because it turns out that he was right and that there was indeed something sinister growing behind the scenes in Starfleet and having Quinn return here and have everything he warned about, come to fruition, simply adds depth to this particular series. Because now this universe is more than stand-alone stories, and this is something that is critical to the foundation of the future, since arc-based storytelling would become huge for Star Trek as a whole, and it is just quite amazing to see it begin to come together here in seamless and satisfying fashion. 

But while it is wonderful to see a formative moment take place, what matters more about this particular tale is the darkness that it exudes. Because the whole fight to save Starfleet and the Federation is unsettling for certain, since good and honest Starfleet officers die both on screen and off and this is an episode that surprisingly features some serious gore as well, by way of a shocking moment in the final act of this tale. Wherein Lieutenant Commander Remmick is physically dismantled by phaser fire and the Alien Queen (for lack of a better term, since we never learn the actual name of this species). A sequence that holds nothing back and it is straight up something out of a horror movie. Making this perhaps Trek’s first successful Sci-Fi/Horror hybrid story, something that TOS failed at miserably back in the day. 

Which is a bold thing to inject here, but it works, in fact the whole episode is quite compelling. Because you simply don’t see any of the surprises coming, and the bravery doesn’t end with those concepts, because you don’t ever expect to see a phaser fight at Starfleet HQ, but that happens here. And you never see Admirals die like Red shirts -- er -- gold shirts but that happens here too and of course, the whole thought of the Federation and Starfleet being threatened by something as simple as a parasite is quite powerful and fascinating. If anything, it is quite a shame that this episode never received the sequel episode it deserved since we never see or hear from these creatures in canon again, save for a mission in Star Trek Online and well, this episode simply gets credit for going for it and trying something new and now that this brave little tale has come its close, we can turn our attention to the season one finale. An episode that features the return of an iconic villain, one that would be a huge part of the franchise going forward and that is where we will pick up, next time. Until then.  

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