By Chris Thomas on Thursday, December 31, 1998 - 04:42 am:

Anyone notice the message Picard gets from the Admiral at the start is being delivered under a Code 47?
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By Hans Thielman on Monday, February 1, 1999 - 03:52 pm:

Where was the infamous Section 31? Never a covert operations agency around when you need it.
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By David Rod on Wednesday, March 3, 1999 - 05:15 am:

This episode was great in my opinion and I really wished they had persued it. Its really dark and disturbing. Very underrated in my opinion.
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By Adam Howarter on Wednesday, March 3, 1999 - 07:12 pm:

If we saw them they wouldn't be covert now would they?
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By Keith Alan Morgan on Monday, April 19, 1999 - 08:27 am:

Is the Bridge really the best place for Data to be telling a questionable joke?

The star Dytallix B orbits is Mira, which is also called Omicron Ceti, the star from the Classic episode This Side Of Paradise. So the real reason for getting rid of those colonists was so the sale to the Dytallix Mining Company would go off without a hitch.

Captain Scott has pretty short hair, so how come no one noticed that gill sticking out of her neck?

Worf says that there is a disturbance in the nearby quadrant. Hmmm, Alpha, Beta, Gamma or Delta, Mr. Worf?

If the Horatio had blown up, then why is all the debris clustered so closely together?

On page 150 of the NextGen Guide II, Phil wondered how the transporter biofilter missed the beetle in Quinn's neck. Well, Quinn was beamed up using the Starfleet Headquarter's transporter, not the ship's.

In the fight scene Quinn appears to stand straighter and be a little thinner when filmed from behind.

On page 67 of the NextGen Guide, Phil is amazed that Worf falls asleep after fighting with Quinn. Apparently he forgot Hide And Q, when Worf and the warrior babe are fighting, La Forge asks what sex must be like and Worf replies, "This is sex!" Obviously, Quinn was a good date, and Worf just fell asleep like all men.

Truly parasitic beings usually take their nutrients from the host body, so why are the 'beetles' forcing their hosts to eat the 'worms?' Also assuming that the 'worms' are the normal food of the 'beetles,' why eat so many? Compared to the 'beetles' the 'worms' are big, it would be about the equivalent of a Human eating a two foot long hot dog.

Both species have a love of theater. What kind of shows must these aliens put on? One of those creatures on a stage, dressed in costume saying, "To beetle or not to beetle, that is the question."

Data says that the message was sent to an unexplored section of the galaxy. Well that narrows it down. Somewhere between 89-81% of the galaxy is unexplored if dialogue from the series is to be believed.

I was going over the Next Gen guide a few days ago, when I came across the Chief's comment on a word processor telling you that a sentence should be restructured (his example was to restructure a passive sentence into an active one). Interestingly enough, the grammar check of Microsoft Word 97 gives you the option to check for passive sentences and it gives you messages to tell you to change it!

Yeah, and we all hate it!

After Riker and Worf have fought with Admiral Quinn, Beverley saves the day. Assuming that the most she knows at this point is that Picard is suspicious about Quinn, and also assuming that Riker's call for Security wasn't relayed all round the ship, does the Chief Medical Officer make it a habit to carry a phaser at all times? I suppose she might - after all, you never know when a super-human Admiral might beam aboard ...

In Friday's Child, McCoy added a right cross to his book of medical procedures. Maybe a later entry said, "Always carry a phaser, because you never know what might beam aboard!" ;-)

When Picard first asks Data about Dytallax B, he says it's one of seven plantets, later, Riker asks about what else he's found, and he says it is the 5th one of 6. and Why "B"? shouldn't it be II, or at least "E"? so it'd be the fifth one?

Doesn't it depend on which end you count from?

Doesn't it depend on which end you count from?

A truly great episode, worthy to stand against all the best (it is almost as if the earlier trite efforts of this season were another season altogether) and perhaps all the better for there still not having been a sequel... (Of course, it was so long ago that the creators will have forgotten about it by now!)
The Enterprise didn't take long to get back to Earth "from the outer rim", did it?

When Data is checking the logs, we see a shot of conn and ops. La Forge is there at conn, but there's no one at ops. Isn't ops a station where you would want some one there? Compare this to the ultra efficient system that whenever Riker announces his away team, someone is always there at the missing stations before any of the Away Team reaches the turbolift.

And is it really the place for a computer to shut Data up? (Methinks Picard pulled some strings here.)

Re Ops as a station you'd want someone at [from post above, August 15, 2000 - 08:19 pm :::
Isn't it also apparently a station people really WANT to be at? Seems that way from the competition for an ops slot in 'Lower Decks.'
Well, okay, that was a much later episode so maybe we aren't supposed to know about it here... but where oh where are those eager, bright young wanna-be lieutenants when you need 'em?

I didn't notice a Nitpicker Glossary entry for the well-known DECS. Stands for Don't Evvvvver Call Security.
Re Riker's security call apparently not getting relayed around the ship, as noted in post above from June 28, 1999 [and the following ruminations could refer to almost any of the Trek shows or series, not just this one] :::

As a military brat, I grew up on or around numerous bases in the US & elsewhere.
How clearly I recall, way back in college days, my amazement at the dismal incompetence of so-called 'Security' on that new show, Star Trek.
After a short while, everybody watching said oops they just called Security, they're all gonna die now.
Did no one ever see fit to fix the situation? Surely someone could've done so in all the subsequent series, at least?
To explain the bungling, did Starfleet's security specialty experience severe continuing problems with recruitment and training? Was it perhaps hopelessly infiltrated by hordes of sworn Federation enemies? ...
At any rate, having been a military brat for so long, I couldn't help suspecting I'd never have survived to the 1960s if U.S. military security was anything like Starfleet's. ...

Whatever was the reason for a security specialty for *any* ST show, anway?
Ship's weapons systems didn't seem to fall within Security's sole purview or total control (thank heavens). I think between Engineering, Science, Ops, etc, the main phasers and photon torpedoes might've gotten fired okay.
And like 'real' servicemembers, everyone in a Starfleet uniform appeared to know how to use hand weapons. So no one was forced to depend on Security alone for personal defense or hand-to-hand combat (again, thank heavens). ...

Maybe slovenly security was just a handy dramatic device. I'm not a scriptwriter, but it always seemed to me to be a totally unnecessary one.
This thought occurred to me at some point during the original series broadcasts I watched in college :::
Why didn't the folks who put this thing together choose to operate under a rather obvious 'regulation' -- no specialized security personnel or other primarily defense or combat forces will automatically be assigned to a Starfleet vessel engaged in a purely exploratory or research mission.

--This would've allowed the introduction of genuinely competent security specialists if and when they had an actual purpose in a specific story.
-- It lent itself readily to certain obvious themes, personality conflicts, etc. ... to recurring characters (except, as it turned out, in a situation like Voyager's) ... to special effects, gee-whiz gadgetry, technological jargon, and so on.
-- It didn't preclude a ship's captain requesting the assignment of an individual or team. In fact, the elected absence of competent security specialists might have provided more tension and interest than the continued presence of folks who (let's face it) pretty much HAD to bumble things sometimes for the sake of a story.
-- It didn't preclude the virtually permanent presence of security elsewhere --say, on ships or stations near a disputed border, a war zone, etc. ...

Best of all, at least to my idealistic teenage mind of decades ago, it seemed to suit perfectly the overall premises and philosophies of the Trek universe.
I'm devastated that no one thought of this during the original show, or for NextGen, or thereafter. Even more devastating, nobody ever thought to ask ME for advice, lol.

Alli, just so you'll know, there's a board called Playing to the Glossaries, you can post DECS there! We'd really like it!

The thing I noticed was how bare and boring Starfleet Headquarters looked. Im not talking about the lack of people, because this is explaned. But just the overall look of the place. The only thing hanging on the walls are paintings of planets, and the dinning hall is a lot more bare than one would expect. Maybe the aliens did some redecorating?

Did you notice how the doors to the dinning hall will later be reused as the doors to Ten-Forward?

A fun notice: Admiral Quinn during his conversation with Picard and Riker talks about assimilating other races into the Federation and noone protests but barely a season later (Q Who) everybody is appalled about the fact that the Borg uses assimilation for expansion.

If Worf is head of security why hasn't he put on the yellow uniform? You could say that since he commands the security division he could wear a red uniform, but Tasha wore a yellow uniform.

Maybe Worf is just "acting" head of security, and his position won't be made official until sometime between the first and second seasons. But why there'd be such a delay, I don't know.

Phil, from his NextGen Guide vol. II, PO#8: Supposedly Quinn performs his superhuman feats because the beetle at the base of his brain is stimulating his adrenaline glands. Does this really makes sense? Wouldn’t overadrenalizing an old man like Quinn simply lead to a heart attack? Or is there more to this symbiotic relationship than we’ve been told?
First of all, it’s adrenal gland, not adrenaline gland. Second, it should be "make sense," not "makes sense."
---As for Quinn’s feats, in addition, Quinn is able to execute high front kicks, which require extreme flexibility in the leg-to-hip joint, attained through extensive stretching exercises of the legs, such as splits. Adrenaline will not duplicate this.


But I still can’t remember which episode features the first appearance of the Lousywriterians---you know, that race named after Brannon Braga?
This episode features the first appearance of the Bolians, in the form of Captain Rixx. The Bolians were named after director Cliff Bole, who directed numerous episodes of NextGen, DS9, and Voyager, including this one.
Looks like the scriptwriter was bluffing it…
Keel and Rixx tell Picard that conversations were being bluffed by supposed old friends, who apparently had no memory, indicating that unlike the entities in other possession episodes like Power Play and The Assignment(DS9), the beetles don’t have access to their hosts’ memories. So how did the aliens use devices requiring user interfaces codes, or function without all the vast knowledge of Starfleet operations and regulations?
Tricorder? Oh yeah. We should’ve used a tricorder. Duh.
Do the parasites show up on tricorders? Did Kell, Rixx or Scott try to scan the officers around them who were acting suspiciously to see if anything showed up on a tricorder?
It’s part of Data’s "duh" subroutine
When Troi asks Data about a moonlight swim, he says, "You can swim in moonlight?" He should know what he meant. "Moonlight swim" isn’t a colloquialism or jargon.
He’d be great as an extra in slasher flicks!
Freddy Kreuger: Slash!
Riker: "Hi there!"
Jason Vorhees: Rip!
Riker: "What’s your point?"
Mike Meyers: Tear!
Riker: "Is that ALL you got?"
Freddy: "Aw, screw this! This isn’t in my contract!"
Jason: "Where’s my agent?"
Mike: "I’m calling the union!"
When Worf tries to prop up Riker from where he fell on the glass table, there doesn’t seem to be any cuts on Riker’s face.
Worms? Bones? Is this some kind of sexual double entendre?
Why do the worms that Quinn eats crunch when he bites into them? Worms don’t have bones. They’re invertebrates.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars, but that schmuck who builds the backgrounds!
The last shot of the episode is of a reddish nebula in the background. As the camera pans closer to it, it comes closer to the viewer. Weirdly enough, many of the stars come closer too, as if they’re dangling right in front of us like Christmas lights! This is probably what the effects props look like, but it makes for a poor space shot. This was typical in the original series, but the creators should be able to do a better job by this point.

Luigi, I found the the slasher thing very funny, but--it's Krueger, not Kreuger--Voorhees, not Vorhees--and Myers, not Meyers.

I'm sorry, I'm just a slasher fan. But it's okay. Some people who visit slasher sites can't spell the names right either.

you mean like the consistent "phasors" here?

that should have been "persistent" sorry.

D'Oh!

Thanks, Meg.

(I knew I should'nt have handed my post to Dan Quayle for proofreading...)

LOL Luigi.

I'm Just picking nits. But it's my job.

>Why do the worms that Quinn eats crunch when he bites into them? Worms don’t have bones. They’re invertebrates. <

Well, they could be alien worms that do have bones, or crunchy skin, or something. (Ugh, just thinking about it is making my stomach turn!)

Mmmm, crunchy frog, yummy.

I just want to say the worms they are eating look like giant Mealworms. They are insects and they are crunchy (yes I have eaten Mealworms before, one of the perks of being interested in entomology)

They could have been eating them because they liked the taste through the host's tongue or they had special nutrients.

Having watched the end scenes of this ep on both BBC 2 and Sky 1 today, its interesting how the editing differs. Sky 1 does not show shots of the parasites climbing out of people's mouths, nor the mother creature itself (we see Remmick beginning to split open). We do see the beginnings of the head melting, but not all of it. The BBC show the mouth shots and the emergence of the mother creature, but not the one of Remmick's head melting. Neither channel shows the head exploding, the death of the mother creature or the shot of headless Remmick sitting in his chair surrounded by dead parasites.

I have to know if what I just saw was not in my imagination:

When Riker, Picard and the Admiral are in the hallway discussing the plans for later, there was a man behind them at the Com Panel on the wall. Was he in a dress???

I recall reading somewhere about that in some season 1 episodes. So I don't think you were imagining things.

thanks! I checked both nitpicker guides and didn't see it mentioned, so I thought I'd try here.

Was he in a dress???

It was called the "Skant". It an experiment in wardrobe that they tried in season 1, but gave up on because it looked silly.

Yeah, Ali, you can see it on Counselor Troi all the way thru the pilot ('Encounter at Farpoint'). I believe that in theory it was supposed to be a sort of unisex update of the shorts/skirt combo Starfleet women wore in TOS...but as Brian said, it just looks ghastly in practice.

Yar also wears one for a short time in the pilot.

Watching the DVD of this ep I found a nit that neither Phil mentioned in either of his TNG books, nor anyone else here, and that's when Worf's thrown against that replicator (or whatever piece of equipment it was) it either kinda shakes or caves in a bit and then resumes its shape again. Either way, you can see it move just a little when Worf hits it.

I don't remember ever reading this nit, but at the beginning of this epsiode, Wil inquires about the time from Pacifica, and LaForge says 22 hours 14 min. Wil then gives an order to increase to warp 6. LaForge replies "Aye sir, full impulse". This is prob already pointed out. Oh well, we will see.

In the NextGen II Guide for "Home Soil," Phil comments about what a recipient may see on the other end of a communication when the communication is put on hold by Picard. When Picard does so during the opening sequence of "Home Soil," Mandl on the terraform colony is still heard speaking even though the channel is on hold.
One can only wonder about the communication with the compromised Starfleet command in "Conspiracy" when Starfleet puts the Enterprise on hold and the expected Starfleet symbol appears. Can the admirals hear Worf and Troi's foul comments about them -- namely the chief security officers blatant distrust? I wouldn't doubt it...

The doors for the room with the Starfleet big-wigs were later used as the doors for Ten-Forward, and quite possibly the mess hall in Voyager.

::When Worf tries to prop up Riker from where he fell on the glass table, there doesn’t seem to be any cuts on Riker’s face.::

That's because Riker doesn't hit the table with his face. His arms and chest bear the brunt of the fall.

::In the fight scene Quinn appears to stand straighter and be a little thinner when filmed from behind.::

Actually, the whole fight scene is pretty bad in the stunt double department, especially at the end. Just before Riker is thrown through the table, you can see the faces of both Riker and Quinn very clearly and neither looks like the actor who portrays them in the close-ups.

Lets be charitable and call this an homage to TOS

I reviewed the scene, and it looks like you're right, Richard. I would've then wondered why he was rendered unconscious, but I saw that he appeared to hit his head on the edge of the couch.

Thanks.

When Picard first asks Data about Dytallax B, he says it's one of seven plantets, later, Riker asks about what else he's found, and he says it is the 5th one of 6. and Why "B"? shouldn't it be II, or at least "E"? so it'd be the fifth one?

Data says that Dytallix-B is one of seven planets owned by the Dytallix Mining Corporation, not that Dytallix-B is one of seven planets in the Mira system.

The 'B' is presumably because the planet was either

1) the second planet bought by the Dytallix corporation, or
2) the second biggest in terms of mining yield of the Dytallix-owned worlds.

The name 'Dytallix-II' implies that the planet in second in the Dytallix system, so this is probably the reason that 'B' was used instead.

IMHO, "Dytallix B" sounds more like a medicine than a planet. Perhaps is help relieve stomach cramps after watching dumb episodes like this.

John A. Lang: IMHO, "Dytallix B" sounds more like a medicine than a planet. Perhaps is help relieve stomach cramps after watching dumb episodes like this.
Dumb? I thought that this was one of the best episodes of the first season. Mind you, considering the competition that isn't saying a lot. But Conspiracy was one of the few early episodes that really tried to take risks. It actually creates a sense of urgency and panic as you don't know who is behind the conspiracy or who is involved. Remmick taunts Picard and Riker with Federation values, and Picard and Riker respond by "blowing him up real good". This episode breaks the Trek mold in ways which TNG seldom tried, DS9 strived for and Voyager never even considered. While this episode wasn't entirely successful, I wish Enterprise would take more risks like they did in Conspiracy.

Don't get me wrong, the storyline is good. However, the SFX is what ruined it. IE....the crawling alien on the floor. The animation in STII was better than this! Also, the crawling alien on Remmick's arm. I've seen better animation on "Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers". Not to mention the "swollen" look on Remmick's neck after the alien enters his mouth. Why is this even occuring? The creature is in the stomach, not the throat! Also, the Admiral's "superman" impersonation. I doubt even accelerated andrenoline (sp?) can make a 50 plus man THAT strong! Last of all, the finale...the homing signal...the alien "mother" is dead and the other aliens can't exist without her. So, who's gonna respond to the signal? The Ghost & Mrs. Muir?

Not to mention the "swollen" look on Remmick's neck after the alien enters his mouth. Why is this even occuring? The creature is in the stomach, not the throat!

Erm...John A., I'm confused - either the ep's logic is off or your phrasing is. If the alien just 'entered Remmick's mouth'...chances are pretty good it's headed down his throat, no? Ergo, swelling in the throat.

Also, the Admiral's "superman" impersonation. I doubt even accelerated andrenoline (sp?) can make a 50 plus man THAT strong!

--As the Chief points out in his Guide entries on this ep, the effects of the alien are fudged a bit in re: the Admiral's invulnerability to injury...but there's absolutely no reason it couldn't give him increased strength and vigour as shown.

His age has nothing to do with it; adrenaline is a powerful metabolic stimulant that floods the body in times of stress and can indeed result in ordinary humans performing superhuman feats (think back to all those stories you've heard of folks lifting parked cars to rescue accident victims, etc.). It's such a common phenomenon that the term 'adrenaline rush' has become a cliche of sorts.

...the alien "mother" is dead and the other aliens can't exist without her. So, who's gonna respond to the signal? The Ghost & Mrs. Muir?

Who says that the 'mother' was the only one of her kind? It makes absolutely no sense in terms of the specie's ability to propagate itself. If anything, it's much more likely that this is a sort of hive-analogue, ie. a queen bee controlling masses of workers.

All in all, I'm in complete agreement with Maquis Lawyer. Some minor goofinesses in SFX aside...and let us not forget that even the most brilliant Classic Trek eps were rife with same...this is a remarkable ep.

John, a sufficient adrenaline surge can enable one to lift a car.

Points well taken.

When Data presents his report about Starfleet's recent orders, Riker jumps to the conclusion that the manipulation is a prelude to an invasion. How did he get that? I would have guessed a rebellion or a coup d'etat from the information Data, Riker and Picard have at this point. I think it would have made more sense if the source of the weird orders was Starfleet officers willingly doing all these things, unless we are to believe that no member of the Federation is so clever as to pull this plan off.

Too bad they never developed the possibility of free-willed people manipulating the Federation, in favor of an Invasion of the Body Snatchers plotline. A possible undercurrent of authoritarianism in Federation society, and particularly Starfleet, would have made a lot of things in Star Trek make sense (Star Trek VI, The Wounded, Ensign Ro, The Pegasus, Let He Who Is Without Sin, The Maquis, any episode with Section 31). As it stands, it looks like a bunch of aberrations in the perfect Federation.

When Quinn beams to the Enterprise, Remmick addresses him as "sir," even though the mother of the aliens is within him. I can think of an ant-nit to this one; they try to maintain the image of being normal Starfleet officers, so they don't slip up when in the presence of those not in the loop.

Finally, could people have learned of these aliens and voluntarily accepted them within them? I would guess the orderly, hive-like life they offer would appeal to some people, and others might reason that their takeover will work and prefer to be on the winning side.

It looks as if the current set of DS9 novels may be bringing back the parasites... in some relation to the Trill Symbiotes (as if they were old enemies or some such.)

This was suggested in the Mission Gamma series IIRC, but so far we've heard nothing more. (Because the only book out since then is all in the Gamma Quadrant, leaving all of the unresolved elements from Mission Gamma STILL UNRESOLVED!!! FOR, LIKE, 5 MONTHS OR SOMETHING! I MEAN, COME ON! I-... wait a minute... what was I saying? Oh yeah...)

However, since "Unity" just came out, more information on the parasites and their origins may be forthcoming.

Also, asuming that these same parasites are being referenced in the book, and I'm not just imagining, it mentions "Captain Pike, awakening them from a 500 year slumber in a comet" or something like that, before it mentions the attempted takeover of the Federation bigwigs.

So, what I'm wondering is this: Is this a reference to a previous novel that I've missed, or something they just made up and may explain in future books?

You must set your phaser on kill, stun has little effect on them

Maybe these things were sent by the Xindi reptillians?

And the Jarada are really the Xindi-Insectoids.

Ray Reinhardt (Admiral Aaron) pops up again as Paris' nemesis Tolen Ren in the "Ex Post Facto" episode of Voyager.

Michael Berryman (Captain Rixx) played Homer Simpson's evil twin in the X-Files episode "Revelations."

Is it only me or is there some serious inconsistency?

First, we hear the rules of receiving a code 47 message - not to discuss it with any senior officers.

Secondly, down on the planet Walker asks Picard to give his regards to Crusher.

Finally, on the bridge, when Crusher asks him if he had met Walker, Picard lies that he hadn't.

I understand that one is not to beam to Starfleet Headquarters with a phaser (that's what Picard tells Crusher). If that's the case, how come they fire so much over the dinner table?
Of course, Riker smuggled the weapon for obvious reasons but why did Captain Scott have one?

The inconsistencys are just you!

Marka's "nit" about Captain Scott having a phaser is not a nit. She was taken over by one of the creatures at this point, and I doubt they were worried about breaking Starfleet protocals.

Last of all, the finale...the homing signal...the alien "mother" is dead and the other aliens can't exist without her. So, who's gonna respond to the signal? The Ghost & Mrs. Muir?
Maybe that's why we never heard from them again. The alien mother was still alive at the time it started sending the signal, and as far as I know it wasn't planning on dying.

When Picard amd Riker stun Captain Scott and the Admiral, the parasites infesting them flee in retreat. Earlier in the show though, Beverly stunned Quinn, but the parasite infesting him stayed put.

Why the difference?

This is interesting, according to Memory Alpha this story was originally going to be much different. Writer Tracy Tormé originally was inspired by the Iran/Contra scandal and was to feature federation officers conspiring to violate the Prime Directive and other federation laws for their own ends.

Roddenberry nixed that idea as he didn't like the idea of Starfleet Command having the kind of people who would stage such a coup, not part of his perfect more evolved humans of the future. He had Tormé make it the Invasion of the Body Snatchers story we got.

Also according to Wikipedia the following episode "The Neutral Zone" was originally going to tie into this one. All of the Federation and Romulan outposts along the Neutral Zone are destroyed by a VERY powerful invader. Season 2 was originally going to feature the same force behind those body snatching bugs to be what later destroyed the outposts. Poor fan reaction to this ep and the Writers' Guild strike lead to the creation of the Borg and pushed the whole thing to later in the season. The only mention of the old idea was in Q Who when Data mentions that the Borg damage (in the Delta Quadrant) is identical to what happened to the Fed outposts & that in Best of Both Worlds Admiral Hanson mentions that "we've even THOUGHT ABOUT opening communications with the Romulans" over the Borg threat.

In find the whole thing so interesting because if they had continued on that course it would have completely changed most Star Trek that would have followed. For one, the reason the Romulans were featured (and in just as much danger as the Federation) was going to lead into the Federation and the Romulans having to join together to stop the new enemy (which became The Borg.) The biggest change would have been if they had worked with the Romulans, how would that have turned out? I mean of the big 2 part season final cliffhangers in seasons 3 & 6 involved the Borg and the whole Klingon civil war of season 4's ending (to say nothing of Unification I & II) involved the Romulans still hiding in the shadows.

Brian, I've read that as well, and it really is interesting to think about how different Trek would have been. Here's a bit more info you might find interesting.

Apparently, the "body-snatchers" were going to be the first wave of an invasion of a bio-tech alien race (presumably similar to Species 8472 in VOY), but was changed to the Borg due to the production costs involved in developing organic sets and ships, in addition to the reasons you mentioned above.

I also read in a magazine that a major plot thread in either season 2 or 3 would have involved a Borg scout destroying the entire Romulan Empire! Imagine how different things would have been.

Memory Alpha is a great resource. I've spent many hours skimming the production trivia in its articles.

"Also, asuming that these same parasites are being referenced in the book, and I'm not just imagining, it mentions "Captain Pike, awakening them from a 500 year slumber in a comet" or something like that, before it mentions the attempted takeover of the Federation bigwigs.

So, what I'm wondering is this: Is this a reference to a previous novel that I've missed, or something they just made up and may explain in future books?"

This refers to a story in the DS9 anthology book The Lives Of Dax. The story you want is Sins Of The Mother, by S.D. Perry. It involves Audrid Dax. Yes, Fleet Captain Pike appears in this story, placing it sometime in early TOS, before Pike had his crippling accident.

The origins of the parasites are finally revealed in the second volume of the Worlds Of Deep Space Nine book, the Trill story. The story in question is called Unjoined, by Michael A Martin and Andy Mangeles. The story involves Ezri and Bashir going back to Trill to find out just where the parasites came from (this follows the events of the DS9 novel, Unity).

Please read the nitpicker's prime directive.

Nothing is cannon unless it happens on screen.

But that doesn't mean that people can't still post the info here for interested people to read- no one was claiming it was canon or basin nits off of it, thus it is not a violation of the Nitpicker's Prime Directive, it is simply a tertiary bit of fun trivia. Whereas criticizing such posting would sem to be getting in the way of Phil's 'always with good cheer' directive... ;-)

I didn't criticize anyone, nor did I say that anyone can't post non canon information here, I simply pointed out what the Nitpickers Prime Directive says, which Joel sujested should be reviewed, not me.

I was actaully poking fun at Joel, not you... sorry, I should've clarified!

This episode, I have to say is one of my favorites from the first season. I don't know why, it just is!
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Now, whenever I see this and "Coming Of Age", regarding Remmick, I think to myself:

"He's got the Bluegill Queen in his chest,
he's got the Bluegill Queen in his chest!"

And of course: KA-BLOOOOOEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

Ugh. Blech. Gross. You could see the look of utter disgust and revulsion on Picard's face as he fried that mother creature to oblivion!

Funny, funny stuff from the late '80's. But also, pretty darn gross!
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I posted the above on the "Coming Of Age" board, but I suppose it really belonged here instead.

Did anyone else notice that Riker seemed to take offense when the parasite-controlled Quinn said that the earwig/centipede-like creature in his case was "a superior form of life"? It just seemed that way to me. I suppose that, even in the 24th century, humans think that no bug-being could possibly be superior to them!
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The last scene creeped me out to no end. With the accompanying score, the ship going past the screen, and the little "bedibeep bedibeep" sound effects, it was downright scary!

When I saw the episode again when it came out on DVD in 2002, I thought that maybe the beacon's sound effects meant "SEND REINFORCEMENTS", and I wondered if the message would ever actually reach that "uncharted and unexplored part of our galaxy". But with the Queen destroyed, this "superior form of life" was never heard from again!

And I think that's a good thing. Don't you?
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I posted the above on the "Things we'll remember from TNG" board, but it belongs here, I think.

One more thing. When Spock nerve-pinched somebody in TOS, they were almost immediately out like a light. But the parasite-controlled Admiral Savar atttempts to nerve-pinch Riker for several seconds, and does not succeed in knocking him out. He is then seemingly killed by Picard, and the Bluegill crawls out of his mouth.

But where was Rixx? How come he didn't come to the "banquet"? Tryla Scott did. Maybe the Bolian captain was killed elsewhere without Picard's knowledge.

The actor who played Rixx, Michael Berryman, is a prolific sci-fi/horror movie veteran (the original "The Hills Have Eyes), due to his unusual appearance. He had a non-speaking role as a mental patient in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", and was born without hair, teeth, fingernails or toenails, or sweat glands. I do not remember what that condition is called, but Berryman has lived with it for quite a while. I give him props for that!

And why wouldn't Worf bathe? Klingons don't like to be clean? Perhaps it was one of the oddities of First Season TNG dialogue. It was quite common!

I heard this somewhere, I forget where, somebody was discussing Trek and the parasites and what they have Admiral Quinn say once they take him over. Something to the effect of "assimilating other races into the Federation".

I don't know about you, but I think that pre-Borg reference to assimilation is a perfect example of being "Hilarious In Hindsight". There's even a website devoted to chronicling all the examples of it that exist in pop culture.

I know that it doesnt mean much now, but when the line was said in 1988, I'll bet many Trek watchers didn't give it a second thought.

What a difference a year makes. The Borg debut, and they are virtually invincible. They then invade Federation space, and now, not only do they want to absorb all the technology in the galaxy, they now "assimilate *people*". And as for the throwaway line made by a characater two years before, well, it just seems a bit eerie, that's all.

Just some food for thought. Bye for now.

According to Memory Alpha the great enemy that eventually became the Borg were originally planned as an insectoid race with a hive mind & these parasites would have been the first wave. Remick sends a homing beacon to an unexplored sector of space & that plot thread is never heard of again. "The Neutral Zone" ends Season 1 on a cliffhanger about who destroyed the Federation & Romulan outposts.

The origional plan had been to open season 2 by finding out that it was this insectoid race that Remick sent the homing beacon to who destroyed the outposts. This would force the Federation & Romulans to join forces to ensure their survival. The Writers Guild of America's 1988 strike killed that idea & the first episode of Season 2 was "The Child" which was a rewrite of a 10 year old script for the unproduced "Star Trek: Phase II." They mostly just changed the names of the characters. The strike also forced them to cut the number of episodes ordered from 26, to 22.

When they chose to pick back up the plot thread about who destroyed the outposts it was almost a year later & some things had changed. "Conspiracy" had never been a popular episode & they decided to drop the insectiod idea (reportedly for budget reasons) in favor of a race of cyborgs with a hive mind. Since they didn't even introduce the Borg until the end of the season they certainly didn't have the money to do a big epic story with them. The season 2 finale was a clip show which shows you how much money they had by the end of the season. So our big epic battle with the hive mind didn't come until the end of Season 3.

Geordi tells Data a joke in which the punchline is "just try that in hyperspace". Data's response seems to equate hyperspace with "zero gravity environment".

Also, in other sf, hyperspace is usually a means of faster-than-light travel and communication. So in Trek, where that is true of subspace, what is the difference between hyperspace and subspace?

* During the meeting on Dytallix B, why does Picard act so surprised and skeptical regarding the allegations of a conspiracy in Starfleet, given that Admiral Quinn said something similar to him in "Coming of Age"? And why doesn't he mention Quinn's comments to the others?

* In Starfleet HQ, when Picard asks why the corridor is so quiet, Remmick and Savar tell him it is "a quiet night". But later, a shot of Starfleet HQ from outside shows that it is daytime.

* Stimulation of the adrenal glands, probably couldn't actually give someone the superhuman strength Quinn displays in this episode. Adrenaline does increase muscular strength to some degree, along with heightened resistance to pain and fatigue. However, the relatively small number of reported incidents in which ordinary people have, in a crisis, allegedly performed such feats as lifting cars, are all anecdotal, not recognized as fact by medical science, and likely exaggerations. According to the expert opinion I could find online, with maximum effort under ordinary conditions, the average person uses about 2/3rds of their absolute strength (the limit, which can never be exceeded, that their muscle, tendons, and bones can take before structural failure).

* Why does Quinn pick a fight with Riker, and then toy with him, giving him the opportunity to call security, when he could easily have just knocked him out quickly, ideally by surprise from behind? It appears Quinn only brought one of the beetles with him, so was he planning on killing everybody who responded to the security call?

* Why doesn't Remmick look pregnant, with something that big inside him?

* As I mentioned on the "Coming of Age" page, it doesn't appear that Remmick could already have been infected during that episode. Given its size, the mother alien probably grew inside him. So if it wasn't an adult yet when Remmick was infected, was there a different mother alien in charge of the beetles before then, and if so what happened to it?

* Why would the beetles have chosen a mid-level IG officer as the host for the mother creature, rather than Quinn himself, or another senior Admiral?

* How do beetles attached to the brainstem, exit through the mouth? The throat wall is in the way.

* At the end of the episode, Picard says: "Admiral Quinn is expected to make a full recovery. There is no trace of the parasite which took control of him. 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."

If there is "no trace" of Quinn's parasite, then presumably Picard is assuming it it is dead, because Quinn was too securely quarantined for it to have escaped, and/or the process of removing itself from Quinn's body would have left some noticeable injury behind. So did it just completely disintegrate? Why would it do that?

>>>Why would the beetles have chosen a mid-level IG officer as the host for the mother creature, rather than...another senior Admiral?>>>

Simple, they wanted the host to go un noticed if things go horribly awry. Their plan didn't work, fortunately, but atlest it wasn't a bad plan. This is also called security through obscurity,

* Simple, they wanted the host to go un noticed if things go horribly awry. Their plan didn't work, fortunately, but atlest it wasn't a bad plan. This is also called security through obscurity,

That doesn't really apply tho, in a conspiracy where all the conspirators can be identified by a medical exam. Once things go awry and the conspiracy is discovered, everyone in Starfleet will have to get checked.

* An anti-nit to my own nit, re: there being "no trace" of the bug in Quinn (and presumably of the rest of the bugs too): If the bugs are the product of design rather than natural evolution, it actually does make sense that they would all completely disintegrate upon their deaths, so that they couldn't be examined. It was considerate of the designers tho, to make that self-destruct process, apparently harmless to the host.

* Also, how exactly does the infection process work? How do bugs that big- several inches long- go about getting attached to the back of their host's brain? They can't crawl in through the ear like the worms in STII. And it's hard to see how something that size could just burrow through the back of the neck without killing the host.

Just saw this one again. I still really like it. It must have by far the creepiest ending of any TNG episode. I actually got chills in the last minute or so!

Anyway, it is too bad that the 1988 Writer's Strike prevented this storyline from being continued. Well, that and budget limitations, apparently Paramount would not have been able to create a convincing alien race that would have appeared insectoid in nature, because the parasites that infiltrated Starfleet Command were supposed to be the first wave of alien attackers would insect-like attributes. And in the late 80s, that sort of thing was not quite yet possible for a TV series, and then the Strike happened. So TPTB decided to come up with something different. Cybernetic humanoids that attack without mercy and consume technology, and eventually, assimilate people into their collective. But with the way Season 2 ended, the money to do that was just not there yet, and it would be a year before the major cliffhanger would occur, establishing the Borg as the most dangerous and threatening adversary the Federation had ever known.

Still, I was thinking something else during the scene where the parasite-controlled admirals were consuming the grubs. It just so happens that the Ferengi eat food like this all the time, even though that was not established until DS9, when they were presented as civilians and not the military seen on TNG. Ferengi eat grubs, beetles, snails, slugs, crabs, eels, and various other creatures that may perhaps be unpalatable by human standards. They have even made beverages out of some of them as well. That I find interesting, because after the Ferengi were found to not be quite the adversarys to the Federation that Paramount hoped for, they were developed in other ways. And when the neural parasites from the unexplored part of the galaxy were never heard from again (at least in Canon Trek), the Borg were created to be the big, bad enemy to everyone else that existed in the Star Trek Universe. It all worked out eventually, it appears.

Anyway, I admit, I was not really nitpicking here, just putting forth some observation and speculation. That's all, nothing more!

The always reliable Ed Harris has recapped this episode for "The Agony Booth". It can be read here.

Picard comments that they will never know how many people in Starfleet had been infected because the creatures leave no trace after their deaths. Well, that's not really true. The people themselves would know and could report the infection after being freed from it. A complete picture of the failed invasion could be worked out that way.

I was just thinking today about this episode. It was disgusting. The creatures were a little too invasive and, in the implied location they lodge themselves, would interfere in normal physiological functions such as breathing, drinking and eating.

Then, I thought of Babylon 5's fourth and fifth seasons and the "keeper" that controls Londo Mollari during his reign as emperor, and presumably also his immediate predecessor (the regent, not Cartagia), and possibly also Vir.

These "keepers" would have been a far better concept for "Conspiracy". There are a number of different approaches that would have worked, and it's a shame the episode was made so early on.

"Phantasms" - the creatures that were consuming cellular peptides.

"The Host" - the Trill symbiont Odan.

And not forget the Classic episode: "Operation--Annihilate!"

I think the creatures shown in "Phantasms" would have worked the best. Combine creatures like that with the attitude of the creature(s) in "Conspiracy" and I think it would have worked much better and been less "disgusting".

Scenario: "Conspiracy" - the creatures - the Consilium - attempt to gain control of the Federation, seeking "peaceful coexistence" though it is obviously their imposition, not negotiated, and with dire implications for personal freedom and the democratic nature of the Federation. Also, the creatures enjoy the cellular peptides but among the "benefits" the creatures offer is a substitute energy or "force" to sustain the occupied being. Perhaps some food that a humanoid would not otherwise eat as being unappetizing... being occupied by the creature allows the being to digest it and resupply the peptides in the form the creature needs - they use humans and humanoids as a processing unit as well.

Rebuffed by the destruction of the creatures so far discovered, knowing their presence can be found again and dealt with, the Consilium gives up on control and simply resorts to harvesting the peptides, so they use a verminous creature to simply harvest the peptides, then use those verminous creatures to sustain the Consilium.

Thus, "Conspiracy" would have been the first episode, and "Phantasms" would have been the sequel, though the Enterprise crew would not necessarily have realized the link between the two incidents.