Conspiracy

TNG Season 1 Episode 25
Air Date: May 9th, 1988

Plot

Continuing the theme from Coming of Age, Picard is contacted by a close personal friend and captain of the USS Horatio. He and two other captains meet Picard in private warning that there is something taking over high levels of command in the Federation. Picard is at first skeptical but asks Data to look into all Starfleet logs over the past six months. Data does find a pattern that indicates some kind of invasion is immanent.

They head to Earth where Picard transports down to investigate while Riker takes a guest, Admiral Quinn on board the Enterprise. Admiral Quinn attacks Riker and when Worf and La Forge show up, beats them too. He showed way more strength then someone of his age should have been able to have. It took three phaser blasts in increasing power settings to take Quinn down.

Doctor Crusher analyzes Quinn and finds a parasite attached to his brain. It breaths through a small opening in the back of the neck. So she puts a prosthetic on Riker and sends him down. Riker is able to fool the rest and stun or kill the infected admirals. They track one of the parasites to Lt. Cmdr. Remmick who was hosting the queen parasite. They kill the parasite and everyone infected gets better.

Commentary

This is in in my top 10 episodes of TNG. I remember as a teenager feeling true suspense and not knowing who to trust. There is a scene where they are all eating maggots and when Riker shows up he plays with them with a smile on his face and only before putting them in his mouth pulls out his phaser and takes out two of the admirals.

The only part that was disappointing was that we never saw these parasites again. The end of the episode said they sent a beacon out to guide them to Earth. Maybe it takes a long time or the episode did poorly so they never revisited it.

It is unclear if the people on Earth that got hit by phaser blasts actually died. There phasers were set to kill but with the creature in them it might have only stunned the hosts. The only known death was Remmick whoes head explodes and a creatures comes out of his gut. It is probably the most graphics scene I have ever scene in Star Trek.

Quotes

"Have you ever been for a real moonlight swim?" - Troi
"One can swim in moonlight?" - Data

"Startling. Quite extraordinary, in fact." - Data
"Direction unclear. Please repeat request." - Computer
"That was not a request. I was simply talking to myself! A human idiosyncrasy, triggered by a fascination with a particular set of facts. Or sometimes brought about by senility. Or used as a means of weighing information before reaching a conclusion. Or as a" - Data
"Thank you, sir. I comprehend." - Computer

"Captain, you must set your phaser on kill. Stun has little effect." - Doctor Crusher
"Doctor, one does not beam down to Starfleet Headquarters armed." - Picard