Star Trek:TNG "Conspiracy" (S1E25)

1603 Views 20 Replies 10 Participants Last post by gchance, Oct 23, 2011

doom1701

Discussion Starter · Oct 10, 2011

OAD 5/9/1988

Ah, the biggie. The one that was supposed to set us up for years to come. The one with the violence, the worms, the impending alien menace.

And then they just decided to let it all hang.

One note--has the galactic map behind evil dude at the end ever been used before? I'm doing a lot of freeze framing of Kirk's quarters in Star Trek VI for my late night project, and it turns out that image is on his wall as well.

1 - 20 of 21 Posts

LoadStar

· #2 · Oct 10, 2011

This one was a doozy. Bad. Really, really bad. This is one I'm going to simultaneously dread and eagerly await seeing in HD. I can't imagine that HD will do any favors to the Ray Harryhausen-esque stop motion effects, nor the horribly embarrassing compositing on Remmick at the end. HD will only add to the unintentional humor of this episode.

This is an idea they'd go back to again, much later and with much better execution, over on DS9 and the whole Founder plotline.

The Starfleet Headquarters set looked *extremely* dated. It looked like something straight out of the 1960's. I could easily envision Kirk and company walking down that corridor. And speaking out straight out of TOS... can someone remind me which movie the exterior shot of Starfleet Headquarters was from?

For a captain who would later admit to having eaten live gagh, he certainly seemed to be surprisingly queasy at seeing some mealworms.

I love how they repeated the exact same stunt twice - throwing the performer across the room, landing on the table and hitting the wall with the replicator. I guess they figured that they'd get good money out of that rehearsal time for that stunt.

As for elsewhere in that scene, I would've guessed that the doors on the Enterprise were something like metal or something, or at least more than balsa wood they clearly were when they were laying out in the corridor.

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kaszeta

· #3 · Oct 10, 2011

I always remember the first time I saw this episode thinking, "well, that's going to get canceled...". That episode has only gotten worse with age.

I also remember that the props department cheated: the original case for the parasites was a binder from Worlds of Wonder. I had one just like it.

Bryanmc

· #4 · Oct 10, 2011

So bad. So so so so so so bad.

Can't even begin to explain this one. It was painful.

Why does Geordi come to a security alert? When Tasha was Chief there were always several other yellow shirt security people around. I guess they downsized when they got Worf.

DougF

· #5 · Oct 10, 2011

LoadStar said:
... can someone remind me which movie the exterior shot of Starfleet Headquarters was from?...

Watching this ep. right now and they just showed the exterior. I want to say it's from TVH, but I can't look right now to check.

DougF

· #6 · Oct 10, 2011

I hate to roll this phrase out again, but here goes: good premise, bad execution. This easily could have been a great season finale and a start to a season-long or even series-long thread. But, they blew it big time.

allan

· #7 · Oct 11, 2011

DougF said:
I hate to roll this phrase out again, but here goes: good premise, bad execution. This easily could have been a great season finale and a start to a season-long or even series-long thread. But, they blew it big time.

+999! I saw great potential in this one. And it just fizzled.

busyba

· #8 · Oct 11, 2011

Anybody else hungry for lobster tails?

doom1701

Discussion Starter · #9 · Oct 14, 2011

I started watching this last night, figuring I'd get finished up for the week. All I remember is Picard beaming down to talk to the other captains (it would have been really funny had fish dude said "It's a trap!" at some point), and then suddenly they were blowing up the alien in the guy's stomach.

Apparently it wasn't interesting enough to keep me awake.

martinp13

· #10 · Oct 14, 2011

I watched that episode once, and never again... grossed out by the worms and heads and all that. Like the ear-thing in Trek II.

I didn't remember the episode being that bad, but of course I've only seen in once and that was 20 years ago.

allan

· #11 · Oct 14, 2011

martinp13 said:
I watched that episode once, and never again... grossed out by the worms and heads and all that. Like the ear-thing in Trek II.

I didn't remember the episode being that bad, but of course I've only seen in once and that was 20 years ago.

I would NOT want to watch this ep while eating spaghetti!

JYoung

· #12 · Oct 14, 2011

Ok, I didn't rewatch this but I'm surprised by all the negativity.

This was one of the few first season episodes I actually liked.
(Heart of Glory and Arsenal of Freedom being the others. Where No One has Gone Before and 11001001 come close.)

We got conflict, action, and intrigue in a script that was reasonably well written.

Yes, the lack of follow up on this is extremely disappointing but is that the fault of the episode itself?

LoadStar

· #13 · Oct 14, 2011

JYoung said:
Ok, I didn't rewatch this but I'm surprised by all the negativity.

This was one of the few first season episodes I actually liked.
(Heart of Glory and Arsenal of Freedom being the others. Where No One has Gone Before and 11001001 come close.)

We got conflict, action, and intrigue in a script that was reasonably well written.

Yes, the lack of follow up on this is extremely disappointing but is that the fault of the episode itself?

I think the problem was really in the execution. It was SO cheaply made, the acting so incredibly over the top, and the effects were so laughably bad. Oh, MAN were the effects bad. I mean, this was an episode that Ed Wood would look at and say "Geez, guys, I could have done better."

This was one of those episode that they probably should have waited to do until they could do it right.

DougF

· #14 · Oct 14, 2011

JYoung said:
Ok, I didn't rewatch this but I'm surprised by all the negativity.

This was one of the few first season episodes I actually liked.
(Heart of Glory and Arsenal of Freedom being the others. Where No One has Gone Before and 11001001 come close.)

We got conflict, action, and intrigue in a script that was reasonably well written.

Yes, the lack of follow up on this is extremely disappointing but is that the fault of the episode itself?

I'll agree that the script is good. The execution just blew.

I'm not disappointed in the lack of follow-up. I just think it would have worked better as something a bit more...epic.

JYoung

· #15 · Oct 15, 2011

LoadStar said:
I think the problem was really in the execution. It was SO cheaply made, the acting so incredibly over the top, and the effects were so laughably bad. Oh, MAN were the effects bad. I mean, this was an episode that Ed Wood would look at and say "Geez, guys, I could have done better."

This was one of those episode that they probably should have waited to do until they could do it right.

I think that you and Doug need to go back and look at this with 1988 eyes and not 2011 eyes.

In 1988, Star Trek was back on the air.
And for the most part, it had been a disappointment.
And here was something that was a little different and had actual consequences (or so I thought).

Yes, the specials effects aren't that good but in 1988, were there better special effects on weekly television?

As for the acting, after suffering through Symbiosis and Home Soil, the acting in Conspiracy is like a breath of fresh air.

doom1701

Discussion Starter · #16 · Oct 15, 2011

Dang it, you guys are going to try to make me stay awake through this one tonight, aren't you?

LoadStar

· #17 · Oct 15, 2011

JYoung said:
Yes, the specials effects aren't that good but in 1988, were there better special effects on weekly television?

There were better special effects elsewhere in first season, let alone on weekly television.

DougF

· #18 · Oct 15, 2011

JYoung said:
I think that you and Doug need to go back and look at this with 1988 eyes and not 2011 eyes.

In 1988, Star Trek was back on the air.
And for the most part, it had been a disappointment.
And here was something that was a little different and had actual consequences (or so I thought).

Yes, the specials effects aren't that good but in 1988, were there better special effects on weekly television?

As for the acting, after suffering through Symbiosis and Home Soil, the acting in Conspiracy is like a breath of fresh air.

That's precisely how I've been attempting to watch these (putting myself back at the time they aired). Special effects are the least of my concern with this one. The episode just sucked.

JYoung

· #19 · Oct 15, 2011

LoadStar said:
There were better special effects elsewhere in first season, let alone on weekly television.

Sorry, I saw a ton of bad movies with poor special effects in the 80's and my first thought on seeing the queen scene was "Woah, they showed that on TV?", not "Wow, that was a bad special effect."
Maybe because I was actually enjoying the story.
(Something I couldn't say with most first season episodes.)

DougF said:
That's precisely how I've been attempting to watch these (putting myself back at the time they aired). Special effects are the least of my concern with this one. The episode just sucked.

Considering I know what you thought of Enterprise, we'll just have to agree to disagree.

allan

· #20 · Oct 17, 2011

I liked the basic story too. And I wasn't bothered much by the effects, or the acting; TV in general sucked in 1988, and IMO still does. My main gripe is that this practically SCREAMED "Part 1 of X", and X turned out to be 1.

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