Conspiracy

Picard's old friend Captain Walker Keel contacts him via a top secret channel, alerting him to a clandestine meeting on a remote planet to discuss a possible conspiracy within the hierarchy of the Federation itself. When evidence of unusual Federation behaviour is discovered, the Enterprise heads directly to Earth to investigate.

Possibly the most controversial episode of season one, this paranoid thriller is an excellent adaptation of 'Invasion Of The Body Snatchers' but throws in a wild surprise with an unduly excessive amount of gore at the end. It's a bit silly in places but this feels far darker to most other episodes of the show and decidedly not family-friendly.

This carries on the conspiracy theme where suspicions arise about a coup taking place behind the scenes. A friend arrives on the Enterprise and Jean-Luc comes to realize that he is not acting as he should. The good captain finds himself meeting with what may or may not be friends of the federation. They are a surly lot and see destruction ahead. On board a series of events take place, finally sending Riker into a state of shock. He becomes catatonic. Captain Savar fights with Worf and nearly dismantles him. He has powers beyond human capability and enjoys his superior strength to no end. Meanwhile, Picard beams to the meeting room for a discussion of the future of Star Fleet. From there, things get really dicey as we realize that there are things at work here that are alien in nature. It seems the deck is badly stacked and subterfuge is going to be necessary. There are wonderful twists and turns, analytical subtleties, and excellent premises to tie together. For some reason, there are those who are incredibly disappointed in this effort, that somehow there are a set of rules that episodes are supposed to follow. I have seen this episode several times and still enjoy it.

After reading HNSampat-2's review, I had to respond. Sampat writes that the episode should be disowned, but it's the 39th best rated TNG episode out of 176 on IMDb. It's the highest rated episode out of the first season. And if we consider the people who are taking the effort to rate each episode, it's obvious that it's the fans who think it deserves a 7.9.

So I put it to you Sampat - how is it not Star Trek? That's a load of rubbish. This show made Star Trek what it is today.

And this episode DOES relate to space. In fact, it's a prelude to what should have been a future space adventure episode relating to these beings. Instead they were replaced by the Borg.

The episode is very enjoyable. There's some dodgy direction in the fight scenes, but outside of that it's a joy to see the actors begin to gel with their characters. I could always remember this episode from when I was younger due to the beeping of the beacon sent out - chilling stuff.

Also, watch out for horror specialist Michael Berryman (Pluto in The Hills Have Eyes) making a guest appearance. 9/10

Star Trek meets The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers!

Picard is covertly summoned to a secret location by an old friend who has some concerns about what is going on at Starfleet, so he scraps the Enterprise's visit to a paradise planet for R and R. In favor of investigating this issue. As it turns out nothing is as it seems.

It's a little hard to assess this episode within the pantheon of this very inconsistent first season of The Next Generation. On one hand, the tone of the episode really doesn't fit in with the others, and the lack of payoff from this episode in later seasons, makes me categorize this into one of The Next Generations weird experiments.

On the other hand, when you consider it as a standalone, it is perhaps the best episode of the 1st season. While not the best written, it is one of the very few times that this show managed to truly creep me out, which is no easy feat if you know me.

In many ways, I wish this were the finale of the first season, because if this was a thread that they were thinking about pursuing, I would have liked to see what they would have done with it. Unfortunately, this plot was never revisited. But as a standalone, I liked this episode quite a bit.

The plot for "Conspiracy" is pretty much taken from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", so it's hardly original. However, it's such a HUGE departure from the usually overly cerebral episodes of season one that it's a welcome breath of fresh air!

A few episodes back, an admiral and his henchman, a commander, were introduced ("Coming of Age") and at the time, why they were in the first episode seemed a bit unclear. Here, the final portion of that story is about to play out in "Conspiracy".

It seems that Starfleet has been behaving oddly and several other Federation captains have called Picard to a secret meeting to discuss this. They are not sure what is happening--but SOMETHING is afoot. They warn Picard to be on his guard. This paranoia seems well founded when shortly after the meeting adjourns, one of the captains' ships explodes! Obviously SOMETHING is happening. What? See the show.

This is good old senseless paranoia and violence--things that made the original "Star Trek" series so much fun. And this episode is indeed fun--something the series occasionally forgot to include and a welcome relief here. This is the one to see during the first season.