1x24 Conspiracy

[7.7/10] It's rare that Star Trek goes the paranoid thriller route (or at least it used to be, pre-Alex Kurtzman). Despite the raft of wrong-headed or outright evil admirals and commodores in the franchise, one of the central tenets of Roddenberry’s conception is that Starfleet is an upstanding organization full of well-intentioned folks trying to uphold the best ideals they know. That makes hidden conspiracies and surreptitious takeovers tougher to take root from a storytelling perspective.

But as leery as I am about the 9/11 Truther direction that Alex Kurtzman has taken many post-TNG projects, maybe Star Trek should go to the conspiracy well more often, because it pays real dividends in episodes like, well, “Conspiracy”.

There’s a tension that runs throughout the episode, something rare for a show that usually moves at a more slack pace even when confronting the unusual or threatening. From the jump, something seems amiss here, when Captain Picard receives a secret “captain’s eyes only” communique from an old friend and has to divert course for a need-to-know only rendezvous with other Starfleet stars.

From that instant, when Picard is restricted in who he can tell about these events, warned of something wrong at the highest levels of Starfleet, and evaluating potentially peculiar behavior from people he reports to and trusts, there’s an air of suspense and unease to the whole thing. That helps elevate lesser moments in the episode, and creates a sense of investment and urgency that isn’t always present in The Next Generation’s early seasons.

To that end, I ragged on the score in the last episode, so I want to be fair and compliment it here. There’s a lot of high drama in the musical stings included in “Conspiracy”, but that fits the material, adding the emotional overtones of the tension and paranoia in a way that makes it easier for the show not to feel the need to underline them in dialogue. At the same time, the dissonant strings when peculiar or downright disturbing behavior occurs helps sell the “oh shit” character those actions and revelations are supposed to have.

Those revelations come down to the fact that Starfleet’s top brass has been infiltrated by a crop of little parasitic beetle-like aliens, who crawl into humans’ (and Vulcans’) mouths, wrap around their brain stem, and control their actions. In that position, the bugs have been shuffling Starfleet to jam their literal and figurative tendrils deeper and deeper into the organization, potentially making the Federation ripe for invasion by their brothers far away.

It’s a cool, albeit standard, sci-fi concept. (Hello fellow Animorphs fans!) The notion of a secret invasion, proceeding steadily but stealthily, with no outward shows of force, creates an immediate sense of panic as to how far the conspiracy goes and who may have been compromised. The realization that the people in charge are no longer reliable and, in fact, may be working against you creates a sense of working without a safety net or playbook, as matters of chain of command and protocol have to be thrown out the window. There’s also a visceral revulsion to the concept and imagery of a large bug entering our anatomy and taking away our free will.
More to the point, Picard’s approach to all of this is a tribute to Star Trek problem-solving. The fellow captain who warns Jean-Luc about all of this is a trusted old friend, but Picard’s still skeptical and reticent until one of the convenient “accidents” Walker warned him about came to fruition and took out the friend’s ship. Even then, Picard doesn’t start making moves to get to the bottom of the titular conspiracy until after he sets Data to get some hard evidence about unusual decision-making from Starfleet Command through an analysis of their database. And as he does, Picard brings more and more of his senior staff over the wall. There’s a lot of “trust but verify” and proceeding with delicacy and caution here, and it’s a nice example of the captain and crew responding appropriately to a potential crisis.

That extends to how they approach and feel out colleagues who might have been taken over by the parasites. As Captain Walker establishes early, the parasites aren’t able to access old memories, so referencing old conversations and events is a good way to smoke them out. I can’t tell you how many times that approach would have come in handy on The Original Series when Kirk was cloned or somebody was possessed or god knows what other science fiction-y thing created a “Who’s the real you?” situation, and they rarely, if ever, went to that approach. So it’s encouraging, to say the least, to watch the crew of the Enterprise-D approaching this whole thing in a very practical, pragmatic way, instead of just blasting around and needing plot-necessity to save them.

Granted, we do get a more convenient tell here in the form of the infected having a little blue nodule sticking out of the back of their heads. Even then, it doesn’t prevent the show from adding a couple of solid feints and headfakes as to who might and mightn’t be compromised, with everyone from Admiral Quinn (making a return engagement after “Coming of Age’) to Commander Riker himself seeming on the side of the angels or under the influence at various times in ways that mess with the audience’s expectations (in a good way).

That said, there’s some silly, of-its-time, sort of material here. For one thing, the big telling moment here is when the parasite-infused Admirals reveal that the “special dinner” they’ve prepared for Picard is...a big bowl of live worms. That’s suitably gross, except for the fact that, as fans of later episodes know, live worms are a Klingon delicacy, one that Riker will even indulge in later in the series. It’s unfair to slate “Conspiracy” for a detail that hadn’t been established in the franchise yet, but to returning fans, it plays as though the big indicator that a group of military commanders is evil is that...they’re eating sushi.

Still, there’s also some silliness to how the admirals toy with Picard, Riker, and others before just infecting them with the parasites. The show even lampshades this a bit, with one of the now-villainous admirals noting that both humans and the bugs enjoy a little bit of theatricality as things are “more fun that way.” I’m willing to give some leeway to a show underlining the fact that it’s villains, however insectoid their appearance, are just your garden variety type of messy bitches who live for drama.

Beyond that, though, there’s a lot of hokiness in the stunts and special effects here. There’s some pretty obvious body-doubling when the bug-ified Admiral Quinn reveals himself to be more spry and menacing than his tired, wholly human counterpart was, and he and Captain Riker reveal themselves to be members of the Chuck Norris school of fighting -- all roundhouse kicks. Likewise, the stop-motion animation of the bugs makes them seem like something out of Pee Wee’s Playhouse rather than a scary intruder. And as cartoonishly gory as Picard and Riker blasting Remmick is, the E.T.-like muppet who emerges from his midsection and snarls at them is laugh-worthy to modern eyes.

Still, despite those “perfectly acceptable for their time” bits that seem goofy to modern eyes, “Conspiracy” is an impressively directed episode. The stunt work may be corny, but regular Star Trek director Cliff Bole shoots Admiral Quinn in an imposing fashion, with Ward Costello giving a great menacing performance to match. As shaky as some of the texture is in the episode, Bole and editor Tom Benko make the most of it in terms of the presentation.

There’s a good set piece in the end, with Picard having to dine with the devils before Riker can beam down and fake them (and him) out with a convincing performance. But eventually, a shootout ensues; they kill the queen, and the rest of the parasites go down with her. It is, perhaps, a little too neat, but there’s enough subterfuge, counter-schemes, and excitement to make it work here. (Though spoiler alert, the show never follows up on its tease for a second invasion in the closing moments here, a note which adds to the ominous tone of the whole episode.)

The ending is satisfying because “Conspiracy” spends the prior forty-five minutes establishing both a general sense of something deeply wrong suffused with uncertainty over who can be trusted, and a more direct sense of Picard, Riker, and the rest of the Enterprise crew attacking the problem in a smart, pragmatic, but still very exciting way. It’s the blend of an anxious atmosphere and practical decision-making that makes the best bouts of Star Trek high drama work, and The Next Generation manages to make its own take on the paranoid thriller one of the highlights of the series’ first season.