“Tonight’s a quiet night.”
We close out the year with two of the most renowned episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, starting with “Conspiracy,” which goes beyond renowned to being outright legendary. It certainly reads silly on paper: a bunch of pink cockroaches take over Starfleet Command. But the execution, largely due to the screenplay by Tracy Tormé and the direction by one of TNG’s most reliable war horses, Cliff Bole, turns “Conspiracy” into a kind of prototype for the horror-based, paranoia-minded science fiction television which would rule the 1990s.
Tormé is one of The Next Generation’s standout screenwriters, one who – unfortunately – was probably a bit too wild for Rick Berman’s tastes. He didn’t last past the end of the second season, but contributed several of the first two years’ key episodes, including “Conspiracy” and “The Big Goodbye,” both of which – while on completely different subjects – have the same sort of dark heart beating within them. The shadowy meeting on the mining planet between Starfleet’s finest captains – all of whom now suspect a conspiracy at the heart of Starfleet – is as unsettling as it is exciting, and Picard and Riker’s infilitration of Starfleet Headquarters later in the episode masters icky thrill after icky thrill – starting with a Temple of Doom-ish dinner sequence, where the alien-controlled Starfleet officers dine on mealworms, and climaxing with quite possibly the most memorable death in Star Trek history – as Picard and Riker detonate Commander Remmick’s head.
For whatever reason, the “Conspiracy” screenplay also has some of the best names on the series – some offhand, some integral. The ocean world of Pacifica and the mining planet Dytallix B; the Starfleet officers, Oona Kerapleedeez, Ryan Sipe, Captain Rixx, and Tryla Scott, who made Captain faster than anyone in Starfleet history, including James Kirk. We also meet Walker Keel, captain of the Horatio, whom Picard later names as the third part of a trio of inseparable friends which included himself and Jack Crusher. This is one of Next Gen’s poignant weaknesses – we never spend any time with people who know Picard well, except Beverly; Jack died before the series began, and Walker dies ten minutes after we meet him. I’m sure there’s a spinoff novel somewhere which details the youthful adventures of twentysomething Picard, Crusher and Keel.
On an unintentional level, “Conspiracy” also serves as a kind of proof-positive for the value of shedding a key cast member (Tasha). Although Wesley does not appear in the episode, everyone else on the bridge crew has a key, vibrant role in “Conspiracy,” and behave like a pack of proper Starfleet heroes to boot; even tricky characters like Troi (who – per her job description – counsels Picard on his reaction to Walker’s suspicions) and Beverly (who takes out a rampaging Admiral Quinn after the lads, Riker, Geordi, and Worf, are waylaid!). Data’s assertive “Why not?” when Riker suggests that the Enterprise just warp to Starfleet Headquarters and tackle the problem head-on is as good an indicator of any of the cohesiveness of the team dynamic that has formed among the bridge crew in Season One. The remainder of the adventure, propelled by Tormé’s script and a huge score from composer Dennis McCarthy, is dark spacefaring adventure at its best. Five Enterprises out of five.
Blogging The Next Generation is like my first Geocities site back in 1997. With nothing better to do with it, I wrote miscellaneously about Star Trek – now I’m doing that for every single episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
This series runs every Tuesday and will do so for the entire release of TNG on blu-ray. Season 2 is on the streets today, and my coverage of it begins in 2 weeks.