Star Trek: The Next Generation - Conspiracy

So, as most of us know, the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation is not, shall we say, of high quality.  But there was at least one shining moment in the first season.


Quick side note.  The reason I watched this particular episode was inspired after listening to the crew of Starbase 66 decide weather or not the first season of TNG would survive in today's television market.  That episode can be found here: Starbase 66 - Would TNG survive today?  Additionally, this is one episode that I've always hear good things about, so I gave it a go.

Synopsis:  Picard gets a super secret message from one of his fellow Captain pals.  Turns out Picrad's buddy and three others think there is an invasion of the body snatchers type plot going on at the highest levels of Starfleet Command.  Spoiler alert: There is.

I really liked this episode.  It was dark, it was violent.  Okay, Data laughed, but then the computer basically told him to buzz off.  It was good.  It's surprising that this made in on the air as it is quite a bit more violent then the standard Star Trek fare at that point.  I did some research on this episode, and the original plot was to have a standard garden variety military coup in Starfleet.  Gene Roddenberry said no.  That's when the body snatching parasites were brought in.  Also, at the very end of the episode, we see the queen sending a beacon to their home planet.  So here we are thinking that these parasites are going to make a return, taking over bodies and ships and bringing Starfleet to its knees.

These parasites never return.

Bummer, right?  This was probably one of the biggest cliff hangers that was set up on any show anywhere.  Also in my research I found that the Borg were supposed to be the army for this parasite horde.  I like that they never went in that direction though.  The Borg on their own became a formidable adversary in their own right, even if it took Q to introduce them.  I do wish that they could have continued this story.  I always liked it when Star Trek was at its darkest.  Which explains why Deep Space Nine was my favorite.  I'll probably finish watching season one of TNG at some point, but not any time soon.