1.24 Conspiracy

Rating: 3

Captain Walter Keel, an old friend of Picard, calls him to a clandestine meeting with two other high-ranking Starfleet captains and warns him that a conspiracy may be afoot. Soon, Keel’s  ship is destroyed – and Picard takes the Enterprise back to earth to investigate.

Comments

This is one of the most memorable episodes from the first season, because of the excitement and shock value.

Riker’s bad luck continues in this episode. No one shocks him or sticks him in goo, but he does crash onto a glass table that shatters.

The ‘man-dress’ shows up again here – a man in the background is wearing one in the corridor scene with Picard, Riker, and Quinn.

Nits

It’s strange that neither Riker nor Worf think of using a phaser on Quinn – both decide to practice their hand-to-hand combat skills on his head, even though it is having no effect – and both get beaten up. Finally, Dr Crusher shows up (a woman of healing and peace) and blasts Quinn into submission with her phaser – which we later learn was set to ‘kill’!

It’s good to know that even in the 24th century, evil villains/aliens will still make that fatal ‘James Bond Villain’ mistake: So, Captain Picard, now we are going to tell you our entire evil plan, then put you in a killing machine that doesn’t work (with certain variances, but that’s the basic idea of this episode).

Memorable Moments

•    Data does a good ‘forced laugh’ at Geordi’s punch line.

•    Even the computer interrupts Data’s long-winded definition of why he was talking to himself.

•    The ‘worm-eating’ scene is good – if it had been pizza or potato wedges, it wouldn’t have been nearly as memorable.

Quotable Quotes

"Swimming is too much like…bathing."
- Worf, explaining why he does not like swimming