Fucking mind flayers and their grand design!

they very much kerploded the 'bug queen"

Remmik got phasered!

That episode was wild. Setting up the big bad monster for the federation to be fighting... then just forgetting all about them.

Yes, the problem was solved.

listens to the last scene

Oh no.

K...?

yeah it's fine we told starfleet command

Yeah what a way to end a crazy "one off" episode.

I can kill all the ants in my house today, but if they’ve laid down a scent for the colony outside to follow I’m just going to find new ants tomorrow.

Did you suffer an aneurysm? You may want to call an ambulance.

I vaguely recall reading years ago that they were intended to be the initial infiltrator wave of what eventually became the Borg forces. I could be mistaken, since it was around the pre-AOL days.

This looks like how I cook a turkey

mmm... turkey

I'm pretty sure I saw something on the blu-ray special features about this? It was gonna be too expensive to have the creepy worm alien things as a recurring enemy so they made the Borg as a cheaper alternative.

This has to be among the best body horror scenes in the entire franchise, if not THE best.

That info is out there for sure, but I've always found it pretty shaky. Here's what Memory Alpha has to say on the subject:

The Star Trek Chronology, 2nd ed., p. 290 noted: "Although Picard and company were successful in eradicating them, the parasites did send a mysterious radio signal, presumably to others of their kind. At the time the episode was written, this was apparently intended to lead to the introduction of the Borg in Star Trek: The Next Generation's second season. The Borg connection was dropped before "Q Who" (TNG) was written, and the truth about the parasites remains a mystery."

The "apparently" always trips me up, but maybe there's a more definitive statement or there that I haven't seen.

It certainly could be true.

I'm surprising never brought that back as a villain. It would have been perfect and they left the door open to that many years ago

It sounds like a post hoc connection to explain it away, rather than that being that actual intention. I assume we'll probably never know though.

Wasn't the queen destroyed at the end of the episode and all the others died because he queen died?

Which, when? I grew up with genteel trek enthusiasts and therefore I was not a fan for a long time but always learning

The truth could be somewhere in the middle - no real intent, but instead just reworking an idea from the Discarded Ideas Drawer into something new.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)

Everyone after this: Why are all the admirals jerks and/or evil? So weird.

Ooooh ok

Yeah, I dont think they discussed that to anyone after that incident at all. It was a very weird episode. It's like it disappeared from Trek lore.

I'll pop in my blu-rays after I get home from some appointments, see if I can verify anything from the special features.

Too expensive to put one little mark on someone's neck but building Borg suites wasn't eh

I'll pop in my blu-rays too. See if they have any Star Trek on them that I can watch.

you know what they just might.

lol the borg suits are just spandex with a bunch of random hoses and shit glued to them. no need to animate little worm parasites.

You guys find any Star Trek on your Blu-rays?

Not yet, here's something from YouTube I found to tide me over though.

https://youtu.be/sn_Sgcxg5PQ

So fun fact for anyone that doesn't know, the original concept for the Borg was an insectoid race and this episode was supposed to be the initial lead in to a larger arc introducing them. Several factors, budget and the writers strike in 1988 chief among them, led to the original story being abandoned and eventually the Borg were reworked into what they are today.

"He said they sought peaceful co-existence. That was good enough for me!"

Yes but only "Code of Honor" so far.

I can't see what he previous guy wrote but I'm absolutely saving this reaction gif for every interaction I have on Lemmy.

On screen, the Borg are exclusively human in appearance underneath. Yeah, pretty cheap production values.

So that's why. They were supposed to the Borg race. Damn. Would have been an interesting way for the Borg to have evolved.

I hate the "destroy the central entity and the others will be disabled" trope, so overused in sci-fi