In “Conspiracy,” we see Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) break the Hippocratic oath and shoot an alien, like she did on the prime of “Picard” season 3. The episode begins with Picard responding to an pressing message for his eyes solely, simply as he did with Beverly’s misery name this season. He takes his ship astray (on this case, it is the Enterprise as a substitute of the Titan) and goes to fulfill one other outdated pal in a distant location.
When Picard beams all the way down to the planet for his rendezvous with Captain Keel (Jonathan Farwell), the affect of “Conspiracy” may be seen not solely within the storyline, however within the lighting, because the characters’ faces are bathed in crimson and black. We have seen comparable shading all all through “Picard” season 3 (see above). Clearly, somebody within the shadows at Paramount+ by no means obtained the memo that the bridge of a starship is meant to be “a clear, well-lit place,” as Ernest Hemingway would say.
The “Picard” episode “Imposter” differs from “Conspiracy” within the nature of the aliens which have infiltrated Starfleet. In “Conspiracy,” they’re parasitic lifeforms, later retconned offscreen as cousins of the Trill symbionts in a sequence of “Deep House 9” novels. The Changelings, just like the Trill, have been a significant a part of the “Deep House 9” TV sequence, being represented by two of the principle characters, Odo (René Auberjonois) and Dax (Terry Farrell), respectively.
Whereas Captain Shaw (Todd Stashwick) dumbs the Changelings down as “goo-people, strolling, speaking clay-dough,” the parasites in “Conspiracy” are organisms that crawl inside a bunch physique and stay there, with an appendage protruding from a gill in again of the host’s neck. This makes it simpler to establish them than the brand new and improved Changelings, who at the moment are in a position to go blood exams and evade detection higher than earlier than.