Were the Borg originally supposed to be "Conspiracy" aliens?

[Good Will Riker]

I read in the TNG Compendium published back in 1992 that the Borg were originally intended to be an insectoid race much like the unseen Jarada in "The Big Goodbye."

Now, at the end of the episode "Conspiracy," Remmick sends a homing signal from Earth for the insects to come invade and assimilate Earth. The way the "Conspiracy" aliens were designed and their method of "assimilating" entire civilizations is in a way Borg-like. Even the "Mother Creature" housed inside Remmick is very much like the Borg Queen that was featured in Star Trek: First Contact. Destroy the queen, and you destroy the collective.

Then, in the following episode "The Neutral Zone," we see that the outposts alongside both the Federation and Romulan neutral zones are destroyed. Buildings appeared to be "scooped up off the ground" according to Data, which is a similar observation he makes in "Q Who?" when the Enterprise-D is flung to another part of the galaxy.

Could it be that Remmick sent a homing signal in "Conspiracy," and these unseen invaders made their attack in "The Neutral Zone?" Originally, the Season 2 opener was supposed to follow up on "The Neutral Zone," by revealing just who these invaders were, but the idea was scrapped due to the Writers Guild Strike of 1988. Another idea for the Season 2 opener involved Spock or Sarek using the Guardian of Forever to travel back in time to replace Surak who was accidentally killed, but that's a topic for another thread.

Anyways, do you believe that the writers and producers originally intended the Borg to be an insectoid race (until they changed their minds, and the Borg became a collective species of cybernetic organisms), and that this insectoid race very well were originally intended to be the insects featured in the episode "Conspiracy?"

Now, this is my theory...

Fans keep asking whatever became of the "Conspiracy" aliens, and wished that there may have been a follow up. Perhaps, that follow up was the very next episode "The Neutral Zone," but when the producers decided to reveal these group of invaders in "Q Who?," they changed their minds and decided to make them into cyborgs rather than insects (as confirmed by the TNG Compendium). Thus, "The Neutral Zone" retroactively became a prequel to "Q Who?," rather than a direct sequel to "Conspiracy."

Even the writers themselves admit that the concept of assimilation was copied from "Conspiracy" aliens onto the Borg, and because of this they no longer needed the "Conspiracy" aliens, because it would come across as being redundant since they now had the Borg.

Perhaps, this may now solve the mystery of why there has been no sequel to "Conspiracy" after all these years? The "Conspiracy" aliens became the Borg.

 

[14thDoctor]

No.

No I don't.

 

[Charles Trip Tucker III]

Yes, "Conspiracy" was the original idea for the Borg. However, it proved to be too expensive, so they went with cyborgs instead of alien bugs. This is why the Borg have that force of nature concept. Adding the Queen in First Contact was a natural progression. After all, the original insect concept also had a Queen.

 

[Orac]

Re: Were the Borg originally supposed to be "Conspiracy" ali

I guess stop motion animation and exploding heads were too time consuming and expensive to do regularly in the late 80's. If TNG had been made 10 years later they probably would have stuck with the insect idea as the insect effects could have been done in much less time using CGI animation.

 

[Charles Trip Tucker III]

Re: Were the Borg originally supposed to be "Conspiracy" ali

Look at SG-1's Goa'uld. If TNG were made in the mid 90's, they would have had access to much better special effects on a TV budget. Unfortunately, TNG was a product of the late 80's and early 90's, so... we got cyborgs instead. Personally, I'm glad they went the cyborg route. Becoming a cyborg is much scarier than having a little alien bug control your brain.

 

[Timo]

Re: Were the Borg originally supposed to be "Conspiracy" ali

It's for the best that things worked out this way, I think. The Borg at least had some novel aspects to them, TV scifi wise, while the parasites would have been so passe it would have hurt.

Anyway, when Remmick sends the signal at the end of "Conspiracy", I think Data is completely mistaken when he claims it is a homing beacon. Just look at how the invaders behaved. They spent months opening a corridor for invasion, working clandestinely at first. But their actions became more and more blatant, until the "quiet weekend" at Starfleet Headquarters saw them basically revealing all their cards. They could not have maintained the pretense past that weekend: their plan was clearly going to climax by Sunday.

So when Picard blew the lid off their plans, Remmick would not have been sending a "Come here" signal at all. He would have been sending a desperate "Abort, abort, abort!" to turn back a fleet that was already moving into the invasion corridor and heading for Earth. There would have been no need for a homing beacon, not with the parasites already completely aware of the location of their target, and working in obvious concert to create a giant spatial cone pointing at that target.

Nothing to say that the parasites could not have tried again through some other means that we would have seen in "The Neutral Zone" and that would have been fully exposed in the second season. But since that storyline never came to be, it's logical to assume that Remmick's abort command was obeyed, and the parasites went looking for some other species to sucker.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Good Will Riker]

Re: Were the Borg originally supposed to be "Conspiracy" ali

^^^
I personally believe that it would be even scarier knowing that they are still on their way...

The writers originally wanted "Conspiracy" to be about a group of Starfleet officers who insurrect against and take over Starfleet Headquarters on Earth, because they got tired of "the utopian vision," etc. But Roddenberry vetoed this idea, because he believed that Starfleet officers (most notably the humans) were "all good guys" incapable of doing bad.

In its place, he okayed the idea of aliens taking over the bodies of these same rebellious Starfleet officers -- which ended up making this episode considerably more provocative and intense than what it was originally supposed to be.

Just imagine if Roddenberry okayed the idea for a group of rebellious Starfleet officers to insurrect against and take over Starfleet Headquarters? We may have never ended up with the Borg, and TNG may not have gone from a popular show to a phenomenon with "The Best of Both Worlds."

 

[Orac]

Re: Were the Borg originally supposed to be "Conspiracy" ali

The "they're on their way to get us" ending of Conspiracy was good that's why it was recycled in Q-Who? and again in the Enterprise episode Regeneration only substituting the Borg for the parasitic insects.

 

[SmoothieX]

Re: Were the Borg originally supposed to be "Conspiracy" ali

Look at SG-1's Goa'uld. If TNG were made in the mid 90's, they would have had access to much better special effects on a TV budget.

So the ocasional flashing eyes and flanged voices cost more than those cyborg suits and sets?

 

[Squiggy]

Re: Were the Borg originally supposed to be "Conspiracy" ali

orac said:
I guess stop motion animation and exploding heads were too time consuming and expensive to do regularly in the late 80's. If TNG had been made 10 years later they probably would have stuck with the insect idea as the insect effects could have been done in much less time using CGI animation.

I dunno. I still wouldn't have bought it. Look at the Insectoid Xindi from Entrprise. Still not the most realistic out there.

Making ships in CGI, we're awesome at...making living things, unless it has a major motion picture budget and more time than a TV show will allow - we haven't quite gotten that yet.

 

[SmoothieX]

Re: Were the Borg originally supposed to be "Conspiracy" ali

I dunno. I still wouldn't have bought it. Look at the Insectoid Xindi from Entrprise. Still not the most realistic out there.

I never got why the Reptilians were men in suits who spoke English, but the bugs were CGI and made screechy bug noises.

 

[Charles Trip Tucker III]

Re: Were the Borg originally supposed to be "Conspiracy" ali

SmoothieX said:

Look at SG-1's Goa'uld. If TNG were made in the mid 90's, they would have had access to much better special effects on a TV budget.

So the ocasional flashing eyes and flanged voices cost more than those cyborg suits and sets?

I was refering to the numerous times we saw actual Goa'uld parasites, like when Teal'c opens his pouch to reveal Jr. for example.

 

[SmoothieX]

Re: Were the Borg originally supposed to be "Conspiracy" ali

^ I read on Gateworld one time that in the episode Summit where the system lords eat live parasites, they are actually nothing more than burritos that got CGI'd later.

 

[Charles Trip Tucker III]

Re: Were the Borg originally supposed to be "Conspiracy" ali

By Season 3, the Goa'uld were mostly represented by CGI. I'm talking about the first two seasons where the Goa'uld were portrayed with on-set real world effects.

 

[Baba101]

Re: Were the Borg originally supposed to be "Conspiracy" ali

I think rebellious officers would have been more relatable to the public. n

 

[Charles Trip Tucker III]

Re: Were the Borg originally supposed to be "Conspiracy" ali

True, but that's not very sci-fi, is it? I prefer the Borg.

 

[Good Will Riker]

Re: Were the Borg originally supposed to be "Conspiracy" ali

Squiggyfm said:
I dunno. I still wouldn't have bought it. Look at the Insectoid Xindi from Entrprise. Still not the most realistic out there.

Making ships in CGI, we're awesome at...making living things, unless it has a major motion picture budget and more time than a TV show will allow - we haven't quite gotten that yet.

I would not be surprised if the writers and producers actually came up with concept drawings, outlines, memos, etc. showing the Borg (Who were originally intended to be the "Conspiracy" aliens) as an elaborate insectoid race, but had to scrap them due to the budget limitations of television, and replaced them with cyborgs (and, may have inadvertently ripped-off "Dr. WHO's" Cybermen in the process...). Just look at the Jarada in "The Big Goodbye?" They were heard, but not seen. At least with the Borg drones, all they had to do was recycle those left over "Dune" and Tim Burton "Batman" costumes (source: "TNG Compendium," 1992.). The alien invaders themselves may have changed cosmetically over the course of "Conspiracy," "The Neutral Zone," and "Q Who?" but the concept itself remained the same.

SmoothieX said:
I never got why the Reptilians were men in suits who spoke English, but the bugs were CGI and made screechy bug noises.

Reminds me of Jeff Goldblum's "Brundle Fly" from The Fly. He is still this articulate, well-rounded (inspite of dementia) mutated human/fly hybrid during his transformation, yet as soon as The Fly emerges out of Brundle's epidermal layer...after the suspense is over, all you finally end up with is this huge, bug-eyed, mute, unexpressive puppet. That was it! WTF?

 

[Good Will Riker]

Re: Were the Borg originally supposed to be "Conspiracy" ali

I just went on-line to www.wikipedia.org, and found information that validates my theory:

The Cybermen can be seen as a slightly more individualistic forerunner of the Borg from Star Trek. Similarities include converting their victims into Cybermen (although unlike the Borg there is no way to reverse cyber-conversion), and the use of the catch phrase "Resistance is useless/futile" and promises or threats of assimilation, such as "You will become like us." It has not been confirmed if the Cybermen influenced the creation of the Borg in any way, although the first episode that hints at the presence of the Borg ("The Neutral Zone", 1988) features, as a briefly glimpsed background detail, a computer screen which displays the names of the first six actors to play the Doctor; showing that at least some members of the production team were aware of Doctor Who.[6] Coincidentally or not, the first on screen appearance of the Borg was in the episode "Q Who?" (1989).

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybermen

According to Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, the parasites were originally intended to be working for the Borg. The destruction of the colonies in the following episode (The Neutral Zone) would then have lead into the Borg's introduction in the second season premiere. However, due to the writer's strike of 1988, the Borg's introduction was pushed back several months and no on-screen connection or reference to this episode ever came up.

In the Deep Space Nine books "Unity" and "Worlds of DS9: Trill", it is found that the parasites were originally created by genetic modifications of Trill symbionts; being a novel, this is of course not canon.

The original idea for this episode featured no mention at all of alien parasites; the conspiracy in question was simply an attempt by more militaristic members of Starfleet to take over the organization. Gene Roddenberry vehemently opposed such a move, believing that Starfleet would never stoop to such methods, and the alien angle was introduced.[citation needed] A plot similar to the original idea was used in the Deep Space Nine episodes "Homefront" and "Paradise Lost".

A sequel to this episode, "The Sentry", was considered for possible use on Star Trek: Voyager, but the episode was never filmed. It would have involved the USS Voyager encountering the aliens' homeworld or discovering that Species 8472 were the creators of the aliens, thus explaining how the 8472s had obtained sufficient intelligence on humanity to recreate Starfleet Academy as seen in the Voyager episode "In the Flesh".

During the filming of the meal scene, Jonathan Frakes (Riker) actually did eat one of the live worms (or at least put one of them in his mouth).

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_%28TNG_episode%29

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Re: Were the Borg originally supposed to be "Conspiracy" ali

A sequel to this episode, "The Sentry", was considered for possible use on Star Trek: Voyager, but the episode was never filmed. It would have involved the USS Voyager encountering the aliens' homeworld or discovering that Species 8472 were the creators of the aliens, thus explaining how the 8472s had obtained sufficient intelligence on humanity to recreate Starfleet Academy as seen in the Voyager episode "In the Flesh".

Hmmm....but why would Species 8472 have been interested in Starfleet so many years before SCORPION, which implied that the Borg incursion into fluid space was a fairly recent event?

Just as well they didn't go that route.

 

[Good Will Riker]

Re: Were the Borg originally supposed to be "Conspiracy" ali

MeanJoePhaser said:
Hmmm....but why would Species 8472 have been interested in Starfleet so many years before SCORPION, which implied that the Borg incursion into fluid space was a fairly recent event?

Just as well they didn't go that route.

And, I am glad that it remained that way. VOY would have gone and ruined this classic TNG episode, that's for sure.