Trivia / Star Trek: The Next Generation S1 E24 "Conspiracy"

• Banned in China: Contrary to popular belief, the episode was never banned in the U.K. It aired on the BBC at 6pm as normal, but was very heavily edited: the scene actually ends with Riker and Picard firing their phasers at Remmick off-screen. The episode was not aired uncut in the U.K. until a few years later when Sky showed it after the 9pm watershed. However, the "exploding Remmick" scene was accidentally left intact in the 6pm showing of the flashback clip episode "Shades Of Gray".
• Executive Veto: Apparently Tracey Tormé originally wanted to include an Andorian, but was informed by a producer (probably Rick Berman) that, “We don’t do antennae on this show.” As such, the Bolians were rolled in as a compromise: blue, antennae-less aliens. Later, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine writer and producer Robert Hewitt Wolfe reported that producer Rick Berman did not care for the antennae, and noted that, “if we’d been allowed to, I guarantee we’d’ve put an Andorian on the show so fast your head would’ve spun.“ The Andorians were finally given their day on Enterprise, appearing in several episodes throughout the series.
• What Could Have Been: The original concept of this episode didn't feature the slugs at all and instead had the conspiracy perpetrated by a militaristic faction of Starfleet. However Gene Roddenberry vetoed the idea since he didn't like showing Starfleet in such a dark manner. The idea does get some use later on, in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, as well as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek Into Darkness, and Star Trek: Discovery, in the form of Section 31 in the later stories.
• You Look Familiar: Michael Berryman, who had appeared as background characters in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, plays Captain Rixx.
• Tracy Tormé, in the William Shatner documentary Chaos on the Bridge, said he wrote this hoping to create a different kind of Star Trek episode. Then-showrunner Morry Hurley, who'd been tasked with being the "keeper of the grail" by Gene, turned it down as too dark; but someone, likely Rick Berman, accepted it, saying he loved the script and thought it was exactly what they should be doing. This did not help Hurley and Tormé's working relationship any.