{"id":167,"date":"2009-05-25T00:16:28","date_gmt":"2009-05-25T07:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidstipes.net\/?p=167"},"modified":"2024-03-02T00:07:20","modified_gmt":"2024-03-02T07:07:20","slug":"conspiracy-bugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidstipes.net\/?p=167","title":{"rendered":"TNG “Conspiracy” bugs (revised)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"startrek-conspiracypic2\"<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u201cConspiracy\u201d was season-1, episode 25, of \u00a0Star Trek: The Next Generation<\/em>. The Enterprise crew must overcome Starfleet Command officers who are infected by an alien parasite. This episode has the dubious honor of having one or more shots censored as “violent images” by the BBC in England.\u00a0 It is reported that the episode required a warning before airing in Canada.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The story required that the parasite climb the leg of an officer then later climb out of the mouth of another fallen human host and attempt to escape.<\/p>\n

Animating the parasite bugs for the episode was my first work on Star Trek: The Next Generation<\/em>.\u00a0 Visual Effects Supervisor, Dan Curry, brought the job to David Stipes Productions, Inc. in April of 1988.<\/p>\n

The bug was reportedly designed by Andy Probert. (1)<\/em>\u00a0 The property master, Alan Sims, had\u00a0 commissioned Makeup & Effects Laboratories (2)<\/em> to create the parasite.\u00a0 They had done a fine sculpting job but I realized we would have to re-build it for the stop motion animation.<\/p>\n

The original creature was cast in a dense silicone material and was very stiff. The legs were small nubs that were not long enough to reach the floor to propel the creature along.\u00a0 We subcontracted Starlight Effects to re-sculpt the creature, give it longer legs, and define the body segments a bit more.\u00a0 A plaster mold was made and fitted with a simple wire armature and the creature was cast in rubber.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Photo by Roger Sides<\/p><\/div>\n

We scheduled the animation time then were told by Dan Curry that the date we were to animate was the actual date they needed the work finished. We scrambled to get the animation set up. Dan had provided frames of the woman opening her mouth to line up the parasite\u2019s animation with the actor\u2019s performance. I asked Dan if we could have a bloody slime trail from the woman\u2019s mouth but he didn\u2019t think the producers would like it. I thought it would help sell the horror of the situation but, disappointed; we moved on.<\/p>\n

Dan has also provided a 4ft x 8ft piece of hard Formica flooring to match the set.\u00a0 It was so big I had to place it on a sheet of Celotex board on my studio concrete floor and animate on my hands and knees.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The surface was hard so I could not directly pin the model to the floor for the animation process.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I had to drill through the hard Formica then drive a pin through the parasite\u2019s foot into the Celotex insulation board below. Pinning the feet of the model prevented it from sliding around as I animated the body.<\/p>\n

I animated the creature along by twisting the parasite\u2019s body segments in sequence with the legs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>After a couple of scenes were done, the armature wires broke and the body segment with the last two legs fell off the puppet!\u00a0 I finished the shot by animating the now two body sections along and making them appear as one creature.<\/p>\n

As I worked, on another stage my assistant Stephen Lebed animated the parasite climbing the leg of the primary host, Lt. Commander Remick. Stephen faced his own challenges as the creature was difficult to attach and animate effectively on the cloth of the pants.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was a challenge but it was fun and it continues to get comments. This episode is often included on lists of The Next Generation<\/em>‘s greatest moments.<\/p>\n

Article updated March 1, 2024<\/p>\n

Credits: Frame blow-ups are from a video by Greg Stone.<\/p>\n

(1)<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0Ri<\/span><\/span>ck Sternbach, <\/span><\/span>Facebook post 2\/28\/2024,
\nhttps:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/starshipmodeler\/posts\/<\/a><\/p>\n

(2)\u00a0<\/em> Douglas Newton, Facebook post 2\/28\/2024,\u00a0 https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/starshipmodeler\/posts\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cConspiracy\u201d was season-1, episode 25, of \u00a0Star Trek: The Next Generation. The Enterprise crew must overcome Starfleet Command officers who are infected by an alien parasite. This episode has the dubious honor of having one or more shots censored as “violent images” by the BBC in England.\u00a0 It is reported that the episode required a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3334,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,83,90,34],"tags":[16,29,8,79,22,91,78],"class_list":["post-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film-vfx-history","category-star-trek","category-tng","category-visual-effects-techniques","tag-animation","tag-david-stipes","tag-david-stipes-productions","tag-star-trek","tag-stop-motion-animation","tag-tng","tag-visual-effects"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidstipes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidstipes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidstipes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidstipes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3334"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidstipes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/davidstipes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1200,"href":"https:\/\/davidstipes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions\/1200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidstipes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidstipes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidstipes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}