Hi all! Ric here with an entry into my Star Trek bestiaries, this time, looking at the
canonically unnamed Neural Parasites that almost brought the United Federation of Planets
to its knees in 2364. This video will focus on the information presented in the shows
primarily, but I’ll elaborate on some memory beta content that tackles their origin later
on. Also, I’m going to borrow a term used in the show then in apocryphal content when
referring to them, that of “Bluegills”. So in the episode of TNG called conspiracy,
we are introduced to these parasites, however an exact origin was never established. What
we know of them was from people under their sway, so who knows the veracity of these statements.
They are from well outside of explored federation space and have a strong desire to take over
other cultures. Their goals appeared to be control through subterfuge and deceit is their
first line of defence. Although very capable of defending themselves, once discovered,
they were not exactly phaser-proof. They attempted to grow their influence in secret, usurping
those in positions of power and then reaching down the chain of command to infect more.
The critter itself looked like a small purple insect, with six clawed legs, a large set
of mandibles and a piercing tail. That’s too much spikey for such a little creature.
It was around twelve centimetres long and perfectly able to scuttle and climb around
on its own. What made them horrifying however, was the fact that they spent the majority
of their time inside another being, treating it as a host. It would enter through the mouth
of a humanoid and make its way to the brain stem. Which can I just point out means going
through the thin layers of skin and muscle between the back of the mouth and spine? Guess
that’s what those mandibles are for. Urgh. Moving swiftly on, the parasite then clasps
onto the spine around the C2-to C6 neck vertebrae with its claws, grips the base of the skull
with its pincers and then pokes its tale through the skin, out the back of the neck. This tail
is actually a gill that allows the creature to breathe while within its host and its visibility
the only outward sign of an infected organism. From there it would extend tendrils into the
nervous system and brain stem to assume direct control of the host, taking over its bodily
functions completely. While infected, a humanoid host was empowered
with a range of abilities, all derived from the neural parasite overriding the body’s
natural limiting factors. It could hyper stimulate the adrenal gland for example, allowing for
a dangerous level of physical excursion from the host, displaying feats of strength and
endurance that a typically reserved for a fight or flight situation. As they had complete
control of the nervous system stuns also had little effect on them.
One weakness of the parasite, is that it had no way to access the long term memories of
its host so it could not completely mimic its hosts behaviour, instead it would often
improvise its way through encounters if needed. They also developed a taste for insects as
food, perhaps suggesting their typical diet outside of a host body? If the host dies,
or is otherwise incapacitated, the bluegill will attempt to flee the victim, killing the
host. The Federation also encountered the mother
creature of these beings, of larger and differing form from its offspring. The mother creature
also inhabited a body, but to a much greater extent, living within the entire abdomen of
the infected host, along with more of its offspring. Here’s a picture of a puppy for
to cleanse your brain. Okay back to it. The mother creature had what appeared to be a
chitin shell and was much larger, from what was seen, over a foot in length, but it would
remain coiled up when within its victim. It controlled the offspring through a telepathic
link and if it was killed, its offspring perished within minutes.
It’s a fairly well-known behind the scenes fact that these were intended to replace the
Borg as the mysterious threat that had been troubling Starfleet and the Romulans, but
then the concept of the Borg was developed and the role the bluegills would have fulfilled
was assimilated by the Borg. As a result, this left them as an open ended plot, which
made them into a more terrifying presence as they may still be out there. As I mentioned,
several other sources took on the mystery of explaining them but this is all non-canonical
material from now on. It’s alluded to that the process of possession,
whether from a regular parasite or mother creature, is eventually fatal to the victim
due to the strain on the body that the parasite demands.
Further, its revealed that the mother and spawn forms of the bluegill are not the only
ones. The spawn-mother creature, like her progeny, was capable of exiting the host and
moving by itself, which it would attempt to do if and when the host perished. These were
capable of growing substantially in size over time to increase the yield of their colony,
but doing so would noticeably violate any subterfuge.
Some of the bluegills adopted other forms such as the Delver and the Ravager, which
were several feet in length and possessed a definite shell for protection. They also
developed much larger forelegs, which could be used to both slashing and tunnelling through
dirt to ambush or escape. It is unknown how they achieved these larger forms, but I suspect
that they “used up” their host to grow. As for their origin? We have two similar stories.
One source of DS9 books mentions that they use the same isoboromine neural transmitter
as Trill Symbionts, which clues us into their origin as a malevolent offshoot of that species.
Basically a far-flung colony of Trills were afflicted by a deadly virus and began to genetically
modify the symbionts to survive it, but also learned how to improve the joining. However
the mutated symbionts went mad and evolved into the Bluegill culture we see in TNG.
The other storyline has them similarly genetic creations, maybe of symbionts too, but this
time created by the Solanae on behalf of the Iconians. The goal was to soften up the Milky
Way species for invasion, by compromising their ranks and recruiting loyal servitors
to the Iconian cause. Either origin proposes that the Bluegills are not natural creations,
and their suitability at taking over the humanoid form might lend some support to this.
The one addendum I would make, is that when possessing a host, and in contact with a spawn-mother,
the creatures were as intelligent as any space faring sentient being, but I suspect that
this is due to their telepathic hive mind coupled with access to the host’s brain,
but that’s speculation as the intelligence of a single parasite was never really tested.
Picard didn’t really have time to make them take an IQ test when he was uncovering their
infiltration. Thanks for watching this video on the Neural
Parasites of Star Trek, personally I don’t think they need an origin, but I would like
Starfleet to have to deal with their re-emergence at some point, I think it would make for a
cool story arc. So until next video, thanks for watching, I’ve been Ric and I’ll see
you next time! Goodbyes!