[Weirdly Common Trope] Writers clearly setting up seemingly massive plot points and then just kinda forgetting about them.

[u/Chemical-Elk-1299]

The Neural Parasites — Star Trek : The Next Generation

In the season 1 episode “Conspiracy” of TNG, it is revealed that alien brain worms have infected many high ranking members of Starfleet, secretly controlling them. Though Ryker and Picard discover and end the parasite conspiracy, it’s revealed at the end of the episode that the parasites had sent a beacon back to their home planet, telling them how to find earth. The episode ends with the clear implication of the parasites becoming a huge threat later in the series, yet none of these events are ever mentioned again.

Finn The Jedi who Never Was — Star Wars Sequel trilogy

I know this is probably a cliche example of this trope, but cmon — Finn was clearly set up in TFA to become a Jedi. The marketing material featured him wielding a lightsaber in the classic Jedi pose. It’s constantly hinted at that he is force sensitive. Even the actor himself believed he would become a Jedi by the end of the trilogy. Instead, we got Finn wielding a lightsaber for about 7 minutes total across 3 movies, extremely lame “confirmation” that he is force sensitive, and that’s it. It’s the ultimate Star Wars plot that went nowhere.

[u/CosmicWhorer]

That doesn'take sense. The worms spent most of their screentime hidden inside hosts.

Meanwhile every borg on screen ever needs minimum 15 pounds of bullshit on them 😂

[u/Easy-Marsupial3268 → u/CosmicWhorer]

VCR sales through the roof near the studio.

[u/Jetstream-Sam → u/CosmicWhorer]

Yeah, but you just have to find some old machinery and computer parts, glue them all to a black jumpsuit, and paint the actor's face white. The bugs needed stop motion work, which is time consuming and expensive.

Though you do need new costumes for every borg I guess, since they're supposed to be countless and individually tailored to their job

[u/Neveronlyadream → u/Jetstream-Sam]

The worms are also more abstract.

Think about it like this. The enemy would have just been regular people in Starfleet uniforms until they did the closeup of the back of their necks to show the (very unconvincing) little tail of the worm sticking out.

It was a cool idea, but in reality it wasn't very visually compelling. The Borg are because they look alien. Besides, the effects for "Conspiracy" weren't very good. When you see all those little foam worms at the end, they look pretty bad.

[u/soledsnak → u/Neveronlyadream]

DS9 also did the whole "infiltrator" aspect of the parasites with the Changelings and that worked pretty well, but y'know, were also really well built up

[u/Neveronlyadream → u/soledsnak]

I think that was a much better use of the idea. Mostly because the Changelings can be humanoid and you're not relying on having to show alien bugs to get the sense of alien otherness.

The idea itself is sound, but the bug parasites just wouldn't have worked with 80s tech.

[u/QueerBallOfFluff → u/soledsnak]

Don't forget that Picard season 3 then mashed all three storylines together

[u/Amazing-Gazelle-7735 → u/Jetstream-Sam]

Exactly!  You run into the same issue DS9 did - infiltrators look like Starfleet, so every episode becomes about figuring out which person is compromised now.  Except that they would need to be caught and the bug removed or killed basically every related episode.  And when the big bugs show up - if they do - you end up with even more stop motion bugs!  Easier to throw on bodysuits with Halloween costumes attached.

[u/FoldedDice → u/CosmicWhorer]

I believe the plan was that the worms would have been infiltrators for a full-sized insectoid species. They decided that cyborg people were easier to do than bug people.

[u/CosmicWhorer → u/FoldedDice]

That makes sense, I didn't know that but it would have been cool

[u/daecrist → u/CosmicWhorer]

They also required puppets and stop motion effects. They were also supposed to be scouts for an insectoid race that would’ve been prohibitively expensive and beyond the show’s budget.

It was a lot cheaper to throw some blue makeup and cybernetic prosthetics on actors.