art reflects the anxieties of the culture that produces it. it occurs to me that star trek TNG had a recurring anxiety: that a peaceful collectivist utopia that stands in for “liberal democracy but better” would be vulnerable to and corrupted by a contagion, one that would suppress independent thought in particular and replace conversation with violence and coercion. “Conspiracy”, “The Game”, “The Best of Both Worlds” (obviously), even “Future Imperfect” and “The Drumhead” can be read this way.