Television Review: Evolution (Star Trek: The Next Generation, S3X01, 1989)

Evolution (S03E01)

Airdate: September 25th 1989

Written by: Michael Piller
Directed by: Winrich Kolbe

Running Time: 45 minutes

The summer of 1989 was a slightly anxious time for Trekkies. Whilst the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation is now rightly hailed as a significant improvement over its inaugural year and the period when the series truly began to mature, it concluded with the notorious clip show Shades of Gray, a creative nadir that left a sour taste. Compounding this disappointment was the recent cinematic release of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, which represented the first feature film in the franchise to be widely seen as a clear creative and commercial failure. With the goodwill of the fanbase waning, some form of course correction was desperately needed. It was delivered, at least on one front, by the premiere of Season 3, an episode titled Evolution, which signalled a new and more confident era for the crew of the Enterprise-D.

The plot of Evolution unfolds at the Kavis Alpha binary system, where the USS Enterprise-D has arrived to observe a stellar explosion that occurs only once every 196 years. The crew is tasked with assisting Dr. Paul Stubbs (played by Ken Jenkins), an esteemed astrophysicist who has dedicated much of his life to preparing for this singular event, constructing a sophisticated probe that will allow him to conduct his groundbreaking experiment. However, the entire endeavour is thrown into jeopardy when the Enterprise suddenly begins to experience a cascade of mysterious malfunctions, which are eventually traced to a corruption within the ship's computer core. Captain Picard, unwilling to risk the vessel by remaining in close proximity to the volatile binary star, orders the ship to a safer distance, much to the intense displeasure of Stubbs, who passionately insists that they stay and complete his life's work.

It is later revealed that the source of the ship's systemic failures is a colony of nanites that have inexplicably evolved and developed a collective intelligence. These microscopic machines were originally created by Wesley Crusher as part of a routine science experiment. He later confesses to Guinan in Ten Forward that he had accidentally allowed the nanites to escape their containment, a mistake that has now placed the entire ship in peril. When Picard is informed of the true source of the problem, some of his subordinates, most notably Worf, advocate for the immediate destruction of the nanites via a burst of gamma radiation. This proposition is met with firm opposition from Dr. Beverly Crusher, who abhors the destruction of what she recognises as a newly emergent form of sentient life. Desperate to see his experiment proceed, Stubbs takes matters into his own hands and actively destroys sections of the nanite colony within the computer. The surviving nanites retaliate by turning their attention to him, attacking him with energy discharges. In the end, Picard attempts to establish communication with the nanites, using Data as an intermediary. The attempt is a success; both sides offer apologies for their hostile actions, a truce is established, and the nanites are given a new world on which to continue their development, finding the Enterprise "confining". With the conflict resolved, Dr. Stubbs is finally permitted to conduct his experiment.

A cynic might argue that Evolution succeeds primarily because being better than Shades of Gray was among the easiest tasks in the history of Star Trek. Yet, taken on its own merits, it is a generally unremarkable but solid episode that plays to many of the series' core strengths. The main plot is not particularly original, serving as a thematic and narrative amalgam of motives already explored in episodes like Season 1's Home Soil and the then-recent Season 2 episode Contagion. The confrontation between the Enterprise crew and a newly evolved life form is, once again, resolved in a peaceful and diplomatic fashion, perfectly in line with the optimistic and utopian vision of the franchise's creator, Gene Roddenberry. Furthermore, the main antagonist, Dr. Stubbs, despite being portrayed by the prolific and experienced character actor Ken Jenkins—best known for his brilliant work on Scrubs—feels somewhat one-dimensional, his character reduced to a single-minded obsession with his experiment.

The true importance of Evolution, however, lies not in its central plot but in what it signifies as a transition to Season 3. The series immediately announces its elevated ambition with a new, slightly more spectacular and polished opening title sequence. The Starfleet officers are also outfitted with new uniforms, a change introduced by the production after the cast had long complained that the old spandex jumpsuits were incredibly uncomfortable. But the most crucial element of this transition is the return of Dr. Beverly Crusher, a move for which the fans had yearned, having been largely unhappy with her replacement, Dr. Karen Pulaski. This episode serves as a superb opportunity for Gates McFadden to remind the audience of her talent, particularly in her scenes with Will Wheaton and Whoopi Goldberg. That Dr. Pulaski was unceremoniously written out of the series, however, might be considered a fate somewhat unfair to that unloved, but generally competent, character.

Evolution also represented the writing debut of Michael Piller, who would go on to become one of the most important and influential figures in the Golden Age of Star Trek, later known as the co-creator of Deep Space Nine and Voyager. Piller does a decent job here, although he perhaps indulges too much in his great love for baseball, turning Dr. Stubbs into an obsessive fan of a game that is supposed to be quite a niche pastime in the 24th-century fictional universe. An interesting aspect of Piller's script is his attempt to use the underwhelming main plot as a framework for more nuanced character development. The side storyline deals with the evolving relationship between Wesley Crusher and his mother, the latter suddenly faced with the reality that her son has grown up a year during her absence. Wesley, whom many fans had complained about for two seasons as being a Mary Sue-like superhero, is now presented in a more down-to-earth manner, actually being portrayed as the source of the Enterprise's troubles. The final scene shows him acting like a regular teenager, socialising with his teenage peers and even acquiring a girlfriend (played by an uncredited Amy O'Neill), effectively grounding the character and setting a new, more relatable trajectory for his future appearances.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

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