‘EVOLUTION‘ (TNG)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
This is the first episode of Season 3 of the ‘Star Trek: TNG’ series! I greatly enjoyed the episode! It’s a decent new beginning to the ‘TNG’ show and puts everything right back on track the way I wanted it.
‘Evolution’ is extra-special as it features the return of Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher. I missed seeing Beverly in ‘TNG’. I felt her absence in Season 2 when she was replaced by Dr. Pulaski.
It was nice to see how Beverly was already established in being settled back aboard the Enterprise as the chief medical officer. I like Beverly’s scene with Picard and how difficult it was when she first left.
Beverly is concerned for her son Wesley since she left the Enterprise during Season 2. She wants to know how he is. She’s concerned he’s taking too many Starfleet responsibilities and isn’t having fun.
The fact that Wesley isn’t like a typical seventeen-old boy is worrying Beverly. I like her scenes with Wesley when she’s showing concern for him, even when he seems very strained and working a lot.
But Wesley is having problems of his own. In the episode, Wesley has been working on a project of his own involving small robot life-forms called nanites. These have escaped into the Enterprise itself.
This has happened at a bad time when the Enterprise is helping a human scientist named Dr. Paul Stubbs on a critical research mission. The Enterprise malfunctions a lot when the nanites invest it.
This includes doors opening and closing frequently; power cuts occurring; classical music being played and the computer saying chess oaths. This gets everybody anxious as to what’s going on here.
It was an interesting concept to have the nanites become thinking and evolving and not just be standard machines. I did wonder if these nanites were getting more biological and less technological.
Beverly helps Wesley in his predicament as they present their findings to everybody in a meeting. Fortunately Picard doesn’t berate Wesley in the episode, as they get on with the problem and sort it.
Ken Jenkins guest stars as Paul Stubbs, the visiting scientist aboard the Enterprise. He is analysing the decay of neutron stars in space and is planning to launch his ‘Egg’ to gather every data he needs.
Stubbs is so sure of himself. He can be quite impatient when he wants to get on with his life-time of work. He also shares this intriguing relationship with Wesley in the episode and talks about baseball.
Now I don’t know a thing about baseball as much as I would like to know about cricket. But these baseball references are the work of Michael Piller, who became the new showrunner for ‘TNG’ itself.
After discovering about the nanites, Stubbs takes matters into his own hands and kills a large number of them with gamma radiation. This results in him risking the lives of everybody on the ship.
It also risks his life when Stubbs gets attacked by a number of nanites in his quarters. Fortunately he’s saved by Beverly Crusher in sick bay, although he’ll have to pay the consequences of his actions.
The Enterprise crew eventually find a solution to the nanite problem. Data suggests that the nanites communicate through him in order to end this little crisis. The nanites agree to speak through Data.
It was interesting to see the nanites speak through Data, but it doesn’t feel disturbing. Stubbs apologies to the nanites and Picard asks the nanites to end this crisis. The nanites agree and that’s it.
Whoopi Goldberg returns as Guinan, the bartender of Ten Forward on the Enterprise. I like her scene with Wesley in this episode, when he’s setting traps and he confesses that he let his nanites escape.
I also liked the scene between Guinan and Beverly at the end of the episode. This is the first time Guinan and Beverly have a scene together in ‘TNG’ and they also get to see Wesley with a young girl.
‘Evolution’ is a decent beginning to Season 3 of ‘Star Trek: TNG’. It hasn’t got the best story, but I was so glad to see Beverly Crusher return to the Enterprise as the ‘TNG’ series is right back on track.
By the way, the Starfleet uniforms have changed. In the first two seasons, the ‘TNG’ Starfleet uniforms were collarless. Now they have collars and will remain like this for the remainder of ‘TNG’.
‘Evolution’ (TNG) rating – 7/10
| The previous story
For ‘The Next Generation’ was |
The next story
For ‘The Next Generation’ is |
| Return to Star Trek | |
| Return to Sci-Fi |
Bradley's Basement 