“Evolution”
Written by Michael Piller, Story by Michael Piller and Michael Wagner
Directed by Winrich Kolbe
Season 3, Episode 1
Original air date: September 25, 1989
Star date: 43125.8
Mission summary
Acting Ensign Wesley Crusher wakes up from a terrible dream about spending two years aboard an alternate version of the Enterprise, in which the crew often behaved as if their dialogue and actions were guided by poorly-written television scripts and their missions didn’t make any sense. Phew. Thank goodness that’s over. Unfortunately, Commander Riker’s wake-up call informs Wesley he’s late for Bridge duty; he’d fallen asleep at his workstation and forgotten to set an alarm. He hastily packs up his scattered equipment and rushes off to take his position at Navigation.
The ship is hanging out near a binary star scheduled to explode in eighteen hours. Their obsessed-scientist-of-the-week, Dr. Paul Stubbs, is there to run an experiment that relies on the energy that will result from the neutron star’s explosion—the culmination of twenty years of lonely nights. If they miss this narrow window, their next chance won’t be for another 196 years. As they prepare to launch his experimental unit, nicknamed “the Egg” for its only vaguely egg-shaped design, Enterprise abruptly malfunctions and throws itself into the path of the stellar matter being transferred between the red giant and its companion neutron star. This is not an ideal place from which to observe the explosion. Disturbingly, the ship’s computer declares that all systems are operational, with no record of the inexplicable loss of control.
Dr. Stubbs sustained minor injuries from the impact and gets patched up in Sickbay by Dr. Pulaski Crusher, freshly back from her stint at Starfleet Medical, now mysteriously at an end. Stubbs takes an interest in Wesley and plants the idea in Dr. Crusher’s mind that perhaps it’s a bit stifling to have one’s mother on board the ship he’s serving on, a situation that can only be remedied by nagging him further. She expresses her stereotypically maternal concerns to a slightly uncomfortable Captain Picard, who assures her that he’s “his father’s son.” She just wants Wesley to meet society’s expectations for a “normal” seventeen-year-old boy.
Stubbs and Wesley inspect the Egg and the scientist is pleased to see it hasn’t cracked. He informs Wesley that he’s passing on the torch to the young ensign.
STUBBS: I see a lot of me in you. In my youth, they called me a wunderkind. Do you understand wunderkind?
WESLEY: It’s German, isn’t it?
STUBBS: It means wonder child. It is reserved for those of us who achieve early in life. Now the burden is yours.
WESLEY: Burden?
STUBBS: To fulfill your potential. You will never come up against a greater adversary than your own potential, my young friend.
As if to prove him wrong, the ship goes to Red Alert and reports that they’re under attack by the Borg. But it turns out only to be another computer malfunction, and the ship moves on to reciting chess moves, because this is Star Trek after all. Still unable to move the ship out of harm’s way, Picard calls a meeting to sort it all out. The gist of it seems to be that they may need to consider abandoning Stubbs’ time-sensitive experiment in order to save lives. The doctor takes this news poorly.
Meanwhile, La Forge continues working to isolate the problem. He tells Wesley that something really tiny seems to be dismantling the computer core processor from the inside. Wesley races back to his workstation and checks the contents of a jar, a jar that had been left open all night after he fell asleep. He freaks.
Wesley crawls around Ten Forward setting small but not inconspicuous traps when he encounters Guinan and is forced to admit that his science experiment has escaped: He had been playing matchmaker between two medical nanites, which are usually contained in isolation, forcing them to interact with each other so they could learn to be better nanites. It was working but then they got loose, and now it’s really working. He’s reluctant to fess up until he absolutely knows they’re responsible, and Guinan helpfully compares him to Dr. Frankenstein.
System problems mount on the ship and Dr. Stubbs becomes increasingly frustrated at the likelihood that his own experiment must be put on hold. Wesley finally admits his mistake to his mom and the crew realizes that the tiny robots are more than they appear—they’ve evolved into a new form of collective intelligence with incredibly destructive power. Stubbs is all in favor of wiping them out, but as a potentially sentient, developing lifeform, standard protocol is to seek a non-violent way to get them to stop eating the ship. Stubbs zaps a bunch of the robo-bugs with a gamma beam, immediately killing some of them in one section of the computer core. They react by poisoning the atmosphere on the Bridge and then hunting Stubbs down and zapping him. They’re alive!
With this evidence that the nanites are acting intelligently, Picard orders Data to find a way to communicate with them. The android modifies the universal translator to be even more universal, then volunteers himself to serve as a conduit through which they can speak. For some reason, all agree this is an excellent plan as a way of showing goodwill, and the nanites possess Data so they can chat directly with the crew. Stubbs apologizes for his attempted genocide and they realize it was all just a hilarious misunderstanding—the nanites were just harvesting raw materials from Enterprise to replicate themselves and never intended to harm anyone.
Stubbs pulls some strings to get the nanites a planet to call their own and is able to launch his egg on time to go do its thing, whatever that is. Best of all, Dr. Crusher learns that Wesley does have friends his own age and is lousy with healthy teenage hormones.
Analysis
I always confuse this episode with “A Quality of Life,” the episode in which slightly-larger tiny robots basically evolve just like the nanites. It’s a thing. I had no real opinions of “Evolution,” since I didn’t remember most of the details, but now that I’ve re-watched it I can firmly say that it’s okay. Pretty good, even, especially following those first two seasons.
This is a safe and comfortable episode that represents many of TNG’s tropes. There’s a visiting scientist who is completely absorbed in the most important work anyone has done in the universe ever—groundbreaking research that we will never hear about again. I still don’t really know what the Egg is supposed to do. Does it need the energy from the explosion to perform some task, or is it just studying the data from the phenomenon? I can only assume that it was either a breakthrough in astrophysics, which only excited astrophysicists, or the experiment was a bomb and Stubbs disappeared into ignominy.
Wesley’s nanite experiment, on the other hand, is kind of a big deal, a discovery that could even eclipse Dr. Stubbs’ work, but as far as I recall we never hear about again either. So there’s now a planet of nanites out there and Starfleet knows that their medical tools are capable of intelligence. I assume that they continue using them as tools though, careful not to let them mix ever again. What role do the evolved nanites play in Starfleet and the universe at large? I find it interesting that one of the malfunctions they cause is a phantom Borg ship on the sensors, which is both a reminder of the impending threat that will come to a head (and a forearm) at the end of the season, and as an eerie prediction of what the nanites could one day become. But really, couldn’t intelligent nanites be an invaluable ally, especially in a conflict with the Borg, given they can interact with technological and biological material equally well? And as far as repercussions go, Wesley didn’t even get a slap on the wrist for breaking rules and inadvertently creating a new race.
However, I actually wasn’t that annoyed by Wesley in this episode (not as much as I was by Dr. Crusher, certainly), though I cut him more slack than some; he was faced with a difficult situation and eventually he did the right thing, with a little help from his mom. It’s great to see him make a mistake and not be wholly responsible for cleaning up the mess he made, and I enjoyed the initial dynamic and connection between him and Dr. Stubbs. I think I’m reading too much into this, but with only a little more work, this could have been a way of showing Wesley’s evolution.
It’s also a decent way to open the third season and illustrate the evolution of the series itself. It’s enjoyable, well-written, and has an engaging moral question at its heart. It doesn’t knock the ball out of the park or anything, but it gets the job done. I was at first and a little excited at all of the differences in the show, from the revised title sequence to the new uniforms and modified Bridge design. This show looks like the episodes I remember so fondly, and with the introduction of Michael Piller to the writing team, the scripts are getting better too.
I can point out several flaws in the implementation of the episode, chiefly that we’ve seen variations on this before and will again, and it’s completely unnecessary to risk your only android when the ship should be just as capable of communication, or you know, the holodeck (except for maximum dramatic effect, of course). In retrospect, I’m surprised Data’s status as a sentient machine wasn’t mentioned even once to defend the nanites and their significance. But I’m in a forgiving mood and the problems are both minor and chronic to the show as a whole. As indicative as it is of TNG’s all-too-common shortcomings, it also makes good use of some of its better themes, with a story about first contact, exploration both personal and stellar, resolving conflicts among humans and with other life forms, and learning to understand and respect other perspectives.
Eugene’s Rating: Warp 3 (on a scale of 1-6)
Thread Alert: I was all set to comment on Dr. Stubbs’ pirate shirt, but then in the final seconds of the episode I glimpsed Wesley’s girlfriend’s outfit, and I thought it worth pointing out. The still frame reveals even more outfits worthy of mockery though; once again, the kids on the ship are dressed in the most absurd, colorful outfits possible. Perhaps these clothes were replicated while the nanites were in control. That girl on the left kind of looks like she’s cosplaying as Misty from Pokémon. This is possibly the only screenshot in which Wesley’s drab uniform actually looks pretty good, due in part to the fact that his crotch area is hidden–because no one needs to see that, least of all his mom.
Best Line: STUBBS: Captain, I have been inspecting the egg for the last twenty years. You may lay it when ready.
Trivia/Other Notes: Though this was the first episode to air in the third season, next week’s episode, “The Ensigns of Command,” was filmed before it.
Geordi La Forge and Worf were promoted between seasons to Lieutenant Commander and Lieutenant, respectively. Geordi’s really on a fast career track!
Gates McFadden returns to the show as Dr. Crusher, replacing her replacement, Diana Muldaur. Fans had written letters for a year requesting her back, but Roddenberry and Berman claimed they thought she just had better chemistry with Picard than Muldaur, and when the Pulaski character didn’t work out as they hoped, they decided to bring Crusher back.
The new two-piece wool uniforms debuted in this episode, designed to replace the jumpsuits worn in the first two seasons, which would still be seen on extra crewmembers.
A new title sequence debuts in this episode, along with a remixed version of the theme song.
Stubbs’ Egg is a reused prop from “The Child.”
You can thank Robert Blackman for those colorful kids’ outfits, as he replaced Durinda Rice Wood as the series costume designer with this episode.
This episode would eventually earn Michael Piller the head writer position on the series, largely because of Stubbs’ speech about baseball, which resonated with Rick Berman.
Previous episode: Season 2, Episode 22 – “Shades of Gray.”
Next episode: Season 3, Episode 2 – “The Ensigns of Command.”
OK, we aren’t off to a great start, but it does feel more like the TNG we tend to think of. Wesley’s homework threatens the ship again, but at least it isn’t the result of him being a soopergenius and all. For all the mediocrity of the main plot, though, I rather liked the B-plot. They actually acknowledge Dr. Crusher’s year-long absence and think about what it might have meant to the various people involved. And the fact that Wes matured a lot in that year is actually recognized and plays a role. So good for them on that point.
I only just had a chance to look this up, since it didn’t turn up in the usual trivia: In this episode Data says “There has not been a systems-wide technological failure on a starship in seventy-nine years.” That seemed awfully specific and overlaps with Kirk’s era so I figured it was referring to an incident we’d seen before; the editor of the Star Trek Chronology speculated that Data was referencing the transwarp failure of the U.S.S. Excelsior in 2285 (Star Trek III), but I think that would be 81 years years before this episode takes place in 2366.
This episode namely caught my interest by ending with a bunch of intelligent nanites placed on a planet. That was the most interesting element of the whole thing, and I wish that they had addressed it later on. It was as ripe with possibility as putting Khan on Ceti Alpha V.
Eugene @ 2. I wonder if the writers were actually referring to the Excelsior transwarp failure and just counted wrong. I hope so, because I love the idea of that being what Data was referring to.
While not one of my favorites, by any means. It definitely was a step up from much of the Star Drek we’d been put through for the first two years. I for one was glad to see Dr. Crusher return and was gladder of the fact that they did take time to mention her absence. Probably one of my favorite lines in the episode is when her delight at Wesley’s interaction with other teenagers turns into motherly concern about the girl he’s showing interest in. That seemed pretty realistic to me ( don’t worry Mom. Wesley doesn’t get a chance to fall for any one girl long enough for you to worry about…or maybe that should be a concern. After all, he has been palling around with a lot of older men in the last two years…
At least we’re on the right track. I’m not a fan of the “science project gone wrong” story and I’m weary of crazy scientists, but the overall tone and narrative is a lot stronger than it’s been. I’m glad that Crusher is back, and like dep1701 I was really glad the show actually addressed not just her absence, but how her PRESENCE affects the show dynamic (because it does affect both Wesley and Picard). It makes her seem less interchangeable/like a blank cog than any of the crew have been previously.
What did resonate with me was the effort to finally find the flaws in Wesley and the position the series put him in. The show finally acknowledged that the expectation–both from others, and from himself–are really tremendous burdens. Anyone who has ever been told they’re smart and capable knows how oppressive it can feel for people to expect great things of you. It can make someone hermetic, risk averse, and terrified of failure. I was pleasantly surprised to see the show finally broach the drawbacks of his intelligence, including his isolation from others his age and his seeming inability to enjoy leisure activities or otherwise be comfortable in his own skin. These were all fantastic moments, long-overdue, and well-earned.
As for the nanites, there are some serious Borg overtones here that I’m not sure the show fully acknowledged. The nanites outgrew the ship in a matter of hours–when will they outgrow their planet? What about the solar system, or the galaxy? The Borg aren’t evil–they’re just using the resources available to self-propagate. No different here. There’s a sinister side to all this that is completely overlooked for the sake of a pat ending. (Not to mention the “Oh sure, we’ll let a supernatural mechanical intelligence take over Data just to flap his trap… what could possibly go wrong?”)
Last thought: why on earth is Wesley building mechanical nanites for his genetics class?!
At least I’m glad we’re home.
Warp 3
@4 dep1701 @5 Torie
I was also surprised and pleased that Crusher’s absence was actually worked into the plot in an organic way. But while I see the clear parallels between Wesley and Stubbs, the episode doesn’t give me enough to assume that Wesley only starts hanging out with girls and/or his friends at the end of the episode because he has seen how dangerous it is to devote yourself only to work. It’s heavily implied though, so I’ll just chalk it up to Trek being unusually subtle.
Overall, this episode had a lot of nice touches that are an improvement over previous efforts, particularly the nuances in character relationships which up until now the show did not excel at.
One other thing I was surprised by: Despite having recently re-watched all of DS9, I didn’t realize baseball was no longer being played, at least in an official capacity. I don’t quite buy the reason Stubb offers (“Abandoned by a society that prized fast food and faster games. Lost to impatience.”) but I find it intriguing, and it’s a gentler form of the moralizing that bludgeoned us in seasons 1 and 2.