Genesis (episode)

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"Genesis"
TNG, Episode 7x19 Production number: 40277-271 First aired: 19 March 1994
←	170th of 176 produced in TNG	→
←	170th of 176 released in TNG	→
	{{{nNthReleasedInSeries_Remastered}}}th of 176 released in TNG Remastered
←	314th of 726 released in all	→

Written By Brannon Braga Directed By Gates McFadden
47653.2 (2370)
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Picard and Data return to the Enterprise to discover it adrift, filled with prehistoric creatures.

1 Summary
2 Memorable Quotes
3 Background Information
- 3.1 Awards
- 3.2 Video and DVD releases
4 Links and References

[edit] Summary

Data and Jean-Luc Picard discover Ensign Dern's body.

Lieutenant Reginald Barclay, having self-diagnosed with a lethal illness, goes to see Doctor Beverly Crusher - who gives him a treatment for Urodelan flu, a mild illness. The treatment makes him much more lively. Meanwhile, Worf's new weapons guidance system is being put to the test. Out of two torpedoes launched, only one hits its target. With the Enterprise unable to disable the other torpedo due to asteroids, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Data left the ship to use a shuttlecraft to disarm the torpedo. Several crewmembers start displaying strange behaviors: Commander Deanna Troi finds the atmosphere too dry and cold, Commander Riker has trouble with his memory, and Worf acts much more animalistic, biting Deanna on the face and spitting a fast-acting venom into Dr. Crusher's face, causing the latter to be rapidly put into stasis.

Three days later, Picard and Data come back to a visibly unmanned and adrift Enterprise. They search the ship and find Troi in her bathtub, devolved into a amphibian-like creature. They reach the bridge and find it in shambles with a dead ensign at conn, and a Neanderthal Riker.

Spot, having been expecting a litter of kittens, has given birth - and mutated into a reptile. Data surmises that the introns of the crew, which contain DNA of their pre-evolved ancestors are becoming active, causing the crew to "de-evolve". The amniotic fluids protected the kittens while the disease attacked Spot. They find Nurse Alyssa Ogawa, who has become an ape, and bring her and Troi to sickbay.

Data begins to analyze Ogawa's amniotic fluids when a transformed Worf bangs at the door. Picard believes that the bite Worf gave Troi was not to hurt but to mark her as his mate and now he has come back for her. Data and Picard cannot let Worf continue but Data cannot stop now and Picard is beginning to feel the effects of the disease himself. Picard leaves sickbay with an altered hypospray that gives off Troi's pheromones to let Data continue his work. Picard leads Worf on a chase through the Enterprise and eventually manages to knock him out. Data reports that he has found a way to make the introns in the crew dormant again. At Picard's consent, Data floods the ship with gas that turns the crew back to normal.

In sickbay Barclay asks Dr. Crusher if the virus was his fault. She replies it was inadvertently her fault for waking up a dormant T-cell which in effect awoke many dormant T-cells. She names the virus after Barclay calling it the Barclay's Protomorphosis Syndrome. She tells Deanna that he devolved into a spider and has a disease named after him. She says she better clear her calendar for the next couple of weeks.

[edit] Memorable Quotes

"Before I start... swinging through the ship looking for breakfast, we'd better look for some answers."

- Picard

"What is it?"
"It is large."

- A terrified Picard to Data upon discovering the devolved Worf

"He transformed into a spider and now he has a disease named after him."
"I think I better clear my calendar for the next few weeks."

- Beverly Crusher to Deanna Troi after Crusher finished talking to Reginald Barclay.

"Doctor! My capillaries are shrinking!"

- Reginald Barclay to Beverly Crusher

[edit] Background Information

This episode marks the final appearance of Dwight Schultz (Reginald Barclay) on the series. He would be seen again with the crew in Star Trek: First Contact.

This is the only episode of the series directed by Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher) and the first episode of Star Trek directed by a female cast member.

The plot (involving the evolution of crew members) bears a striking resemblance to an infamous Voyager episode, also by Brannon Braga, VOY: "Threshold".

The idea of a Captain and a crewmember returning to their drifting ship, with the crewmembers undergoing a medical crisis, would later be used for VOY: "Macrocosm".

It was written into the script that Gates McFadden's character, Beverly Crusher, would be severely disfigured by Worf. She was promptly put into stasis to prevent the injuries from worsening. The absence of Dr Crusher from much of the episode gave Gates more time to spend directing the episode. (Ironically, production work was hindered by the Californian earthquake of 1994 and Gates did not have sufficient time to produce her own "cut" of the episode as a result.)

Toward the end of the episode, Dr. Crusher comments to Barclay that it is traditional to name new diseases after the first patient. This tradition has appeared after our time period. Eponymous diseases have almost always been named for the first person to describe them in medical literature (Parkinson's disease; Down's syndrome; Marfan's syndrome; Kartagener's syndrome). Rare exceptions from our time include Legionnaires' disease (named for a group of people) and Lou Gehrig's disease (named for a famous—though not the first—sufferer).

The list of visible transformations include:
- A crewmember, who has de-evolved into a snake-like creature.
- Dern, who had begun to de-evolve before being killed by either Riker or Worf.
- Troi, who has de-evolved into a Human/Betazoid fish-like creature.
- Riker, who has de-evolved into an australopithecus.
- Picard, who has begun to de-evolve into a lemur/pygmy-marmoset hybrid.
- Spot, who has de-evolved into an iguana.
- Barclay, who has de-evolved into a spider.
- Ogawa, who has de-evolved into an ape-like creature.
- Worf, who has de-evolved into a prehistoric Klingon.

Several of the scenes in this episode are reminiscent of scenes in the 1979 Ridley Scott film Alien and its subsequent sequels.
- The look and general atmosphere of the episode after Data and Picard return.
- La Forge and Barclay discovering deck plates corroded by Worf's venomous saliva.
- Picard and Data coming across a fragment of skin shed from a reptilian life form.
- Worf trying to break down the door and bends it inward.
- Worf pursuing Picard through the Jefferies tubes.

Introns are actually non-coding segments of DNA, rather than areas holding the genetic information of an organism's ancestor.

[edit] Awards

This episode won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Drama Series and was also nominated for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sound Editing for a Series and Outstanding Individual Achievement in Makeup for a Series.