“Evolution” is written by: Michael Piller, from a
story by: Michael Piller and Michael Wagner, and is directed by: Winrich Kolbe. It was produced under production code 150,
was the 1st episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3,
the 49th episode overall, and was broadcast on September 25, 1989.
The beginning of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s
third season saw several changes behind the scenes and in front of the camera. Diana Muldaur as Dr. Pulaski was written out
off-screen while Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher returned and would stay
with the show until the end of its run. Behind
the scenes, Maurice Hurley, after a tumultuous year as showrunner, stepped down
and in the interim Michael Wagner took over.
Wagner is yet another new writer to Star Trek as a franchise,
something that has been a constant throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation. At the very least Hurley had written for the
series, but Wagner was an industry professional, already having a 14-year
career as a television writer and work on a less successful science fiction
series. Wagner would only last four
episodes in the role, however, passing the torch onto Michael Piller who would
remain in that role through the fifth season (leaving to help establish Star
Trek: Deep Space Nine). Wagner and
Piller both devised the story to “Evolution”, the second episode of the third season
produced, but clearly written to be broadcast first. Piller wrote the final script, the strength of
which is what convinced Rick Berman and Gene Roddenberry to offer him the
position, and while this isn’t an episode to be remembered as one of the
absolute best but it is one that provides a baseline of quality for the series
going forward. This third season opener
is one that didn’t have to start the show and wasn’t working against a strike
or clock, it is just an opening episode.
It’s putting a foot forward to tell a story, one that adds quite a bit
to remind the audience of the last season’s dangling threads (the Borg in
particular are mentioned) and shift focus to an episode that is entirely
character based.
The decision to open the season with a character
focused episode on Wesley Crusher is honestly a risky one at least in terms of
audience. Now Wil Wheaton is an actor I
like. Likewise, Wesley is a character that
I like despite the writing team generally not understanding how to write a
child genius character. “Evolution” is a
script that actually addresses a lot of the issues with Wesley as a character. McFadden’s first scene as Crusher before the
plot actually begins is discussing her own fears as a mother with Picard: she’s
been gone for a year and Wesley is far too clean cut as a teenager despite his
own ambitions. It’s reflected nicely in
the conflict of the episode, Wesley has created nanites for a research project
that have become sentient and escaped.
The rest of the episode is a race against the clock to not destroy them,
but learn to communicate with them before they, in their ignorance, destroy the
Enterprise. Wheaton gets several
scenes where he is alone and attempting to stop the nanites before he is caught
because Wesley is still a child at heart.
There is this incredibly small scene opposite Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan
which adds a lot to who Wesley is as a character, the caliber of actor that
Goldberg is helps elevate Wheaton. Wheaton
and McFadden also get to properly play a mother and son for the first time in a
very long time, there were probably less than a handful of episodes in the
first season that really played off this as an idea. McFadden’s return as Dr. Crusher is also in
general slick, it’s clear that the new production team is allowing her the freedom
to actually explore the role in depth.
The B-plot of the episode is also very much a reflection
of who Wesley might become: Dr. Paul Stubbs, played by Ken Jenkins, has an
appointment with a stellar explosion to complete research that he has dedicated
his entire life to. He is the lonely
scientist that Wesley can become, a boy genius that has nothing besides that
research to actually use. The way Wheaton
plays off Jenkins is particularly interesting, there is a palpable fear that
Wesley might lose himself to a lot off his research. Now, the episode does end with Stubbs
completing his research at the last possible moment, but not after destroying some
of the nanites creating further conflict before the resolution. The resolution of the episode itself is also
clearly more confident in using its characters.
Data as an android is able to actually do the communicating with the
nanites and Picard is able to be an actual diplomat, both Brent Spiner and
Patrick Stewart not taking too much away from Wil Wheaton as Wesley for the
episode. The clear step up is also that
the other characters aren’t forced into the plot to pad things out, there is actually
little here done by Riker, Troi, La Forge, or Worf, each maybe having a scene
or two where they are important and clearly characterized as themselves, but not
taking up the spotlight. Add that to the
direction of Winrich Kolbe, directing his fourth episode, and you have
something quite confident. Kolbe’s
direction is dynamic, the camera is continually moving with the characters to
punctuate the emotion and there are costume changes that read as the cast
becoming more comfortable in performing these roles. It’s genuinely great.
Overall, “Evolution” is good. It is the definition of a solid episode that
has character drama at the heart of it.
If anything it serves as a great baseline for the third season (and
future seasons) of Star Trek: The Next Generation to meet and continue
to build upon with a brand new team that will essentially be making the show
for the next three seasons. It struggles
slightly with leaving things a little too unresolved for Wesley, but it also
just excels at the character beats.
7/10.
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