‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ Retro Recap – ‘Evolution’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

When it comes to television shows these days, the season premiere is often designed to be the tone-setter for the year ahead. Simply because this is an opportunity to inform the audience what themes and ideas and concepts the show is going to explore in said new season and sometimes, the premiere can also serve as a wonderful place to set the stage for big moments down the line, including the forthcoming season finale. But there was a time when premieres were more of a low-key affair. Where the stories were designed to ease the audience back into the world in question and offer up an easily digestible story that really didn’t require the audience to think all that much, and one series that seemingly subscribed to that was Star Trek: The Next Generation.
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For the season two premiere, ‘The Child’, really didn’t offer up anything that earth shattering since it was an alien of the week affair, allowing for the audience to just relax and enjoy some fresh TNG and get comfortable with the complex world of the 24th Century once again. And since season two of this series really didn’t wow audiences as the powers that be were hoping, this strategy was employed for the third season premiere of this storied franchise. Because ‘Evolution’ really doesn’t do anything all that earth shattering either in regard to the story. In fact, it feels like a fairly pedestrian affair for certain. After all, it features the arrival of an arrogant scientist named Dr. Paul Stubbs, who expects the crew of the Enterprise to see to the completion of his experiment at all costs.

An expectation that becomes quite complicated when a new civilization of nanites infects the 1701-D’s computer systems. Because there is a chance this newfound life form will cause the crew great harm if left unchecked, and that motivates Stubbs to be a super jerk and escalate the situation by killing some of these nanites. But as is often the case in this series, eventually peace is made with the offending species and the crew accomplishes their goal, which really does make this episode seem quite unremarkable. In fact, at first glance the only real major surprises in this story is the fact that Gates McFadden returns to the cast as Dr. Beverly Crusher and that at long last, those über-80s spandex Starfleet uniforms are replaced by the supremely classy raised collar uniforms. 

But therein lies the trick. For it turns out that this particular premiere actually features some of the other elements that we just discussed. Because a great many of the scenes between Stubbs and Wesley, offer up some hints of things to come in season three. For a lot of their talks are quite intimate and personal and they speak volumes to the pressures we face in everyday life and how we are our biggest critic. To the point where the need to succeed, motivates us to do some stupid stuff for certain. Which is just a downright surprise to find here in the midst of a fluffy script. But that really does serve to remind us that season three was well known for tackling topics and concepts that were incredibly relatable, or dug deep into the human condition, and finding that here makes this premiere quite special.

For in essence, it is a hybrid of the two styles we discussed earlier. Which makes this premiere quite influential since it laid out the blueprint for shows in this day and age. But in the here and the now, this particular tale informs the audience that this show is about to become something more, something quite special and that is quite exciting. Because we’ve finally arrived at the year that TNG was regarded as a top tier series and not just some follow up to The Original Series with a bigger budget. Something that is reinforced by the fact that even a pedestrian story such as this one, still manages to suck you in with quality performances and interesting ideas and truly, we are in for quite the incredible experience in season three. For this is a year of storytelling that challenged the characters and the viewer in such a powerful manner, that television is still trying to replicate it. Until next time.

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