2.7 – “Unnatural Selection”
Plot: The Enterprise encounters a ship in which the crew has all aged decades in a matter of days and subsequently died of natural causes. They trace the ship back to a research station threatened with a similar affliction, although the crew of the station is still alive. A group of genetically-altered children aboard the station appear unafflicted. In the process of examining one such child, Dr. Pulaski contracts the virus.
Thoughts: There is a disease in this episode, and it is technobabble. “Unnatural Selection” is patient zero, but I’m afraid the rest of the series will be infected.
Consider this dialogue:
PICARD: You said that the transporter could be modified to filter out the changes in Doctor Pulaski?
O’BRIEN: Yes, sir, but we were unable to locate her trace pattern.
PICARD: Well, what if we used a sample of her DNA, say from a blood test taken before she was exposed to the disease? Could that be used to filter out the genetic changes?
O’BRIEN: Well, I’d have to get into the biofilter bus to patch in a molecular matrix reader. That’s no problem. But the waveform modulator will be overloaded without the regeneration limiter in the first stage circuit.
DATA: Interesting.
Apart from this, by the low standards and expectations engendered by the series so far, this episode is pretty good. Basically, we have a tense episode which, refreshingly, is about something. It feels like a Star Trek plot, even if major elements are stolen from TOS 2.12, “The Deadly Years” (rapidly aging crew), and TAS 1.4, “The Lorelei Signal” (in which the transporter is used to miraculously cure disease).
There are two problems. First, the whole standoff between Pulaski and Picard is based on some half-baked arbitrary nonsense. If the children are unaffected by the virus, why are they perceived to be in danger, such that the need to remove them from the research station supersedes the needs of the people who are infected? Pulaski’s insistence on removing a child from the station constitutes an unnecessary risk that comes to nothing. If the child is a carrier of the virus, why can’t this be detected, and captured by the transporter’s disinfector beam? For that matter, If the research station and the Landry contracted the disease at the same moment, why does it kill the crew of the Landry so much faster than the adults at the research station? I’m not a doctor, but I’m pretty sure that diseases, viruses, and antibodies don’t work at all the way they are described in the teleplay.
The other main weakness is one of missed opportunities. “The Deadly Years” explored fears about aging and mortality. Not so here–the disease could have been anything, e.g., purple blotches like in “Miri,” and it wouldn’t have made any difference. The countdown clock was very poorly managed. How much time do the adults on the research station have left? Does anyone care? Why do bio-hazard suits not work for visiting the station?
The point of the episode seems to be to warn against the dangers of scientific experimentation. Not a great theme for a show about exploration and science. The writers still aren’t trying very hard. The virus appears to be an exceptionally deadly biological weapon, but it is never referred to as such; the ghastly military implications of this technology are either overlooked or ignored.
Another interesting question that could have been engaged is, now that the kids are sealed off by themselves, how are they going to survive without the adults? Will it be a Lord of the Flies situation? The producers were so cheap, they wouldn’t even pay for one of the children to have a speaking role, let alone to hire an actual child instead of a person in his or her 20s.
Other elements of the show are going well. I notice strong blocking and staging choices. I like the way Picard doesn’t lead from his command chair; his characteristic pose is just behind the helm, in a tight huddle with his officers. The new Season Two Picard speaks in a quiet voice and conveys power through stillness. Nice lighting effects are used, for example in the conference room scene, where Patrick Stewart crosses to the window and allows shadows to pass over his face as he decides to “err on the side of caution” for the safety of his crew instead of making heroic efforts to rescue the people on the research station.
This is the first episode where Transporter Chief O’Brien is referred to by name, or as the transporter chief at all. Unsurprisingly, Colm Meaney has cited this as a favorite episode.
It tickles me that when the Landry is quarantined, it turns on its hazard lights. Blinkers–in deep space! Because collisions with other spaceships are so likely.
The business about there being override codes capable of remotely taking over a ship’s computer system has great narrative potential. Didn’t they use something similar in Star Trek II? I hope we see it again. Also, the makeup effects are much better than in 1.16, “Too Short a Season.”
Warp 3 of 6.
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