The creators of the best season premiere of “Star Trek” considered it mediocre

Pa Chris Snellgrove
| Published 26 seconds ago

As a huge Star Trek fan, I’ve always loved Evolution, the season three premiere The next generation. The third season was basically when TNG finally hit its stride, complete with new uniforms and a new hero-centric approach to storytelling that changed the franchise for the better. Also, Evolution has everything that makes the golden age of Trek so special, so I was shocked to learn that the creators of this killer episode basically thought it was mediocre.

The plot of “Evolution”

If you’re a Star Trek fan who needs a quick lesson in Evolution, here’s an episode where the Enterprise follows an eccentric scientist who hopes to observe and record data on a cosmic phenomenon that only happens once every 196 years. Meanwhile, Beverly Crusher is back on board and trying to bond with her son Wesley, but he’s too focused on his studies. So focused, in fact, that he accidentally releases nanites and they infect the ship’s core. As creatures evolve, they threaten this temporary experiment, and that’s okay PNG fashion, diplomacy with this new life form ends up saving the day.

Speaking for myself, I thought it was a big Star Trek the episode. It’s not the best film in the franchise or anything, but “Evolution” is perhaps the strongest premiere of the season, one that feels even stronger compared to “Shades of Grey,” the clip-fest showdown that ended Season 2. That’s why I was so surprised that the episode’s creators found it mediocre, starting with showrunner and overall TNG savior Michael Peeler.

Mediocre start to the season

In fact, despite being the showrunner of Star Trek. writing “Evolution,” Peeler concluded after all, “was a B episode.” Declaring that it “came out OK”, he still lamented that “I didn’t like it”. Stressing that he’s still “proud of the episode,” Peeler summed up his thoughts by saying that the episode “didn’t quite work out.”

Veteran Star Trek director Winrich Kolbe was responsible for bringing this episode to life, and he shares Peeler’s assessment of the episode’s mediocrity. He initially praised the plot about a scientist who “suddenly discovers there are ramifications he hadn’t thought of” and said he “loved” that “there’s a certain amount of immaturity or arrogance or whatever.” However, he felt that “everyone thought it was a kid’s show, even the writers”, which led to a “very serious problem” (those nanites could easily destroy the Enterprise and threaten the Federation) that was “not properly addressed” on screen .

Kolbe is one of Star Trek’s most reliable directors, and Peeler more or less saved it The next generation from the death spiral of the first two seasons, but I just can’t let go of their criticism of Evolution. It gave us perfection The original series setting with a quirky scientist and a more quirky space phenomenon, but it added a proper The next generation twist, forcing Picard to save the day by using diplomacy rather than violence. We’ve even seen the birth of a new life form, and if “finding new life” isn’t Trek enough, I honestly don’t know what is.

Star Trek: The Next Generation had better episodes than Evolution, but maybe not the best season opener. It’s a stand-alone story that can be re-watched, even if the writer and director consider it something of a B-episode. And considering how uneven the era of the NuTrek franchise has been, this “B” episode now looks like nothing more than brilliant.