Genesis review and things I didn't get...

[TroiFan4ever]

I used to not like this episode, but now I'm being drawn to it. Now I got a few questions and a few things to say about this episode...

* If the crewmembers are mutating back to their origins then how does that affect the Enterprise systems? What, was the Enterprise de-evolving too (sarcasm/joking intended)?

Like, if the people on the ship were de-evolving then what caused all the lights to blow out, doors to open halfway if at all, etc?

* Did Troi turn into a fish or a frog?

* So, if the following episode was Journey's End that was centered on Wesley, then that leads me to wonder what HE turned into??? If he was on the Enterprise when the virus was spreading.

* Interesting that Data can't turn into anything. He obviously has no origin to mutate into! I like how even if Picard stayed on the ship and he also de-evolved, he would've had to kill the virus himself which he did anyway for the most part as all Picard did was watch his back and run his mouth.

* Speaking of which, since;

Riker turned into a caveman
Troi turned into a fish/frog
Worf turned into a dinosaur
Barclay turned into a spider
Alyssa turned into a monkey
and Picard was about to turn into a monkey as well

then I wish they would've showed us what Gerodi and Beverly mutated into. Guess they ran out of ideas lol.

* Um, Picard, you had a phaser in your hand, with a minor stun setting. So, why the HECK couldn't you blast Worf with it when he was chasing you?

* Speaking of Picard, and turning into the monkey, how did he get infected when he wasn't even on the Enterprise when the virus was going around?

* And Troi, don't get me wrong. I LOVE when you wear your blue science uniform but if you're taking a bath... why be in it?!?!?! Geez...

* It's about time Troi got to take the captain's place for once...

* That White or Hispanic guy in the red command uniform that sat at the Ops station on the bridge... Data said that he died. From the virus? Must be. He was still in human form... with a messed up uniform that is.

* That green stuff that Worf sprayed in Beverly's face? Is that what spread the virus? Well, people did start acting... not themselves prior to the spray and it leads me to ask again, why did Picard get infected?

* On the bridge - Troi is freezing, as though it like -50 on there so she has to computer make it even hotter and hotter

Worf: "Computer, set enviormental controls to standard!"
Troi: "Worf, it's freezing in here!"
Worf: "You've already raised the temperature 3 times in here. It is too hot!"
Troi: (to Worf) "Live with it." (to the computer) "Computer, execute my original command."

Now if the screenplay had her saying "Worf, suck it up and live with it!" that would've been an EPIC WIN!

Troi was like "f**k you all, I'm the one who's cold!"

* About the whole show in general: Is Beverly a Lieutenant Commander or a full-fledged Commander? I see the three pips on her colar but I can't really tell with that first pip. At one point I thought she was a Lieutenant Commander. What's her rank?

 

[doublegoodprole]

Now if the screenplay had her saying "Worf, suck it up and live with it!" that would've been an EPIC WIN!

I'm not sure that you're aware of the meaning of EPIC WIN. An "epic win" in that case would have been Troi walking over to Worf, kicking him in the stomach, executing a Stone Cold Stunner, opening a cold beer, drinking it and spilling some on Worf, cutting his head off with a butter knife, and then violating the head with a rolling pin. That's an EPIC WIN.

 

[TroiFan4ever]

Now if the screenplay had her saying "Worf, suck it up and live with it!" that would've been an EPIC WIN!

I'm not sure that you're aware of the meaning of EPIC WIN. An "epic win" in that case would have been Troi walking over to Worf, kicking him in the stomach, executing a Stone Cold Stunner, opening a cold beer, drinking it and spilling some on Worf, cutting his head off with a butter knife, and then violating the head with a rolling pin. That's an EPIC WIN.

Oh, I thought an epic win was something that really REALLY fascinates or interests you.

I was on somewhat the right track though

 

[Capt_Pickirk]

^^ that's.......also deeply disturbing. thank you

 

[6079SmithW]

-Crusher was a full Commander
-I think Deanna was turning into a frish*

I think Worf was supposed to be a primitive Klingon.

The thing that really bothered me was Barclay becoming a spider. That's not even the same phylum. If ancestral genes were being activated he should have reverted to a primitive vertebrate like everyone else.

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

I don't care if the Enterprise-D was turning into a plesiosaur, you couldn't pay me to watch that episode again.

 

[Bishop76]

Yeah, it was pretty bad.

 

[Trekker4747]

The premise, idea and most of the execution of the episode wasn't too bad but the rest of the execution is what ruins it.

What do I mean by that?

Well it was a sign of things to come in Trek, namely Voyager, where the consequences of the episode aren't taken seriously nor is the "science" behind it. I know it's treacherous to complain about "science" when we're dealing with a universe with faster-than-light travel and all of this other stuff but there's always boundaries of what is tolerated and what is not and I think "Genesis" crosses that boundary and it's something Braga did a whole lot. He wanted a one-off, fun, creepy episode that had no impact on the characters lives despite something completely horrific occurring!

Consider some of the things that happens in this episode:

A Red Shirt is killed by someone on the bridge.
Worf nearly kills Dr. Crusher.
The entire crew changes into animals.
There are children and civilians on the ship.
And the big one, for me, is comes when Data analyzes Commander Riker and points out that, true to proto-human form, his brain is much smaller!

His brain. Is. MUCH SMALLER!

How is it Riker recovers the lost brain matter and what was there when the virus is reversed?!

Okay, I accept the virus that does this but the subject matter isn't treated seriously. At the end everyone is all joking and and everything is hunky-dorey again! Even Crusher is perfectly fine! Tori is all happy and smiley. The events had no effect on anyone! It's just "happened" and now back to life as normal. No big deal.



That's my problem with this episode it was sign of the episodic, nothing matters, bullshit to come. What? We want the ship to be crippled but they need the computer to find out what's going on? Ummm. Oh! Data has an independent computer in his quarters now! Yeah! (What's that? We want the ship to go to transwarp and cause all of this crazy stuff to happen in spite of the fact that Voyager is a tiny crew staffed with minor crew members stuck in the middle of no where and wouldn't likely pull off an accomplishment like this since the geniuses at Starfleet can't do it and the very concept of it is based on "infinite energy" and "infinite speed", eh, no problem We'll never mention it again.)

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I hate you fucking Braga! I hate you! You take none of this shit seriously! It's all just episodic bullshit to you without taking anything seriously or even pretending all of this stuff has to take place in a real world.

So, yeah, while the makeup, costuming, the look and even to some degree the tone and plot of this episode is good but it's utterly destroyed by how episodic it is, doesn't take its own premise seriously and, well, it just doesn't fit at all with any "reality" things are supposed to take place in.

"We want a fun episode where the crew turns into animalistic forms!" "Great, I'll write one!" "Well, what about any consequences of what this would be like for the crew, the dynamic and other people on the ship?" "Fuck it. It'll be fun! That's what people want is, right? Fun? I mean why should we consider taking any of this seriously?"

That's what's messed up. Yeah it's science-fiction show but does that mean it doesn't have to make sense? Does that mean it can't be coherent and taken seriously? Would you take an episode of Weekly Procedural Crime Drama seriously if in one episode something tragic happened to the characters and it was something that'd have real, deep, consequences in the real world but then by the end everyone is all happy and all is okay?

No! You'd call bullshit and say the show is crap!

So why isn't it the same way with Trek or any other science-fiction show? Why does it have to not make sense just because it's taking place in space in the distant future? Could you imagine what a Trek series would be like if the treated the show realistically and seriously like the crime and medical dramas on TV? It'd be fucking awesome!

And it can be done. You can still have all of the fantastical stuff going on, FTL travel, aliens, crazy technology, but it doesn't have to be all goofy, light-hearted and corny.

But, nope. Sci-Fi shows are different they don't have to make sense. So, sure, why the fuck not. Have the whole crew turn into animals, nearly kill friends and colleagues, have their brains reduced to mush and just make all of it not matter once you hit the 55 minute mark. Make a joke at the end. It's sci-fi, it's fun!

FUCK YOU BRAGA!

 

[Finn]

* If the crewmembers are mutating back to their origins then how does that affect the Enterprise systems? What, was the Enterprise de-evolving too (sarcasm/joking intended)?

Like, if the people on the ship were de-evolving then what caused all the lights to blow out, doors to open halfway if at all, etc?

Worf was breaking apart doors. Riker broke that aquarium. I'd say they were caused by certain crewmembers

* Um, Picard, you had a phaser in your hand, with a minor stun setting. So, why the HECK couldn't you blast Worf with it when he was chasing you?

he didn't know what effect it would have on him, and obviously he didn't want to risk killing Worf.

* Speaking of Picard, and turning into the monkey, how did he get infected when he wasn't even on the Enterprise when the virus was going around?

He got infected when he got aboard...

* And Troi, don't get me wrong. I LOVE when you wear your blue science uniform but if you're taking a bath... why be in it?!?!?! Geez...

She wasn't exactly herself....

* That White or Hispanic guy in the red command uniform that sat at the Ops station on the bridge... Data said that he died. From the virus? Must be. He was still in human form... with a messed up uniform that is.

He was eaten....

* That green stuff that Worf sprayed in Beverly's face? Is that what spread the virus? Well, people did start acting... not themselves prior to the spray and it leads me to ask again, why did Picard get infected?

Riker and Troi were already being affected before this so no. He got infected once he got aboard

* About the whole show in general: Is Beverly a Lieutenant Commander or a full-fledged Commander? I see the three pips on her colar but I can't really tell with that first pip. At one point I thought she was a Lieutenant Commander. What's her rank?

Commander, since she had bridge duty (remember, Troi had to take the test to get the promotion to Commander so she could do the bridge duty). Yes, it doesn't explain Data taking the chair time to time...

 

[eepruls]

Deanna was de-evolving into an amphibian. A fish is not an amphibian.

 

[Timo]

* If the crewmembers are mutating back to their origins then how does that affect the Enterprise systems? What, was the Enterprise de-evolving too (sarcasm/joking intended)?

The "haunted house" effect was probably evidence that the ship doesn't work all by itself: when a sufficient number of essential crew regresses to an animal state, malfunctions occur. And then get worse when these animals try to fix them with their rapidly diminishing skills.

* Did Troi turn into a fish or a frog?

Frog. Although whether an Earth amphibian or a Betazed amphibian or something else, we don't exactly know.

* So, if the following episode was Journey's End that was centered on Wesley, then that leads me to wonder what HE turned into??? If he was on the Enterprise when the virus was spreading.

"Turned into"? Wasn't he a newt to begin with?

* Um, Picard, you had a phaser in your hand, with a minor stun setting. So, why the HECK couldn't you blast Worf with it when he was chasing you?

Good question. Early signs of senility, probably.

* Speaking of Picard, and turning into the monkey, how did he get infected when he wasn't even on the Enterprise when the virus was going around?

I guess the virus never went away.

* And Troi, don't get me wrong. I LOVE when you wear your blue science uniform but if you're taking a bath... why be in it?!?!?! Geez...

She seemed to have forgotten how to undress already. Too bad. (That Bashir and Tuvok apparently sleep in their respective day uniforms ("In Purgatory's Shadow" and "Flashback", respectively) is the greater crime IMHO.)

* That White or Hispanic guy in the red command uniform that sat at the Ops station on the bridge... Data said that he died. From the virus? Must be. He was still in human form... with a messed up uniform that is.

Might have been a fellow crewmember doing him in. Worf, perhaps. Good thing the internal surveillance network had already gone haywire, so the surviving perpetrators couldn't be sued for murder...

* That green stuff that Worf sprayed in Beverly's face? Is that what spread the virus?

Nope, that was Worf-specific poison. The virus must have become airborne or something, either after being injected to Barclay, or then due to Crusher's fumbling the procedure even earlier on.

* On the bridge - Troi is freezing, as though it like -50 on there so she has to computer make it even hotter and hotter

Which is curious, because normally Klingons are the ones who complain about cold even when it doesn't yet bother humans (at least according to B'Elanna Torres). I guess Worf had learned not to complain, or then the virus was already affecting both him and Troi, in opposite directions.

* About the whole show in general: Is Beverly a Lieutenant Commander or a full-fledged Commander? I see the three pips on her colar but I can't really tell with that first pip. At one point I thought she was a Lieutenant Commander. What's her rank?

She was full Commander from start to finish. Troi was LtCmdr when starting out, and got the full third pip in "Thine Own Self".

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Alrik]

Picard is infected as soon as he comes aboard because Barlcay's mutated T cell or what ever the hell it was went airborne.

We don't see Crusher go all monkey because she is in stasis due to Worf's venom breath. No idea about Geordie

Wes isn't on board. We see him arrive on the transporter at the beginning of Jouneys End.

The red shirt on the bridge was probably Worf's lunch.

 

[RAMA]

OK I KNOW this episode is criticized for its science, but I COULD believe the crew could be mutated by its DNA, its just that they screwed up the evolutionary chain somewhat. That's being somewhat kind..If you can get past this point, its actually kind of a fun/creepy episode.

RAMA

 

[Trekker4747]

And I know it's being even more nitpicky but that the T-Cell Virus was able to reprogram and redevelop people in a matter of hours or days is implausible. It takes your skin alone the better part of a month to regenerate itself completely, your bones take something like a year to renew and organs like your heart and brain never renew. So that this virus caused DNA and bodily organisms to freakout and completely remake people inside of a few days, instead of over the course of years, is stretching things quite a bit.

 

[Timo]

they screwed up the evolutionary chain somewhat

But the things they virus dug up from the human genome need not represent "the evolutionary chain". They would simply represent all the junk that has lain there unused for the past few billion years. I'm pretty sure the instructions for building chitinous components and spider eyes are in us somewhere, even if the common ancestor of spiders and humans lived so much earlier than either species that the common genotype elements have never manifested as a common phenotype element.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Kinggodzillak]

We don't see Crusher go all monkey because she is in stasis due to Worf's venom breath. No idea about Geordie

I'd imagine they didn't show/mention Geordi's transformation so as to avoid the obvious question of why is he is still blind when he turns back to normal...

 

[Trekker4747]

We don't see Crusher go all monkey because she is in stasis due to Worf's venom breath. No idea about Geordie

I'd imagine they didn't show/mention Geordi's transformation so as to avoid the obvious question of why is he is still blind when he turns back to normal...

Or how a blind "animal" survived on the ship with a predator like Word roaming around. Maybe Geordi turned into a hibernating bear in the Jefferies Tube? Let's just hope he didn't get the experience of passing his bezoar.

 

[Kelthaz]

Wibbly-Wobbly Timey Wimey, A Wizard Did It, M3TK Mantra, etc. Take your pick.

Star Trek is usually at its best when it's intelligent and thought-provoking, but does every episode need to be like that? Genesis is a very entertaining episode with some great character bits and a thrilling action climax. Bad science does not in any way diminish that.

 

[RAMA]

And I know it's being even more nitpicky but that the T-Cell Virus was able to reprogram and redevelop people in a matter of hours or days is implausible. It takes your skin alone the better part of a month to regenerate itself completely, your bones take something like a year to renew and organs like your heart and brain never renew. So that this virus caused DNA and bodily organisms to freakout and completely remake people inside of a few days, instead of over the course of years, is stretching things quite a bit.

Well it is a 44 minute tv show...how often have you seen a 1 hr drama solve problems that takes researchers years? Whether its SF or medical shows, or police shows.

 

[TroiFan4ever]

Or how a blind "animal" survived on the ship with a predator like Word roaming around. Maybe Geordi turned into a hibernating bear in the Jefferies Tube? Let's just hope he didn't get the experience of passing his bezoar.

Aww they should've showed that! It would've been interesting!

I was also wondering what Ensign Calloway would've de-evolved into - probably a leopard or something idk