Wow, I hadn't seen this since its original airing. What a terrible episode! Spot turning into a lizard is one of the most ridiculous moments in the entire series.
Is "Genesis" the "Spock's Brain" of TNG?
- Thread starter Nerdius Maximus
- Start date
I'm pretty fond of this episode. It's so ridiculous, but in such an enjoyable way. People say Trek doesn't do humour well, but I think this episode proves that it can when coming from the right angle. Sure the science is bunk but I mean Riker as a Homo erectus is just pure genuis. Anyone else notice him give "the finger" to the camera when he's trying to get at Picards fish?
My vote would go to "The Royale" which like "Spock's Brain" was an attempt by the writer to make a very different kind of episode and ended up being a rather bad episode.
MeanJoePhaser
Admiral
Should've kept Riker that way.
Barclay, too, with his amazing spider powers.
Fish-girl Troi.
Enterprise's conference room meetings would be like the Legion of Doom.
BTW, was it Riker or Worf who murdered the helmsman? I think it was Riker. That's just the one we saw, who knows how many devolved crew killed other crew? Barclay may have sucked the insides out of someone.
And it's all giggles at the end from Beverly and her reconstructed face and Troi with her bite mark.
Barclay, too, with his amazing spider powers.
Fish-girl Troi.
Enterprise's conference room meetings would be like the Legion of Doom.
BTW, was it Riker or Worf who murdered the helmsman? I think it was Riker. That's just the one we saw, who knows how many devolved crew killed other crew? Barclay may have sucked the insides out of someone.
And it's all giggles at the end from Beverly and her reconstructed face and Troi with her bite mark.
And that there is why I hate this episode. Everything is just reset and hunky-dory at the end.
Nevermind the fact that there's CHILDREN on the ship who were effected by this "virus" and that if Riker's brain was "much smaller" he shouldn't of been able to even recover! How do you regenerate brain cells that've gone away?!
And if you can even regenerate the braincell how do you get it do what it did before? ArghhhH!!!
This COULD'VE been a cool episode if it was the crew reduced to their primal nature and not necessairly into animals and Worf's "Deevolved" "animal" was awesome but on the whole the episode is just dumb and makes not a lick of sense. And the "science", "plot" and "solution" in it REEK of Bragaisms that would become staples in Voyager.
Oh, Data's quarters JUST HAPPEN to independant computer systems.
Oh, Data can make a cure that JUST HAPPENS to revert the injected back to normal... IN MINUTES, even SECONDS!!!
Oh, Riker and Ogawa turn into early humans, fine. But Barcaly turns into a... spider?! And there's... COBWEBS all over engineering?! Huh?!
And worse of all is just the "reboot' ending where everyone is just fine and life is going on. Sure the ship was just moments ago in shambles (and there's a lame use of stock footage fo the ship fine in the middle of the crisis) someone killed Ensign Ricky at the helm, Cro-Worf has undoubtedly killed others in his "hunts", the children are likely traumatized for life, everyone has to be shooken up inside to their core. But, nope. Everything is just fine. Here's Deanna and Beverly just being all aloof and cracking jokes at Barclay's expense. Eveything is just great and dandy on the ship!
FUCK YOU BRANDON BRAGA!!!
Agreed, "The Royale" was much worse. But Genesis was a little whacked out too. I thought in the Trek world they say that humans evolved from monkeys... so why was Barclay a spider?
The Royale had an ounce ot two of fun to it though. That's an episode that's unfairly picked on.
I completely agree. During the great hating of "B&B" on this board during the late Voyager/Enterprise days, this was often held up as an example of Braga being a great writer. This was never something I understood. All the elements of a shitty Braga Voyager story are here in spades.
The ludicrous "science" premise - Trek has largely tried to stay in the realm of the plausible or semi-plausible with tech and science, when they need something to happen thats a bit out there, they invent a new particle or something. However, in this episode we're told "devolved humans" and that's it - and the humans devolve into the weirdest animals imaginable. A giant spider? Oh come on! It's as bad as Threshold where humans evolve into giant salamanders, and that followed on from a dodgy science plot too - are we noticing a pattern?
Randomly changing something established to suit the plot - Spot's pregnancy and the time "she" choses to give birth are remarkably convinient.
Technobbable solution - The cure derived from pregnant Ogawa was worthy of the worst of Voyager's convinient techy solutions.
Perfect drug - The cure reverses the entire progress of the disease including devastating physcial changes almsot instantly. The crew awake with barely a headache to show for it - Voyager would suffer similar stupidity when their crew were deliberately assimilated and returned to normal without a hitch. Borg nanoprobes continued to be a wonder drug throughout Voyager's run.
No consequences whatsoever - The crew return to normal, apparantly ignore the deaths of crewmen, joke about the situation, and move on without a backward glance. This is one of the most traumatic things to happen to the crew as a whole, well, ever, during the 7 year run of TNG. And it's just shrugged off.
Etc.
I actually couldn't care less if the science is rediculous in this episode, I find it very enjoyable and well directed. If I wanted to be convinced by theories on Evolution I would watch a documentary. This is supposed to be escapism after all.
We can "allow" the ridiculous science. I mean transporters and warp-drive have a few ounces of ridiculum to them. But my problem is the way it was used, the contrivances, and the way everything is just shrugged off and ignored at the end.
"Oh, I just accidently activated ALL of your T-Cells instead of one, so the crew de-evolved, people were killed, people were traumatized, the ship was put in shambles. But it's ok now. Ha ha ha ha. I even had my face burned off but I'm all happy and stuff now!"
God. This episode reeks of Bragaisms that would become staples in Voyager.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Braga is an.... "ok" writer. He's got some good ideas in his head. Good ideas that BECOME good and even awesome when ran through the wringer of someone much better than him Piller and RDM for example. But when he's got no one to run checks on him and tune in his idea? We get episodic silly CRAP.
The entire first season--save maybe "Too Short a Season"--is the "Spock's Brain" of TNG. "Code of Honor" is its Birth of a Nation.
What exactly is supposed to be done? All the chaos happened when the crew became incapable of sentient thought.
Personally, I found far too much of Season 7 to be full of this type of thing... "Sub Rosa" I found to be a much more odious episode than 'Genesis'... I mean, sure, the 'devolution' thing was pretty dumb, but come on, Sub Rosa is a frickin' GHOST STORY... in a Science Fiction TV series that normally debunks this crap... (yeah, I know... he was an 'Anaphasic Energy Being'... Tell me how that's not a ghost). And 'Genesis' did have the advantage of being watchable and entertaining if you kept repeating the MST3K mantra to yourself ("Just repeat to yourself it's just a show, I should really just relax."). "Sub Rosa" was not... at least to me...
Other episodes in the last season were just... lackluster. "Liasons" "Force of Nature', "Homeward" were all episodes that might have been more appropriate toward the beginning of the series, like Season 2 or 3... By Season 7, my standards were much higher for what I considered to be a satisfying episode...
This isn't to say there weren't good, even great episodes in Season 7 (Gambit, The Pegasus, and Lower Decks immediately spring to mind as 'great'), but, to me, it was by far the most uneven season in terms of quality, going from great to crap all over the place...
Other episodes in the last season were just... lackluster. "Liasons" "Force of Nature', "Homeward" were all episodes that might have been more appropriate toward the beginning of the series, like Season 2 or 3... By Season 7, my standards were much higher for what I considered to be a satisfying episode...
This isn't to say there weren't good, even great episodes in Season 7 (Gambit, The Pegasus, and Lower Decks immediately spring to mind as 'great'), but, to me, it was by far the most uneven season in terms of quality, going from great to crap all over the place...
^ Oh I don't think anyone's saying that Genesis was the worst episode of TNG, of even of its season. As you say, Sub Rosa is a billion times worse. It's a billion times worse than humans can comprehend, actually.
What we're comparing is the utter stupidity level of Genesis and Spock's Brain, and the Braga trademark storytelling techniques which would come to such fruition on Voyager.
What we're comparing is the utter stupidity level of Genesis and Spock's Brain, and the Braga trademark storytelling techniques which would come to such fruition on Voyager.
Condolence letter from Picard to the mother of the generic ensign Worf killed and ate on the bridge.
Dear Mrs Generic,
It is my sad duty to tell to you that your son Ensign Generic was lost in the line of duty. While playing god, our ship's surgeon accidentally infected the crew with a mutated t-cell that somehow became airborne and spread throughout the ship. As a result, our entire crew began to de-evolve and our Klingon security officer Lieutenant Worf transformed into prehistoric savage at at which point he killed and ate Ensign Generic leaving his body to rot at the helm console where I later found him. You'll be happy to know that we managed to cure Lt.Work and he is once again at his post, he appologizes for devouring your son and hopes you understand.
Best Regards,
Jean-Luc Picard
Dear Mrs Generic,
It is my sad duty to tell to you that your son Ensign Generic was lost in the line of duty. While playing god, our ship's surgeon accidentally infected the crew with a mutated t-cell that somehow became airborne and spread throughout the ship. As a result, our entire crew began to de-evolve and our Klingon security officer Lieutenant Worf transformed into prehistoric savage at at which point he killed and ate Ensign Generic leaving his body to rot at the helm console where I later found him. You'll be happy to know that we managed to cure Lt.Work and he is once again at his post, he appologizes for devouring your son and hopes you understand.
Best Regards,
Jean-Luc Picard
Genesis is harmless silly fun........if anything, It's the Bread and Circuses of TNG
Similar threads
- Locked