Thoughts On Season Seven
- Thread starter AdmiralScreed
- Start date
I just looked back at my categories again, and..............you're right. They are a little confusing. I'm going to go back and edit them.
I changed Decent/Below Average to Below Average, But Not Terrible.
Unfortunately, the episodes were slow and plodding even by TNG standards.
Look I am new here so everyone please understand I am not trying to start an argument, I am just addressing a few points.
The term “DNA sequencing” refers to a process used to determine the order of the nucleotides of a particular gene. All humans differ from each other in the sequence of their genetic code by about one base out of every 1000. Thus, when one human DNA sample is sequenced, that same sample taken from the next human will, of course, be different. The term “DNA re-sequencing” simply refers to re-sequencing that same segment from another source, looking for the differences in the alleles.
As applied to the episode “Genesis” the term “re-sequencing” or “re-sequenced” implies an active process in which the DNA of all the crew-members was being altered by a synthetic T-cell virus. In other words, the crews DNA was being actively changed in order to have it express a completely different genotype. This process is known as Mutation.
T-cell viruses are actually RNA retroviruses associated with cancer, a disease in which human cells are mutated into creating something they were not meant to create. Mutations of this type are typically severely detrimental to the host organism.
The T-cell referenced in the episode “Genesis” was said to be activating the “latent introns” of the crew. According to Biology Online, Introns are “non-coding, intervening sequences of DNA that are transcribed, but are removed from within the primary gene transcript”.
In other words they don’t code for anything, and certainly not for every evolutionary ancestor found in humanities past. One origin for Introns is that they originally were retroviruses themselves which attached to our genetic code and are now still along for the ride. But note that in the formation of mRNA (messenger RNA) they are deleted completely.
If Riker’s, and everyone else’s, latent Introns were being activated, any code they contained would have to be transcribed onto the Exons, or coding sequences, of the DNA. Such a process would lead, again, to genetic dysfunction, or disease, rather than genetic alteration leading to genetic re-expression.
So ultimately any such T-cell virus would simply kill the crew.
You brought up two other points. I know Troi was “de-evolving” into an Amphibian. My fish comment was meant to illustrate my point about demeaning the crew. I am trying to be delicate here. Especially as a woman.
As for half of the crew eating the other half, perhaps a bit of hyperbole, but since the crew was changing into all types of various creatures, all it would take is a few good snakes lurking around, a feral cat or two, a wolf, or even a grizzly bear, and, well, you get the idea.
Like I said, as nothing but entertainment, the episode did have its creep factor and was fine. But as a story the premise was ridiculous, the result of which allowed the writers to poke a bit of fun at the characters by demeaning them with what they turned into.
Picard a lemur. That would settle the old question of who was the better Captain between him and Kirk, wouldn’t you say?
First, thank-you for your response. This was another problem I had with the episode. Supposing a human could "de-evolve", they would not do so onto another branch of the evolutionary tree. Once they hit the "common ancestor" of man and ape, they would then have to "re-evolve" into an ape in order to become an ape. So again, the premise of the story seemed to have involved no more research than the "pitch an idea" discussion held around the Paramount cafe table.
I completely agree. It's probably my third favorite season next to season 6 and season 5, though I could be wrong because I've only seen each episode once and there are quite a few episodes from the earlier seasons that I can't remember. Still, there's no denying that it's an excellent season full of great stories and lots of character development. I think the final season went above and beyond, and I was fully satisfied with the way it ended the series. Almost makes me wish for a season 8......
Almost makes me wish for a season 8......
I would rather have had more seasons of the TV series than the movies we got.
Almost makes me wish for a season 8......
I would rather have had more seasons of the TV series than the movies we got.
True. Although, if the movies had been better written and if the studio hadn't gotten so involved I think the films would have turned out great (with the exception of First Contact which I believe was already great to begin with). Eliminate GEN completely, leave FC as is, find a way to tie INS into the Dominion War, and fire Stuart Baird and John Logan from NEM (not to mention fire Rick Berman from everything), and you've got a good TNG film trilogy that can hold its own against the TOS films.
Slap Patrick Stewart when he keeps asking to be put in increasingly convoluted and contrived action scenes and romances. The fans wanted him to get with Beverly Crusher, not some random chick like in Insurrection.
That scene made me really think "have these actors even watched the damn show!?"
Besides jump the shark and nuke the fridge we have bounce the buggy.
This is actually quite true! LOL When TNG "bounced the buggy."
Oh Nemesis. How filled you are with stupid scenes like this, retreading old plots and pointless dialog between Data and Picard. I wonder what the hell the actors were thinking. I think having a director that touted himself as not being a Trek fan, never watching Trek, etc. was an extremely poor decision... a point that was mentioned in every press release and preview of the film. Baird had no idea about the relationships on the show and everyone knows Gene's vision was at it's core about the characters and not about action scenes and things exploding.
Nothing like a rewatch of S7 to wash that ridiculous shit out of your memory. Gambit, Pre-emptive Strike, Genesis, Parallels, The Pegasus.... (sigh) Emergence.
And then there's my secret guilty pleasure
SubRosa
I said the same exact thing when I saw first saw it. I often wondered if the writers of the movies had actually ever seen the TV show.
Yep! My husband (who only causally watched ST) was watching Insurrection with me a few nights okay (there was nothing better on) and he said, "Hey, I thought I thought Picard and the Doctor were going to get together eventually?"
Amen to that! With the exception of "First Contact" the movies were like watching mid-season two-parters, and rather mediocre ones at that.
Have to add my own thoughts to the mix. The series could have gone another season or two had the studio people not been so keen on cancelling it and transferring it to the big screen for a new series of feature films. Hindsight may be 20-20 but thse guys were really blind.
Except that it didn't make for a good story.
What bothered me most about the episode wasn't the stupid science, though. It's been years since I've seen it, but if I remember right Beverly caused the whole incident in the first place, which resulted in the violent death of at least one crew member (there may have been more, I can't remember), and at the end of the episode she has a good chuckle about the whole thing. I mean, what's a few dead redshirts in the grand scheme of things?
Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but I just have this memory of thinking Beverly is psychotic.
You're remembering correctly. Neanderthal Will kills someone on the bridge, and I think Monster Worf eats a few guys as well. In the end it was just, "Oh, that Barclay, he's so crazy."
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