The plot holes, oh dear.
First of all, I want to stress that this episode has a good premise, even though it ultimately contradicts established canon with regard to genetic engineering (which has long been forbidden in the Federation since the Eugenics Wars). Where it falls short is the execution.
We have a deus ex Data: Because he "has a way with computers", something that should take "months" (sequencing a complex genome) is done in the space between two scenes. It serves to rush the story ahead, much too quickly.
We also have a deus ex transporter: While I believe that the filter O'Brien (and team) put together can reverse DNA changes, I don't believe for one second that reverting the DNA changes also undoes their effects on things that aren't DNA. Once you age, you're aged. There's no reversing that. (Well, there is… Star Trek is full of "magical" medical devices that could undo those effects, at least cosmetically, but the transporter process shown wouldn't do it.)
This episode's pacing is its worst attribute. The script spends too much time creating the problem, and has to skip over (or hand-wave, as above) a lot of the problem-solving. A technical solution that nobody has ever tried before (and is, of course, pulled out of some engineer's ass under pressure) is par for the course with this kind of Trek story—the franchise uses this formula over and over and over again—but it usually manages to feel much less forced.
While not as bad as I remembered (maybe I've just learned to live with Pulaski?), this isn't a good episode of TNG. It's just barely passable.
Picard displayed a lot of discomfort at the beginning while he talked about Dr. Pulaski with Troi. I see no apperent reason why this should be the case. I have to admit that when I saw this episode on the original run I somewhat wished that they wouldn't solve this problem because I never liked Pulaski and this episdoe is a good example why not.
Now, If I remember it correctly, the character was brought on the show to get closer to the big three of the original series between Kirk, Spock and McCoy. She even inherited some trademarks of McCoy like his transporter phobia and his pestered remarks with Spock (in the case of Pulaski that would be with Data). The difference being, that between McCoy and Spock you could always tell one respected the other, while Pulaski seemed to reject Data. Also McCoy could be very stubborn, too, with Pulaski it never really worked the way the producers wanted it.
On a different toppic: did O'Brien ever gave back his officers patent ? He was a Lieutenant on board the Enterprise but "just" the chief engineer on DS9 without any rank.
[6.5/10] When I think of the platonic ideal of a Star Trek episode, I imagine one where the crew encounters some bewildering sci-fi phenomenon, an exciting challenge that must be overcome, and characters learning something about themselves and one another in the process. Several of the franchise’s high water marks (including TNG’s “Best of Both World”) follow that pattern. There’s more to it than just checking those boxes, but it’s a good foundation upon which to build any Trekian story.
“Unnatural Selection” has each of those things. The wild sci-fi phenomenon this week is a mysterious pathogen that causes those infected to prematurely age. The exciting challenge is whether our heroes can use an experimental transporter process to cure the Enterprise’s chief medical officer before she ages to death. And the character stakes come in the form in the initially-shaky but quick-developing working relationship between Captain Picard and Dr. Pulaski. The basic elements are all there.
So why doesn’t this episode rate higher? Because “Unnatural Selection” doesn’t do much more than check those boxes. The “rapidly aging” thing is interesting for about a minute. It doesn’t really come into play as anything more than a gimmick. The real meat here is in how to quarantine and kill the virus. It could kill the host in a thousand different ways and not make any difference to the plot.
The truth is that it’s an excuse for the make-up team to bust out some old age makeovers, but the results are laughable. Dr. Pulaski just ends up looking like she’s wearing a cheesy rubber Halloween mask, and it frankly looks like the techniques haven’t improved since TOS’s similar rapid-aging episode, “The Deadly Years”, more than twenty years earlier. Diana Muldaur tries to rasp up her voice a bit, but even there, the pure acting choices do little to convince the viewer that any of this is really happening, let alone worth investing in.
The same goes for the problem itself and the solution. The thematic question “Unnatural Selection” asks how to balance the need to take steps to protect individuals out of a moral duty versus the need to protect whole crews and the greater good out of utilitarian (and Vulcan) principle. It’s a solid theme, with Pulaski representing the “duty to save my patients” ideal and Picard represents the “protect my ship and its crew” counterpoint.
The show dramatizes that idea over questions of whether to beam up the seemingly unaffected children of the infected Federation outpost, at the risk of infecting the ship, or to simply quarantine the whole colony to avoid any further collateral damage. Most of these debates feel academic, but there’s something to Pulaski hearing Picard’s concerns and finding a middle ground, ultimately examining a single child on a shuttlecraft, so that if things go sideways, she’ll be the only one affected. It’s a smart, comprehensible solution to the problem.
The same can’t be said for the other developments in the episode. Data (who comes along with Pulaski to the outpost after her shuttlecraft experiment goes wrong) discovers the source of the pathogen when he computes the interaction between a local flu and the genetically-engineered kids’ unique autoimmune response. Chief O’Brien(!) figures out a way to use a sample from pre-infection Pulaski + the transporter and a heap of Treknobabble to scrub her of the virus. These are all mechanical, arbitrary solutions to the problems that don’t carry any dramatic weight. Sure, there’s a few bumps in the road that show it’s not a primrose path to arrive at these solutions, but the show doesn’t earn them so much as have its characters nigh-magically divine them.
Even the Pulaski-Picard material is a mixed bag. There’s some solid arcs for both of them here. Picard is against taking any extra measures to aid the outpost’s scientists because he doesn’t want to risk his crew contracting the illness. But when Pulaski herself is infected, he makes saving her a priority and even mans the transporter controls so as to make saving her or jettisoning her atoms his personal responsibility. Likewise, while Pulaksi is more apt to take individual risks in the hopes of saving a handful of the kids from the outpost, she halts any extraordinary measures to treat her without knowing the cause of the illness out of a concern for the greater health of the ship. By the end, each sees the merits of the other’s position, and that’s good nuts and bolts writing.
Picard and Pulaski also go from testy colleagues to a mutual appreciation society. Picard basically asks Troi if she should get rid of Pulaski and politely snipes at her for interrupting him. Pulaski jumps in to have her say and seems to find the Captain difficult to work with. But when he looks into, Picard discovers that Pulaski is not only dedicated like no other but specifically admired Picard’s leadership and wanted the transfer, while Pulaski sees that Picard is fair and let’s her proceed to try her experimental testing when he sees her trying to address his concerns and work within his limits. There’s warmth when Jean-Luc grabs her by the shoulders upon her successful return and welcomes her back from this dicey, harrowing experience.
It just all plays as very muted and artificial up to that point. The infrastructure is there, but the human element is at a remove. So much of the events of “Unnatural Selection” scan as dry or mechanical (something ironic given Dr. Pulaski’s skeptical treatment of Data). The show even aims to go for some philosophy/poetry here, with the genetically-engineered kids turning out to be the cause of the aging disease, meant to be some statement about playing god and the nature of evolution. But it’s undercooked and jumbled, with the point unclear beyond the usual “We’ve meddled with unknowable forces and suffered the consequences” routine.
It just goes to show that there’s more to crafting a great or even good episode of Star Trek than just following a formula. Even a sturdy plot won’t feel much more than satisfactory with more vivid characters, endearing interactions, engaging conflicts, and earned solutions. All the pieces are there in “Unnatural Selection”, but TNG can’t find a way to make them more than the sum of their parts.
(As an aside, I believe the Kirk-era Enterprise performed a similar teleporter cure after Kirk and Spock had been turned into sea monkeys -- don’t ask -- in “The Ambergris Element” from The Animated Series, so there should theoretically be at least some precedent for O’Brien’s plan here. But TAS’s level of canon is fuzzy at best, so take that with a grain of salt.)
EDIT 7/6/2021: I just realized that it's not "The Ambergris Element" from TAS where a similar transporter solution was used, but rather "The Counterclock Incident". And what's notable about this difference is that the technique wasn't used to reverse Kirk and Spock's mermaid transformation, but rather, to deal with the crew of the original Enterprise rapidly de-aging! So there's even more precedent for using this process to combat unnatural aging-related issues!
This episode has some of the flimsiest science of any Star Trek episode ever… reversing aging using DNA and the transporter? Doctor exposing herself to potentially fatal disease that they don't understand? Then Picard brings her back onto the ship in an attempt to save her and doesn't use any of the precautions he insisted on before?
plus a gaping plot hole in that I thought genetic engineering was outlawed in the Federation cf Khan and later Bashir and crew? You might argue Dr Kingsley's group was operating outside of the Federation but then why were they being supplied by a Starfleet vessel?
Ehh... the teleporters are already basically magic anyways, so sure, let's make them be able to do even more nonsensical things.
I've always viewed Star Trek teleporters as a practical means to an end, rather than anything else. Back in the 60s, it would've been far too expensive and difficult to show a shuttle leaving the Enterprise and landing on different planets. So, they had this magical teleporter plot device to explain how the characters can just appear on planets (or vice versa, characters appearing on the Enterprise), and that justifies them simply placing the actors in the set. And then once teleporters existed in the canon, they had to keep using them.
It's far from the biggest plot hole, but - why didn't they use the DNA they have on file in Starfleet to do the same reverse-DNA-swap thing on the dead Lantree crew? It's already been established that Star Trek medicine is capable of reviving people from death in certain situations. Surely if the dead crew were returned to their previously healthy state, they could be revived?
Killing all the people on the ship at the end of the episode seems like a crime against humanity. Also, wasn't genetic engineering outlawed?
It's like TOS' The Deadly Years. Another episode that explores a concept that I just don't buy and that is hard to execute: make-up is hard to get right and – as we have already found out in TNG's first season episode Too short a Season – it' difficult to play old people. It's also an episode about DNA manipulation. That's at least a relevant issue and bumps up the ranking a bit. Overall, it's another medicore episode, because that's a recycled theme from the classic Star Trek canon w/o adding anything of substance. On one hand the solution to the problem is sci-fi at its best, on the other hand it's so far-fetched that it ruins the ending. If they could do this, you just need a sample of your "younger self" and you can "transport your youth back"?
Am I now supposed to like Pulaski? I still don't like her. Some say she's a strong and brave woman with an opinion. I say: she's a social nightmare and deserves not be liked. Especially Data should hate her if he were capable to.
This episode was okay. I liked the problem and the race to a solution. It was a tad quick. My main issue is genetics. I may be new to Trek history but I can always count on the comments here when I think of a franchise wide slap in the face such as genetically engineering people. After DS9 I know that was apparently forbidden so what is this? Are those Drs not starfleet?
They wanted to do another beach that makes you old episode but they only had the budget to make one actor old
Idc how hot Pulaski was on TOS.. She needs some serious gorilla tape over that gob now.
I think it is an interesting concept, that has been hinted at in other programs, however I think it was done well in the vain of the aptitude of Dr. Pulaski. As I wrote earlier, the concept is one that I think will be explored throughout time, and then reexplored from the opposite side of the lense when genetic engineering does actually happen in humans. It is a cautionary tale of maybe genetic engineering might not be the way or maybe it is....
Such a well done episode this one. Active immune systems; seek and destroy those bacteria! What a terrible mistake!!
Shout by Galileo5BlockedParent2017-07-07T21:57:25Z
Pulaski is the Jar Jar Binks of the Star Trek universe. No doubt about that.