Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 50: Evolution (1987) Review

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(More customer reviews)Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) is back for the beginning of the 3rd season, replacing Dr. Kate Polaski. The story was that she was at Starfleet Medical for the year, but in reality, Gates McFadden was pregnant and had been filmed from the chest up at the last of the 1st season as it was. Wesley is working himself cockeyed - when he's not working on the bridge of the Enterprise, he's studying astro physics, temporal mechanics and other Stephen Hawkings-esque subjects to prepare for his entrance exam to enter Starfleet.
Working with nanites (microscopic robots) on his own experiment, he has to help a Starfleet Scientist, Dr. Paul Stubbs (Ken Jenkins), with an experiment of his own. Stubbs has made it his life's work to study a rare phenomenon with a Neutrino star that only occurs once every 196 years. A lot of progress with sensors and measuring instruments in the previous 2 centuries gives Stubbs the opportunity to become the Carl Sagan of his own 24th Century generation.
The Enterprise is at Stubb's disposal to assist him with the project. As they move closer to observe the stellar matter between a nearby planet and the pulsating sun, the Enterprise starts going ape. Suddenly they find themselves hurtling toward a giant star that will turn them all into futuristic pork rinds and nothing is working. No shields, no tractor beams, no sensors and their controls do not even respond. Suddenly, the Enterprise behaves normally and when Picard asks, "Computer! Identify malfunction immediately!", the computer (Majel Barret-Roddenberry) replies, "there has been no malfunction."
Well this is just dandy! The only thing keeping these star-faring astronauts from death is the Enterprise, and they don't seem to be in control of her anymore. All sorts of tests are run to no avail. Wesley returns to his quarters to resume his experiments with his nanites and when he looks in the container he kept them in, he finds that they are missing.
Can the 2 missing microscopic robots have anything to do with a systems-wide failure on the flagship of the Federation. Reluctantly, Wesley informs the senior staff and it turns out that these 2 little metalic stinkers have been harvesting tiny parts of the ship to make more of themselves - and collectively have become self-aware, sentient and able to control the Enterprise.
Stubbs cannot believe what is going on. He at first laughs in the face of their first scary speed bump, but when the nanites threaten to ruin his shot at studying the rarely seen phenomenon, he goes lulu, with more concern for his life's work than for the over 1,000 souls aboard the Enterprise. In a desparate act to halt the nanites, he uses a phaser to destroy millions of them and they don't take it lightly.
An interesting show with mind provoking subject matter for the armchair philosopher.

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