Genesis (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

"Genesis" is a seventh-season Star Trek: The Next Generation episode.

Template:Spoiler Worf fires a torpedo that veers off course, and Captain Picard and Data go off to retrieve it from space. Data leaves his pregnant cat, Spot with Barclay. Meanwhile, Barclay begins to feel sick, so Dr. Crusher gives him a synthetic T-cell to activate one of his dormant genes. Unfortunately, it activates all of them.

People on the ship begin to feel fatigued and either hot or cold. Worf begins to act especially strange. While Deanna Troi feels cold, Worf feels hot. Worf ends up attacking Dr. Crusher.

When they have retrieved the torpedo from space, Captain Picard and Data return to find the ship adrift, with the main power offline. One of the conn officers is dead, torn open in his seat. Most of the crew are devolving. Worf has turned into a monstrous creature capable of destroying doors. Riker is now caveman-like. Troi has become an amphibian and needs to stay in her bathtub to survive. Barclay himself has become spider-like. Picard is overcome by irrational emotions, indicating that he has been infected and will soon devolve into a primate similar to a lemur. They find some members of the crew who have de-evolved. Deanna Troi de-evolved into an amphibian who had been extinct for millions of years. On the run from Worf, they end up finding Spot's kittens. Spot herself has changed into an iguana. The kittens are normal, indicating it is the process of pregnancy which might be a cure. Data gets to work.

In the end, Data releases a substance into the air which returns everyone to their original state. The virus is named after Barclay (Barclay's Protomorphosis Syndrome, see Spot).

Trivia

• This was the only Next Generation episode directed by Gates McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher).

• In Sickbay, Worf sprays Dr. Crusher with venom in his newly de-evolved state. In the next scene, Nurse Ogawa states that she was able to put Dr. Crusher into stasis to prevent further degradation in her condition. One of the main reasons for this plot development was so that Gates McFadden would have less screen time and more time directing the episode.

• In this episode Spot is pregnant, however in the seventh series episode [Phantasm's [1]] data says

Data: "And he will require water. And you must provide him with a sandbox. And you must talk to him. Tell him he is a pretty cat, and a good cat, and--" this clearly states spot is a male. However in this episode spot is female