I didn't expect this to be a Good episode. I did not even remember it from my first viewing. But man, there are some powerful moments in this one. Twice it brought tears to my eyes. Seriously.
The episode starts with Picard struggling with his new Chief Medical Officer. He finds her to be a capable and devoted officer, but can't get over the fact that she's just an insufferable bitch. He doesn't come out and say that, but it's strongly implied by several euphemisms throughout the show. For instance, Riker refers to her as "a woman with very strongly held opinions," which I'm pretty sure is the dictionary definition of "bitch." She won't even let the captain finish his sentences. We'll get back to that in awhile.But first the crew answers a distress call from a Star Fleet ship and moves to help them. When they don't respond, Picard takes over the ship with his security code "omicron omicron alpha yellow daystar two seven," which he rattles off like the last four of his social. For some reason I found it hilarious. Once the view screen is under their control, the crew finds that the crew of the other ship are all dead, apparently of accelerated aging. Pulaski diagnoses the cause of death as natural causes while standing on the bridge of the Enterprise, having never examined them. Man, she's good! They quarantine the ship, and head for their last known stop, which happens to be the Darwin Genetic Research Station. Hmmm, I don't like the sound of that. I bet there's a connection.
Sure enough, everyone on the station are rapidly aging as well. Except the children, who are special in some way that the scientists don't seem inclined to share. But at any rate, they are immune, and therefore the scientists plead for the Enterprise to remove them. Though I'm not so sure why, actually. If they're immune, what's the big hurry? Anyway they go ahead and beam one of the children up in stasis and surrounded by a full body condom, just to try it out. The child is supposed to be 12 years old, but he is full size. In fact, he's quite handsome. A perfect human specimen. Eventually, after much prodding, they discover that the children on the station were not just genetically engineered, they were created by the scientists. I'm not sure what that means, but it's spooky. Pulaski believes strongly that it would be okay for the child to be released from the condom, but Picard says they can't risk it. She comes up with the idea to put him on a shuttle, and then release him, so she would be the only one potentially exposed. She digs in for another good argument, but instead the captain grants her request, as he sees that she is doing her best to accommodate his wishes. It was unexpected, and brought a hint of a tear to my eye. I was expecting her to defy him and steal a shuttle, but instead he trusted her and granted permission. It was a well-played scene.On the shuttle, Pulaski wakes the man/boy and immediately starts showing symptoms of the disease. So, mistakes were made. Since she's already infected, her and Data head to the research station. There they figure out what is actually going on. The children's immune systems are so aggressive that they have emitted some sort of offense to the flu that happens to corrupt other human's DNA. Since the DNA itself has been altered, there is no way to reverse it. Bummer. But on the ship they are technobabbling a solution using the transporter. Essentially, if they can use the stored genetic signature of Pulaski, and beam her aboard while restoring her old DNA code, she would be put back to normal. It's just like using restore points on a computer. Alright here we go again with the ever under-utilization of transporters. If this is possible, why don't they use this more often? Get shot by a phaser? No problem, we'll just run you through the transporter and re-assemble you as you were before. Getting too old? No worries, we have your transporter signature from when you were in your twenties, we'll just put you back there.
There's only one problem with this plan, and that is that Pulaski has never used their transporters because she has a phobia. They contact her last post, and they do not have a transporter signature either. But Picard does learn something- Pulaski left her last post because she has a huge respect for Picard and wanted to work with him. Her last boss says she was obsessed with Picard, and memorized his service record forwards and back. Picard starts to feel a bit guilty for thinking that she's such a bitch. Anyway, instead of using transporter memory they just get some DNA off her hairbrush. Picard runs the controls himself, since a possible outcome is having to abort and just beam her into space. But it works, and Pulaski and the others are saved. Unfortunately they can never come in contact with their created children, but you know, whatever. Picard and Pulaski share a moment where they discuss the irony of her greatest fear being the only thing that could save her, and that her irrational feeling that her molecules might just end up floating unassembled across space forever was in this case a very real possibility.And now for the second moment brought tears to my eyes. The crew actually returns to the ship of dead geriatrics and ceremoniously destroys it while everyone on the bridge stands out of respect and observes a brief moment of silence. This is the type of follow up that the show often lacks. We are often left wondering whatever happened to that ship or this station, and did they ever even have a funeral for Ensign Redshirt? In this case we are shown exactly how these situations are dealt with, and it was touching to see.
Published May 18, 2018.
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