Well, at least they got Reg Barclay's (Dwight Schultz) Terellian Death Syndrome and Symbalene Blood Burn out of the way early, so the story could move on to the Enterprise becoming infected by an intron virus caused by a synthetic T-cell Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) experimented with on Barclay to alleviate his hypochondria. The resultant de-evolving of the entire crew had different repercussions for everyone, with Lieutenant Worf (Michael Dorn) living out the dream fantasy of Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis) in the previous episode, 'Eye of the Beholder', and biting her on the neck in a moment of aggressive passion. Right after, Worf began mouth spraying venom to further the infection, with Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) turning into a caveman, or at least like one of those guys in the Geico commercials. Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Commander Data (Brent Spiner) had all this to come back to after retrieving an errant torpedo via shuttlecraft, so they missed the initial hysteria. Leave it to Data though, his analytical mind saved the day while the Captain was beginning to succumb to the effects of the syndrome himself, getting increasingly paranoid and on the verge of panic. Hypothesizing that dormant and prehistoric genes in humans and other species were reawakened by the intron virus, he concocted a way to reverse the process and bring all thousand people aboard the Enterprise back to normal. Which was quite a feat in the case of Counselor Troi, who was breathing her bath water with the help of gills that developed in her metamorphosis. Besides the major positive outcome, Dr. Crusher found a way to calm Barclay down following his turn as a spider, and awarded him by naming the problematic virus the Barclay's Protomorphosis Syndrome. That had quite a ring to it.
Review of Genesis
"Before I start swinging through the ship looking for breakfast, we better find some answers."
25 April 2024
Warning: Spoilers