History Recap / StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E7UnnaturalSelection

DeadpanSnarker: Whether or not it was intentional remains a mystery:

* YoungerThanTheyLook: The characters affected by the antibodies. Riker says the ''Lantree'''s captain was his age, but his corpse looks about 100.

* GivenNameReveal: After the first season of appearing as various background characters, Creator/ColmMeaney got solidified into a transporter chief in this season, but this is the first episode where he's given the name O'Brien and treated as a real character. Season 4's "Family" later established that his full name is Miles Edward O'Brien (Miles being named after producer Rick Berman's nephew).

* RememberTheNewGuy: This is the first episode where Chief O'Brien is given his name and treated like a character, though he's actually appeared several times in his role this season, and actor Colm Meany appeared as various characters in the first season.

* GivenNameReveal: After the first season of appearing as various background characters, Creator/ColmMeaney got solidified into a transporter chief in this season, but this is the first episode where he's given the name O'Brien and treated as a real character. In season 4, he'd get the first name Miles in "Family" (named after producer Rick Berman's nephew) and the middle name Edward in "Data's Day".

** Captain Picard openly hugging Doctor Pulaski upon her healthy return, later episodes show Picard to be much more restrained and uptight with affection, especially towards members of his crew.

* Captain Picard openly hugging Doctor Pulaski upon her healthy return, later episodes show Picard to be much more restrained and uptight with affection, especially towards members of his crew.

* BittersweetEnding: The aging disease is cured, but the research staff must remain in quarantine and hope to find a way to fix their children's immune system so they don't spend their lives in isolation. The episode ends with the ''Enterprise'' destroying the ''Lantree'', whose crew remain dead.

** She faces her FantasticRacism toward Data. When they're working together, she's her typical rude and dismissive self until she gets infected. After her infection, Data stays with her for moral support and is instrumental in helping to find a cure. When she makes a crack about her health "working to specification" (like a android), she seems to genuinely regret her insult and gives an honest apology. After this episode, she's consistently more open-minded toward Data and appreciative of his unique talents.

-->'''O'Brien:''' Well, I'd have to get into the biofilter bus and patch in a molecular matrix reader. That's no problem. But the wave form modulator will be overloaded without the regeneration limiter in the first stage circuit.

[[caption-width-right:350:The scary thing about this aging makeup is that this isn't too far off from how Diana Muldaur actually looks like nowadays.]]

* BittersweetEnding: The aging disease is cured, but the research staff must remain in quarantine and hope to find a way to fix their children's immune system so they don't spend their lives in isolation. The episode ends with the ship destroying the ''Lantree'', whose crew remain dead.

* SmartPeoplePlayChess: It's implied that the genetically modified children are geniuses because we see them playing chess (using MindOverMatter).

* YoungerThanTheyLook: The characters affected by the antibodies. Riker says the ''Lantree'''s captain was his age--his corpse looks about 100.

Since it doesn’t matter anymore if she breaks quarantine, Pulaski heads to Darwin Station and talks to the doctors about their experiments. It turns out they’re biologically engineering superhuman children with telekinetic and telepathic powers and an aggressive resistance to disease. ''Overly'' aggressive, to the point that their immune system seeks out disease even before it reaches the children, including in the bodies of anyone nearby. Data does some quick research and puts together that it’s that very immune response that is causing the rapid aging in the people around them. He deems the process irreversible, and Pulaski sends word to the ''Enterprise'' that she will remain in quarantine in the station.

* TheChainsOfCommanding: Picard relieves O'Brien just before they make the attempt to save Dr. Pulaski, so that if they fail Picard will shoulder the responsibility of scattering her atoms across space.

Picard refuses to accept defeat and has Transporter Chief O’Brien (who is now a character) come up with some {{Technobabble}} that will undo the effects by using the transporter to screen out the changes to her DNA. It's a mad race to find a sample of Pulaski's DNA, which is complicated by the fact that she never uses transporters, and therefore there is no log of her DNA on record. Picard contacts her previous captain, who reveals that Pulaski was a huge fan of Picard's and jumped at the chance to serve with him. The crew eventually use a strand of her hair to get a DNA sample, and the process works. The scientists at the station are able to follow this example to save themselves. But there is no saving the ''Lantree'', and ''Enterprise'' is forced to destroy the entire ship, as the bridge crew stands to honor its crew.

Having evidently just noticed that he’s had a new chief medical officer since this season started, Picard decides to use his next mission, a rendezvous with a Starfleet medical courier, to judge Dr. Pulaski’s capabilities. But once again his mission is interrupted by a garbled distress call. The call is traced to the supply ship USS ''Lantree'', where the entire crew is found dead, having inexplicably undergone rapid aging after leaving the Darwin Genetic Research Station a few days prior. The ''Lantree'' is quarantined as the ''Enterprise'' heads for the station to investigate.

Darwin Station is found to be suffering from the exact same phenomenon, and the lead scientists insist that their subjects, genetically engineered children, need to be protected from it. Picard isn’t willing to risk sending anyone into the station but somehow has no qualms about encasing a child in solid plastic and beaming him aboard in order for Dr. Pulaski to examine him, and orders exactly that. After the initial examination reveals nothing dangerous, Picard and Pulaski argue over whether or not to release him from the plastic until Pulaski comes up with the compromise of examining him in a shuttlecraft to keep him away from the crew. She brings Data along for the examination, and of course, mere minutes after she releases the boy from his plastic cage she finds herself suffering the first symptoms of the mysterious ailment.

Since it doesn’t matter anymore if she breaks quarantine, Pulaski heads to Darwin Station and talks to the doctors about their experiments. It turns out they’re biologically engineering superhuman children with telekinetic and telepathic powers and an aggressive resistance to disease. ''Overly'' aggressive, to the point that said resistance seeks out disease even before it reaches the children--including in the bodies of anyone nearby. Data does some quick research and puts together that it’s that very immune response that is causing the rapid aging in the people around them. He deems the process irreversible, and Pulaski sends word to the ''Enterprise'' that she will remain in quarantine in the station. But Picard will have none of that, and has O’Brien come up with some {{Technobabble}} that will undo the effects by using the transporter to screen out the changes to her DNA. The process works, and the scientists at the station are able to follow this example to save themselves. But there is no saving the ''Lantree'', and ''Enterprise'' is forced to destroy the entire ship, as the bridge crew stands to honor its crew. Picard never does mention what he decides about Dr. Pulaski, though Troi goes out of her way to say that the two of them are a lot alike, so he probably ends up deciding that she’s just swell, even though she kind of got everything wrong in this episode.

* BittersweetEnding: The episode seems to be moving towards a happy ending, with Pulaski and the research station staff cured and back to their normal ages, and even an implication that Pulaski may have gotten over her fear of transporters. And then the mood veers sharply downwards as the ''Enterprise'' returns to the ''Lantree'' and destroys the ship to eliminate any trace of the contagion, with Pulaski commenting on the terrible price that ship's crew paid for the unintended results of the Darwin Station's research.

* CharacterDevelopment: Pulaski gets some much-needed development in this episode that nicely addresses some of her least-admirable traits.
** For a lot of fans, Pulaski was (and still is) best defined by her FantasticRacism toward Data, who she's constantly been disrespectful and dismissive toward. This episode has her pick him for a pilot purely because he wouldn't bear any ill effects if exposed to the virus, sarcastically writing off any ''actual'' qualities that would make him suitable. When they're working together she's her typical rude and dismissive self until she gets infected. After her infection Data stays with her for moral support and is instrumental in helping to find a cure; after this episode she's consistently shown to be more open-minded toward Data and appreciative of his unique talents.
** Pulaski was also openly stand-offish and seemed to love bucking authority whenever the opportunity arose, which naturally led to blows with Picard. She starts off full-force in this episode, constantly downplaying the risks of her medical procedure and winds up exposing herself to the virus for her troubles. She openly admits that her exposure was her own fault, and after this episode she's more careful to listen to the concerns of her crewmates and captain.

** And it ''still'' doesn't occur to them [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E7Rascals the next time it's implemented under opposite circumstances]].

* YoungerThanTheyLook: The characters affected by the antibodies. Riker says the ''Lantree'''s captain was his age--his corpse looks about 200.

* IgnoredEpiphany: When Pulaski mispronounces Data's name and he corrects her, she speculates that Data taking umbrage at the mispronunciation is an emotional response. Throughout the series Data displays wonder, confusion and surprise (among other things), which are all emotions. But Pulaski is the only character who ever makes this point, and she never mentions it again after this episode.

* HollywoodOld: ZigZagged. Diana Muldaur gets extensive makeup, but the Darwin Station scientists are all older actors rather than aged up younger actors, though some of them are still aged-up.

** For a lot of fans, Pulaski was (and still is) best defined by her FantasticRacism toward Data, who she's constantly been disrespectful and dismissive toward. This episode has her pick him for a pilot purely because he wouldn't bear any ill effects if exposed to the virus, sarcastically writing off any ''actual'' qualities that would make him suitable. When they're working together she's her typical rude and dismissive self until he gets infected. After her infection Data stays with her for moral support and is instrumental in helping to find a cure; after this episode she's consistently shown to be more open-minded toward Data and appreciative of his unique talents.

Darwin Station is found to be suffering from the exact same phenomenon, and the lead scientists insist that their subjects, genetically engineered children, need to be protected from it. Picard isn’t willing to risk sending anyone into the station but somehow has no qualms about encasing a child in solid plastic and beaming him aboard in order for Dr. Pulaski to examine him, and orders exactly that. After the initial examination reveals nothing dangerous, Picard and Pulaski argue over whether or not to release him from the plastic until Pulaski comes up with the compromise of examining him in a shuttlecraft to keep him away from the crew. She brings Data along for the examination, [[SarcasmMode because they have such an effective dynamic together]], and of course, mere minutes after she releases the boy from his plastic cage she finds herself suffering the first symptoms of the mysterious ailment.

* HollywoodOld: ZigZagged. Diana Muldaur gets extensive makeup, but the Darwin Station scientists are all older actors rather than aged up younger actors.