By Chris Snellgrove | Published
As a Star Trek writer, I spend a lot of time delving into the production details of my favorite episodes. I often find cool, behind-the-scenes things that make me enjoy these stories more. However, from time to time, I will find something shocking. Namely, that my favorite creators really hate what I consider their best work.
A perfect example of this is Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode “Evolution,” written by Michael Piller. The episode is so good that it landed him a gig as a TNG actor, and he almost single-handedly ushered in the franchise’s Golden Age. Because of this, I always thought that Piller must be proud of the story he created. However, he actually hated “Evolution,” the episode that helped him make the most important deal of his entire career.
Boy (Genius), Disturbed
In case you don’t have the full android memory, here is the recap. “Evolution” was about a business that helps a mysterious genius to check the explosions of stars that happen every 196 years, which is the equivalent of the Old Faithful universe. Meanwhile, Wesley Crusher is conducting scientific research and accidentally releases nanites on a ship. They’re volatile and cause chaos, but after a few setbacks, Picard reaches a diplomatic solution, getting the nanites to their planet in time to help a visiting scientist complete the research he’s spent a lifetime working on.
It’s a really good episode, one that many fans think writer Michael Piller should be proud of. However, the future TNG showrunner disagreed with this assessment. As recorded in Captain’s Log: The Complete Unauthorized Journeyhe later said that “Evolution” was ultimately “a B-episode.” His biggest concern (shared by Michael Wagner, who helped develop the story as a whole) was that “I didn’t have an ending.” While there were “character scenes” he was “very proud of,” he ended up worrying that the episode “didn’t come out.”
The Cranky Ghost Is Coming
Interestingly, episode director Winrich Kolbe shared some of Piller’s concerns with “Evolution.” The director enjoyed the plot about a scientist who “tried to push a certain issue and then found out that there were consequences that he did not expect, which is the inability to control the nanites.” He felt that this was a “serious story” that was “not handled properly” because it was a Wesley-centered episode and “everyone looked at it as child’s play, even the writers.”
That last one was directed at Piller, who saw the episode as an opportunity to (ahem) change Wesley Crusher’s character. He intended visiting scientist Paul Stubbs to be a cautionary tale of what Wesley could grow up to be if he continued to focus solely on his studies. “Evolution” is very successful at that, and it’s a great episode to show friends who hate the genius of Star Trek teenagers. But Kolbe felt that the episode spent too much time on Wesley and not enough on the nanites, who were at the heart of the episode’s moral dilemma: that is, whether to put them down as dangerous parasites or accept them as a new way of life (albeit unconventional).
Michael Piller may not have been a big fan of “Evolution,” but the idea was not shared by Star Trek producer Rick Berman. Piller’s writing (complete with baseball talk that impressed Berman, a big fan of the sport) helped him land a job as a sports producer. The Next Generation. After turning the show into must-see TV, he continued to create Deep Space Nine again Voyagercementing this era as the Golden Age of Star Trek. In the end, none of this would have happened without “Evolution,” an episode that kills everyone but its author completely. loved.
