In my mind, “Genesis” is the ultimate Braga-run-amuck episode. It’s his usual “weird shit goes down aboard the Enterprise” schtick, but with the last shreds of logic and restraint thrown out the window. The man who penned the fantastic “Cause and Effect” two seasons ago, and various lesser-but-often-still-pretty-good (if usually sillier) episodes since, completes his “de-evolution” as a writer with this piece of work. Silly without being funny, “out there” in a way that neglects to be fun or thought-provoking or remotely believable, and bereft of any depth, character development, or “heart,” it epitomizes all of Braga’s weaknesses. As a result, while there are, I’m sure, some that like it, it’s generally pretty reviled. I can remember a time when I myself was somewhat more tolerant of it (years ago, I might have called it ridiculous yet entertaining); at present, however, I find little to recommend in it.
I hardly need to say too much about the absurdity of the “de-evolving” premise, beyond registering my official complaint that it’s several steps too far down the road of dumb, bastardized science for my tastes. Unfortunately, though, that’s not even the worst thing about the episode. I could maybe (maybe) look past the silliness of this premise (I mean, I’d still mention it, but perhaps with more of a hand-wave) if a) the episode had found a way to make it happen that I could at least sort of buy into, and b) it had then led somewhere interesting. But neither of these things are true of “Genesis.” For a scenario in which the entire crew disastrously de-evolves, and everyone very nearly ends up dead, to come about merely because of some careless mistake make by Dr. Crusher that everyone pretty much just shrugs off at the end of the episode, is just plain stupid, and my suspension of disbelief simply will not make allowance for it. And then… Look, I’m not saying that I’ve got any bright ideas about how an actually interesting story might, hypothetically, have been squeezed out of this premise; I’m just saying that the episode that Braga wrote doesn’t manage to tell such a story. It’s basically just Picard and Data returning to a ship full of weird crew-creatures, wandering around encountering the transformed versions of the other characters, and then eventually magically fixing the situation via a ho-hum solution. What we’re mostly supposed to enjoy, I guess, is the multiple iterations of suspense-then-reveal concerning what the various characters have turned into, but honestly, I’m pretty much over it before this even gets going. Worse, most of the attempted humor ends up being, just a bit, unfairly at the characters’ expense, in that snarky and diminishing way that I tend to hate. Haha, look, Riker got dumber! And that crazy Barclay…isn’t his hypochondria just the silliest? (Notably absent, alas, is any sign of the progress that Barclay has made since his debut on the show in terms of managing his neuroses—i.e., the relatable and not-silly stuff that actually makes him an interesting character.) The episode can’t even be bothered to come up with a unique “de-evolution” for each of the characters, even though the bullshit premise is tailor-made to justify exactly that; what happened to Geordi, or was going to happen to Crusher if she hadn’t been put in stasis? And even the characters whose transformations we do see don’t seem very inspired. “Became a proto-human and thus got dumber” seems to have been the big “idea” for Riker, for instance, but it seems to me that everyone basically lost their sapience; why is this only really talked about in his case? For chrissake, Troi for some reason ensconces herself in her bathtub while wearing her uniform, before she has even undergone any visible transformation! But perhaps my least favorite thing of all about “Genesis” is how it takes the embryonic (and already deeply tenuous) notion of the developing intimacy between Worf and Troi, and, at a time when the show has yet to even definitively make it into a real “thing,” turns it into a horribly tacky joke, first by having them snipe at each other in an irritating and cliched way, and then by making the de-evolved Worf into a scary threat because of how intent he is on “mating” with fish-Troi. This would be both awkward and disturbing to any real people who experienced such events, but it never even gets explicitly addressed between the characters; it’s just a kind of subtextual joke in very poor taste.
Having said all of that, I gave “Genesis” two stars rather than just one because, although I don’t like it, I don’t quite actually hate it, either. Picard and Data exploring and investigating together isn’t totally without its charms, if you can get past how ludicrously understated their reactions (or Picard’s, anyway) to the whole situation are. In fact, honestly, you sort of have to take a step back and laugh at the way they take the (both horrifying and beyond-ridiculous) situation in stride—and if you do, it ends up being the most (unintentionally?) funny thing about the whole episode. Beyond that, I’m not sure if I can adequately explain why my response to this episode is more eye-rolling mockery that outright loathing, but…it is. Maybe it’s enough to say that, as dumb as this episode is, it still more closely resembles the show that I tune in to watch than do the likes of “Masks” or “Sub Rosa.” It also takes itself a good deal less seriously than either of those pieces of garbage, which earns it a measure of indulgent (if reluctant) tolerance from me; it’s like, if you’re gonna be silly and dumb, at least don’t pretend to be anything more than that! So, all right, Braga, you got it out of your system; now can we move on, and maybe do something worthwhile with the handful of episodes that this show has left?