by Chris Snelgrove
| Published
Season three of Star Trek: The Next Generation It was a fresh start for the series functionally: under new showrunner Michael Piller, the series got a sleek new costume, improved writing, and new, memorable characters. However, what fans of the character were most interested in was the return of Beverly Crusher, the ship's doctor who had previously been replaced by the less popular Doctor Katherine Pulaski. Crusher returned to support her son, the generally disliked character Wesley Crusher, and Beller later revealed that Wesley's annoying personality in the season 3 premiere “Evolution” was what led to Dr. Crusher's “return to the series”.
this The next generation In this episode, the Enterprise escorts an eccentric doctor to a cosmic phenomenon… a kind of interstellar Old Faithful that explodes every 196 years. Plans to study this historical event go sideways as more of the ship's systems begin to behave erratically, and it becomes clear that Wesley Crusher has accidentally released some nanites that have replicated, evolved, and lodged themselves at the heart of the Enterprise's computer. Tensions rise when the visiting scientist kills some of the small creatures, but after realizing that the nanites have become sentient beings, Captain Picard does what he does best: negotiate peace without further bloodshed.
Where does Beverly Crusher fit into the “Evolution” story? She's happy to be back at the Enterprise and even happier to see her son again (she spent a year in charge of Starfleet Medical), but she's starting to worry that Wesley Crusher is focusing too much on his studies and not enough on enjoying being a young man. The two plots intersect when her care for the feisty Wesley is what finally leads him to come clean about accidentally releasing nanites on the ship.
According to the writer “Evolution” W TNG The show called for Michael Piller, Wesley Crusher's arc in this episode for the return of Beverly Crusher. Beller eventually realizes that the lonely, obsessive scientist in this episode “is Wesley forty years later, if he stays on the path of being the smart kid who devotes himself to his work and doesn't seem to have much going on in his life.” Life.” Beller famously assigned episodes to help our favorite characters evolve in some way and took his own advice in “Evolution,” realizing this was an opportunity to “help Wesley grow” and bring Beverly Crusher back.
Part of Biller's genius was his innate understanding that TNG episodes had to have equal appeal Science fiction Geeks and general audiences. So, while sci-fi fans were obsessed with the A-plot involving nanites, it had a more “human level” B-plot about Beverly Crusher dealing with a very real parental fear: “My son is not having a normal childhood.” “We know a lot of kids like that,” Beller said, and after seeing the ordeal happen so commonly in real life, he “had a feeling there was a need” for the film “Evolution.”
“Evolution” ended up being a great episode of The next generationbut it's very interesting to note that fan-favorite character Beverly Crusher probably wouldn't have returned to the show if it weren't for Wesley Crusher, arguably the most hated character. Ironically, actor Wesley Crusher Wil Wheaton He left the show (except for a few later cameos) after the third season, but Beverly Crusher actor Gates McFadden stayed on for the remainder of TNG and later became a central character in Picard Season 3.
I felt her return in the later show excellent Because it is difficult to imagine a The next generation story without her, but just think: we wouldn't have gotten any more Beverly Crusher stories at all if Michael Piller hadn't realized that Wesley Crusher needed to “grow up” and “move on to a relationship with a girlfriend.” early TNG The episodes were all about Wesley inexplicably saving the day, but this time, he did more than that: he saved Gates McFadden's career by being the weirdest, lonely kid in the history of science fiction.
