Product Details

• Actors: LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden
• Directors: LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden, Gabrielle Beaumont, Robert Becker, Cliff Bole
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English, French
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount
• VHS Release Date: May 31, 1995
• Run Time: 46 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302897181
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #131,157 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This episode is devoted to giving background information and context for the acerbic new chief medical officer, Dr. Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur). When the Enterprise answers a distress call from the Lantree, a supply ship, they discover the crew has died of a mysterious virus that caused them to age rapidly. They trace the ship back to the Darwin Research Station, where the disease is ravaging most of the population. The only ones it's not affecting are the children, who have been bred to resist all disease. Dr. Pulaski makes a leap of faith, believing the children are free of the disease, but Picard doesn't want to put his ship at risk, so Pulaski ends up examining the child on a shuttle. Well, she contracts the disease, and it has the effect of making her look more and more like former first lady Barbara Bush. It's up to the crew of the Enterprise to find a cure for this dreaded Barbara Bush disease. --Andy Spletzer

From the Back Cover

After responding to an emergency call from the U.S.S Lantree, an away tem finds the Lantree's crew dead from an unexpected cause: old age. The Enterprise then speeds toward the Lantree's last port of call, the Darwin Genetic Research Station, to warn its inhabitants of the danger.

The mysterious disease has already infiltrated the station. Chief researcher Dr. Sara Kingsley (Patricia Smith) pleads with Picard (Patrick Stewart) to evacuate the children, who show no signs of infection. Reluctantly, Picard allows Dr. Pulaski (Diana Muldaur) to examine one boy (George Baxter) in the protected environs of a shuttlecraft.

Moments after contact with the boy, Pulaski is stricken by the aging disease. While Pulaski resigns herself to her fate, Picard desperately searches for a way to save the doctor's life.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars playing God has some bad consequences, January 15, 2004

By 

Shelley Gammon "Geek" (Kaufman, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 33: Unnatural Selection [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The Enterprise receives a distress call from the U.S.S. Lantree, a limited armament cargo ship with a compliment of 26 men and women aboard. Suddenly communication stops, but the comlink is still open. The Enterprise cannot get the Lantree to re-transmit, so they race to the coordinates at Warp 7 only to find no life signs on the Lantree. Not knowing what is over there, they use the computer to gain access to the Lantree's main viewer to look at the bridge - as they zoom in to the faces of the dead crew, they see that they all appear to be in their late 80s and 90s, perhaps even older.

Dr. Polaski scans the bodies remotely to see that they have died of natural causes - old age. According to Starfleet records, the crew had just left a star base 3 weeks earlier, all in perfect health. One crew member was treated for a mild case of Thelusian flu, but otherwise, all were healthy.

According to the ship's log, their last stop was Darwin Station, a space station where the scientists play God by manipulating the DNA of their "children" so that 12 year olds look like normal adults in their 20s, fully developed, and they have telepathic and telekenetic powers as well. As the Enterprise approaches, the doctor at Darwin Station asks for help, as everyone (except the "children") has been infected with some disease that ages them rapidly. They believe they were infected by the people on the cargo ship, but Polaski & Picard tend to think the opposite is true.

Picard and Polaski get into a verbal war on regulations and policies as Polaski seeks to study one of the children and Picard maintains a deathgrip as the guardian of security for his ship. In a famous retort to Polaski, Picard states, "...and doctor, I never discourage input, but it would be nice if once in a while, you'd let me finish my sentences."

Picard caves in and let's Polaski beam one of the "children" onto a space shuttle with Data as pilot. Things go well for about 20 minutes, then suddenly Polaski experiences accute arthritic pain - the initial symptom of the debilitating disease. The Enterprise is in a pickle - it looks like even though the children are not infected, they are carriers - but their caretakers (or "parents") will be dead of old age in a matter of 2 or 3 days, and his chief medical officer is now infected as well.

With Data's help, Polaski finds the source of the illness, but is a cure in sight? Picard, Geordi and Data put their heads together with Chief O'Brien to come up with a scheme that just might save the day. O'Brien is now a more prominent character and Polaski gets less opinionated about Data's personhood. There are holes-a-plenty in the plot, but it is still enjoyable.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Deadly Years Part 2, August 8, 2001

By 

picardfan007 (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 33: Unnatural Selection [VHS] (VHS Tape)

In this one a virus spreads among a colony that ages everyone. Pulaski was the only one who caught this virus that's a variation of the original series episode "The Deadly Years." While not the same plot; the result is the same. Everyone gets to age fifty years overnight.

2.0 out of 5 stars A entertaining episode, March 7, 2007

By 

NX-01 (FT. Wainwright) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 33: Unnatural Selection [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Ok. This episode was purely a chance to highlight Diana Muldar's character Dr. Pulaski. Its standard scifi, certainly not an outstanding episode but fairly entertaining. If your looking for standard scifi, then this episode is for you.