The theme of uncontrollable aging seems to be a favorite of the Star Trek brain trust. In this episode a group of geneticists are playing around with a master-race of children who have aggressive immune systems. The Enterprise quarantines a starship which has on board an entire crew that has died of natural cause due to aging. The ship had been on a planet where the aforementioned engineering was taking place. Now, the same aging process has gone rampant at this facility. These "children" will soon be orphans because those who "parented" them will only last a few days. Dr. Pulaski risks everything by trying to help one of the young men on board a shuttle and is immediately overcome with horrible arthritic pain. She has the condition. She goes to the planet and helps with the research needed to try to figure out what can be done with these test tube tykes (all of whom look like they are in their mid-twenties). It is up to the crew on board to try to solve the problem. Sometimes the accomplishments of these people range beyond the abilities of future scientists. Data again plays a significant role. He, of course, has no worries about the cellular condition that is at the center of all this. It's an interesting episode, but it requires a lot of acceptance from its audience.
Review of Unnatural Selection
