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** ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation (TV)|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'': A humanoid named "John Doe" encountered by the crew was part of a minority of his species that were "evolving" (actually, undergoing metamorphosis, but they called it "evolution") into [[Energy Beings]].
** A later ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation (TV)|Next Generation]]'' episode, ''The Chase'', reveals that all life in the Alpha Quadrant had descended from microbes seeded by a race of precursors billions of years ago. Somehow, because the microbes came from the precursors' homeworld, they were able to develop into multiple humanoid species on hundreds of different planets. At the same time. Who can interbreed with each other. It makes more sense than any other explanation no matter how much [[Fridge Logic]] is applied.
** ''[[Star Trek Voyager (TV)|Star Trek Voyager]]'': The [[Canon Dis Continuity|infamous]] episode "Threshold" [[Playing With a Trope|plays with]] this trope. Tom Paris undergoes "accelerated evolution" after travelling at trans-[[Faster -Than -Light Travel|warp]] speeds, and eventually reaches humanity's evolutionary goal -- he turns into a giant newt. (He got better). The episode's writers later revealed that their idea was to show that the final "goal" of human evolution could turn out to be something seemingly primitive, rather than the "advanced", hyper-intelligent forms of life that this trope usually results in.
** ''[[Star Trek Enterprise (TV)|Star Trek Enterprise]]'': The episode "Dear Doctor" showcased the "path evolution is supposed to take" misconception. This was Captain Archer's justification for refusing to ''cure a plague'' he had a cure for (he believed the civilization suffering from it was "supposed" to die out to make way for another species) leading some like [[SF Debris]] to accuse him of genocide.
* ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'':
** In [[Doctor Who (TV)/Recap/S1 E2 The Daleks|the first Dalek story]], the Thals had mutated into something hideous, then back again into good-looking space elves in leather trousers because that was, supposedly, the most perfect form.
** In "[[Doctor Who (TV)/Recap/S12 E4 Genesis of the Daleks|Genesis of the Daleks]]", Davros worked out what the Kaled race ''was going to evolve into'' as a result of the centuries-long ABC war they'd been having with the Thals. (Apparently it was a green blob that would require a motorised dustbin if it was going to get around.)
** "[[Doctor Who (TV)/NS/Recap/S3 E6 The Lazarus Experiment|The Lazarus Experiment]]" had the bad guy of the week use a molecule-rearranging room to de-age himself... with the side-effect that he would occasionally turn into a hulking beast that had to suck the life essence out of other people. The Doctor explains it by saying the genetic rearrangement had accidentally activated genes from evolutionary paths humans passed by and never used. Of course, given the Doctor's [[Timey-Wimey Ball|way of explaining things]], this is likely just the best he can do to explain a much more convoluted concept.
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'': All sentient species apparently evolve "towards" ascension. Just before evolutionary ascension, people will have all kinds of [[Psychic Powers]], such as mind-reading, telepathy, healing powers and some kind of super-intelligence.
* ''[[Space: 1999]]'': The show features one of the oddest theories of evolution: ''everyone'' is evolving, and will eventually become perfect (apparently ignoring that pesky old mortality). Even worse, there is a mirror universe where evolution works backwards, and people gradually turn into piles of primordial soup, and traveling to this dimension will cause you to start evolving backwards as well.
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[[Category:Transhuman]]
[[Category:Goal Oriented Evolution]]
[[Category:Trope]]
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