Star Trek: 10 Weirdest Medical Cases
2. Patient: Human Male, Age Undisclosed; Various, USS Enterprise-D
Case: Barclay's Protomorphosis Syndrome
The patient, a human male with a history of holo-addiction and transporter-phobia, presented with an atypical, but mild, case of Urodelan influenza (not 'Terellian Death Syndrome' or 'Symbalene blood burn'). Normally, the human immune system is capable of fighting this infection, but the gene that coded for the specific T-cell needed was dormant. A synthetic T-cell was administered to activate the gene and allow the immune system to do its work.
A further genetic anomaly in the patient was missed at the time, however. The abnormality resulted in a mutation in the synthetic T-cell which began to activate all 'dormant' genes in the patient's genome, including the usually non-coding intragenic regions or introns — specifically certain evolutionary 'holdovers'.
The mutated synthetic T-cell began to spread like an airborne virus aboard the USS Enterprise-D, triggering 'de-evolutions' that varied from person to person and from alien species to alien species. One human reverted to an early hominin — Australopithecus — whilst our index case (who now lends his name to the disease) de-evolved into an arachnid. Details on prehistoric Klingons might be too graphic to publish even for a medical journal. Treatment was then provided by a retrovirus in gaseous form.