Star Trek's Genesis Device was a revolutionary and dangerous technology introduced in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and a second version of Genesis appeared in Star Trek: Picard season 3. Created by Dr. Carol Marcus (Bibi Besch) and her son, David Marcus (Merritt Butrick) at space station Regula I in 2285, Genesis was intended to solve problems involving overpopulation and food supply in the United Federation of Planets, but it was turned into a weapon by Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán).
The Genesis Device was the MacGuffin of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and its influence was felt in the succeeding films, Star Trek III: The Search For Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage. Genesis was the first technology that turned into a deadly weapon in the Star Trek movies; the thelaron weapon used by Praetor Shinzon (Tom Hardy) in Star Trek: Nemesis and the swarm in Star Trek Beyond were all attempts to replicate what the Genesis Device was in Star Trek II. However, Genesis was originally meant as a way to help the Federation, although Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) prophetically warned of the dangers of Genesis as soon as he learned of the device's existence in Star Trek II.
