Evolution In Action: 2001, A Space Odyssey

An example of forced evolution, perhaps: Arthur C Clarke's vision of the past and the future extended in a sweeping, epic narrative from the Dawn of Man right through to the Advent of the Starchild. The constant star of the show was that alien Swiss Army Knife, The Monolith.

The story began with the arrival of the Monolith at the beginning of humanity. The Monolith advances human evolution a little, giving them knowledge of how to use weapons. The Monolith seems to wait until humans reach space, revealing itself in Tycho crater and sending a signal out towards Jupiter (in the movie) and Iapetus, orbiting Saturn (in the book).

Cue the year 2001, now eleven years in our actual past. The spaceship Discovery is on its way to Jupiter with a team of scientists in cold tubes, to be thawed out when they get there. Dr David Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Dr Frank Poole (Gary "I Was Gary Mitchell In Star Trek" Lockwood) are the only human crewmen; HAL 9000, the sentient computer, makes up the rest of the crew.

Cue HAL going crazy and killing 80% of the crew before Bowman stops it.

And it turns out that HAL was crazy because it was told of the real purpose of the mission to Jupiter - the existence of the larger Monolith out there, a Monolith kilometres across.

Ultimately, Discovery makes it to its destination (around Jupiter, in the movie) and the following thing happens ...

When that journey ends, the forced evolution of David Bowman reaches its conclusion, in the form of his death and transformation into the Star Child (sequence includes narrative).

This film, and the book, were about the evolution of the human species. In this case, the means of evolution was a very unnatural selection.