Too Short a Season
- Episode aired Feb 6, 1988
- TV-PG
- 45m
IMDb RATING
6.1/10
3.6K
YOUR RATING
The Enterprise transports an elderly Starfleet Admiral to negotiate a hostage crisis. When the Admiral takes a de-aging drug, he endangers both his life and the mission.The Enterprise transports an elderly Starfleet Admiral to negotiate a hostage crisis. When the Admiral takes a de-aging drug, he endangers both his life and the mission.The Enterprise transports an elderly Starfleet Admiral to negotiate a hostage crisis. When the Admiral takes a de-aging drug, he endangers both his life and the mission.
Wil Wheaton
- Acting Ensign Wesley Crusher
- (credit only)
James G. Becker
- Youngblood
- (uncredited)
Dexter Clay
- Operations Division Officer
- (uncredited)
Jeffrey Deacon
- Command Division Officer
- (uncredited)
Susan Duchow
- Operations Division Officer
- (uncredited)
Nora Leonhardt
- Science Division Ensign
- (uncredited)
Larry Robb
- Mordanite Veteran
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaD.C. Fontana's script for the episode was heavily rewritten by Gene Roddenberry's lawyer, Leonard Maizlish. Fontana quit the show in protest of this and lodged a complaint with the Writer's Guild of America. The incident also convinced producer Maurice Hurley that Roddenberry no longer knew what he was doing, and so Hurley pressured Roddenberry into handing control of the writing staff over to him.
- GoofsAs Tasha and Worf start their phasers to burn a hole in the cave wall, you can see the seam of where the wall will fall through, especially on the left, where Tasha is firing.
- Quotes
Admiral Mark Jameson: Annie, with the golden hair.
Anne Jameson: Flatterer. It's grey now.
Admiral Mark Jameson: I see only the gold.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Inglorious Treksperts: D.C. Fontana Remembered (2020)
- SoundtracksStar Trek: The Next Generation Main Title
Composed by Jerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage
Featured review
I think I spotted what's wrong.
So, the plot here is on par with the subplot of the aging admiran and his wife. Story wise it's on par with a classic Trek episode, even with a fire fight inserted at the beginning of Act 3.
So why was it so hard to watch? The show has some dramatic lighting and moments in it, but the shots are pretty static as are the non action sequences. For all of the shots that Shatner has taken for his acting style (Shakespearian trained) he and the rest of the cast added a much needed energy to a show that was hard to take at times. Imagine Patrick Steward and Johnathan Frakes inserted into something like "Balance of Power" or "Obsession" or "Arena". Can you imagine Patrick Stewart trying to fight the Gorn Captain hand to hand, or delivering Kirk's speech at the end of the episode? Can you imagine Frakes in either "Balance of Power" or "Obsession"?
The lighting is predominantly soft, the captain is not heroic but an office therapist, and overall it's not so much the stories but their execution and the emphasis on subplots and interpersonal relations as themes over addressing plots.
The show really was designed for a "next generation", one that would be more globally interconnected, one that wouldn't be pursuing science or tech oriented careers, one that was mostly younger and not growing up in the shadow of the Cold War. And when you make a follow on science fiction TV show with that criteria, you get this.
This show actually is somewhat worthy of a Kirk and Spock episode, though both characters probably would have won the fire fight, busted out the hostages and then confronted the main antagonist before bringing about the beginning of a peace treaty.
It's not shot dramatically. The acting, for a;l of the competence of the cast, is stiffly directed to emphasize discussion over action oriented solutions.
The makeup is somewhat corny for the guest star, but it serves its purpose to get the point across that a young actor is aged. And for all my criticisms of the lighting, reviewing the show in reruns it doesn't look too different from other shows shot in the period. But the lighting style is markedly different from what had been shot twenty years prior.
I'll also add that Star Trek the Next Generation isn't very male oriented. That is in spite of Lt. Uhura, Nurse Chapel, Yoeman Rand and so forth, the action and romantic intrigue in old Trek skews male, and so it's not just the softer lighting, music and shooting style, but a softer touch to character interaction that, to be honest, would make the show intolerable to me by my standards.
This episode retains a plot oriented story style, but the combination of factors I mentioned kept me from being a regular viewer beyond this season. I tuned in perhaps one or twice a season, but I never became a fan.
I've dumped on this show quite a bit. Again, old school fans like me expected an action adventure show where the captain and crew slugged it out and outsmarted the opposition or threat. And instead there was a show that had a softer touch to stories that were broader in scope for a broader audience, that would include both an older and a younger audience, with resolving problems by addressing emotions as well as pure plot.
And this episode, with an admiral finding a fountain of youth with an aged wife, and then he tries to address the plot with the help of the crew, falls into that mold.
But, like I say, throughout the 1990s terrorism the world over was on the rise, and suddenly this show and its spinoffs were unable to address that, and then comes a comic and insulting reworking of the old show with over the top caricatures of the old characters. One wonders why Picard, Riker and the rest weren't given a feature film to see how they would tackle terrorism.
Oh well.
So why was it so hard to watch? The show has some dramatic lighting and moments in it, but the shots are pretty static as are the non action sequences. For all of the shots that Shatner has taken for his acting style (Shakespearian trained) he and the rest of the cast added a much needed energy to a show that was hard to take at times. Imagine Patrick Steward and Johnathan Frakes inserted into something like "Balance of Power" or "Obsession" or "Arena". Can you imagine Patrick Stewart trying to fight the Gorn Captain hand to hand, or delivering Kirk's speech at the end of the episode? Can you imagine Frakes in either "Balance of Power" or "Obsession"?
The lighting is predominantly soft, the captain is not heroic but an office therapist, and overall it's not so much the stories but their execution and the emphasis on subplots and interpersonal relations as themes over addressing plots.
The show really was designed for a "next generation", one that would be more globally interconnected, one that wouldn't be pursuing science or tech oriented careers, one that was mostly younger and not growing up in the shadow of the Cold War. And when you make a follow on science fiction TV show with that criteria, you get this.
This show actually is somewhat worthy of a Kirk and Spock episode, though both characters probably would have won the fire fight, busted out the hostages and then confronted the main antagonist before bringing about the beginning of a peace treaty.
It's not shot dramatically. The acting, for a;l of the competence of the cast, is stiffly directed to emphasize discussion over action oriented solutions.
The makeup is somewhat corny for the guest star, but it serves its purpose to get the point across that a young actor is aged. And for all my criticisms of the lighting, reviewing the show in reruns it doesn't look too different from other shows shot in the period. But the lighting style is markedly different from what had been shot twenty years prior.
I'll also add that Star Trek the Next Generation isn't very male oriented. That is in spite of Lt. Uhura, Nurse Chapel, Yoeman Rand and so forth, the action and romantic intrigue in old Trek skews male, and so it's not just the softer lighting, music and shooting style, but a softer touch to character interaction that, to be honest, would make the show intolerable to me by my standards.
This episode retains a plot oriented story style, but the combination of factors I mentioned kept me from being a regular viewer beyond this season. I tuned in perhaps one or twice a season, but I never became a fan.
I've dumped on this show quite a bit. Again, old school fans like me expected an action adventure show where the captain and crew slugged it out and outsmarted the opposition or threat. And instead there was a show that had a softer touch to stories that were broader in scope for a broader audience, that would include both an older and a younger audience, with resolving problems by addressing emotions as well as pure plot.
And this episode, with an admiral finding a fountain of youth with an aged wife, and then he tries to address the plot with the help of the crew, falls into that mold.
But, like I say, throughout the 1990s terrorism the world over was on the rise, and suddenly this show and its spinoffs were unable to address that, and then comes a comic and insulting reworking of the old show with over the top caricatures of the old characters. One wonders why Picard, Riker and the rest weren't given a feature film to see how they would tackle terrorism.
Oh well.
helpful•03
- Blueghost
- May 22, 2023
Details
- Runtime45 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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