This episode as well as "The Conscience of the King" from the original Star Trek series both make me laugh when it comes to showing advances in medicine. In "Conscience", the governor has a giant black patch on his face--nice plastic surgery, huh? In "Too Short a Season", the admiral is elderly and is in a gigantic and klunky looking wheelchair sort of device. To top it off, the actor playing him is wearing some of the worst old man makeup I've ever seen--and he just looks ridiculous--as if they producers gave the makeup team the week off! Wouldn't you think that by the 24th century they might have advanced just a bit more?!
This episode seems very contrived. An ambassador and his team have been taken hostage on a far away planet and for some inexplicable reason, the hostage-takers only seem to want an ancient a decrepit old admiral to negotiate with them. This makes no sense and why folks didn't balk at this is beyond me--and the writer didn't do a great job in setting this story line in motion. Regardless, on the way, the admiral undergoes an odd metamorphosis--becoming young again thanks to a miracle cure he's discovered. All this works together to produce a very weak show--one of the weakest of the first season. It's also VERY odd that Picard and the rest of the crew would go along with this nutty guy! And, Karnas' behavior at the end is just bizarre. However, it's NOT 100% terrible and is worth a look especially since the admiral's wife is played by Marsha Hunt---a 1940s actress who is always a delight to watch. And, incidentally, at age 96 she's still going strong and attended one of the recent Turner Classic Movies film festivals. Good luck to you Ms. Hunt!
By the way, as the episode progressed towards a hostage rescue, I wondered WHY the Federation used such crappy and ineffective weapons! The phasers were worthless and a bunch of hand grenades, some gas or a few machine gun would have done wonders! Heck, even water balloons might have worked better!!!
This episode seems very contrived. An ambassador and his team have been taken hostage on a far away planet and for some inexplicable reason, the hostage-takers only seem to want an ancient a decrepit old admiral to negotiate with them. This makes no sense and why folks didn't balk at this is beyond me--and the writer didn't do a great job in setting this story line in motion. Regardless, on the way, the admiral undergoes an odd metamorphosis--becoming young again thanks to a miracle cure he's discovered. All this works together to produce a very weak show--one of the weakest of the first season. It's also VERY odd that Picard and the rest of the crew would go along with this nutty guy! And, Karnas' behavior at the end is just bizarre. However, it's NOT 100% terrible and is worth a look especially since the admiral's wife is played by Marsha Hunt---a 1940s actress who is always a delight to watch. And, incidentally, at age 96 she's still going strong and attended one of the recent Turner Classic Movies film festivals. Good luck to you Ms. Hunt!
By the way, as the episode progressed towards a hostage rescue, I wondered WHY the Federation used such crappy and ineffective weapons! The phasers were worthless and a bunch of hand grenades, some gas or a few machine gun would have done wonders! Heck, even water balloons might have worked better!!!