Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV Series) Too Short a Season (1988) User Reviews

Weak due to a contrived script and bad makeup.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 10 November 2014]

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!!!

Great concept, but some of the production values let it down

[snoozejonc · 7/10 · 20 May 2021]

An ageing Starfleet Admiral boards Enterprise for a mission of hostage negotiation.

This episode is based on a strong idea and story for a character and large parts of it are quite thought provoking, however the visuals and aspects of the guest star performances are weaknesses.

I love the story of Admiral Jameson, particularly his history with Mordan IV and (to a point) the main sci-fi concept surrounding his condition. This contains some fascinating points on these types of negotiations between opposing factions, the compromises made and the long lasting ramifications. The age reversal idea is a good one and fits in well with the main plot and the desire to turn back the clock and do things differently.

Unfortunately, the gripes that many reviewers have about the make-up effects are legitimate and you only have to read about the production history of this episode to find out that the effort to make Clayton Rohner look old was something the crew were disappointed with. For a story told by film it is distracting.

Rohner is the main star and the quality of his performance is a mixed bag. At times he is excellent, but he has the tendency to stray over the top and this sadly makes the character too unlikeable for someone who has so much screen time. Marsha Hunt is okay, but her character is not particularly inspired. Michael Pataki is good, but his character is not written in a likeable or sympathetic way, which makes his performance and much of the scene annoying.

The show regulars are solid, especially Patrick Stewart who raises the standard of the episode so that can be enjoyed.

Grampa was a gun dealer.

[thevacinstaller · 7/10 · 3 March 2021]

There's actually a bit more to get out this episode then meets the eye.

I have always pondered how often those in power do 'negotiate' with terrorists? As an old man I see the wisdom in maintaining the principle of negotiations but in practice I bet this type of compromise happens all the time. In this episode saving a handful of hostages by arming two opposing sides results in the escalation of hostilities and millions of lives lost. The blame of this cannot be placed squarely on Jamieson but he holds the burden of the decision and the weight of the lost lives and I found it interesting to watch his wrestling with these demons throughout the episode. Would this episode still have worked fine without the de-aging plot line? I believe so. The main message the episodes thinks the viewer should takeaway is that unnatural to fight the laws of the ageing process. My takeaway is that this is an episode about unintended consequences and regret staining a person's life. If I was in the writers room at the time I would have suggested that Jamieson just lay down his life in sacrifice for the hostages ----- it would be been a nice tie-in with the exposition about the previous negotiators dying attempting to make peace.

Well, Jamieson ---- You died trying to make it right. Next time give them guns that fire confetti.

An "age defying" episode

[russem31 · 9 April 2006]

ST:TNG:12 - "Too Short A Season" (Stardate: 41309.5) - this is the 12th episode to go into production but the 16th episode to air on TV. This is an interesting episode that deals with aging and its effects on people. Specifically this concerns an Admiral Jameson that is brought onboard to help mediate a hostage situation on Mordan IV (45 years before he mediated another hostage crisis that led to more than 40 years of civil war on that planet): he's 85 years old, suffering from an incurable Iverson's disease that put him in a wheelchair for 4 years. However, he finds a way to rejuvenate his body to give him his youth back. But at what cost? Watch this episode to find out.

Quest for youth?

[gritfrombray-1 · 7/10 · 16 July 2007]

Picard is ordered to bring Admiral Jameson to Mordan 4 to negotiate the release of several Federation hostages. This episode shows us an Admiral with a past of betraying the Prime Directive! En route to the planet the Admiral begins to appear younger and younger! The Admiral has taken a de ageing drug to make him younger. Picard eventually quizzes him and is horrified to discover the war on Mordan which lasted for four decades was instigated by the Admiral as he had furnished the weapons for the release of the hostages forty years ago. Alas, he also gave the adversaries exactly the same. His 'interpretation' of the Prime Directive... Karnas, who made the call for Jameson is eventually revealed to be the captor! Another vengeance story! He wants to show Jameson the world he helped to destroy. Jameson eventually dies in front of Karnas and Karnas releases the hostages. An interesting look at the devastation caused by weapons and planetary warfare

A Possible Realistic Take On Federation Involvement In Another World

[Alexand_er · 7/10 · 8 March 2023]

This episode isn't one of the best, but there are some very harsh reviews here without acknowledging the good.

I actually felt the old man make-up was good despite what other reviews say, and why there is no praise for the actor who plays being old? As he does it remarkably well with his body language and the way he talks.

The episode to me feels like a realistic take on something that could happen on one of these planets to solve internal issues, and an interpretation - albeit slightly off the mark - of the prime directive.

The first season definitely has its poor episodes but this one didn't quite fall into that category for me.

"You'll come, even if you don't have much honor left."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 9 September 2023]

The appearance of Clayton Rohner in old man makeup as the eighty-year-old Admiral Mark Jameson had me recalling the way Jeffrey Hunter looked in the original series pilot 'The Cage', reworked as 'The Menagerie: Parts I and II'. The difference here is that Hunter's character, Captain Christopher Pike, was saved by the technology of Talos IV, while Jameson couldn't escape the fate of the age-reducing, drug and herb remedy he obtained from the grateful citizens of Cerebus II. I thought it just a bit comical the way he reacted when the drug started to kick in, getting a little handsy with his wife while she was trying to figure out what the heck was going on with her husband.

I thought the plot of the story was somewhat muddled regarding the revenge plan being carried out by Karnas (Michael Pataki), governor of Mordan IV. It was explained that forty-five years earlier, Karnas appropriated weapons from Jameson to avenge the death of his father against an opposing faction. Fearing Karnas would use the weapons against his enemies, the Admiral also supplied arms to the opposing side, resulting in a civil war that lasted forty-five years. Just four decades later, Jameson laments over the death of millions against the sixty-three hostages that he was able to save during the original negotiation to have them released. When I lay it out like that it doesn't seem so unbelievable, but I couldn't wrap my head around the idea while watching.

It would have been interesting to see Jameson revert all the way back to childhood in this episode, but the dire effects of the drug he was taking exacted its toll well beforehand. For his part, I thought Karnas came to his senses all too quickly after having all that retribution in his heart. I guess he was moved by the love expressed by Jameson's wife (Marsha Hunt) as he finally succumbed to the condition brought about by doubling down on the youth remedy. Regarding Marsh Hunt, I just checked her bio here on IMDb and learned that she recently passed away in 2022, just short of 105 years old!! She sure didn't need that life extending concoction!

Not Very Good

[Bronco46 · 3/10 · 19 February 2011]

The first few seasons of this series weren't very good. And this is one of the many poor episodes from those early days. The series went on to much better things. Many of the the first season episodes were remakes. In this episode there is a lot of the over acting that plagued Star Trek. They were much better when they weren't trying to prove something. They have a young actor who thinks he knows how to portray an 85 year old man, but in fact he was just a caricature of an old man. And the cheesy make up didn't help either. It was obvious from the start that this was a young man who was some how going to over come his age. Needless to say the thing that reverses his aging fails he dies painfully as part of the story. This of course requires more over acting. And the usual carefully chosen moments in the story where all the technology that usually gets them out of trouble or cures all diseases can't safe the admiral. There's a really bad "gun fight" where the landing party, which always consists of the highest ranking members of the crew. Which seems foolish in any century. But their opponents in this fight where laser weapons are used are wearing plastic face shields. Definitely not one of this series better efforts. It's better to watch from about season three forward. They worked a lot of the silliness out of things like how many people that had running around on the bridge.

Reversal

[Dead-Columbo · 5/10 · 17 November 2014]

It's always interesting to revisit something 20 years after originally seeing it. I remember the story of an elderly admiral who wants once last shot of glory a dark tale that seemed frightening. Now, of course, it's anything but that. The deaging makeup looks OK at best and even worse in HD. Beside Pat Stewart, the acting all feels weak and cheap. There's a few reaction shots of Riker that he's probably embarrassed about. Or the leader of the planet. The man knows how to overact. If the story was a little thicker and the episode didn't resolve around the "special" effects this might have worked. As is... It's Next Gen still finding their legs.

Too Short a Season

[Scarecrow-88 · 8/10 · 3 June 2012]

Captain Picard is to allow a crippled Admiral Mark Jameson (suffering from what is called Iverson's Disease) to take command of a hostage negotiation mission where a dangerous leader of one of the cities of a war-ravaged planet, Mordan IV, Karnas (Michael Pataki, full of sound and fury) claims that unless this specific mediator is present murder is certain. There's more to this than meets the eye and Karnas, in particular, could have hidden ulterior motives regarding Jameson, a possible revenge for a scandalous incident some 45 years ago. Karnas had demanded weapons provided to him due to his father ambassador's assassination at the hands of rival city, and what took place the day Jameson went to negotiate with him could not have been accurately conveyed to Starfleet. To deal with Karnas, Jameson has ingested a chemical compound that is causing his body to reverse in aging, his cell structure changing, but because he felt the need to take more than the required dose he has endangered his health. Intense pain and cell/organ failure result as the body continues to try to get younger and such stress is too much for Jameson to withstand. Such themes as the quest to recover youth, vitality, and strength and the seething desire for revenge are applied to this episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Too Short a Season". Neither produces positive results as Jameson and Karnas realize that such quests/desires are futile. While Karnas thought that seeing Jameson suffer for his role in 45 years of Civil War would be pleasurable, once this happens before his eyes it doesn't satiate or satisfy as he had assumed. If anything, it forces him to see the error of his ways and acknowledge that the price of that terrible day in the history of Mordan IV has been subjected on them in more ways than one. This episode includes a phaser fight between Jameson, Picard, and the Away team with Karnas' ground terrorists, as well as, Jameson's aging process, quite a shock to those on board the Enterprise, including his wife.

Another Renegade in Power

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 29 July 2014]

An admiral comes aboard the Enterprise. He is suffering from a terminal illness; there is no cure. He is there to participate in a hostage release from a long ago enemy. The actor playing the part has the most hideous make-up. He is obviously a young man playing an aged one. He is driven for some reason and has agreed to participate in using an experimental drug which reverses aging. We watch as the lumps of make-up disappear and restore him to his younger self. Unfortunately, he hasn't told his loving wife. He also is carrying around some secret as to why he wants to invade the planet and rescue hostages instead of negotiating. There are some secrets that are eventually revealed; a terrible decision made at a time when youth and family supersede common sense. A very predictable episode of yet another loose cannon starship upper level person going mad with power.

Weak Story, Weak Execution

[anarchistica · 4/10 · 18 March 2020]

This is all a rather nonsensical affair. Someone waited too long to get revenge, why exactly? And someone wants to be at their best... for some reason? Why doesn't the Federation just threaten Karnas? Why would he risk that?

It doesn't help that there's only this stupid main plot with no real distractions. The makeup used is really bad, as is the choreography of the firefight. Your targets are right out in the open and only a single person fires... and misses? Ugh.

Are People Free to Choose Their Own Destiny?

[Rizar · 16 September 2009]

The Enterprise receives a mission to negotiate the release of a Federation ambassador, who is held hostage. Governor Karnas, a faction leader on the planet Mordan IV, informs the Enterprise that a terrorist group took the ambassador hostage and demand Admiral Mark Jameson to come and conduct the negotiations.

But Admiral Mark Jameson (who suffers from Iverson's Disease, leaving him confined to a wheel chair) decides he needs more youth and strength in order to succeed in his mission, so he takes an experimental and dangerous drug from Cerberus II. The Enterprise must see him safely to Mordan IV, keep him healthy, and cater to his rank. Admiral Jameson insists that he has command of the mission once they arrive at Mordan IV.

So "Too Short a Season" (Episode 15, Season 1, Air Date 02/08/88, Star-date 41309.5) covers three threads of action: Admiral Jameson struggles with his 'miracle' drug, Star Fleet negotiates peace, and Picard ponders the causes of 45 years of war on Mordan IV. The prime directive comes back in an important but unique way.

*Spoilers follow*

This episode proves that Star Trek (TNG) doesn't always have its courageous crew overcome impossible odds; it *also* shows that those who try to overcome improbable odds through 'miracle' drugs succumb to negative side effects.

Hubris against all odds is often important in Star Trek (TNG):

(1) Star Trek (TNG) has a few episodes in which we see characters acting successfully and luckily against all odds, most notably in 'Encounter at Farpoint'.

(2) Sometimes Star Trek (TNG) steps back with a rational perspective to calculate the odds, and it restrains its characters from action by the prime directive ('Code of Honor').

(3) In 'The Last Outpost' Data notes that Star Fleet has often allowed civilizations to fall into slavery or succumb to mass death without moving a muscle.

(4) But Picard ('Justice') and Riker ('Angel One') call the prime directive into question to differing degrees.

In this case, Jameson weaponizes two factions on Mordan IV and sets off a chain of events leading to 45 years of war. (Jameson decided to give weapons to both major factions of Mordan IV to give each equal standing and help them come to peace, but it incites years of war.)

Karnas wants revenge. He took the ambassador hostage himself just to summon Jameson to kill him for starting the 45 years of war. So revenge is central to its plot, as in 'The Battle'.

Picard smartly argues that the two factions, including Karnas', could have chosen to settle peaceably by taking responsibility for their own actions. They have freewill to refuse to wage destructive warfare; they could have made another choice.

So Karnas's desire for revenge shows how we may become blinded to the possibility of taking positive actions for ourselves to achieve our desired ends, or equally it shows how the decision of Jameson to re-interpret the prime directive can possibly contribute, if only a bit, to destructive ends.

The most interesting part of this episode concerns the question of whether we should give dangerous technology to lesser advanced civilizations. But (Picard would say) even if we do and bad side effects follow, advanced civilizations don't completely control the outcomes of other people; people are free to make different decisions and must take much responsibility for their own actions.

So this episode has an excellent moral point of view. It says sentient beings are free to act, people must take responsibility for their actions, and it's wrong to 'play the victim' and place all the blame for one's suffering on an outsider.

I give top marks to this moral message, but the episode could use more SF!

Melodramatic clap trap

[weisderr · 2/10 · 3 July 2014]

I watched this for a blast from the past and was shocked at how bad it was. The makeup was obvious. You knew the guy was going to get younger. I did not really care about the hostage crisis. The admiral was reckless which made me wonder how he ever got to that rank. I did not like him. that made me not care when he died.

It was neat to see Riker beardless and much thinner; Data with original make-up, Troi with the unbecoming first season hair and Tasha looking great.

I am so glad the series improved over the years as it is my favorite Trek series.

Clayton Rohner changed from a thin boy to a pretty good looking older man in real life.

Reliving the Past

[Samuel-Shovel · 3/10 · 20 June 2019]

In "Too Short a Season" the Enterprise is tasked with transporting an admiral acting as a hostage negotiator to a planet where he played a similar role 40 years prior. Now nearing death and with a terminal case of Iverson's Disease, Admiral Jameson is back out of retirement for this one assignment at the leader of the planet's request. The hostages are the Federation's ambassadors to said planet.

As the Enterprise gets closer to the planet, Jameson appears to be getting younger and younger. No longer bound to his wheelchair, his cells appear to be regenerating at an alarming rate. Crusher discovers that Jameson has taken some kind of mythical drug that is currently de-aging him.

It turns out that the hostage situation was set up by the planet's leader all along to draw out Jameson. 40 years ago, Jameson supplied weapons to the warring factions during a civil war that lead to years upon years of bloodshed. He regrets his decision and has come to atone for it. They beam Jameson down and it takes Picard a while to prove to the planet's leader that this young man really is Jameson. But he's de-aged to quickly, his body can't handle it and he dies in his wife's arms. The hostages are released and the Enterprise moves on.

This episode is messy, plain and simple. I read that this was one of the last scripts they let Roddenberry tweak and it completely changed the writer's original intention. You can see that this got passed around a few times by the threads that seemingly go nowhere. The de-aging ends up meaning absolutely nothing to the story. He ends up dying anyways so why even include it? It turns into filler when you don't follow through with it or show what happens when you attempt to relive the last.

Some of the dialogue is extremely heavy-handed as well, especially between Jameson and Karnas. And that makeup! That first iteration of Jameson as an old man is some of the worst aging makeup I've seen in a while.

What's weird about this episode too is that it's not really ensemble driven. None of the main cast really take center stage, it's all about Jameson and Karnas here. Picard is hovering around but this story isn't about him, he's a supporting character. I found that to be interesting.

Beyond that though, there's not too much going on here.

The Ubiquitous Search for Youth

[zombiemockingbird · 2/10 · 25 March 2023]

The only thing that would have saved this mess was if Jameson had kept going until he turned into a baby. The makeup was bad and the acting was worse. I am not familiar with Clayton Rohner so I don't know if this overly dramatic over-acting is his normal style or something he just adopted for TNG. The story was just silly and pointless; it was just a story about a proud, selfish man who made a stupid deal and paid the ultimate price. It was actually a relief when he died. The best part of this episode was the absence of Wesley. Honestly, his egotistical know it all character is so annoying it almost ruins the show. Overall this is one to skip; what story there is isn't interesting.

Lessons in Federation Leadership

[snarky-trek-reviews · 5/10 · 20 August 2021]

There isn't much of note in this episode. An old man grows young to settle an old score. Bad makeup, bad acting, and badly planned away missions ensue as the story unfolds. The final scene is okay and the episode resolves on a moral note, one of TNG's better qualities. Wesley is nowhere to be found which is great and we see more of diplomat Picard, the best version of the character.

What is noteworthy here is who the federation promotes to admiral. Mark Jameson is the rule, not the exception, when it comes to federation leadership. 45 years prior to this mission, Jameson armed both sides of a conflict on an alien world in order to end a hostage situation. As the planet fell into civil war, the federation shrugged its shoulders and promoted Jameson to admiral. That really tells you everything you need to know about the intentions of federation leadership. That Picard goes along with Jameson after he finds out instead of immediately relieving him of duty and confining him to quarters tells you even more. The federation is rotten to its core, concealing the chaos it creates and the people it conquers underneath the guise of benevolent diplomacy.

Verdict: Educational but forgettable.

A Senior Trekker writes...............

[celineduchain · 5/10 · 26 December 2021]

Writing in 2021, it is great to see that I am not the only person taking a retrospective look at Star Trek, the Next Generation. When this series was first released in 1987, a little less than twenty years after the end of the Original Series, many people thought that, without Captain Kirk and his crew, it couldn't really be Star Trek. However, original creator Gene Roddenberry, was fully invested in the casting, writing and overall look of the new series, so let's see how it shaped up:

A really good story which was all but ruined for me by the inability of either the guest actor or his make up artist to successfully convey the central "dying old man takes illicit youth drug" theme. Whether going forward or backward through the years, these types of ageing (or de-ageing) plots are notoriously difficult to get right. There are a few father/son or mother/daughter couples that have managed to carry it off (notably, Brits Timothy & Samuel West) but using one actor to represent all the ages requires some very rare skills.

Whatever his acting talents, Clayton Rohner who played Admiral Jameson and was aged 30 when this episode was filmed has worked continuously in television during the intervening 34 years.

His screen wife, Anne, was played by Hollywood doyenne, Marsha Hunt. This beloved actress was aged 70 when she took this role but continued to appear in TV guest roles up until the age of 90 and is still alive, at 104, as I write today. That beats Olivia de Havilland, doesn't it? Go Girl!

Along with many other actors of the time, Marsha Hunt was blacklisted in 1950 by the House Un-American Activities Committee and later became a dedicated philanthropist. Her long and fascinating life definitely repays a closer look. Just be sure not to confuse her with her namesake, the other Marsha Hunt, former wild child and ex-girlfriend of one of the Rolling Stones.

(Senior Trekker scores every episode with a 5)

Weird

[johnblakey-66641 · 1/10 · 4 October 2023]

Mrs Admiral must be the only female in history who wouldn't rip a youth potion from her husband's hands, and drink it herself. Whatever the consequences.

Mad admiral gives advanced weapons, to dodgy leader and falsified the records. Did none of his crew notice? Do Starfleet officers hold a personal loyalty to their Captain, or to Starfleet?

Did no one in Starfleet bureaucracy notice a ship returning sans a load of lethal weapons? What was his excuse? "I put them down for a moment on some planet, can't remember which one, and forgot them?"

Oh dear, oh dear, perhaps Starfleet should have a retire the ancient admiral's program.

The Fountain Of Youth

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 12 August 2019]

The Enterprise mission in this TNG episode is to transport Clayton Rohner a StarFleet Admiral to a warring planet run by dictator Michael Pataki. Pataki wants Rohner bad and Rohner who has lots of history with him wants to face him as he was.

So with wife Marsha Hunt administering it he injects himself with an anti-aging serum from an unnamed alien source and of course Pataki thinks he's being had. He's got some hostages and he's ready to do them in.

If youth is wasted on the young it really gets poured down the toilet and flushed on people who insist on being young. I think that's our moral today for this TNG story.

I think I spotted what's wrong.

[Blueghost · 22 May 2023]

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.