Too Short a Season

The Federation starship Enterprise, under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), brings aboard the elderly 85 year old Admiral Mark Jameson and his wife Anne (Marsha Hunt) on request of Karnas (Michael Pataki), the Governor of Mordan IV. Karnas warns that a dissident terrorist group has taken a Federation Ambassador and his staff hostage, and demand to speak to a negotiator. Jameson had negotiated a previous settlement on Mordan IV. As the ship travels to Mordan IV, Jameson becomes stronger and more able to move about on his own, and no longer shows signs of the terminal Iverson's Disease he was known to have before he was beamed aboard. Jameson admits to taking an array of drugs to reverse the aging process over the last two years, and only recently has taken an overdose of the drugs to prepare himself for the negotiations. Jameson begins to appear younger and full of energy, but has frequent pains as a result of the overdose. By the time they are nearing Mordan, Jameson appears as a young adult.

As they approach the planet, Jameson begins audio communication with Karnas to learn more of the situation, and asks Karnas if his old enemies had taken the hostages. Karnas replies they are dead, and that Jameson is coming back to Mordan IV just like he did 45 years before. Jameson realizes that Karnas has never forgiven him and that it is Karnas that has taken the Federation staff. Karnas reminds Jameson that his treachery during their last encounter on Mordan IV resulted in years of war. Against the advice of Picard, Jameson devises plans to rescue the hostages by transporting the away team to the tunnels beneath Karnas' mansion, where Jameson believes the hostages are being held [the same place the previous hostages had been held]. Picard privately confronts Jameson about Karnas' motives. Jameson reveals that in the past, Karnas captured a Federation starliner in revenge for the death of his father by another local tribe. Jameson was sent in to bargain for their release after two previous Federation negotiators had been killed; Jameson reveals the truth to Picard: he did negotiate for the passengers' release not by his golden oratory but by giving Karnas what he demanded, a supply of Federation weapons. Jameson, in his interpretation of the Prime Directive, also supplied the warring tribes with an equal number of weapons. Jameson had thought this would only lead to a short-lived skirmish, and had not expected a war that would last over forty years. Jameson is now insistent on correcting his past mistake and thus took the reverse aging drug to be at his best.

In orbit, the Enterprise crew and Jameson beam down into the tunnels beneath Karnas' manor but find that their arrival was anticipated and face off against armed guards. Jameson collapses during the fight and the crew beams back to the Enterprise. Jameson was not shot, but the reverse aging drug is literally destroying his body. Karnas demands to see Jameson or he will kill a hostage every 15 minutes. Picard opts to beam him, Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden), Jameson and eventually Jameson's wife Anne directly to Karnas' office. Karnas refuses to believe that the young man is Jameson, so Jameson reveals a scar on his wrist inflicted by Karnas years ago to seal their bargain. Jameson dies shortly afterward in his wife's embrace. Karnas agrees to let the hostages go and to allow Jameson to be buried on Mordan IV at Anne's request.

Writer Michael Michaelian originally pitched a story idea based on andropause, sometimes referred to as "male menopause".[1] He wrote a treatment and first draft script involving reverse aging. D. C. Fontana later explained that the terrorist MacGuffin (an ambiguous but central plot point) was not quite right. Fontana was brought in to overhaul the ending, and explained that a "lot of what I put in at the end was also in Michael's story and drafts, but approached with a different emphasis".[1] One significant alteration she made was to change the plot from involving actual terrorists to a trap that the crew must defuse.[1] The original ending also had the two opposing parties on the planet sit down for peace talks with Jameson surviving the effects of the de-aging drugs.[2] He would have been reduced in age to fourteen and could no longer remember his wife.[2][3]

Clayton Rohner was cast as Admiral Mark Jameson. Prior to filming, Rohner and director Rob Bowman worked together on weekends on the characterisation of Jameson. Bowman criticized the style of the script, describing it as "sit-and-tell". He also had a variety of problems with the wheelchair used in this episode which cost $10,000 to construct.[2] It was referred to by prop designer Joe Longo as the "big albatross", and when a wheelchair was required for the Deep Space Nine episode "Melora" they instead created a much simpler version.[4] Karnas was played by Michael Pataki, who had previously portrayed the Klingon Korax in the original Star Trek series episode "The Trouble with Tribbles".[2]

Make-up supervisor Michael Westmore had previously used makeup to age DeForest Kelley in the season premiere "Encounter at Farpoint",[5] but "Too Short a Season" proved a unique challenge as four stages of make-up were required to show Admiral Jameson de-aging. The initial stage to show Jameson at his oldest, involved Rohner wearing a bald-cap and wig plus latex prosthetics applied to his eyes, forehead, throat and jowls. That stage took up to four hours to apply to the actor. Westmore found himself worn out by the volume of work during this episode, as at the time the make-up team on the series included just him and Werner Keppler. On the second day of shooting the first stage make-up, Westmore arrived after Rohner had been in make-up for three hours only to find that he was only half finished. Keppler and Westmore rushed to get him so as not to delay the filming of the episode.[6] Bowman later criticised the make-up used on Rohner, describing it as sub-par.[2] Westmore said that "if I was working on a film, and had several months to test Clayton's make-up beforehand, it probably would have turned out more to my liking. With less than a week to work with, I don't think it turned out too badly."[6]

"Too Short a Season" marked the last time a cityscape would be built as a model for the show until the sixth-season episode "Birthright". They were instead replaced with matte paintings (one was reused from the comedy film Spaceballs). Phasers from the original Star Trek series and movies, along with a staff from "The Last Outpost" were used to decorate Karnas' office.[2]

"Too Short a Season" aired in broadcast syndication during the week commencing February 14, 1988. It received Nielsen ratings of 10.9, reflecting the percentage of all households watching the episode during its timeslot. This was the highest ratings received by the series since "The Big Goodbye" four episodes earlier.[1][7]

The first home media release of "Too Short a Season" was on VHS cassette, appearing on July 1, 1992, in the United States and Canada.[12] The episode was later included on the Star Trek: The Next Generation season one DVD box set, released in March 2002,[13] and then released as part of the season one Blu-ray set on July 24, 2012.[14]

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