TNG's "Too Short a Season" with Kirk...

[Melakon]

Well, the revised final draft was written a year after Star Trek IV came out, so the TOS cast was still coasting on that, and Shatner's contract gave him the right to direct the next film. So that could come into play as well.

Memory Alpha seems to make no mention of a Shatner or "Private Little War" connection, so we all may be suffering communal influence from all those encyclopedias and episode guides and technical manuals we're always buying.

 

[BillJ]

Well, the revised final draft was written a year after Star Trek IV came out, so the TOS cast was still coasting on that, and Shatner's contract gave him the right to direct the next film. So that could come into play as well.

Memory Alpha seems to make no mention of a Shatner or "Private Little War" connection, so we all may be suffering communal influence from all those encyclopedias and episode guides and technical manuals we're always buying.

You could very well be right. I just looked up the episode in the TNG Compendium and don't see any mention of it.

 

[The Wormhole]

The logic of the story's premise works better with a new character than it would have with Kirk. With a new character you can make him de-age to his 20s no problem by casting an actor in his 20s start off in horrible old age make up and be in no make up by the end of the episode. Had it been Kirk played by Shatner, he'd only be able to de-age to his 50s, and while rapidly de-aging from 80 or 90 to 50 could still leave the same result, there's greater impact with 90 to 20.

 

[BillJ]

The logic of the story's premise works better with a new character than it would have with Kirk. With a new character you can make him de-age to his 20s no problem by casting an actor in his 20s start off in horrible old age make up and be in no make up by the end of the episode. Had it been Kirk played by Shatner, he'd only be able to de-age to his 50s, and while rapidly de-aging from 80 or 90 to 50 could still leave the same result, there's greater impact with 90 to 20.

Well, Kirk would've been close or past 130 years old in 2364.

 

[The Wormhole]

True enough, but I still think the episode works better dramatically with someone in their 20s (or rather 30, the actor's actual age when the episode was filmed) trying to convince someone from his past he is the same person, even though he looks either younger or as though he hasn't aged at all. If it had been Kirk and Tyree (assuming it really was a sequel to A Private Little War) than even in his 50s Kirk would still look older than Tyree would remember him as and therefore would have less of an impact.

 

[Push The Button]

Seems unlikely, given the production team broke out in hives at the mere mention of the original series. It took lengthy discussion before a passing reference to Spock was allowed into the script for 'Sarek'.

I'm pretty sure the idea was pitched as a sequel to A Private Little War. Also, not sure I get the "hives" comment. They may have acted that way but they still mined TOS for elements pretty regularly and many of the season one episodes were remixes of TOS episodes.

I heard they were supposed to act if it didn't exist. Sure they could copy it but they were never to mention the characters. It was only later in the series when TNG was a success and certain people had left that they could relax and acknowledge it reluctantly.

As someone else said, McCoy was in Encounter at Farpoint, and The Naked Now is a remake/sequel to The Naked Time, in which the events of that episode and the Constitution Class Enterprise itself are specifically mentioned. I don't see how this "policy" to deny the existence of TOS could have really existed, in light of these references being made in the very first season.

Of course, later on we have Relics, which is pretty much a love letter to TOS, with too many references and callbacks to list here.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I guess it might go something like this

 

[The Wormhole]

^^In that second picture I did a double take thinking that was Riker.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

I heard they were supposed to act if it didn't exist. Sure they could copy it but they were never to mention the characters. It was only later in the series when TNG was a success and certain people had left that they could relax and acknowledge it reluctantly.

The prohibition on connections to TOS did not begin in the first season of TNG. The first season contains numerous references.

For example, McCoy himself appears in the pilot episode. And in The Naked Now, they specifically reference the original TOS Enterprise and Captain Kirk by name.

There were other episodes planned that would have tied it into the original show. Besides TSaS there was a two parter planned for the first season involving Spock and the Guardian of Forever. The season finale The Neutral Zone was to feature Harry Mudd but was rewritten after Roger Carmel died. Apparently there was even a Khan episode planned where Picard and crew battle him in a holodeck simulation.

Odd as it may seem I'm more disappointed at losing the Mudd episode than I am Spock and Khan.

 

[BillJ]

Odd as it may seem I'm more disappointed at losing the Mudd episode than I am Spock and Khan.

Same here.

I remember reading about the proposed Mudd episode in the Star Trek letter column from DC Comics first run.

 

[marksound]

^^In that second picture I did a double take thinking that was Riker.

Me too.

In 1987 it was obvious to me that they cast Riker as a Kirk-esque character, but Frakes just didn't have the same onscreen charisma that Shatner had.

It never occurred to me that "Season" could have been a Kirk episode, but it could have worked.

 

[Shawnster]

Well, the revised final draft was written a year after Star Trek IV came out, so the TOS cast was still coasting on that, and Shatner's contract gave him the right to direct the next film. So that could come into play as well.

Memory Alpha seems to make no mention of a Shatner or "Private Little War" connection, so we all may be suffering communal influence from all those encyclopedias and episode guides and technical manuals we're always buying.

Kirk could have died in TSaS and still go on to appear in Star Trek movies. Generations would have been different, but we really wouldn't have needed a passing of the torch by then, since we already would have had Kirk in TSaS, Spock in Unification, McCoy in Encounter at Farpoint and Scotty in Relics.

Well, the revised final draft was written a year after Star Trek IV came out, so the TOS cast was still coasting on that, and Shatner's contract gave him the right to direct the next film. So that could come into play as well.

Memory Alpha seems to make no mention of a Shatner or "Private Little War" connection, so we all may be suffering communal influence from all those encyclopedias and episode guides and technical manuals we're always buying.

Well, we must not be the only ones. This guy named Nic seemed to say the exact same thing back in 2009 on Jammer's Review website:

Nic - Sat, Jul 25, 2009 - 10:10am (USA Central)
I thought your comment about the center of "Too Short a Season" being the guest character. Did you know that this episode was originally conceived as an episode where Kirk comes back to face a decision he made in an episode of TOS (I think it was "A Private Little War"). However, William Shatner refused to do a guest appearence because he said the show was trash (though I'm sure his ego was involved in the decision).
It makes you wonder how different the series would have been if Kirk had appeared in this episode. For one thing, all subsequent Star Trek films (especially "Generations") would have been very different.

Apparently, even GalaxyX said the same thing on this site back in 2008. http://www.trekbbs.com/showpost.php?p=2446184&postcount=49

We're all suffering from some mass delusion, it seems.

 

[BillJ]

I definitely think the episode could have worked with Shatner.

 

[Dream]

In 1987 it was obvious to me that they cast Riker as a Kirk-esque character, but Frakes just didn't have the same onscreen charisma that Shatner had.

Riker definitely got better after growing the beard, and the writers stopped trying to make him the next Kirk.

 

[BillJ]

In 1987 it was obvious to me that they cast Riker as a Kirk-esque character, but Frakes just didn't have the same onscreen charisma that Shatner had.

Riker definitely got better after growing the beard, and the writers stopped trying to make him the next Kirk.

I actually thought he got worse.

 

[CorporalClegg]

In 1987 it was obvious to me that they cast Riker as a Kirk-esque character, but Frakes just didn't have the same onscreen charisma that Shatner had.

Riker definitely got better after growing the beard, and the writers stopped trying to make him the next Kirk.

I actually thought he got worse.

Agreed.

Kirk-lite was definitely heads and shoulders above Number One Douche.

 

[Dream]

In 1987 it was obvious to me that they cast Riker as a Kirk-esque character, but Frakes just didn't have the same onscreen charisma that Shatner had.

Riker definitely got better after growing the beard, and the writers stopped trying to make him the next Kirk.

I actually thought he got worse.

I'll disagree. He was way too serious in the early years.

 

[BillJ]

Riker became aimless post-The Best of Both Worlds. He had no reason to be there and served as nothing more than Picard's secretary at that point.

I prefer the young, driven officer who wanted to be a starship captain.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

To be frank, why would Kirk be to blame for this? The Klingons armed the other tribe first, who then shot at Mr. Spock and wounded him. Kirk was trying to broker for peace, but circumstances (and the oversexed, backstabbing wife of his friend) forced his hand. Plus, Kirk didn't give the Hill People overpowering phasers, but standard flintlocks equal to the other tribe's. It seemed to be a complete and utter mess for all concerned, and not a straight Prime Directive violation like the kind that Kirk usually does.

 

[Anwar]

I always wondered, why didn't Kirk just...take away the weapons the Klingons gave the natives? There were no factories or production houses anywhere, so they weren't making the weapons themselves.