Note: from this episode on, I'm adding two new categories: "Trollheart of the past" and "Trollheart of the present". Pretty self-explanatory. So let me explain them. The first is how I remember the episode, good or bad or meh, if it made any impression on me or if I've totally forgotten what it's about, and the second, shown at the end, is how I feel now: was I right, wrong, do you care?
Engage something to a warp factor of another thing and push the big red button. No, not THAT big red but-
Episode title: “Too Short a Season”
Season: 1
Basic plot: Hostage situation on a planet and only one man can save them. And no, this guy actually has hair, thank you very much.
Trollheart of the past: I remember hating this for the pathetically stupid ending. Let’s see if I still feel the same about it.
Importance: 0
Crisis point(s) if any: There are hostages. Hostages gonna crisis.
Original transmission date: February 8 1988
Writer(s): Michael Michaelian, D.C. Fontana
Director: Rob Bowman
Stardate:* 41309.5
Destination: Persephone V
Mission (if any): Convey a Starfleet admiral to negotiate with terrorists for the release of hostages on another planet
Main character(s) in Plot: Picard, Beverly
Main character(s) in Subplot (if any):
Not appearing: Wesley, O’Brien
Villain/Monster (if any): None
Deaths: 1
Lives saved (episode): 0 (The hostages are saved but it doesn’t clarify how many there were, so I can’t count them)
Lives saved (cumulative): 24
Locations:
Shipboard:
Bridge
Transporter Room
Jameson’s Quarters
Ready Room
Space:
Other:
Persephone V
Ships/vessels (encountered): 0
Ships/vessels (mentioned only): USS Gettysburg
Space battles: 0
Bodycount
Historical
0
Incidental
0
Direct
1 (Admiral Jameson)
Total: 1
Running total: 87
Make it so: 1
Engage! 0
Combat factor: 50
Planets visited: Persephone V, Mordan IV
Planets mentioned: Cerberus II, Isis III
Aliens: 0
Mysteries: How is Jameson getting younger?
Patients in sickbay: 1 (Jameson)
Data v humanity: n/a
Data 3 - Humanity 6
Character scores:
Picard 35
Riker 10
Data 25
Troi 10
Bev 85
Worf 20
Geordi 20
Wesley 0
Yar 20
O’Brien 0
Earl Grey: 0
Shuttlecraft: 0
Admirals: 1 (Jameson)
Starbases: 0
First contact: 0
Humour: 0
Episode rating: 2/10
Episode score: 355
Trollheart of the present: Yeah just as bad and stupid as I remember.
We’ve seen characters made up to be older than they were before - Kirk in “The Deadly Years”, Picard later in “The Inner Light”, Troi in “Man of the People” and so on. But usually they’re quite convincing, whereas here it looks like the admiral has been exhumed and then someone stuck a bad wig on him and tried to cover up the rotting flesh with makeup. He looks far, far older than his supposed eighty-some years, even allowing for the debilitating effects of this disease he’s supposed to have. There’s a certain sense of Dracula about this too, as the man starts off decrepit, almost a walking corpse as I say above, and then regenerates as the episode goes on, till fairly quickly it’s impossible to attribute his de-ageing to anything natural. Beverly is of course suspicious as is Troi, and it’s not just women’s intuition either.
"Grumble.. grumble.. take my seat, would you? Grr! I hope you suddenly turn into a dessicated mummy, so there!"
I must say, it’s incredibly selfish of Jameson to have taken BOTH doses of the drug; one was for his wife. Now that he’s been able to use both on himself and return to his youth, what about her? He won’t be interested in her now that he’s so much younger, so is she just to be dumped? Of course there’s a price to pay for the fountain of youth: is there ever not? Good callback to “A Private Little War”, where Jameson does the same thing Kirk does: arm both factions equally, precipitating a war between the two races instead of brokering a peace. One of the bleaker episodes of TOS, and one whose ending I hated. This one I don’t hate for the same reason, but I’m pretty sure I’ll still hate it.
"Does nobody pay electricity bills on this ship?"
I guess for once it is nice to see Starfleet go for the direct, aggressive approach, even if it’s not quite officially sanctioned. Of course it goes wrong. But you have to laugh at Karnas too, blaming Jameson for the state of his planet and all the deaths caused by the war. Wasn’t it he who demanded the weapons? Did someone force him to use them? Oh, of course: if only his people had been armed that would have been all right. ****ing typical. What was it Q said in the pilot: savage life forms never follow even their own rules? Yeah, I hate the way Karnas changes in an instant from a revenge-filled anger to accepting sympathy. Bollocks. He hated the guy; he should be a) glad he’s dead or b) angry he has been cheated of his revenge but no, he says “your long night and mine are over.” Again I say, bollocks. There’s also a sort of heavy-handed but pretty simple double morality message here: you can’t be young again and just say no to drugs.
Engage something to a warp factor of another thing and push the big red button. No, not THAT big red but-
Episode title: “Too Short a Season”
Season: 1
Basic plot: Hostage situation on a planet and only one man can save them. And no, this guy actually has hair, thank you very much.
Trollheart of the past: I remember hating this for the pathetically stupid ending. Let’s see if I still feel the same about it.
Importance: 0
Crisis point(s) if any: There are hostages. Hostages gonna crisis.
Original transmission date: February 8 1988
Writer(s): Michael Michaelian, D.C. Fontana
Director: Rob Bowman
Stardate:* 41309.5
Destination: Persephone V
Mission (if any): Convey a Starfleet admiral to negotiate with terrorists for the release of hostages on another planet
Main character(s) in Plot: Picard, Beverly
Main character(s) in Subplot (if any):
Not appearing: Wesley, O’Brien
Villain/Monster (if any): None
Deaths: 1
Lives saved (episode): 0 (The hostages are saved but it doesn’t clarify how many there were, so I can’t count them)
Lives saved (cumulative): 24
Locations:
Shipboard:
Bridge
Transporter Room
Jameson’s Quarters
Ready Room
Space:
Other:
Persephone V
Ships/vessels (encountered): 0
Ships/vessels (mentioned only): USS Gettysburg
Space battles: 0
Bodycount
Historical
0
Incidental
0
Direct
1 (Admiral Jameson)
Total: 1
Running total: 87
Make it so: 1
Engage! 0
Combat factor: 50
Planets visited: Persephone V, Mordan IV
Planets mentioned: Cerberus II, Isis III
Aliens: 0
Mysteries: How is Jameson getting younger?
Patients in sickbay: 1 (Jameson)
Data v humanity: n/a
Data 3 - Humanity 6
Character scores:
Picard 35
Riker 10
Data 25
Troi 10
Bev 85
Worf 20
Geordi 20
Wesley 0
Yar 20
O’Brien 0
Earl Grey: 0
Shuttlecraft: 0
Admirals: 1 (Jameson)
Starbases: 0
First contact: 0
Humour: 0
Episode rating: 2/10
Episode score: 355
Trollheart of the present: Yeah just as bad and stupid as I remember.
We’ve seen characters made up to be older than they were before - Kirk in “The Deadly Years”, Picard later in “The Inner Light”, Troi in “Man of the People” and so on. But usually they’re quite convincing, whereas here it looks like the admiral has been exhumed and then someone stuck a bad wig on him and tried to cover up the rotting flesh with makeup. He looks far, far older than his supposed eighty-some years, even allowing for the debilitating effects of this disease he’s supposed to have. There’s a certain sense of Dracula about this too, as the man starts off decrepit, almost a walking corpse as I say above, and then regenerates as the episode goes on, till fairly quickly it’s impossible to attribute his de-ageing to anything natural. Beverly is of course suspicious as is Troi, and it’s not just women’s intuition either.
"Grumble.. grumble.. take my seat, would you? Grr! I hope you suddenly turn into a dessicated mummy, so there!"
I must say, it’s incredibly selfish of Jameson to have taken BOTH doses of the drug; one was for his wife. Now that he’s been able to use both on himself and return to his youth, what about her? He won’t be interested in her now that he’s so much younger, so is she just to be dumped? Of course there’s a price to pay for the fountain of youth: is there ever not? Good callback to “A Private Little War”, where Jameson does the same thing Kirk does: arm both factions equally, precipitating a war between the two races instead of brokering a peace. One of the bleaker episodes of TOS, and one whose ending I hated. This one I don’t hate for the same reason, but I’m pretty sure I’ll still hate it.
"Does nobody pay electricity bills on this ship?"
I guess for once it is nice to see Starfleet go for the direct, aggressive approach, even if it’s not quite officially sanctioned. Of course it goes wrong. But you have to laugh at Karnas too, blaming Jameson for the state of his planet and all the deaths caused by the war. Wasn’t it he who demanded the weapons? Did someone force him to use them? Oh, of course: if only his people had been armed that would have been all right. ****ing typical. What was it Q said in the pilot: savage life forms never follow even their own rules? Yeah, I hate the way Karnas changes in an instant from a revenge-filled anger to accepting sympathy. Bollocks. He hated the guy; he should be a) glad he’s dead or b) angry he has been cheated of his revenge but no, he says “your long night and mine are over.” Again I say, bollocks. There’s also a sort of heavy-handed but pretty simple double morality message here: you can’t be young again and just say no to drugs.
