"Too Short a Season" to have featured Kirk?

[FatherRob]

Over at the English Wikipedia article on "A Private Little War" the following is noted...

The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Too Short a Season", the aging Admiral was originally supposed to be Captain Kirk confronting the results of equally arming two hostile tribes at the same time in a sequel of "A Private Little War"

I had never heard that one before. Is there any other information on the 'original' story with Kirk avaliable?

Rob+

 

[22 Stars]

Yes, I have read this as well, even just if it was in the script stages. I believe there is mention of this in Eric Stillwell's book about the making of Yesterday's Enterprise, if I remember correctly... but it may have been somewhere else...

 

[Hardin]

too bad it didn't happen... I would have liked that. Though I'm guessing a few things in the plot would have been different, the ending for one.

 

[Kegek]

IIRC, the episode originally was to be a sequel to "A Private Little War." The planet which they're bringing Kirk to negotiate on would have been the planet from that episode.

 

[Holdfast]

Never knew this, but it would have been interesting to see that take on it.

 

[Amaris]

Ha! I just finished watching this episode 10 minutes ago. That would have been very interesting to see, although I do love this episode and consider it one of the better Season 1 episodes.

J.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I've read this too over at wikipedia and at Memory Alpha; however, I've never seen any documentation on this from any primary or secondary sources. Thus, I've been suspect that this is even true especially considering that this is a first-season episode and in the first year of TNG, Roddenberry was dead set against having any references to TOS. Well, at least, such a direct reference.

Has D.C. Fontana, who worked on the episode, mention this in any interviews?

 

[Timo]

The plot could basically have worked almost unaltered. I mean, since we never learned the name of the planet in "A Private Little War", no dramatic surprise would be spoiled by the discussion of the identity of the planet in "Too Short a Season". We never learned the names of Kirk's or the Hill People's opponents, either, so discussion of the name of this nemesis guy would not have revealed the connection to the TOS episode prematurely, either.

Having the geriatric Kirk (and his wife?) aboard would have been interesting for the crew and audience alike - and discovering that he was actually the villain of the piece would be a stunning surprise to both. And yes, it would have been quite interesting to see Kirk die of a fountain-of-youth potion, exiting the stage as a complete loser after cheating death and defeat for so long...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[CaptainStoner]

I haven't come across a Fontana interview about this. I don't think using Kirk for the episode made it much beyond the original concept. TNG had yet to prove itself, some of the TOS crew were a bit distanced from it at first, and bottom line, Shatner's asking price was probably way too high for S1 TNG production.

 

[Bad Atom]

I think it would have been too soon to use Kirk, if that was the original plan. TNG was accused early on of using the original series as a crutch (just look at "The Naked Now") and wanted to distance itself from TOS pretty strongly. It took three seasons just to show Sarek.

I also can't see Shatner playing that role as written. Kirk as antagonist wouldn't have gone over well with him, I imagine. Not to mention the $$$ involved.

(Also, wouldn't "Too Short a Season" have been the perfect title for season two's finale?)