Failure. It is the only word to describe Too Short A Season. The only positive that can be said about this episode is the premise, and even the premise doesn’t hold up well: A man is required to negotiate the release of hostages from the very planet in which he negotiated a hostage release 45 years earlier. The notion of Jameson returning to atone for his previous misdeed, including the concept of negotiating with terrorists over hostages, as well as the ramifications of doing so, while a bit convoluted, *could* have been the basis for a dramatic episode. But add in Jameson’s “Fountain of Youth” and even the concept doesn’t hold up well.

There are way too many problems with the story to go into great detail regarding the plot. But we’ll just say that there was a missed opportunity to explore the nature of revenge and using terrorism (taking hostages) to achieve a goal.

As I said, this episode is a failure — on every level.

At its blackened, shriveled heart, this episode is a character piece. Its focus, however, isn’t a member of the crew, but rather the character of Admiral Jameson. Unfortunately there is not one redeeming quality to Jameson. He is arrogant, foolish, impulsive, scheming, duplicitous, and as we later learn, is part of why a planet spent four decades in the grip of civil war. We simply don’t care about him enough to follow his journey.

Furthermore, the actor portraying Jameson turns a remarkably atrocious performance. He overacts and his fits and convulsions make him look like MC Hammer on crack. (Bonus points to anyone who gets the reference. And apologies to everyone else. But trust me, I *had* to resort to gimmicks like this because otherwise I’d never have finished writing this review).

The last point on the subject of Jameson, the episode’s main focus, is the makeup effects. The makeup is intended to make him look old and sick. The result is simply embarrassing. His face looks like it was made from a child playing with Play-Do. Rather than looking like an aged, sickly human, Jameson instead resembles an Orc extra from the Battle of Pelennor Fields. And Jameson’s little change from old man to young was easily predictable, considering how glaringly obvious it was that we had a young actor so poorly portraying an older one.

The crew of the Enterprise suffer from the episode as well. Data, easily one of the series’ top characters, is relegated to simply accepting commands. Yar, LaForge, Worf and Troi barely register a line. Dr. Crusher whines at Picard. Picard is little more than a supporting character who gets ordered around by Jameson. And Riker is completely out of character. When Picard decides to beam down as part of an armed away-team to rescue hostages by force, Riker doesn’t even raise a verbal objection — this after Riker’s character was established, and often reinforced, as one who would do *anything* to prevent his ship’s captain from beaming into a hazardous location.

So much for character.

Finally, one of TNG’s most endearing qualities is that most episodes find some way to weave humor into the story. It is a rare episode indeed which is devoid of it. And for those episodes to be successful, the drama and story have to be such that humor would somehow be inappropriate for the episode. That isn’t the case here. There was no humor written into the episode and the performances were so awful that it was difficult to even register an unintended laugh.

Code of Honor and Lonely Among Us were both very poor episodes, but each had some redeeming quality: Data’s Sherlock Holmes impression, or Picard’s musings on the Prime Directive. Too Short A Season has no such qualities. Unless you’re set on watching *every* episode of TNG, avoid this one. And if you do decide to watch it, be warned: It is, simply, a failure.

Topics: Prime Directive
Filed under: TNG Reviews