Star Trek: The Next Generation — 1x16 — Too Short a Season

Aired 1988-02-08

SpaceOpera.com rating:2

Average reader rating:4.05

Synopsis

The crew encounters legendary negotiator Mark Jameson.

Remarkable scenes

The Admiral's wife's Jealousy yet her contradictory desire NOT to acquire her husband's newfound youth is so perfect.
The Admiral's "interpretation" of the Prime Directive is great.
Data: "Their phasers sir, they're set to kill." Picard: "Thank you Mr. Data, I have heard that sound before."

Review

A most unremarkable and dull episode. The one-two combo of an annoying guest and the total lack of a secondary plot makes the episode seem to drag. In much the same way of many bad original series episodes, this episode takes itself way too seriously which further makes it unpalatable. I feel like the whole time I'm watching the episode, I'm supposed to care about it far more than I do, which detracts from the experience even more. Beyond that, the usual round of cliches. An alien race that looks exactly like humans and a high ranking starfleet official does something stupid. Quite a stinker.

4 reader comments

A bridge crew can relieve the captain if they unanimously agree that the captain is acting oddly. Also, a doctor can relieve the captain if the doctor thinks the captain is medically unfit for command. Shouldn't the same thing apply to mission commanders? Picard finds out that Jameson: 1) took double the recommended dosage of an alien drug 2) confesses to a direct violation of the Prime Directive (giving weapons) 3) proposes a raid that Picard thinks is questionable. Yet, Picard acts like he has no other recourse but to obey.
the drug is "radically changing the cellular structure of his body and rewriting his DNA." Doesn't it seem likely that the drug would also wipe out the scar tissue in Jameson's body?
The transporter pad certainly isn't wheelchair-accessible. Jameson, who is confined to a futuristic wheelchair, is beemed on to the transporter pad. How does he get off the pad?
When Picard and Riker leaves the bridge to greet Jameson, look very carefully, Picard contorts his entire face just before he enters the turbolift (an outtake??)
by DSOmo | 06/02/2007 at 6:42 pm

The Admiral's wife (we never learn her name) had some of the worst acting and most annoying dialog in Star Trek history. The Admiral is plagued with advanced Iverson's disease, a degenerative, incurable and terminal disease that rob it's victim of quality of life before it kills him. The Admiral finds a potential cure that incidental makes him young while saving his life. Is his wife pleased? Not at all. Why? Because she wants to spend more time with husband (while watching him die horribly). It stretches credulity.
by Jeff Browning | 09/20/2011 at 6:10 pm

Jeff, the Admiral's wife's name is Anne. She was called by her name a couple of times in the episode and at the very end, just before he died, the Admiral called her "Annie with the golden hair"
by Inga | 12/21/2011 at 11:12 am

I think maybe what Jeff meant was that we learn her name, but we don't care enough to remember it, because this episode sucks.
by John DC | 03/05/2012 at 4:03 am