Star Trek: TNG S1 Ep16: Too Short A Season

"The quest for youth Number One - so futile.

Age and wisdom have their graces too."

-Captain Jean-Luc Picard-

It comes with the territory of a TV-sized budget that every now and again effects and/or production, make-up, etc. are subject to receive some degree of criticism in retrospect as a series surely ages.  How fitting Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season One, Episode 16, Too Short A Season, should apply a theme involving the aging process.















Too Short A Season, even upon release, was indicted by some critics and fans for its make-up application to guest performer Clayton Rohner in the role of an aged Admiral Mark Jameson (the first Starfleet admiral to appear on ST:TNG).  Jameson is lured into a crisis via the Enterprise-D and Captain Jean-Luc Picard to handle a terrorist/hostage negotiation orchestrated by Karnas who specifically requests Jameson be involved.

ST:TNG's sojourn into aging as plot mechanism has been a staple of science fiction.  Nothing new there, but it's always in the delivery, the interpretation and the hopefully refreshing new twists.  Sadly, Too Short A Season fails on that latter front.







There is of course the natural aging process, the unnatural aging forward process and the unnatural aging backwards process. Too Short A Season poses a scenario involving the latter.  Such a scenario would one day resonate powerfully for director David Fincher's The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (2008), a true delight of a film, based on the short story of the same name by author F. Scott Fitzgerald published in 1922.





Star Trek: The Original Series employed its own use of make-up accordingly for The Deadly Years, which also plotted an aging-themed entry within the annals of classic Trek.  ST:TOS certainly provided its fair share of inspiration for the inaugural first season of ST:TNG and its writers - without question.



Personally, my issues have absolutely nothing to do with the make-up (more on that in a moment) and everything to do with the rather unconvincing, over-the-top portrayal of Jameson by Rohner.  Rohner really hams up the aged angle and is less than believable in the spot.  He moves far too quickly as an elder and his facial jarring back and forth is simply overdone and over the top.  Critic Zack Handlen noted Rohner acted "like a Muppet when he's supposed to be elderly and weak." Handlen also noted his youthful angst later in the episode.  Rohner transforms his youth into that of a spoilt and irrational child.  It's simply too much to believe.





As far as the make-up goes, I don't really find fault with the production team on the matter at all.  It's no less credible that Space:1999's Black Sun or ST:TOS' The Deadly Years and those entries are wonderful.  Seeing Too Short A Season today and I found the make-up still looks as good as one might expect.  Despite the fact everyone seems to tow the party line on the make-up as "sub-par" according to Larry Nemecek in The Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, this is far superior to most programming.  To be picking on the make-up production seems to be missing the point of poor scripting and poor performance.  Funny enough, Kathryn Powers married writer Michael Michaelian.  Powers wrote the less than stellar Code Of Honor earlier in the season and Stargate SG-1 Emancipation.  Gosh, I've been awfully tough on these writers.  But even D.C. Fontana couldn't rectify the problems with this one.  A story device centered on an embraceable admiral regressing backwards in age to its logical conclusion of that process (the anti-Alpha Child of Space:1999) would have been far more interesting than the distracting plot threads that muck up the works here. Truth be told, and to my surprise, Fontana tightened up the terror trap thread and it was Michaelian's original intent to see the man regress to age fourteen and lose memory of his wife.  Now, that's a story I would sign up for (wink).

There is a great use of lighting by director Rob Bowman.





With regard to the make-up though, honestly, there is something about Star Trek's approach to make-up that walks the line of being entirely sound and grounded in reality but also gives the appearance of something otherworldly and fantastical as integrated so successfully on a series like The Twilight Zone (1959-1964). Take the Japanese for example, they are exceptional at embracing these fantasy aspects in their cinema and television, but Americans (except those that have embraced the fantasy work of Toho) have always found it difficult to suspend disbelief unless it is so perfect it can manage to somehow trick the mind.  But, like ST:TOS, this ST:TNG work is wonderful and there is something magical about the production team's input that work wonders on these series.  If audiences in general want their television and cinema to be realistic, I find it fascinating they are all so awfully forgiving of the CGI monstrosities that grace the silver screen even today.  I'll happily accept the work provided on a series like ST:TNG and its predecessors any day.  It's not even a close call between the make-up here or computer applied effects (unless painstakingly applied with care and precision - for example in the case of The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button).  Why people (director Bowman was a critic too) make such a fuss of these things is boggling.  There is nothing to be ashamed of here and certainly carries the same kind of weight and magic found in Star Trek's The Menagerie.  Go figure.   Michael Westmore and Werner Keppler were the make-up team and also applied the same make-up work to DeForest Kelly in Season One opener Encounter At Far Point.





As far as the story, Jameson suffers from Iverson's disease which effects the body.  Like Christopher Pike in The Menagerie, Jameson has been confined to a support chair for four years, but is apparently getting stronger and looking younger with each passing day since arriving on the Enterprise-D.  And unfortunately there is no known cure for Iverson's disease.





Picard discovers from Jameson that a negotiation for Cerebus III earned him access to an alien rejuvenation process by drug.  Jameson received the process and it is working but not without complications.

En route to Mordan IV it is revealed that it is Karnas that holds the hostages.  It is also clear that Karnas seeks revenge on Jameson thus the reason for his summoning.





It was a subspace transmission that requested Picard essentially deliver Jameson.  But Jameson, too, is eager to engage Karnas and using his status as Admiral has all but assured that he will have full control of the Away Team for this mission.

The truth is inevitably revealed that Jameson violated the Prime Directive years prior providing arms to Karnas, as well as his rivals, plunging a planet into four decades of ruinous civil war. "I started it. I lit the match."  Jameson also falsified Federation documents.  Jameson is indeed a troubled, haunted man.







It seems undeniable that ST:TNG was indeed channelling current events of the day.  ST:TOS often incorporated analysis and reflection in its own series particularly when looking at The Vietnam War (1955-1975), whilst here Too Short A Season (1988) appears to be incontrovertibly holding the mirror up to the Iran-Contra Affair (1985-1987) and the events surrounding the arms for hostages negotiations that became a scandal for the Ronald Reagan administration involving Oliver North and others.  This is indubitably a reflection of those events and perhaps a further questioning of the symbolic nature of the Prime Directive through our own American foreign policy of which we currently have none.



When Jameson beams down with the Away Team, Picard is highly concerned and joins him.  Picard's concern is for his crew.  Worf, Geordi La Forge, Data and Tasha Yar beam down with Jameson and Picard.  Once again Picard, the Captain of the ship is beamed into a highly volatile and hostile situation where his life is very much on the line.  Captain James T. Kirk often led the charge and realists have often criticized this variable of Star Trek.  But if everything was played precisely by the book we wouldn't have much of a science fiction drama now would we?

A very dicey situation forces a quick return for the team.  And away the away team goes back to the ship.







Ultimately Too Short A Season fails to shore up in the logic department.  Troubled, guilt-ridden man or not, why would Jameson be so hell bent on returning to this ill-fated disaster?  The character certainly doesn't seem like a man with the weight of years of torment on his shoulders, but that could be the fault of Rohner in the role.  Additionally, the alien rejuvenation process as the reason for the aging process is mildly interesting if a bit random and implausible here.  So Jameson discovers the fountain of youth and the first thing he wants to do is risk life and limb in a hostage negotiation.  Does he have no loyalty to his wife?  What about those golden years and perhaps enjoying the freedom of youth again?  But Jameson yearns for atonement even if Rohner doesn't sell this in the character.  Too Short A Season is long on leaps of suspension and simply didn't entirely work for me.  This is an overly silly or uninteresting story compounded by weak guest performances.  The principals here are fine, but actually are relegated to a supporting cast for this one.  The two male guests aren't substantial enough to sell a weak story.  Rohner and Michael Pataki as Karnas (Pataki appeared as Klingon Korax in ST:TOS, S2, Ep15, The Trouble With Tribbles) are simply way too over dramatic in their performances.







Director Rob Bowman succinctly told Starlog Magazine that Too Short A Season was long on dialogue.  "That was a heavy-duty dialogue show, even by Star Trek standards.  It seemed like all that the people did in the script I read was sit around and talk.  It was a killer because a show like this runs the immediate risk of being boring.  This was a tough episode for a couple of reasons.  It wasn't really a Star Trek episode in the sense that it was about one of the regular characters.  It was more how they reacted to the other entity. The trick was to keep the regular characters motivated through a largely abstract storyline and thus keep the audience from switching channels."  (Starlog Magazine #136, p.24).  Once again, Bowman's remarks illustrate the problem with the focus on Rohner in the role.  With all of the groaning about lack of character development during the first season by a largely ensemble cast here is a whole episode lost to guest appearances. Denise Crosby, Gates McFadden and others would have relished the opportunity for something a little more substantial.  After all any season of television is too short.







And if Too Short A Season seems to have all of the wrong rhythms that echo the first half of ST:TNG, it should come as no surprise to learn that it was actually production Episode 12 in the season order even though it was aired as Episode 16.  In other words this one came before The Big Goodbye and after Justice, Hide And Q, The Last Outpost and The Battle just to name a few relative lemons.

Sadly Too Short A Season does little to help the cause of the some times laborious, at times seemingly long Season One.  On a personal note, and I think you'll agree, one thing is true when it comes to aging it is far too short a season indeed.  This much we know.

Too Short A Season: D+.
Writer: Michael Michaelian, D.C. Fontana.
Director: Rob Bowman.









Patrick Stewart: Am I actually playing second fiddle to this fellow.  I'm a trained thespian.  By God, get rid of this man and make it so!

Science Fiction Non-Fiction: DeForest Kelley (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

"It's difficult to describe our feelings about The Next Generation.
You look at it and you think, 'Gee, is that a dream or something?
That's something we've already all done.'
It may be hard for the fans to understand, but it's a strange feeling for us to see this new group doing this thing that we had been so associated with for so many years."

 

-DeForest Kelley on mixed feelings toward Star Trek: The Next Generation (Starlog Magazine #143, p.40)-

 

The Last Dinosaur Promo

The Last Dinosaur (1977) delivers intense drama, terrific science fiction adventure and wonderful old school special effects complements of Tsuburaya Productions.

What about that DVD cover art?  All of the excitement aside the last dinosaur (not actually the last mind you) never actually picks up one of the actors in the film.  Thus, even the box art, exemplifies the kind of artistic license and sense of fantasy that The Last Dinosaur indulges but also sells in spades.

And there is of course that 70s-styled theme song complete with award-winning lyrics to The Last Dinosaur:

Few men have ever done, what he has done.
Or even dreamed, what he has dreamed!
His time has passed! There are no more!
He is the Last…Di-no-saur!
Few men have even tried, what he has tried.
Most men have failed, where he’s prevailed!
His time has passed! There are no mo’!
He is the Last… Di-no-saur!

The world holds nothing new in store for him!
And things that startle you and me, are just a bore to him!
The spark of Life has gone.
His life grows dim!
And there is something left in the World to challenge him!

Few men have ever lived, as he has lived.
Or even walked, where he has walked!
His time has passed. There are no more.
He is the Last… Di-no-saur!
He is the Last… Di—no—saur.

Okay, there's clearly a hint of cheddar there, but that is one bold, fine pop number.  It's actually like the James Bond theme that never was with a touch of aged prehistoric Swiss.

The Last Dinosaur

"This animal.

This eight ton animal is a carnivore.

It eats meat. US!

This forty foot monster with a brain the size of a dried pea...

And I tell you this.

It is the last.

I will hunt that thing down and kill it!

...And by God I will not leave here until I have destroyed that thing!"

-Masten Thrust with the perfect monologue of the film over soft, gentle, lilting, mournful music and somehow the elegiac tone works beautifully in The Last Dinosaur-

Say cheese! Sexy actress and photographer Joan Van Ark joins old war dog and last dinosaur himself Richard Boone for what critics often term the cheesy b-movie in the form of The Last Dinosaur (1977).  If that's so, it's quite possibly cheese-fest perfection, but I've never been a huge fan of using the term cheese to describe the films I enjoy preferring to keep it squarely with my Kraft macaroni.  Boone plays Masten Thrust an unattractive playboy and millionaire who has a way with women. The rather ornery and ugly Thrust serves as a terrific juxtaposition to the film's titular villain.  It's essentially dinosaur versus dinosaur.  Beyond physical appearances, Thrust is a nasty old codger who simply isn't a nice guy because he's a man with everything utterly bored by his life. His existence yearns for a big game to excite his final days.  He is essentially a product of his chauvinist era.  Women are simply objects to be bought for pleasure (clearly I was born just a touch too late).  Boone is also a big game hunter in the vain of John Huston (White Hunter, Black Heart) whose home walls are adorned with taxidermy-treated animal trophies.





The Last Dinosaur is one of those films they simply don't make it anymore.  It's a surprising treat from a veteran cast.  Where most films require casting with an average age of twenty-two (a non-scientific study) and girls bopping around with mouth-watering scoops of flesh (a quote from Weird Science), The Last Dinosaur defies the conventions of today by employing a much older cast. This was a much more accepted approach in television and film in the 1970s.  Ageism was certainly not an issue years ago, but certainly plays a more significant factor in today's casting.  The Last Dinosaur's sense of adventure is propelled by a dynamite group that dramatically sells every ounce of the script to its final moments with a singular determination.  It's a gripping little story and truly remains a gem of kaiju entertainment to this day more than anyone ever expected it had a right to be given its limited production.  More on that in a moment.









An opportunity arrives to hunt down the last dinosaur.  Thrust cannot resist the hunt.  It's in his blood.  It's an obsession.  Well, despite the title, there are more than just one of the ancient beasts roaming the wilds of this pocket universe (a la 1974's Land Of The Lost minus the Sleestaks, Pylons and Dopey) discovered by the travelers within the Thrust Polar-Borer.  The Polar-Borer was a cool, ground-boring vehicle in the tradition of Thunderbirds' The Mole or terrific mech craft of the era like the vintage Landmasters of Damnation Alley (1977) that thrilled our childhoods.







The pocket universe is always a lot of fun and the 1970s was rife with them.  As I mentioned, Land Of The Lost (1974-1976), as well as Planet Of The Apes (1968) and other apes films, Edgar Rice Burrough's (1875-1950) The Land That Time Forgot (1975), At The Earth's Core (1976), and The People That Time Forgot (1977) (all based on books from 1918,1914 and 1918 respectively) and Warlords Of Atlantis (1978).  These films loved exploring these fantasy worlds and sometimes enjoyed emerging from great depths of water or burrowing through earth to find something entirely fantastic.  The 1970s truly had the concept down to a science and made science fiction all the more fun for it.







To further augment the effect of a foreign world during this period of cinema, look no further than the dark, electronic scoring employed used to great effect in the 1970s. The Warriors (1979), the Planet Of The Apes series, and even here with The Last Dinosaur - composers knew how to transport us to a different place giving their stories a slightly eerie, weird edge of fantasy.







Thrust is looking for the ultimate last dinosaur, the holy grail of dinosaurs, the Tyrannosaurus Rex. How fitting he should choose to remain behind himself, one of the last real men of his kind to become extinct.  It's B grade poetry.  Of course he always has Hazel so he's not entirely alone.  Hazel, played by Masumi Sekiya, may not be Nova, played by Linda Harrison, in Planet Of The Apes (1968), but she's still mighty damn fine as primitive natives go.





Uncannily, the T-Rex even shows remarkable intelligence for a creature with the kind of brain power scientists have recorded.  It literally tosses and rolls the shiny Polar Borer back to its lair for safekeeping demonstrating real initiative.  The ship sits strewn among the bones as he proceeds to bury it.  How is this group getting home now?  Thrust is a man on a mission and says he won't go home without killing that T-Rex. Without the Borer he won't be going home at all.  Unfortunately, the natives are getting restless too.  Well, remarkably, the Van Ark and Steven Keats characters get the Polar-Borer back to the river they arrived in, but with no explanation on how that is achieved.  It simply isn't possible. But in The Last Dinosaur it simply is.  Work with it.





The cheese factor is high in this 1970s classic but in the best possible sense.  Effects look remarkably good and what equates to cheese for most delivers wonders for the fan of these films.  From the opening James Bond-styled theme song that employs a Shirley Bassey sound-a-like, Nancy Wilson, to a score by Maury Laws, to the strong miniature effects set against not-so seamless matte painted backdrops that are stunning to the eyes, The Last Dinosaur works miracles to create a believable fantasy world.  Recycled and slightly altered Godzilla sound effects are also employed to good effect.  How ironic Dr. Kawamoto would be the first to be squashed by a lizard's foot.  Awkward rubber dinosaurs, wrestling-styled monster smack downs, bright red paint for blood and green screens all amp up the vintage era effects. Upon arriving in this hot pocket zone, an inactive volcano filled with glaciers and hot temps, the group is charged by a Triceratops-like creature complete with a horse hair tail.  Did Triceratops have horse hair tails?  Well, they didn't have two men in one suit but this one does.  This is an odd world with not-so-scientific accuracy and maybe more in common with Land Of The Lost than one might think.  The incorrect proportions dedicated to the dinosaurs are also all over the map altering size for any given scene and never quite establish any degree of consistency.  Yet these shortcomings, surprisingly, do not detract from the fun or credibility of all of the efforts involved in creating this strange place.







The four man, one woman group is also joined by Bunta, a giant African tracker.  The vintage 70s effort is turned up a notch when the camera holds on the oddest of shots like a facial shot of Bunta.  These kinds of touches truly augment and amplify what makes these films such treasures and so unique in contrast to today's quick and often predictable editing styles.





But all of these things work not as negatives but positives.  Oddly enough, all of the craft involved works, combined with the use of a uniformly strong cast delivering believable turns in their respective roles.  There isn't a stitch of CGI in the world that would make this film better.  Its gritty, rough and low grade approach looks positively brilliant culminating in a wonderfully intense final act between Thrust and the T-Rex.











The Last Dinosaur was one in a line of Rankin/Bass, Tsuburaya Productions and Toho collaborations and is arguably one of the best kaiju film of the 1970s when one considers the often child-like fantasy of Godzilla Vs. Megalon a(1973) and Godzilla Vs. Gigan (1972). The Last Dinosaur was released along with a handful of other notable collaborations including the wonderful King Kong Escapes (1968), The Bermuda Depths (1977), The Ivory Ape (1980) as well as one called The Bushido Blade (1981), Boone's last film alongside Toshiro Mifune and directed by Tom Kotani.







The B-movie was originally slated for theaters  but ended up on television stateside and remains a wildly popular cult classic thanks to fans like myself.

The spirit of the film is very much in the mold of the Doug McClure/ Edgar Rice Burroughs classics like The Land That Time Forgot, The People That Time Forgot, and Warlords Of Atlantis to name a few, with as much of a nod toward American dinosaur and monster films as the fantasy classics of Toho, Ishiro Honda or Jun Fukuda and that integration of fusion of ideas makes for a surprising and somewhat refreshing production.





In fact, there's a kind of magic to these projects making them some of the best ever produced by Rankin/Bass next to those holiday classics like Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town (1970) or The Year Without A Santa Claus (1974). These kaiju pictures may not have the same kind of notoriety or retain the same kind of classic status but they are indeed wonderful additions to the Rankin/Bass world as well as Toho. In fact, I'm surprised Toho Kingdom does not note these efforts on its site.







The dinosaur effects are largely successful and special because of Tsuburaya Enterprises, Inc. or Tsuburaya Productions. Its hand in production is notable here. Without them the villain of this film, the dinosaur itself, probably doesn't work. In fact, many of the same Japanese talents worked on this very film so if it bares a distinct resemblance in quality to the very best of Toho, so it's really no surprise at all.











Thematically, this simple film works on two levels as Thrust hunts down the last dinosaur, but as I mentioned, is ironically something of a last dinosaur himself.  You'll rarely see an older alpha male quite like Boone today.  Boone passed away four years after this film in 1981 and with him a departure from a classic era of television and cinema.  They just don't employ these kinds of performers at that age.  I mean, the man was 60 years old when he made this film.





Thankfully we have time capsule films like The Last Dinosaur with real, tangible effects in all of their beautiful golden era glory to get lost with.  I would much prefer seeing a film like this over something with dated CGI or even a brand new SyFy (un)original generated with none of the artistic craft of these special films.  This film far exceeds expectations of the B films of today with plenty of impressive visual ingenuity to behold.  The Last Dinosaur is simply an exceptional adventure yarn in the school of Toho or Doug McClure with moments of real tension.  It's definitely not just a cheesy classic but perhaps a bit of a prehistoric gem to some and a splendid-looking fossil at that. Kaiju fans just can't go wrong especially with some popcorn, candy, soda and maybe some D'Angelos.  Seeing these films again and enjoying them so damn much I'm beginning to wonder who the dinosaur is.





The Last Dinosaur: A-.
Writer: William Overgard.
Director: Alexander Grasshoff/ Shusei Kotani.

This is actually B-movie poetry.  Nothing like sending a message that reminds me of a similar scene in Raiders Of The Lost Ark.



More terrific images from the fantastic kaiju classic The Last Dinosaur.