By Joel Croteau on Tuesday, November 24, 1998 - 03:06 am:

One character, one episode, many actors. Never has one character had so many actors in one episode. Where did they get the pictures of Admiral Jameson's transformation? They seem to come from earlier in the episode.
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By Keith Alan Morgan on Monday, April 19, 1999 - 07:23 am:

On the wall behind Karnas are two phasers and two rifles, visible everytime Karnas speaks to the Enterprise. The two phasers look very much like Federation phasers and toward the end of the show Karnas grabs one of the rifles and says, "Die by your own weapon!" Why didn't any member of the bridge crew say, "Weren't those Federation weapons on the wall behind Karnas?"

Speaking of Federation weapons, where did Jameson get his hands on the weapons to give Karnas and the others? Wouldn't Federation weapons be registered? Even if Jameson were captain of a ship at the time of the negotiation, wouldn't Starfleet be a little suspicious to find a large number of weapons had disappeared? How would you cover it up? Claim they were all malfunctioning and needed to be destroyed? If Jameson had bought them from a third party wouldn't there have been some kind of trail, such as missing money, food, medical supplies?

When Jameson explained supplying both sides with the same weapons as his 'interpretation' of the Prime Directive, I thought of a similar interpretation by James T. Kirk in A Private Little War. Then I realized why the writers named the Admiral Jameson, because it means James Son. (At least, I hope this is why they named him that. I would hate to think it was just a coincidence.)

So Jameson received the de-aging drug from Cerebus II. Hmmm, I wonder if the natives are a race of short, bipedal aardvarkoids? Just like the title character of a Canadian comic book also named Cerebus. Hmmm

For a rescue mission, the Away Team is awfully loud. Have they forgotten how to make rubber soled shoes by the 24th century?

When finishing the cutting of the hole in the steelplast wall, both Worf and Yar seem to be holding their phasers level at their waists, but the bottom of the cut hole goes much lower.

In this and other episodes, Away Teams get attacked and usually jump behind metal barrels or some other type of protection. If metal is a good, although temporary, form of protection, why not supply Away Teams with metal shields? True, it wouldn't be perfect protection, but at least when a crewmember is running across open ground, some protection would be better than none.

Musical note:
the music for this episode sounds very odd- it reminds me of the Original Series background music although the actual similarity is extremely slight.

Why not supply Away Teams with metal shields?

Actually, the animated series did postulate personal energy forcefields (visible as a thin yellow line around the body) that acted as spacesuits - so could presumably be used in the situation described above.
I've always wondered why this idea wasn't updated now that the necessary SFX sophistication exists.

So Jameson received the de-aging drug from Cerebus II. Hmmm, I wonder if the natives are a race of short, bipedal aardvarkoids? Just like the title character of a Canadian comic book also named Cerebus.

No, actually, the natives there are three-headed caninoids.

That would be Cerberus, not Cerebus.

Why didn't Karnas recogonize the "younger version" of Jameson seeing they met before he got so old?

When the camera pans around the Observation Lounge as Jameson sits the first time, look at the doors on the right. The right slider has 2 big dents in it!

Also, I believe the phasers on the wall actually come from Star Trek 3...they're the ones that terminate in a cone (see the TOS Guide).

The question was asked about Karnas recognizing the miraculously young Jameson. It is possible he did, but disblieved what his eyes showed him. He seemed to believe that the man he was shown was someone else, possibly a relative or a surgically altered crewman, "coached for some devious reason" (as he said). I find it amazing that Picard expected Karnas to buy into the montage of Jameson's changes they showed him on the PADD. He would have assumed they did it the way I'm sure they did do it (with make-up effects), or even a real advanced version of PhotoShop. I also find it hard to believe Jameson showing the scar would help either. Once again, someone on the Enterprise could have seen what Jameson's scar looked like and made a make-up application to fake it. Mordan may not be as advanced as the Federation, but they seem to have 20th Century technology at least, so they probably know about special effects. It would have been interesting if Karnas continued to disbelieve, citing these possible explanations angrily until he is forced to admit defeat and just let the hostages go, and tells Picard the Federation is no longer welcome on Mordan. For once they take consequences for someone's mistake.

Michael Pataki (Karnas) was the obnoxious Klingon Korax in "The Trouble With Tribbles" episode, and he is widely remembered for his role as J.C. in the classic film "The Sidehackers." He also voiced George Liquor on "Ren and Stimpy."

Holy cow! Karnas was The Great Ham?! I need to go watch that episode over!

I had a few thoughts about this episode, which I watched today.

1. When Jameson leads the rescue attempt in the tunnels, Data informs Picard that Jameson is leading them based on outdated knowledge of those tunnels. In spite of this, Picard and the rest of the away team follow Jameson like nothing's wrong. Data should have pulled Jameson aside and showed him the map he made with the tricorder, and if he persisted, Picard should have called off the raid and beamed them all back before they got caught. Jameson was endangering the mission based on faulty information and his own wish to salve his guilt, not based on concern for the hostages for whose lives he was sent to negotiate. It's possible, since he was over 80 and in ill health, that this was Jameson's last mission and Picard wanted to let him finish it without the embarrassment of relieving him, like when he helped Sarek later.

2. In answer to the question of how Jameson covered up the weapons he sent to Mordan, he says in his confession to Picard that he'd falsified some records to hide what he'd done.

3. This episode seems to have a slight resemblance to the Iran-Contra scandal of the 80's. In both cases, a military hero is discovered to have provided weapons to someone in exchange for getting back hostages, then having covered it up.

Another IRan-Cantra parallel is that the federation armed both sides in the conflict. While the Iran/Iraq war was not a civil war the US did give arms to both sides in that conflict.

This episode did air just a year after the Iran-Contra affair. I'm sure that's where they got the inspiration.

i don't like the version of the Admirals uniform from this episode.

At one point, Karnas grabs a weapon from off the wall and points it at Jameson....and Picard does nothing. (Like pull his Phaser out and defend the Admiral)

Granted, Jameson is dying anyway...but still Picard has an obligation to defend Jameson.

One character, one episode, many actors. Never has one character had so many actors in one episode.

Actually Jameson was played by the same actor throughout the episode.

When Jameson confesses to illegally providing weapons and falsifying records, why doesn't Picard place him under arrest? Why let a confessed criminal and clearly unstable man continue to be in charge?

Because Picard is a descendant of George W. Bush.

I read somewhere that the character of Admiral Jameson was really supposed to be an aging Admiral Kirk (Played by William Shatner) but Shatner wanted too much money to re-play the role so they re-cast the part and named the character "Admiral Jameson"

its a good thing they didn't go that route... it would have messed Generations!

Actually, if this episode would have went that way, it might have helped that movie, as it possibly would have given the fans a better death for Kirk than alot of people think he got in Generations.

Happy Labor Day American Nitpickers!

I doubt that they would have brought in Kirk this early in the series, only to kill him. This series was already getting flack from fans who where upset that this show was different than the oringinal Trek, and if they had brought on Kirk now, only to kill him, it would have outraged the haters even more, and probably have killed this series.

The Star Trek The Next Generation Companion says nothing of bringing in Kirk for this episode, it says the oringinal plan was to have Jameson revert back to a 14 year old and forget everything about this planet, and his wife.

Well, we don't that that death would have been part of the ending if it was Kirk- that ending could have been changed when it was re-written to include a different character.

Yes, I know that I have spoken harshly of 1st Season TNG, but I actually like this episode! It has an intriging plot and an interesting, if not misguided and misunderstood guest character.

Admiral Mark Jameson's old man makeup did look quite cheezy, but remember, it was only the late '80s. Obviously Hollywood is capable of doing a much better job with that sort of thing today.

I liked Jameson. He was not a bad man, but like we found out, he was stubborn and headstrong, as well as very conflicted while acting as a hostage negotiator. But he did try to remain true to the Prime Directive by distributing Starfleet weapons to both sides of the war on Mordan, plunging them into forty years of civil war. So when Karnas takes Federation hostages, Jameson is understandably impulsive in attempting to rescue them, unfortunatly he goes about it the wrong way and is nearly killed by the Mordan soldiers that attack the away team. Also, the alien de-aging drug that he took a double dose of is wrecking havoc with his body!

Anyway, I thought it was very sad when he died in his wife's arms. As for Karnas, he released the hostages, and presumably, the Federation withdrew their people from Mordan IV and most likely, they had nothing more to do with that planet's people ever again. At least that's how I would have written it.

In any case, I would have to say that this is probably one of the better 1st Season TNG episodes. Plus, there's no Wesley! And I thought the actor playing Jameson did a pretty good job of being old, then getting younger, then at the end it looked like he was twenty-something. At least Clayton Rohner was a better actor than the guest stars in "Home Soil", in my opinion!

And as some of you are aware, Michael Pataki, who played Karnas, died recently. Karnas was a convincing, if not gruff and aggressive, head of state for an alien world, just about average for a non-aligned species in Star Trek.

I have a nit, however, and I wonder if it has been noticed before. The scene below the city where Worf and Yar cut through the metal with their phasers, well, you can plainly see that the piece of metal was already pre-cut!

Oh well. Like I said, I like this episode. Even if it was in the First Season!

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quote:

Admiral Mark Jameson's old man makeup did look quite cheesy, but remember, it was only the late '80s. Obviously Hollywood is capable of doing a much better job with that sort of thing today.

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Don't forget about Back to the Future. Lea Thompson said that for years after that movie came out people would come up to her asking who played the older version of her character in that movie.

[i]Well, we don't that that death would have been part of the ending if it was Kirk- that ending could have been changed when it was re-written to include a different character.[/i]

My guess is that if the plot centered on an aging Kirk taking a de-aging drug it would have ended with Kirk having regressed to movie era Kirk's age (& Shatner's real age at the time), leaving the door opened for Kirk to appear again. My guess is that the plot probably wouldn't have cast Kirk as Oliver North to an Iraq/Contra parable either so the whole plot probably would have been much different.

"Hollywood was able to do a better job with old age makeup back then, when the money was available. For example: Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man, and Cicely Tyson in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, to name two. Even the old age makeup on Messrs. Shatner, Nimoy, Doohan and Kelley in "The Deadly Years" was good, considering the low budget that TOS had to work with." - Adam Bomb

I see your point, Adam. And, if that's the case, it being that makeup and prosthetic effects used to make an actor look old were good even back in the 60's, I wonder why they were so substandard in this episode? Was the budget too low for that sort of thing?

Slightly off-topic. Regarding Lea Thompson, she was made to look older in both the first and second BTTF movies. In the first, she was middle-aged in the regular 1985 at the beginning, and after Marty came back to 1985, she was more youthful in appearance due to certain things being made better by Marty travelling trough time. In the second movie, Lea was elderly in 2015, and then she was middle-aged again (as well as surgically enhanced) in the alternate 1985. That was pretty impressive, I thought. As for the third movie, she was fairly young and had an Irish accent, and she and Seamus were Marty's ancestors! That sure was interesting!

I forgot to note one of the best old-age make-up jobs ever - Max Von Sydow's Father Merrin in The Exorcist. A superb job, by make-up artist extraordinaire Dick Smith. I was unfamiliar with Von Sydow at the time I saw The Exorcist (summer of '74) and thought that Von Sydow was actually an old man, not 42, the age he was when The Exorcist was filmed in 1972.

I just watched the Billy Crystal-directed "Mr. Saturday Night". In that he plays a comedian from the 50's managed by his brother, played by David Paymer, who was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Crystal's wife is played by Julie Warner, one of my favorite 90's actresses. All three have really good old-age makeup effects applied to them for certain parts of the film, and I thought that they did a really good job with them.

As for the movie itself, it was a flop when it came out in 1992. I think it was because of it's competition at the time. Anyway, I just thought I would add this, as we were discussing the poor makeup effects on Clayton Rohner in this TNG episode, and how, when the money is available, they can be so much better, like they were for "Back To The Future" and "The Exorcist".

One other thing about this episode. I'm not sure just what the title means, as applied to the plot. Maybe it has to do with the fact that Admiral Jameson was elderly to begin with, and then became young very quickly, but at the cost of his life. He also revealed that he had been partially responsible for the 40 years of civil war on Mordan IV (with Karnas being partially responsible for the bloodshed in his own right) and wanted to make amends. Sadly, he died in agony from the effects of the alien de-aging drug, and Karnas releases the hostages, as his world faces an uncertain future.

Anyway. I still like this episode, along with Conspiracy, they are my favorites of the first season. That's pretty much all I can think of saying about them!

You know, while I'm at it, I might as well get this one off my chest as well. I went to Memory Alpha and looked up 1st Season TNG eps to see if there was anything "interesting" written in the "Background Information" sections about their clearly substandard quality. However, nothing else proved as interesting as Funny-Boy Frakes referring to "Code Of Honor" as "a racist piece of s***" at a convention or in an interview, I forget which. And I'm glad he said that, somebody had to, you know what I mean?

Anyway, when I got to this one, my favorite of Season One, along with "Conspiracy" (dont judge me) it said that people, whoever they were, felt that it was "too much talking and not enough action". And they said it like that was a *bad* thing. It isn't ALWAYS a bad thing for an episode (of film for that matter) to have a plot with actual decent and believeable thought-provoking dialogue that was really meaningful and significant in the long run, you know. Only the majority of American film and TV and their directors/producers would have you really believe that is the case. Which it isn't, take my word for it!

Hey, if I wanted nothing more than mindless, idiotic, and substandard "entertainment" that provided gigantic explosions, annoying as f*** "comic relief" characters that portray outdated racist/sexist/homophobic sterotypes, and nothing in the way of decent storytelling or legitamatly believeable plot or character development, I'll watch a movie directed by either Roland Emmerich, Michael Bay, or Joel Shumacher! And that ain't happening ANYTIME soon!

The bottom line here? I LIKE THIS EPISODE, and I dont care that it was wordy and lacking in eye candy, whether it was fanservice or things randomly blowing up. It was a true gem in the filthy coal mine of 1st Season TNG, I feel. And I really dont care what anyone else thinks!

As for "Conspiracy", well...was anyone REALLY thinking that the Starfleet Command-infiltrating (and badly animated) "superior form of life" would EVER actually return?

Cuz, I didnt!

As for "Conspiracy", well...was anyone REALLY thinking that the Starfleet Command-infiltrating (and badly animated) "superior form of life" would EVER actually return?

I think it was meant to, and then someone came up with the Borg and it was discretely shelved and never mentionned again. That's a shame really. It would have been fun to see how the two species would deal with each other.

I think it was meant to, and then someone came up with the Borg and it was discretely shelved and never mentionned again.

Or so the beetles want us to believe ;).