The Enterprise receives a mission to negotiate the release of a Federation ambassador, who is held hostage. Governor Karnas, a faction leader on the planet Mordan IV, informs the Enterprise that a terrorist group took the ambassador hostage and demand Admiral Mark Jameson to come and conduct the negotiations.
But Admiral Mark Jameson (who suffers from Iverson's Disease, leaving him confined to a wheel chair) decides he needs more youth and strength in order to succeed in his mission, so he takes an experimental and dangerous drug from Cerberus II. The Enterprise must see him safely to Mordan IV, keep him healthy, and cater to his rank. Admiral Jameson insists that he has command of the mission once they arrive at Mordan IV.
So "Too Short a Season" (Episode 15, Season 1, Air Date 02/08/88, Star-date 41309.5) covers three threads of action: Admiral Jameson struggles with his 'miracle' drug, Star Fleet negotiates peace, and Picard ponders the causes of 45 years of war on Mordan IV. The prime directive comes back in an important but unique way.
*Spoilers follow*
This episode proves that Star Trek (TNG) doesn't always have its courageous crew overcome impossible odds; it *also* shows that those who try to overcome improbable odds through 'miracle' drugs succumb to negative side effects.
Hubris against all odds is often important in Star Trek (TNG):
(1) Star Trek (TNG) has a few episodes in which we see characters acting successfully and luckily against all odds, most notably in 'Encounter at Farpoint'.
(2) Sometimes Star Trek (TNG) steps back with a rational perspective to calculate the odds, and it restrains its characters from action by the prime directive ('Code of Honor').
(3) In 'The Last Outpost' Data notes that Star Fleet has often allowed civilizations to fall into slavery or succumb to mass death without moving a muscle.
(4) But Picard ('Justice') and Riker ('Angel One') call the prime directive into question to differing degrees.
In this case, Jameson weaponizes two factions on Mordan IV and sets off a chain of events leading to 45 years of war. (Jameson decided to give weapons to both major factions of Mordan IV to give each equal standing and help them come to peace, but it incites years of war.)
Karnas wants revenge. He took the ambassador hostage himself just to summon Jameson to kill him for starting the 45 years of war. So revenge is central to its plot, as in 'The Battle'.
Picard smartly argues that the two factions, including Karnas', could have chosen to settle peaceably by taking responsibility for their own actions. They have freewill to refuse to wage destructive warfare; they could have made another choice.
So Karnas's desire for revenge shows how we may become blinded to the possibility of taking positive actions for ourselves to achieve our desired ends, or equally it shows how the decision of Jameson to re-interpret the prime directive can possibly contribute, if only a bit, to destructive ends.
The most interesting part of this episode concerns the question of whether we should give dangerous technology to lesser advanced civilizations. But (Picard would say) even if we do and bad side effects follow, advanced civilizations don't completely control the outcomes of other people; people are free to make different decisions and must take much responsibility for their own actions.
So this episode has an excellent moral point of view. It says sentient beings are free to act, people must take responsibility for their actions, and it's wrong to 'play the victim' and place all the blame for one's suffering on an outsider.
I give top marks to this moral message, but the episode could use more SF!
But Admiral Mark Jameson (who suffers from Iverson's Disease, leaving him confined to a wheel chair) decides he needs more youth and strength in order to succeed in his mission, so he takes an experimental and dangerous drug from Cerberus II. The Enterprise must see him safely to Mordan IV, keep him healthy, and cater to his rank. Admiral Jameson insists that he has command of the mission once they arrive at Mordan IV.
So "Too Short a Season" (Episode 15, Season 1, Air Date 02/08/88, Star-date 41309.5) covers three threads of action: Admiral Jameson struggles with his 'miracle' drug, Star Fleet negotiates peace, and Picard ponders the causes of 45 years of war on Mordan IV. The prime directive comes back in an important but unique way.
*Spoilers follow*
This episode proves that Star Trek (TNG) doesn't always have its courageous crew overcome impossible odds; it *also* shows that those who try to overcome improbable odds through 'miracle' drugs succumb to negative side effects.
Hubris against all odds is often important in Star Trek (TNG):
(1) Star Trek (TNG) has a few episodes in which we see characters acting successfully and luckily against all odds, most notably in 'Encounter at Farpoint'.
(2) Sometimes Star Trek (TNG) steps back with a rational perspective to calculate the odds, and it restrains its characters from action by the prime directive ('Code of Honor').
(3) In 'The Last Outpost' Data notes that Star Fleet has often allowed civilizations to fall into slavery or succumb to mass death without moving a muscle.
(4) But Picard ('Justice') and Riker ('Angel One') call the prime directive into question to differing degrees.
In this case, Jameson weaponizes two factions on Mordan IV and sets off a chain of events leading to 45 years of war. (Jameson decided to give weapons to both major factions of Mordan IV to give each equal standing and help them come to peace, but it incites years of war.)
Karnas wants revenge. He took the ambassador hostage himself just to summon Jameson to kill him for starting the 45 years of war. So revenge is central to its plot, as in 'The Battle'.
Picard smartly argues that the two factions, including Karnas', could have chosen to settle peaceably by taking responsibility for their own actions. They have freewill to refuse to wage destructive warfare; they could have made another choice.
So Karnas's desire for revenge shows how we may become blinded to the possibility of taking positive actions for ourselves to achieve our desired ends, or equally it shows how the decision of Jameson to re-interpret the prime directive can possibly contribute, if only a bit, to destructive ends.
The most interesting part of this episode concerns the question of whether we should give dangerous technology to lesser advanced civilizations. But (Picard would say) even if we do and bad side effects follow, advanced civilizations don't completely control the outcomes of other people; people are free to make different decisions and must take much responsibility for their own actions.
So this episode has an excellent moral point of view. It says sentient beings are free to act, people must take responsibility for their actions, and it's wrong to 'play the victim' and place all the blame for one's suffering on an outsider.
I give top marks to this moral message, but the episode could use more SF!