In this episode, the Enterprise transports the elderly Admiral Mark Jameson to deal with a hostage negotiation on the planet Mordan IV.
The Federation starship Enterprise, under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), brings aboard the elderly Admiral Mark Jameson and his wife Anne (Marsha Hunt) on request of Karnas (Michael Pataki), the Governor of Mordan IV.
Karnas warns that a dissident terrorist group has taken a Federation Ambassador and his staff hostage, and demand to speak to a negotiator.
As the ship travels to Mordan IV, Jameson becomes stronger and more able to move about on his own, and no longer shows signs of the terminal Iverson's Disease he was known to have before he was beamed aboard.
Against the advice of Picard, Jameson devises plans to rescue the hostages by transporting the away team to the tunnels beneath Karnas' mansion, believing that they are being held in the same place as the previous captives.
Jameson reveals that in the past, Karnas captured a Federation starliner in revenge for the death of his father by another local tribe.
In orbit, the Enterprise crew and Jameson beam down into the tunnels beneath Karnas' manor but find that their arrival was anticipated and face off against armed guards.
Writer Michael Michaelian originally pitched a story idea based on andropause, sometimes referred to as "male menopause".
[1] The original ending also had the two opposing parties on the planet sit down for peace talks with Jameson surviving the effects of the de-aging drugs.
[2] It was referred to by prop designer Joe Longo as the "big albatross", and when a wheelchair was required for the Deep Space Nine episode "Melora" they instead created a much simpler version.
[4] Karnas was played by Michael Pataki, who had previously portrayed the Klingon Korax in the original Star Trek series episode "The Trouble with Tribbles".
The initial stage to show Jameson at his oldest, involved Rohner wearing a bald-cap and wig plus latex prosthetics applied to his eyes, forehead, throat and jowls.
Westmore found himself worn out by the volume of work during this episode, as at the time the make-up team on the series included just him and Werner Keppler.
He described the return of Michael Pataki to Star Trek as "triumphant" but thought Clayton Rohner was "simply horrible", and that Marsha Hunt "creates no impression whatsoever".
He described Rohner as "acting like a Muppet when he's supposed to be elderly and weak, then laying on the over-heated angst once his youth is restored".
[11] The first home media release of "Too Short a Season" was on VHS cassette, appearing on July 1, 1992, in the United States and Canada.