Trivia / Star Trek: The Next Generation S1E15 "Too Short a Season"

• Blooper: At one point, just as he's getting on the turbolift to leave the bridge, Patrick Stewart makes a goofy face for no apparent reason.
• Creator Backlash: The episode's director Rob Bowman later criticized the make-up effects used on Clayton Rohner, describing them as "subpar." Likewise, make-up artist Michael Westmore expressed regret that he wasn't given sufficient time to design or test them.
• Recycled Set: A tunnel extension in the Mordan underground set is recycled from Spaceballs.
• Troubled Production: D. C. Fontana quit the series in disgust after Gene Roddenberry's lawyer, Leonard Maizlish rewrote her script beyond recognition, in contravention of Writer's Guild rules. Fontana was so determined not to have to deal with Maizlish any longer that she didn't even bother to request a pen name, as she did on "The Naked Now" earlier in the season. This marked the beginning of the end for Roddenberry's time as showrunner, and resulted in fellow writer Maurice Hurley browbeating him into handing over control of the writing staff not long afterwards.
• What Could Have Been: In Michael Michaelian's original script, Jameson does not die, but reverts to the age of fourteen, and does not remember his wife. He helps Governor Zepec and his rival, a high priest in their negotiations. In this story Jameson was responsible for moving Commander Riker away from the Enterprise-D to command his own ship and being promoted to captain. At the end, the fourteen year old Jameson received a tour of the Enterprise-D by Wesley Crusher.
• Writer Revolt: Lenoard Maizlish's meddling with the script led to D.C. Fontana, Rick Berman, and Bob Justman reading Roddenberry the riot act and threatening to report them both to the WGA and Paramount studio heads. Maizlish supposedly inserted a lot of Wesley scenes, and the fact that Wesley doesn't appear in this episode at all may have been a form of protest of their part.

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