A gap of 10 years passed between the broadcast of the last episode of "Star Trek: The Original Series" and the release of "The Motion Picture". The film skirted around the fact the actors had aged, supposing that only two and a half years had passed since the events of the TV show. For "Star Trek II", it was decided to acknowledge the reality of the aging actors, both by setting the film some 15 years after "Space Seed", and by having Kirk worry about getting old.