I used to religiously catch every episode of Star Trek whenever it was on the air to watch episodes a couple of times. The Original Series. The Next Generation. Deep Space Nine. They were all my regular TV consumption.
Even when I was working in the East Coast and out of the station’s broadcast area, Atok Irfan – long before he was designated Atok Irfan – taped the shows for me for my viewing when I was on my 5 days off period from work.
It was during the middle of the second season of Star Trek: Voyager that I finally realised something.
There were some good stories, but I discovered that I could live without watching any of the episodes. The writing on Star Trek seemed to be becoming bland, repetitive and uninsipired. Once the science fiction concepts were concise and served the stories well however hokey it might be. Now it was becoming mindless inconsistent technobabble explanation that seemed like deux ex machina solution to solve their problems. By the time the powers that be introduced Seven of Nine to attract the young male demographics, I was totally disinterested with Trek. Others can and have ranted better than me on this so I wont go further.
I will only refer you to an episode of Voyager which I saw with my own two eyes – taped by Atok Irfan when I was away at work – that is now a legend in terms of being the worst ever episode of Star Trek.
Read on about… Threshold. But I wont be held responsible for any loss in Sanity Points if you read and grok it.
