But is it worse than a Risa episode?
I am tempted to say that the worst episode of Trek is Voyager's "In The Flesh." Not so much because of its own failings as a piece of self-contained drama - it's not great, but it could be worse - but because it contains what may be the stupidest idea that the Trek writers ever had.
Consider Species 8472. They're a mystery. They're from another, very weird, universe and we don't even know what they call themselves. They're immune to assimilation and a serious threat to the Borg. The Borg who even at this point in the saga of "Kathryn Janeway pwns the Borg repeatedly" are probably still the biggest threat in the Trekverse. Sure, the Dominion might have won the war without the personal intervention of god*, but the Borg can assimilate a planet with a single ship. Species 8472 are Borg-killers. If one of them gets onto your ship, you are probably fucked. And on top of that, they're actually original to Voyager as a series. They're one of the best ideas those writers ever had, right up there with "Let's introduce a new character with an actual personality, a backstory and an emotional arc. Oh, and big tits."
So then S5 happens. In The Flesh happens. And it turns out? They're actually nice. They really want to be our friends. And then they're never mentioned again because there's no point to them after that. This is, of course, a completely stupid idea. This is throwing away so much potential for no good reason.
Threshold was stupid, yeah, but then it's over and it has no effect on anything ever again. In The Flesh is totally game-changing in a bad way. I have no fucking clue what they were thinking when they wrote that episode. "This show is getting too exciting, let's make it dull again," maybe.
(*I only just learned that people hated that. I thought it was EPIC WIN. If you're going to do a Deus Ex Machina there are worse ways to do it.)
Consider Species 8472. They're a mystery. They're from another, very weird, universe and we don't even know what they call themselves. They're immune to assimilation and a serious threat to the Borg. The Borg who even at this point in the saga of "Kathryn Janeway pwns the Borg repeatedly" are probably still the biggest threat in the Trekverse. Sure, the Dominion might have won the war without the personal intervention of god*, but the Borg can assimilate a planet with a single ship. Species 8472 are Borg-killers. If one of them gets onto your ship, you are probably fucked. And on top of that, they're actually original to Voyager as a series. They're one of the best ideas those writers ever had, right up there with "Let's introduce a new character with an actual personality, a backstory and an emotional arc. Oh, and big tits."
So then S5 happens. In The Flesh happens. And it turns out? They're actually nice. They really want to be our friends. And then they're never mentioned again because there's no point to them after that. This is, of course, a completely stupid idea. This is throwing away so much potential for no good reason.
Threshold was stupid, yeah, but then it's over and it has no effect on anything ever again. In The Flesh is totally game-changing in a bad way. I have no fucking clue what they were thinking when they wrote that episode. "This show is getting too exciting, let's make it dull again," maybe.
(*I only just learned that people hated that. I thought it was EPIC WIN. If you're going to do a Deus Ex Machina there are worse ways to do it.)