Every night at midnight I watch an inspiring episode of Star Trek.
OK, so maybe inspiring isn’t the right word; however, TV selections at 1 a.m. are not very good — paid programming, long Extenze commercials (you know the ones with the annoying guy you want to punch in the face,) or Star Trek. I will take the early 90s science fiction.
So it really irked me the other night after I walked home from work and found WGN was covering the Illinois governor’s race instead of Captain Picard’s next great adventure. Sure, in my line of work political news is important, but who in Pennsylvania cares whether Pat Quinn or Dan Hynes will be taking the helm in Illinois. The last I heard the race was too close to call, by the way.
I sat through 20 minutes of gubernational jargon hoping an attack on the Borg fleet would be on the other side. It wasn’t. An infomercial was, though. Thank you WGN for your fine programming choice. I can just imagine the channel’s controller asleep at his or her station unaware of the broadcast blunder. Sure at 1 a.m. I was probably one of a select few who was furious about the mistake. But I have a feeling Trekkies are the type of people who stay up late. So I likely wasn’t the only one who was upset. Maybe I should start going to bed earlier?
-Rick Kazmer