One of the great mysteries of our time — so eerie that it might even tickle the paranormal interests of Rod “Mystical Crunchy Con” Dreher — is why when it came to the six original Star Trek movies, the odd-numbered ones were terrible and the even-numbered ones were great.

Think about it.

The first — you know, “V’ger wants the information” — was deadly. The third — “Get Spock’s qatra out of my body” — was lame. The fifth — “Hi, I’m God” — was ridiculous. But the second — with the greatest scream of all time next to Howard Dean’s — was fantastic, the fourth — “everybody remember where we parked” — was delightful, and the sixth — “there’s an old Klingon saying: Only Nixon can go to China” — was wonderful.

It’s eerie, especially when you consider that the Enterprise’s number — NCC-1701 — is odd. WHAT COULD IT MEAN???