Apparently, the director made many attempts to add more emotion to “The Icarus Factor,” and these attempts met with the approval of some very big names. For example, influential producer Rick Berman approved of these efforts, but Gene Roddenberry had the final say on what could or could not go into each episode of his popular sci-fi spinoff. This endlessly annoyed Iscove, who (as quoted in Captain’s Logs) later summed up his frustration in a single question: “If you can’t deal with the emotion, what’s the point?”
Putting his money where his mouth is, Iscove effectively walked away from the show. After his frustrations during “The Icarus Factor,” he turned down future offers to direct Star Trek episodes. In this way, he was a bit like Commander Riker…the show kept pulling the big chair out for the director and he kept refusing to sit down.
