Current Post On Trae’s Blog:
So I'm just going to come out and say it: My favorite episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation is "Conundrum." It's episode fourteen of season five, and I just deeply love it.
I don't know if it's because I literally just assumed Erich Anderson's Commander McDuff was a random Enterprise officer of the week (which we saw quite often during the show) when I watched it as a kid during the original run, so the twist actually worked on eleven year old me. I don't know if it's because I just like a good "everyone has amnesia" story. I don't even know if it's just because it's a good Ro Laren episode. I don't know if it's just because we learn that Starfleet doesn't give a crap about lasers.
I just like it. It's neat.
And I rewatched it last night, and feel that it holds up -- which is why I found it deeply weird that the folks who wrote the episode actually think it's not that good. My favorite episode of the entire seven season run of the show was a failure according to the folks who wrote it.
And maybe, as a writer and creator, I should remember that.
Like the hardest part of releasing creative works to the public is that often, after a while, I'll start to judge those things far more harshly than when I first made them. Or I'll compare it to the potential I thought an idea had in my head. And if I don't reach that potential, I'll think of it as "bad" -- when it might just be slightly different than that idea. I have one hundred percent published stories that I thought were just sort of okay and later had someone tell me how much it meant to them to read it.
*cough*I Hate November*cough*
So I should make sure I remember Conundrum. That one of my favorite things to rewatch is considered one of those failures by its creators. That the things I make might have value, just not in the way I originally thought they should.
It's just sort of how things work out.
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Oh come on Sarah. At the very least tools can be useful for a specific purpose.
Seems like Lynn is the only one of the group who wants him on their staff. I think him lending her a hand against a nazi and his attempt to warn her has softened her up to him. I like to think we all softened up to Garner a bit.
I can’t believe that in what I would assume to be all that time no one told him who Garner is. Don’t leave Max in the dark.
I would be in the camp wondering if Garner would be a good idea. Garner as a stopped clock tells the right time once per day. And if that turns out to be the right moment for a stopped clock to tell the time so much the batter.
But don’t mistake it for a usable timepiece.
From a writing perspective Garner is a great addition. he stirs any number of pots, sows chaos in the ranks to keep things interesting. Sort of like a domesticated Terrence.
At this point I support telling Max nothing, because it amuses me. It’s sort of cruel, but so am I.
It would be a little like the beginning of Here is Greenwood.