   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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Why doesn’t YouTube have a clip of the song from the SNL nude beach sketch for me to link to?
I’m having some serious flashbacks here.
Sarah does have some weird hatred for Terrence. And either Terrence was always this bad or Sarah brought out the worst in him.
It’s definitely been a progression. There’s a pretty fair escalation that’s been going on since he was introduced. Kinda disappointed myself though – that he’s turned out to at least apparently just be a one dimensional farkwad. He sort of seemed more interesting as he was written in the first few.
With only two comics a week, I can only show so much. He’s not a main character, so we only see his interactions with them.
So, uh, here’s another random dimension to Terrence: he lives at home and takes care of his disabled father.
Boom.
Lol the hell there is Trae, no matter WHERE that guy is he’s still a serious buttmunch . He’s one of those guys that has a GOOD twin in the evil Star Trek beard dimension. I was just being the cheerleader for a more nuanced dumbarsery I ‘spose. That being said – yeah – in a few panels a day nuance is a bastard to accomplish. Frankly I’m kinda amazed you get as much as you do in so small a canvas to work with. Always kinda regarded comics as being akin to short stories. Sure, less to write – but that’s a seriously two-edged sword. Also wayyyyyyy less room to characterize/etc. There are quite a few authors that have flat out stated they’d much rather try to write a really good book than a really good short story – and there are damn good reasons for that.
Terrance was always shit. His “people like us” comment and a few others like that are pretty clear. His interaction with Lynn last comic was all on him. At the same time, Sarah and T are locked in unending combat and that makes him act worse around her.
It’s too bad he’s going to get killed and served to the GoH, there’s a lot of fun to be had with 2 chars who can’t be in the same room without trouble.
Sure, he always was an ass. BUT in the first few with him he had some reason to be an ass. SOME. Not to the degree he was being, but it was open for a bit for the possibility of crippling social ineptitude being reinforced by “Go do stuff and get it done – figure it out yourself.” While that totally works for these folks, ’cause they’ve been working together half of forever – it’s not really the best way to handle new people working on anything. They’re either A: gonna come up with solutions you don’t like at all, or B: usually gonna screw it up because they’re clueless. As I said that WAS a possibility – ’cause now it’s quite clear he’s just a jackhole. 🙂