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.
Remember that on April 5th at 11AM Eastern/10AM Central you can join me for the Critical Thinking Witches' Collective's April Brew virtual event! Attendance is free, and you can register here!
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Bwahahaha…
this brought tears to my eyes.. so funny
Stop laughing for a minute? No. No, they cannot.
That’s hilarious… why I am laughing so much
I feel there is a Sailor Stars joke there I should be getting, but I don’t.
It’s not so much a reference as me trying to come up with something ridiculous and weird that someone’s probably actually done.
There was an entrant in the ConFrancisco masquerade in ’93 who dressed as a Transformer (which one is lost to me now); it was made of cardboard and very little else. As the MC intoned the words “completely indestructible,” half the back fell off. (I ran into one of the other entrants at a party later that evening, who said the guy literally stuffed it all into a garbage bag when he came offstage.)
At No Brand Con a few years there were 3 Transformers who made their costumes from cardboard too but they painted their boxes with special paint that hardened the cardboard too. Anyways their cosplay was so fragile and it was very heavy they didn’t even get on the stage for the contest. They actually were somewhat forced into the contest because it was that good that they were almost certain they would win and I think they got a good prize too.
At Worldcon 2006, there was an Optimus Prime that failed to get on stage. And it was already in the wings. I think the problem, though, was getting the “pants” (legs) on.
Phil Foglio was MC, and he ran out of “stretch” so bad he resorted to a “Roll out the Barrel” sign-along with the audience while the crew figured out how to get the failed costume out of the way of the next entry.
Ask any long time fan about why Westercon etc. masquerades have a “no peanut butter” rule… it’s hard to find ANYTHING weird enough that it hasn’t happened. (That and if you’ve got a fluttery costume do NOT stand in front of an entry with wires on the front of their shirt – in my case it was a Westworld android after his chest exploded, and I had a sash cape. We came thaaat close to having to be a joint entry…)