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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I’d like to mirror Lynn’s reaction. Who on earth risks compromising a whole business just to get back at one individual…? Especially when that individual is a newcomer who was asked to come help out… O.o
He doesn’t see it as risking the con. The con isn’t fun for him anymore, therefore it’s already failing. Getting rid of Lynn will make it fun for him, so he’s actually saving the con. It’s perfectly reasonable as long as you’re selfish as hell.
Why the hell does he want to take her down a peg? She hasn’t done anything wrong.
Because she’s getting things actually done, despite all the procedural insanity. That threatens his comfortable little cage of circle-jerking around and not having to actually do much. Never, NEVER underestimate how much some people are threatened by demonstrated competence. It’s one of the biggest reasons I’ve seen for firings and like.
He wants to go back to running around in circles gibbering until it’s too late to do anything, then pulling some plan out of his arse that is immediately dumped on whatever poor SOB is too dumb and too gutless to tell them to get bent and do their own work – at which point if it works wow he’s a genius – and if it doesn’t it was all the poor SOB who shall be referred to as proto-Scrappy’s fault! Shame, boo, etc.
Or… I may be projecting from past experience a bit. But only a bit. No joke, a lot of committee stuff works that way. Sad, true.
Fair enough, I guess that does sound reasonable although Lynn will not put up with his bullshit and she will put him in his place or at least knock him down two pegs.
That’s very fulfilling personally but irresponsible. The resulting personality war could destroy the con. It’s arguable this guy doesn’t care anymore but Lynn can’t make that claim.
The best result from picking a fight with Garner is having Lynn ejected from the staff. Garner’s honesty says he feels very comfortable in his position, whatever it is he actually does. And that he could win a conflict between him and Lynn.
I’ve heard honesty is the best policy, but in this specific case, it seems unwise.
….because she’s competent at her role with the con? cause she’s qualified to do it professionally?
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! But no really, we hear of the wrath she can do, and I wanna see it. Punch!
There’s actually a really old story about this happening in Greece or Rome. Aristides, I think. He was ostracised at one point, which was a fancy form of being voted into exile.
During the voting, an illiterate citizen asked Aristides to write the citizen’s choice on his shard for him. The man wanted to vote to have Aristides ostracised. Aristides, not telling the man who he was, asked the man why. The citizen said he was tired of hearing Aristides addressed as ‘the Just’, and thought Aristides should learn some humility. Aristides wrote his own name on the shard as requested and returned it to the citizen ready to be cast.