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’m surprised they didn’t Vet the questions
The hovertext agrees!
If they did, the dude probably lied. Trying to get one over on the Establishment.
People do – but if nothing else it’s a good way for assholes not to have a leg to stand on once they get thrown out. “Deviating from your previously screened questions on a panel may result in your removal at the discretion of the event staff.” or somesuch in the signup paperwork. Some forethought a day keeps stan-sympathetic ambulance chasers away.
Not a big fan of vetting questions, I mean, I imagine you all are anti-vetting questions at Blizzcon.
I tend to like vetting questions when it’s to keep sexist assholes from harassing a rape survivor. I dislike vetting questions when it’s to keep a major corporation from facing consequences for protecting a fascist regime. I support the right of all events* to vet questions, because it’s private property that’s being used to ask the question.
As a rule, I EXPECT all events to vet questions, because it’s seriously dumb to let anyone grab a live mike from you and shout whatever they want at your Guests of Honor.
*except political rallies/town halls/etc