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 feel personally attacked.
(Con’s in a week. This year I am the ‘get my sh*t together’ camp. Or as someone once G-rated it, “Get your poop in a group”.)
I need to remember that expression…
“List Spaghetti Privilege”? Maybe if people don’t get their shit together, Jim cuts off their meals at the con?
I assume it’s a variation of Calvin & Hobbes’ “Noodle Incident.”
Respect for the folks who do hard work for a Con. I just show up and make sure the Guests stay fed and watered, maybe double check they make it to whatever panel. Sometimes there’s a shopping run or picking someone up from the airport, but over all it’s a pretty simple position.
Something like Security? I couldn’t do that. I can be big and intimidating, but being polite to people who are not, keeping an eye on things to stop problems before they start… not in my skill set.
Yeah, sorta a similar background back in the day. I was involved with cons, I was not involved at the full planning, financials, and kicking others in the butt so they finally get something done dammit level. It was a flat out relief to not be in several situations, just because ye gods sometimes I’d have snapped and smacked somebody one. Nearly did twice, even as a minion-esque type.