   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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I expect Unagicon to pull a Kamehacon.
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa? 😛
A-ha! My prediction was wrong!
First thought… what new farkery does this conceal?
SPOILERS because I pay attention to con news
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Lorem Ipsum Lorem Ipsum Lorem ipsum lorem ipsum They’ll bring him back after the deadline for refunds, or he’ll sue the con because they have an ineptly written guest contract.
Having a poorly written guest contract certainly fits in with what we know about Unagi Con.
Know it’s pedantic of me, but are we sure Terrance is a Nazi? Certainly he’s a misogynistic douchebag of an asshole, full of himself enough to dress like a Nazi in public… which is certainly bad enough, and very indicitive of being a Nazi.
I guess my mental picture puts ‘Nazi’ as ‘racist and/or anti-semitic’, and certainly Terrance has done terrible things… but I fail to recall any that were racist or anti-semitic.
I’m still perfectly willing to punch him in the face should we ever meet.
Look, I — the author with a degree in political science — wouldn’t necessarily call Terrence a Nazi based on what Megan’s seen of him. He might be, but we haven’t seen enough.
Megan, who did not study political science (and who grew up in a small town I literally based off a real place in Indiana where I first saw someone with a swastika tattoo on his neck), is probably going to call him a Nazi.
Perfectly fair. If he hasn’t technically crossed the line into fitting the formal definition of a Nazi, he’s come close enough.