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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GARNER!!! Yeah!!! Let’s bring him on board! He’s at the very least the least asshole person we know right now.
Join the con, Garner! We want you back in our lives!!
A useful jackhole > than an amiable useless type when you need to actually get things done. Sad, true, etc.
Garner will make things interesting at the very least…
Is Max coming back to the main cast? I kind of miss seeing him in the cast. But it is good to get Garner I bet he’ll be that guy who actually turns out to be a decent guy in the end.
Or he’ll just continue to be an annoying bastard that sometimes does good things. Not unrealistic, that.
No one is perfect but even with his tendencies to be an asshole, that doesn’t mean Garner is all around a bad person. Some people still have redeeming qualities to them. I think Garner has redeemed himself and I think Lynn is willing to tolerate him and keep him under wraps. But some people like Garner have their feasons for being who they are. We might look down on Garner for them but maybe they have a good cause behind. I can understand the frustration when someone new comes into the picture and suddenly becomes a figure of authority without much effort.