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What's This Video About?

2017-09-29 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:57 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Pop culture (also: Science & nature, Books & writing) · mode: Personal essay · tags: timely hook

After puzzling over an unopened but flat, deflated Dr Pepper can, Hank marks Star Trek: The Next Generation's 30th anniversary by arguing, via Gene Roddenberry's question 'What's it about?', that stories should be about something, ideally something hopeful, and that themes matter as much as plot, as in John's Turtles All the Way Down.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — An unopened Dr Pepper can that is flat and floppy; Hank's carbonation theory

  • ★★ Hank shows an unopened, never-leaked Dr Pepper can that is thin and floppy with no pressure in it, and opening it confirms it is flat. — 00:00:01
  • ★★ Aluminium cans are very fragile but have high tensile strength, so the pressure inside inflates them and makes them strong; without it they are weak and floppy. — 00:00:09
  • ★ The flat Dr Pepper tastes like regular Dr Pepper with the barest tingle; Hank jokes that of its 23 flavours it missed one. (playful) — 00:00:38
  • ★★ Hank guesses carbonation is needed for the can to feel normal; otherwise the gas contracts when cold and the can deflates. (hedged) — 00:00:48
  • ★ Hank asks anyone with a better theory for the flat can to let him know. — 00:01:02

00:01:04 — Thinking about stories on TNG's 30th anniversary: showrunner Michael Piller and Roddenberry's 'What's it about?'

  • ★★ Hank has been thinking a lot about stories because he has been working on his own and has just read John's. — 00:01:04 · John Green
  • ★★ It is the day after the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation. — 00:01:07
  • ★★ Hank calls TNG the most formative piece of media in his life. — 00:01:13
  • ★★ Piller, whom Hank never knew existed as an 11-year-old, had a tremendous impact on him; in the 90s normal people didn't think about showrunning. — 00:01:16
  • ★★ Michael Piller was TNG's showrunner from the third season to the end, sharing the job with Jeri Taylor in the last years, writing episodes and managing the writing room. — 00:01:24
  • ★★ In an interview Piller recalled pitching Gene Roddenberry an adventurous chase across the universe; Roddenberry asked what it was about, and they could only repeat the plot. — 00:01:43

00:02:01 — TNG was always about something; Hank is sick of House of Cards-style stories and wants hopeful ones

  • ★★★ Unlike much TV sci-fi today, TNG was always about something: forced to choose, its writers would sacrifice plot before meaning. (hedged) — 00:02:01
  • ★★ It's easy to write good-versus-evil stories with exploding spaceships, hard to write about disability, racism, what it means to be human, or honesty. — 00:02:16
  • ★★★ We are no longer in a West Wing world but a House of Cards world, and Hank is a bit sick of it and finds it boring. (hedged) — 00:02:31
  • ★★★ Hank is done with stories about how messed up the world is and evil people doing evil things; he wants stories about something, maybe something hopeful. (hedged) — 00:02:40 · hope

00:02:55 — What Turtles All the Way Down is about: its themes rather than its plot

00:03:27 — Themes as important as plot; watch TNG this weekend; pride in John's book and sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank learned from TNG that themes are as important as plot, sometimes more, since diversion is the least a story can offer. (hedged) — 00:03:27
  • ★★ Hank hopes viewers will join him watching lots of TNG on Netflix this weekend. (hedged) — 00:03:31
  • ★★ We must think about the stories our world and our selves are built on, which is a great way to make media, from vlogs to books to TV. — 00:03:41
  • ★★ Hank is really proud of John and his book and can't wait for others to read it. — 00:03:52 · John Green, Turtles All the Way Down

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description heartily recommends watching TNG from the beginning, though its first two seasons kinda suck, and lists great episodes. — video description
  • ★ The description apologises that this video is two different videos. (playful) — video description
  • ★★ Apart from character development and backstory, Hank says TNG episodes can be watched in any order, unlike later series: Deep Space Nine was part of the push toward serialized TV where you must watch every episode. — video description
  • ★★ Hank recommends the TNG episode The Drumhead (season 4, episode 21) as one of the most "What's it About" episodes with great Picard monologues, especially important given current political conversations. — video description
  • ★★ Hank recommends Measure of a Man (season 2, episode 9), being a big fan of episodes that focus on Data. — video description
  • ★★ Hank recommends The Inner Light (season 5, episode 25), saying he thinks about it all the time. — video description
  • ★★ Hank recommends Clues (season 4, episode 14) as a really inventive and exciting tale of successful diplomacy, which he notes isn't easy. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Dr Pepper · Star Trek: The Next Generation · storytelling

Also: People: Gene Roddenberry · Jeri Taylor · Michael Piller

Works: House of Cards · Star Trek (franchise) · The West Wing · Turtles All the Way Down

Organizations: Netflix

Concepts: carbonation · disability in the media · economic inequality · hope · human nature · mental disorder · racism · showrunner

Only in the description or credits: Clues · Data (character, “Star Trek: The Next Generation”) · Jean-Luc Picard · Measure of a Man · Star Trek: Deep Space Nine · The Drumhead · The Inner Light

Also centred on Dr Pepper: BRING IT IN 2018 · Dr Pepper Enthusiast John Green Taste Tests Dr Pepper and Its Misbegotten Pretenders

Also centred on storytelling: Announcing NerdCon: Stories · The Stories We Tell Ourselves: Thoughts from Amsterdam

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