I'd say that overall the nets, collectively, have done very good at
picking up on what's going on in the show. I think the larger themes have
been missed in places, but I think that in many ways that's because the
larger pieces haven't yet been inserted into the jigsaw puzzle so that
others can see what's going on.

The greatest errors, I think, come in looking too closely for
parallels to other fiction. "Oh, I get it, it's just like X." That line
will lead you only into error.

In any work of fiction, there are two primary elements: theme and
plot. Plot are the incidents, theme is what it's *about* on a very
core level. Plot has been well analyzed; themes not necessarily. To tie
this paragraph and the one preceding, for instance, a number of folks
considered that the events in "Acts of Sacrifice" with the Lumati were a
shot at the Prime Directive/non-interference.

Nothing could have been further from the truth, and it wasn't until
this was mentioned here that it even occured to me. Take a look at
Washington DC these days, and the larger culture. People being
warehoused, other people who *should* be in homes shoved out onto the
streets to fend for themselves, a general callousness that seems to be
creeping into the bones of a society that was born on the premise that
we should be at minimum kind to one another. I figured that one would
get a lot of discussion going on the degree to which society is, or should
be responsive to the least of its citizens. Darwinism vs. charity. And
some of that did emerge. But a fair measure of it got siphoned off into
comparisons with ST.

That, however, is really the exception rather than the rule. I very
frequently find myself surprised at the depth of analysis that goes on
here, and the toughtfulness behind it. Quite a few have Gotten It. Some
are still backing up far enough to see the whole picture. And maybe at
times I'm not being sufficiently craftworthy in my work to make those
elements sufficiently clear. But the deeper we go, the more there is to
get, and the more folks *do* seem to be nailing it.

jms