Welcome to WAM TNG!
If you're here, it can only be for one reason: you're a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I'm going to write about TNG from a perspective that is all about the production of the show, with a focus on three aspects:
W is for Words, the words being used in the script and spoken aloud have a meaning in the world of the story - words like 'transporters', 'shields', and 'Q Continuum' all mean something specific in the world of TNG. Word like this are exceptionally important in science fiction, in a way that they are not important to comedy and drama of most other kinds.
A is for Acting Roles, the people who speak the words, and who ask us to imagine characters in the fictional world of the story. So important are the people to what we imagine, that a Star Wars movie feels legitimate just because it has hired the right cast to perform it. We, the nerdy viewers, are interpreting what they do in the world of the story - but they are just performing the script and reacting to the other actors and actresses.
M is for Models, Make-up, and Mattes, these SFX props do most of the work of crafting a sci-fi setting. For a Star Trek show, they create the races and locations that provide the great deal of the dramatic tension and interest in what's unfolding. Every spaceship model, every latex make-up design, and every matte painting has a vital role in each story they appear within.
Welcome to WAM TNG! To boldly go where we've all been before... but slightly differently.
Chris.
Computer, I have Questions…
The Captain’s Log entitled Where No Question Has Gone Before should have answers to some obvious (and not so obvious!) questions.
Raise Legal Shields!
WAM TNG is a critical commentary on the narrative construction of episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Any images that appear along with the text are being used under the ‘fair use doctrine’, and thus remain the copyright of their legal owners, whomever that might be.
