Captain's Log: The Pool Table

Celebrating Engineering's most iconic feature

From its debut in “11001001”, the ‘pool table’ (as it was affectionately known behind-the-scenes) became the focal feature of main engineering. But did you notice that between season five and season six, the door behind it changed function? The image on the left is from “The First Duty”, where the door is clearly marked ‘turbolift’. But in the image on the right from “Realm of Fear”, it now leads to the new Jeffries Tube set that debuted in that episode.

Should we consider this a gaffe? Well, the dedicated Trek geek always has methods to resolve any inconsistencies. In this case, I propose that interfering with the time line in “Time’s Arrow” resulted in butterfly effects that resulted in minor alterations to the design of Galaxy class starships. Alternative theorycrafting welcome in the comments!

The Season Six Sixty Six

Of course, all the WAMs remain forever free, but if you have a spare $17, you could unlock the entire world of WAMTNG for the reminder of this adventure, including access to all the following articles:

• Crew Profiles: Tasha Yar, Doctor Pulaski, Q, Guinan, Miles O’Brien, Reginald Barclay, Ro Laren, Nurse Ogawa (Obituary), Wesley Crusher, Data, Geordi LaForge …and five more still to come

• Personal Logs: 35 Years of TNG, David Warner (Obituary)

• Top 40 TNG Models: 36-40, 31-35, 26-30, 21-25, 16-20, 11-15, 6-10, 1-5

Paid subscribers can read all the Crew Profiles and the Top 40 TNG Models serial, plus you get a warm glow beamed directly into your circulatory organs! ❤

After WAMTNG

I always envisioned WAMTNG as a one-off voyage, but as we surge towards the end of our adventures together, discussions have started in my house about whether we might go on a little further. It is not impossible we might do WAMTNG: Origins, and cover the three seasons of classic Star Trek, or even extend in the other direction and do WAMDS9. I have no intention of going and later than DS9 in the original franchise, though.

Interested in extending our voyage together…? Let me know in the comments!

100 Crewmembers!

Delighted to report that we have cleared the magic and meaningless 100 mark - yes, the crew of WAMTNG has now cleared the century and we can now staff each deck with two crewmembers, even with sixteen crew members off-duty and using one each of our sixteen holodecks.

Thanks to everyone who joined us in the last few months (we gained nearly twenty new crewmembers between the start of December 2024 and the end of January 2025)! We’ve very happy to have you here, crew! Don’t forget that you can get an immediate promotion to Ensign just by leaving a comment on any WAM.

Promotions and Commendations

Firstly, I’m pleased to promote Ensign Vee to Lieutenant Junior Grade - many thanks for all your comments and support! It’s always appreciated. Here is your new imaginary black rank pip, Vee.

Also, we have three new Ensigns - Naomi Lavamoon, Michael, and Charlie Wilkins. Here’s your imaginary rank pip, newly commissioned officers!

Finally, I’m awarding the Citation of Conspicuous Gallantry to inw, who has provided some of the most enjoyable comments of the last season or so.

Many thanks for your continued support, crew! Every comment, every like, every share is greatly appreciated.

Duty Roster

Captain Bateman

Lieutenant Commander Mower
Lieutenant Commander British Tennessean
Lieutenant Commander Stape*

Lieutenant Ivo*
Lieutenant Wightwave
Lieutenant Rob
+2 Lieutenants currently off duty

Lieutenant JG Jess H**
Lieutenant JG Elliott
Lieutenant JG (Benedict Tiberius) Cato*
Lieutenant JG inw**
Lieutenant JG Vee

Ensign Haddie
Ensign Gibbens
Ensign (Mordechai) Buxner
Ensign (Gustavo Jaramillo) Luzardo
Ensign (Homer) Picard
Ensign Michael
Ensign Naomi Lavamoon
Ensign Charlie Wilkins
+88 crewmen

* indicates a Commendation
** indicates Citation of Conspicuous Gallantry