Captain's Log: Preparing to leave McKinley station

The first WAMs are coming in June 2022

Earth Station McKinley, depicted, was presumably invented to give the Enterprise a specific reason to be at Earth in the Season 4 episode, Family. It’s an extremely simple model, but it does a great job of signalling to us that we’re taking time out for repairs - the theme of Picard’s character arc in the episode.

The WAM TNG newsletter begins in earnest in June, bringing you a weekly WAM of every Star Trek: The Next Generation episode in a 3.4 year mission to explore how this show was put together, what it asks us to imagine, and what that means for us now in a world that has turned its back on many of the ideals that made the Federation such a hopeful image of the future from 1987-1994.

Although I’ll be delighted to find money in my tips jar, please don’t feel obligated to pay for a subscription. You have my word that all 178 WAMs will be free for everyone to read forever, although I will be writing Personal Logs and Library Records as a thank you to everyone who signs up for the Away Team. And if you want to overpay for a subscription, you can join the Q Continuum and determine whether or not I’ll watch Picard when WAM TNG finishes.

Thank you for joining me on this voyage! This is not just an exercise in sci-fi nostalgia, it is also a philosophical reflection on the dark turn the human race has taken in the 21st century. In the optimistic hopes and idealistic principles of Star Trek: The Next Generation, I hope we might all rediscover a future worth imagining together.