Each episode explores one work in the Star Trek canon, and at the end we discover what we’ll be looking at next. We pick some connection from the current episode—a culture, a narrative theme, an episode trope—and pick something to discuss next that shares that element.

We love Star Trek, and we know it’s far from perfect. We’re enthralled with its audacious vision of a society without poverty or prejudice, and painfully aware of how it falls short of portraying that goal. We think that science fiction is at its best when it is both a joy to experience and a political challenge to those of us in the contemporary world.

Like Spock, we are abolitionist: it’s wrong to glorify organized violence yet imprison those who employ it privately. Like Picard, we are anticapitalist: we believe in working to better ourselves and humanity instead of to acquire wealth. Like Rom, we are socialist: we believe in workers taking control of their lives, dignity, and profits. Like Burnham, we think queer: we believe that sometimes down is up and logic is not binary.