Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier

Summary[]

Blurb

After more than 55 years of transmedia storytelling, Star Trek is a global phenomenon that has never been more successful than it is today. Star Trek fandom is worldwide, time tested, and growing, and academic interest in the franchise, both inside and outside of the classroom, is high; at the moment, more Star Trek works are underway or in development simultaneously than at any other moment in history.

Unlike works that focus on a limited number of stories/media in this franchise or only offer one expert's or discipline's insights, this accessible and multidisciplinary anthology includes analyses from a wide range of scholars and explores Star Trek from its debut in 1966 to its current incarnations, considers its implications for and collaborations with fandom, and trace its ideas and meanings across series, media, and time. Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier will undoubtedly speak to academics in the field, students in the classroom, and informed lay readers and fans.

Excerpts of copyrighted sources are included for review purposes only, without any intention of infringement.

Contents[]

• On Not Liking Star Trek

  - Una McCormack

• Introduction

  - Amy H. Sturgis and Emily Strand

• Part 1: Exploring the Series and Films
  • Chapter 1 - "A Conservative World"”: Greece, Rome, and Stagnation in Star Trek: The Original Series

    - Daniel Unruh

  • Chapter 2 - The Truth Is Out There (Specifically, the Delta Quadrant): Star Trek: Voyager as 1990s Conspiracy Culture

    - Edward Guimont

  • Chapter 3 - Beyond the Wilds and the Waves: Reevaluating Archer, the Armory, and Enterprise

    - Amy H. Sturgis

  • Chapter 4 - "Galloping around the cosmos is a game for the young": The Nostalgic Drives and Generational Anxieties of Star Trek (2009) and Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)

    - Brunella Tedesco-Barlocco

• Part 2: Exploring the Ideas
  • Chapter 5 - Darmok and Jalad on the Internet: The Importance of Metaphors in Natural Languages and Natural Language Processing

    - Kristina Šekrst

  • Chapter 6 - Two Faces of the Same Coin: Star Trek's Federation and the Terran Empire

    - Javier Francisco

  • Chapter 7 - "He Was a Son to Me": Understanding Seven of Nine as a Queer, Posthuman Parent

    - Erin Bell

  • Chapter 8 - The Future Burning Brightly: The Dual Impact of Energy in Star Trek's Post-Scarcity Universe

    - Martine Gjermundsen Ræstad

• Part 3: Exploring the Multimedia Storytelling
  • Chapter 9 - "Dif-Tor heh Smusma," "Jolan tru," "NuqNeh": Exploring the Glossopoesis of the Star Trek Universe

    - Andrew Higgins

  • Chapter 10 - Expanding Universes: Star Trek and Rise of Multimedia Narratives

    - John Jackson Miller

• Contributors
• Index