Star Trek - Ina Rae Hark

?Star Trek remains the original, iconic and, for its many fans, the best example of science fiction television, boldly going where no TV drama had gone before. Ina Rae Hark's lively and authoritative account of the five series - from the original Star Trek to its most recent manifestation, Enterprise - provides a comprehensive guide to the Trek universe and its key themes.

Hark carefully delineates the unique characteristics of each series, from Star Trek's depiction of humanity confronting technological and evolutionary change, to The Next Generation's diplomatic efforts to secure its perfected utopia for others, Deep Space Nine's interrogation of the claims of that utopia in a hostile, alien environment, Voyager's testing of Starfleet principles light years away from the Federation's borders, and Enterprise's look back at humankind's first efforts to forge an intergalactic alliance. She also considers the series' ongoing redefinition of Otherness and inclusion, focusing on the 'outlier' members of the ensemble casts, and explores the central fears each incarnation of Trek confronts.

As well as offering new insights for even the most hardcore Trekker, this volume also provides a perfect introduction to a popular culture phenomenon for those few who have never heard of a phaser or a Klingon.

INA RAE HARK is Professor of English and Film Studies at the University of South Carolina. She is the co-editor, with Steven Cohan, of Screening the Male (1993) and The Road Movie Book (1997) and editor of Exhibition: the Film Reader (2001) and American Cinema of the 1930s (2007).