Title
Review of Enterprise Zones: Critical Positions on Star Trek
Document Type
Book Review
Publication Date
12-1997
Abstract
It is popular to view Star Trek in all its various forms as a forward-looking portrayal of a utopian future in which the evolution of human understanding and technology has enabled humanity to build a flourishing, progressive society. Enterprise Zones, a collection of critical essays on Star Trek, boldly challenges this view. The common theme of its diverse authors is that Star Trek articulates and affirms our contemporary sexual, racial, economic, and political biases.
In the interest of brevity this review will assume some familiarity with the Star Trek corpus. Indeed, the book is best read when the episodes addressed are fresh in one's mind. Enough explanation is provided that a reader who has not seen a particular episode under discussion can still follow along, but someone entirely unfamiliar with the Trek universe will find the book opaque. I shall also adopt the book’s policy of shortening the cumbersome title Star Trek: The Next Generation to the abbreviation “TNG.”
In such an anthology, there can often be found a wide range of topics and of quality. This anthology maintains a consistent theme throughout and a high level of competence as well. Even the articles with which I had difficulty tended to present problems of style rather than substance; the arguments might sometimes be expressed obscurely, but they were never shallow or hasty.
Repository Citation
Smith, Anne Collins, "Review of Enterprise Zones: Critical Positions on Star Trek" (1997). Faculty Publications. 14.
https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/multidisciplinary_facultypubs/14
Comments
Review by Anne Collins Smith in Teaching Philosophy 20.4, December 1997
Enterprise Zones: Critical Positions on Star Trek, eds. Taylor Harrison, Sarah Projansky, Kent A. Ono, and Elyce Rae Helford. Boulder, Colorado: WestviewPress, a Division of HarperCollins Publishers, 1996, 313 pp., $69.00 h.c. 0-8133-2898-5, $16.50 pbk. 0-8133-2899-3.