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Deep Space and Sacred Time: Star Trek in the American Mythos
What could possibly account for the scope and longevity of the Star Trek phenomenon? With legions of impassioned fans and a life span of 30 years and counting, the Star Trek television and film corpus has made Gene Roddenberry's creation nothing less than an American mythology. Deep Space and Sacred Time examines for the first time in book-length form the many ways Star Trek has served as a mythic reference point for American society--and suggests that an understanding of this might help us to see ourselves more clearly as a culture. Moreover, this thoughtful and thought-provoking work posits that Star Trek offers its audience a sense of hope and, in the setting of an orderly cosmos, the possibility for empowerment.
- GenresStar TrekPop Culture
264 pages, Hardcover
First published October 30, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 1, 2022
'Star Trek' is a cultural phenomenon, as shown by its almost sixty year history. Wagner and Lundeen's series of academic essays explore the archetypes behind the series to try and explain its success.
April 21, 2014
Both fascinating and seriously analytic.
Interweaving most of 20th century most important sociological theories (social theory, gender theory, ...) with a serious analysis of Star Trek episodes, the authors manage to give an interesting and thought-provoking read about not only Star Trek but also larger trends.
One of the most successful aspects is the ongoing theme of how different "TOS" (aka "The Old Star Trek") is from all the later Star Treks, and how they all show the widely different views on race/racism, ethnocentrism, morality, gender etc. between the time the show was first conceived and the later series. Everything is very successfully linked to and analyzed through the lens of evolving social theories (with a satisfying meta-analysis that also looks at different schools of sociology and their relationship with Star Trek).
Interestingly, the book is also very zeitgeisty: Written in the late 90s, it almost completely avoids any analysis (and criticism) of Star Trek's interesting but very difficult relation to homosexuality and lgbt concerns. Certainly had it been written today, probably a whole chapter would have been devoted to it.
Anyway, a must-read if you're the kind of Star Trek fan who doesn't judge episodes merely on how entertaining they are.
Interweaving most of 20th century most important sociological theories (social theory, gender theory, ...) with a serious analysis of Star Trek episodes, the authors manage to give an interesting and thought-provoking read about not only Star Trek but also larger trends.
One of the most successful aspects is the ongoing theme of how different "TOS" (aka "The Old Star Trek") is from all the later Star Treks, and how they all show the widely different views on race/racism, ethnocentrism, morality, gender etc. between the time the show was first conceived and the later series. Everything is very successfully linked to and analyzed through the lens of evolving social theories (with a satisfying meta-analysis that also looks at different schools of sociology and their relationship with Star Trek).
Interestingly, the book is also very zeitgeisty: Written in the late 90s, it almost completely avoids any analysis (and criticism) of Star Trek's interesting but very difficult relation to homosexuality and lgbt concerns. Certainly had it been written today, probably a whole chapter would have been devoted to it.
Anyway, a must-read if you're the kind of Star Trek fan who doesn't judge episodes merely on how entertaining they are.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews