Star Trek and History

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Authors: Nancy Reagin

BOOK: Star Trek and History
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Contents

Acknowledgments

A Timeline of Stardates

Star Trek Series and Movie Titles

Introduction

Part One: Characters [Are] Welcome: Backstories

Chapter 1: Riding Posse on the Final Frontier

Western Culture Lassos Eastern Hearts?

Noble Savages in the Neutral Zone

The Federation's Manifest Destiny

JFK, JTK, and the Final New Frontier

Chapter 2: More Than “Just Uhura”

“Changing the Way People See Us”

“The Next Einstein Might Have a Black Face”

“Be Careful What You Wish For”

“Was I Not One of Your Top Students?”

Chapter 3: The Compassionate Country Doctor and Cold-Blooded Biomedicine

The Country Doctor and Biomedical Science at the Crossroads

Dr. Bones McCoy: Marcus Welby in Space

Bones and Spock at the Heart of the Matter

Chapter 4: Who Is Q?

Testing Humanity and the Frankenstein Complex

The Shifting Faces of Q

It's a Hell of a Life, Jean-Luc

The Coyote Parallel

Part Two: Kirk and Spock Take on Earth History

Chapter 5: The Final Reflection?

“We Need No Urging to Hate Humans”

Too Klingon to Be Human

Hell Hath No Fury . . .

Foreign Engagements

“What Hope Is There for the Empire?”

Chapter 6: Vietnam, Star Trek, and the Real Future

Vietnam Genesis, Cosmic Exodus

Wars for Peace?

The Enterprise Changes Course!

Chapter 7: You're Doing It Wrong

Gangsters in Space

The Accidental Time Travelers

The Historian's Folly

The Rise of the Nazis

Explaining the Holocaust

The Rome That Never Fell

Back from the Future

Doing It Wrong

Chapter 8: If This Is the (Final) Frontier, Where Are the Natives?

No One Here but Us Noble Savages

A Cartoon but Not a Caricature

You Can Tell by Their Outfits

Boldly Going . . . a Step Backward

Does Out of Sight Mean Out of Mind?

Who Mourns for Chakotay and His Imaginary Tribe?

A Mixed Grade for a Mixed Legacy

Chapter 9: Terrorizing Space

One Man's Terrorist Is Another Man's George Washington

“They're Terrorists, Dammit”: So Let's Negotiate with Them

The Terrorists among Us

The Xindi as al-Qaeda

Chapter 10: To Boldly Go When No One Has Gone Before (or After)

The Directive

Time Travel: Possibilities and Paradoxes

The Observation Effect, Butterflies, and Further Causality Paradoxes

Violating the Temporal Prime Directive versus Preserving the Timeline

Conclusions and Continuums

Part Three: Future Culture

Chapter 11: Shakespeare (and the Rest of the Great Books) in the Original Klingon

A Fondness for Antiques

“You Do Have Books in the Twenty-fourth Century?”

I Wrote It Again Yesterday

“Actually, I Never Read It”

Dammit Jim, I'm a Doctor, Not a Literary Historian!

Chapter 12: Information Technology in Star Trek

I Can Has Internet?

Techies for Trekkies

The Android with a Billion Apps (or: Why Don't I Have Cool Stuff Like That?)

Jean-Luc Picard Has Joined Faceborg

Chapter 13: History on the Holodeck

The Big Goodbye

A Fistful of Datas

Elementary, My Dear Data

A New Life-Form Rides the Orient Express

Behaving Badly on the Holodeck

Edutainment of the Future

Chapter 14: Why Star Trek's Cartography Is So Stellar, or How the Borg Mapped/Changed Everything

Lines, Logs, and a Frenchman Named Picard

A History of
Star Trek
's Cartography

Über-mapping the Unimatrix: The Borg Shift

It's All Over: The Map

Chapter 15: Who's the Devil?

Live and Let Live

What We Don't Know Can Hurt Us

Intervening to Right Past Wrongs

The
Enterprise
's Evolving Environmental Mission

Part Four: Other Races Have Histories Too, You Know

Chapter 16: Nothing Unreal Exists

“Vulcan Is Not My Idea of Fun”: Life on a Desert Planet

Is Biology Destiny?: The Nature of Vulcan Difference

“Vulcans. Deep Down, You're All Just a Bunch of Hypochondriacs”: The Dreaded Vulcan Sex Drive

“My Mind to Your Mind . . . My Thoughts to Your Thoughts . . .”

The Animalistic Past: Ancient Vulcan and the Rise of Surak

The Time of Awakening

Relationships with the Galactic Community

Reformation

The Federation and Beyond

Logic Is the Cement of Our Civilization: Vulcan “Humanism”

Logic Is the Beginning of Wisdom, Not the End

Chapter 17: Alien Babes and Alternate Universes

I Am the Goddess of Empathy: The Women of
The Next Generation

Warrior Women

A Commanding Woman

To Boldly Go . . . or Not

New Civilizations, Old Patterns

Chapter 18: Klingons

The Savage Race of Klingons

The Medieval Mirror

Kahless the Unforgettable and Karolus Magnus

“Even Half Drunk, Klingons Are among the Best Warriors in the Galaxy”

Chapter 19: Nazis, Cardassians, and Other Villains in the Final Frontier

Nazis in the
Star Trek
Canon

The History of the Cardassian Empire

The Nazis of
Star Trek

Cardassians Aren't Always Nazis; Sometimes They're Soviets

The Place of Cardassians in
Star Trek
History

Negotiating the Legacy of Star Trek and Its Fans

Starfleet Academy Instructors

Index: Databanks

Wiley Pop Culture and History Series
Series Editor: Nancy R. Reagin
Twilight and History
Edited by Nancy R. Reagin
Harry Potter and History
Edited by Nancy R. Reagin
Star Trek and History
Edited by Nancy R. Reagin

Copyright © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons. All rights reserved

Cover Design: Wendy Mount

Cover Photograph: © Stocktrek images/Getty Images

Chapter opener design by Forty-five Degree Design LLC

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at
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. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at
http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions
.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and the author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

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ISBN 978-1-118-16763-2 (paper); ISBN 978-1-118-22634-6 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-23950-6 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-26424-9 (ebk)

For Anne,

Beth, Camille, Claire, KC, and Viki: sisters under the skin

Acknowledgments

A Piece of the Action: The Pleasures of Sharing
Star Trek

Spock:
One man cannot summon the future.

Kirk:
But one man can change the present. . . . In every revolution, there's one man with a vision.

—TOS,
“Mirror, Mirror”

The “man with a vision” who first imagined the
Enterprise
and her crew was Gene Roddenberry, and any book about
Star Trek
must begin by acknowledging the man's profound drive and creativity. The
Star Trek
films, series, novels, and other spin-offs created since the original show aired have attracted a universe of talented writers, actors, producers, technicians, and others who bring them to life. But Roddenberry was the one who began it all, and like all
Star Trek
enthusiasts, I am in his debt. The first television series I was a fan of was
Star Trek
, and without Gene Roddenberry's creation I would not have become a fan of imagined worlds and universes in the same way; and, of course, this book would not exist.

My fellow fans have inspired me, too. Part of the joy in being a fan of any imagined world lies in sharing it with others, discussing and analyzing the characters and the series that you find so compelling. I am fortunate that some of these fans are also scholars who contributed to this book. They've created chapters for this volume that offer clever insights and interesting research for any discussion of the
Enterprise
and its crew and the universe and franchise that Roddenberry created. I'd like to thank all of them for bringing their passion for
Star Trek
to the job of writing about it.

I also thank Ruth Abrams, who helped me and some of the authors to say what we wanted to say more clearly. She always had great suggestions for how to improve the chapters that she read and helped edit, and her comments improved the volume substantially. Janice Liedl was my coconspirator and collaborator on other popular history projects during the months I was working on this book, and I am grateful for her constant encouragement, wonderfully pragmatic judgment, and rock-solid reliability, as well as her intricate knowledge of many canons. Connie Santisteban, Eric Nelson, and Lisa Burstiner at Wiley make the publishing process seem easy; they're experienced at understanding the ways of academics (and fans), and they are a joy to work with.

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