Star Trek by Ina Rae Hark
Palgrave Macmillan, $19.95, 150pp, tp, 9781844572144. Nonfiction.
Hark’s book is an interesting discussion of the phenomenon that was Star Trek on television, focusing exclusively on the five live-action television series. She seems to have taken as her mission a discussion of the themes that informed the programs, and mentions individual episodes only fleetingly in pursuit of her thesis. Those main themes, which she draws out through character studies as well as references to the episodes, are:
Star Trek: humanity confronting technological and evolutionary change
The Next Generation: diplomatic efforts to secure its perfected utopia for others
Deep Space Nine: questioning those claims of utopia in a hostile, alien environment
Voyager: testing Starfleet’s principles far from the Federation
Enterprise: looking back at early efforts to form an intergalactic alliance
For each series, she focuses on the captain leading the crew into whichever universe the show perceived, and whichever challenges they faced. But none of them feel very in-depth. Admittedly, Star Trek has been researched perhaps more than any other television series, so finding new ground is difficult.
What I find more interesting is her attempt to tie themes, tastes, and even quality of the episodes to the writers and producers involved in them. It is in this area where the book excels, pointing out what were obvious demarcations in quality or direction, and showing how those lines were formed by arriving and departing staff. While each series was a reflection of the larger world in the years in which it was produced, they were far more visualizations of different story-telling philosophies, with varying degrees of success.
The small volume is amply illustrated with full-color stills from the various series, and it’s obvious that the author knows and loves her subject. Yet I don’t know how much impact the book will have on people who aren’t already as enamored with her subject as she is.