Star Trek And The British Age Of Sail

Clear all moorings, one-half impulse power and set course for a mare incognitum... A popular culture artifact of the New Frontier/Space Race era, Star Trek is often mistakenly viewed as a Space Western. However, the Western format is not what governs the worldbuilding of Star Trek, which was, after all, also pitched as "Hornblower in space." Star Trek is modeled on the world of the "British Golden Age of Sail" as it is commonly found in the genre of sea fiction. This book re-historicizes and remaps the origins of the franchise and subsequently the entirety of its fictional world--the Star Trek continuum--on an as yet uncharted transatlantic bearing.

Clear all moorings, one-half impulse power and set course for a mare incognitum... A popular culture artifact of the New Frontier/Space Race era, Star Trek is often mistakenly viewed as a Space Western. However, the Western format is not what governs the worldbuilding of Star Trek, which was, after all, also pitched as “Hornblower in space.” Star Trek is modeled on the world of the “British Golden Age of Sail” as it is commonly found in the genre of sea fiction. This book re-historicizes and remaps the origins of the franchise and subsequently the entirety of its fictional world—the Star Trek continuum—on an as yet uncharted transatlantic bearing.

After more than 55 years of transmedia storytelling, 'Star Trek' is a global phenomenon that has never been more successful than it is today. 'Star Trek' fandom is worldwide, time tested, and growing, and academic interest in the franchise, both inside and outside of the classroom, is high; at the moment, more 'Star Trek' works are underway or in development simultaneously than at any other moment in history. Unlike works that focus on a limited number of stories/media in this franchise or only offer one expert’s or discipline’s insights, this accessible and multidisciplinary anthology includes analyses from a wide range of scholars and explores 'Star Trek' from its debut in 1966 to its current incarnations, considers its implications for and collaborations with fandom, and trace its ideas and meanings across series, media, and time. 'Star Trek: Essays Exploring the Final Frontier' will undoubtedly speak to academics in the field, students in the classroom, and informed lay readers and fans.

The Routledge Handbook of Star Trek offers a synoptic overview of Star Trek, its history, its influence, and the scholarly response to the franchise, as well as possibilities for further study. This volume aims to bridge the fields of science fiction and (trans)media studies, bringing together the many ways in which Star Trek franchising, fandom, storytelling, politics, history, and society have been represented. Seeking to propel further scholarly engagement, this Handbook offers new critical insights into the vast range of Star Trek texts, narrative strategies, audience responses, and theoretical themes and issues. This compilation includes both established and emerging scholars to foster a spirit of communal, trans-generational growth in the field and to present diversity to a traditional realm of science fiction studies.

Star Trek has transcended science fiction through its use of elements that have crucial roles in classical utopian tradition. New technologies change a civilization, a miniature society unfolds on a spaceship, and an android teaches humanity. Star Trek has been answering many questions about our own world for 50+ years, and since the days of Captain Kirk, the franchise has become one of the world's best-known cultural phenomena. This book documents what the Star Trek franchise has in common with classic utopias. Chapters analyze how technology changes society and how the Federation embodies utopian ideals. Also explored are the political relations among alien species that reflect past and present conflicts in our real world and how the Borg resembles an anti-utopian society.

While many scholars agree the Gothic mode has been a precursor to science fiction since Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Carey Millsap-Spears argues in this book that the made for streaming series Star Trek Discovery draws on an even older gothic formula, namely the Female Gothic of Ann Radcliffe’s romance novels, including The Romance of the Forest and The Mysteries of Udolpho. Millsap-Spears reads the streaming series through the lens of the Female Gothic, illustrating that each season contains the formulaic elements of a mystery, a gothic villain and heroine, an escape narrative, and the explained supernatural. In doing so, the author expands Star Trek scholarship and sheds new light on the intertextual connections between gothic literature and contemporary science fiction.

The first two seasons of Star Trek: Discovery, the newest instalment in the long-running and influential Star Trek franchise, received media and academic attention from the moment they arrived on screen. Discovery makes several key changes to Star Trek's well-known narrative formulae, particularly the use of more serialized storytelling, appealing to audiences' changed viewing habits in the streaming age - and yet the storylines, in their topical nature and the broad range of socio-political issues they engage with, continue in the political vein of the series' megatext. This volume brings together eighteen essays and one interview about the series, with contributions from a variety of disciplines including cultural studies, literary studies, media studies, fandom studies, history and political science. They explore representations of gender, sexuality and race, as well as topics such as shifts in storytelling and depictions of diplomacy. Examining Discovery alongside older entries into the Star Trek canon and tracing emerging continuities and changes, this volume will be an invaluable resource for all those interested in Star Trek and science fiction in the franchise era.

Contributions by Lawrence Abrams, Dorian L. Alexander, Max Bledstein, Peter Cullen Bryan, Stephen Connor, Matthew J. Costello, Martin Flanagan, Michael Fuchs, Michael Goodrum, Bridget Keown, Kaleb Knoblach, Christina M. Knopf, Martin Lund, Jordan Newton, Stefan Rabitsch, Maryanne Rhett, and Philip Smith History has always been a matter of arranging evidence into a narrative, but the public debate over the meanings we attach to a given history can seem particularly acute in our current age. Like all artistic mediums, comics possess the power to mold history into shapes that serve its prospective audience and creator both. It makes sense, then, that history, no stranger to the creation of hagiographies, particularly in the service of nationalism and other political ideologies, is so easily summoned to the panelled page. Comics, like statues, museums, and other vehicles for historical narrative, make both monsters and heroes of men while fueling combative beliefs in personal versions of United States history. Drawing the Past, Volume 1: Comics and the Historical Imagination in the United States, the first book in a two-volume series, provides a map of current approaches to comics and their engagement with historical representation. The first section of the book on history and form explores the existence, shape, and influence of comics as a medium. The second section concerns the question of trauma, understood both as individual traumas that can shape the relationship between the narrator and object, and historical traumas that invite a reassessment of existing social, economic, and cultural assumptions. The final section on mythic histories delves into ways in which comics add to the mythology of the US. Together, both volumes bring together a range of different approaches to diverse material and feature remarkable scholars from all over the world.