Exploring Star Trek

<p> In 1995 <I>Star Trek: Voyager</I> brought a new dynamic to <I>Star Trek's</I> familiar starship oriented show. Lost 70000 light-years in space <I>Voyager</I> and its crew faced an uncertain and changeable future echoing anxieties felt in the United States at the time. These fifteen essays explore the context characters and themes of <I>Star Trek: Voyager</I> as they relate to the culture and zeitgeist of the 1990s. Essays on gender show how the series both challenges and reinforces typical SF stereotypes through the characters of Captain Janeway Kes and Seven of Nine while essays on identity examine the show's intersections with disability studies race and multiracial identities family dynamics and emerging AI and humanity. Using the epic journey of Homer's <I>Odyssey</I> as a starting point for the series and ending with an examination of the impacts of inception at the birth of the internet age this book shows the many ways in which <I>Voyager</I> negotiated different perspectives for what the future of the galaxy and the USA could be.</p>