Description
Book SynopsisThe 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.
List of contributors: Sherryl Vint, Andrea Whiteacre, Torsten Kathke, John Andreas Fuchs, Ina Batzke, Sarah Böhlau, Will Tattersdill, Kerstin-Anja Münderlein, Diana Mafe, Whit Frazier Peterson, Henrik Schillinger, Arne Sönnichsen, Judith Rauscher, Amy C. Chambers, Mareike Spychala, Sabrina Mittermeier, Jennifer Volkmer, Si Sophie Pages Whybrew and Lisa Meinecke.
Trade Review‘From the philosophy of time travel and alternate dimensions to the fraught politics of representation in contemporary film and television,
Fighting for the Future sets scholarly coordinates for the series that has redefined
Star Trek for the twenty-first century.’
Gerry Canavan, Marquette University
'This volume is a solid addition to the literature of Star Trek. As Discovery continues to chart its course alongside the other CBS productions... Scholars will reach for this book as the first collection of analyses of the new era, which had meaningfully differentiated itself from previous entries in the franchise.'
Cait Coker,
Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts'The editors achieve a remarkable feat in this collection by providing a comprehensive look at a series still in development. … Mittermeier and Spychala end their text confident that the series has left the past in the past, while holding on to the franchise’s belief in a positive future.'
Justice Hagan,
Science Fiction Film and Television'
Fighting for the Future is an interesting and engaging collection of essays that examines
Star Trek: Discovery as a piece of media in and of itself, as well as a piece of a much larger cultural legacy. Like other essay collections of its type, it draws on scholars from diverse disciplines who put their own spin and flavor on their scholarship.'
Jessica Seymour,
Ancillary Review of Books'
Fighting for the Future: Essays on Star Trek: Discovery is full of interesting, engaging, well-argued, and well-written chapters, and it should be considered an effective work of scholarship from which the fields of media, English, and American studies should get considerable worth.'
Graham Minenor-Matheson,
Fafnir: Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy ResearchTable of ContentsPreface
Sherryl Vint
Introduction
Sabrina Mittermeier & Mareike Spychala
‘Boldly Going Where No Series Has Gone Before?’ – Discovery’s Role Within The Franchise and Its Discontents
Looking in the Mirror: The Negotiation of Franchise Identity in Star Trek: Discovery
Andrea Whiteacre
A Star Trek About Being Star Trek: History, Liberalism and Discovery’s Cold War Roots
Torsten Kathke
The Conscience of the King – Or: Is There In Truth No Sex and Violence?
John Andreas Fuchs
These Are the Voyages?: The Post-Jubilee Trek Legacy on the Discovery, the Orville, and the Callister Michael G. Robinson
‘Just as repetition reinforces repetition, change begets change’ – Modes of Storytelling in Canon and Fanon
From Series to Seriality: Star Trek’s Mirror Universe in the Post-Network Era
Ina Batzke
‘Lorca, I’m Really Gonna Miss Killing You’– The Fictional Space Created by Time Loop Narratives
Sarah Böhlau
Discovery and the Form of Victorian Periodicals
Will Tattersdill
To Boldly Discuss: Socio-Political Discourses in Star Trek: Discovery Fanfiction
Kerstin-Anja Münderlein
‘Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations?’ – Negotiating Otherness in Star Trek: Discovery
Afrofuturism, Imperialism, and Intersectionality
Interview on Normalizing Black Women as Heroes
Diana Mafe
The Cotton-Gin Effect: An Afrofuturist Reading of Star Trek: Discovery
Whit Frazier Peterson
The American Hello: U.S. Representations of Diplomacy in Star Trek: Discovery
Henrik Schillinger & Arne Sönnichsen
‘Into A Mirror Darkly’: Border Crossing and Imperial(ist) Feminism in Star Trek: Discovery
Judith Rauscher
Interrogating Gender
Star Trek Discovers Women: Gender, Race, Science, and Michael Burnham
Amy C. Chambers
Not Your Daddy’s Star Trek: Exploring Female Characters in Star Trek: Discovery
Mareike Spychala
‘We Choose Our Own Pain. Mine Makes Me Remember’ – Gabriel Lorca, Ash Tyler and the Question of Masculinity
Sabrina Mittermeier & Jennifer Volkmer
Queering Star Trek
‘Never hide who you are’: Queer Representation and Actorvism in Star Trek: Discovery
Sabrina Mittermeier & Mareike Spychala
‘I never met a female Michael before’: Star Trek: Discovery between Trans Potentiality and Cis Anxiety
Si Sophie Pages Whybrew
Veins and Muscles of the Universe: Posthumanism and Connectivity in Star Trek: Discovery
Lisa Meinecke
