This book looks at how the original Star Trek became a cultural phenomenon, generating numerous spin-offs and feature films and inspiring multiple series, films, books, etc. In addition to the shows creation and its place in science fiction, the author looks at the series through the prisms of American political history, technology, and fandom.

To be dystopian, a work needs to foreground the oppressive society in which it is set, using that setting as an opportunity to comment in a critical way on some other society, typically that of the author and/or the audience. In other worlds, the bleak dystopian world should encourage the reader or viewer to think critically about it, then to transfer this critical thinking to his or her own world. This volume in the Critical Insights series presents...