Star Trek by Ina Rae Hark

[Joel_Kirk]

Has anyone read this book?

This a critical view of the entire televised franchise; it seems like the writer gives some pretty good viewpoints.

I'm just skimming through, so I'll have to post thoughts at a later time. However, I would like to hear other thoughts if anyone else has come across this book.

 

[Steve Roby]

Here's the review I posted on my blog:

This is a short (~150 pages) book taking a critical look at the five live action Star Trek TV series. Hark is a longtime fan; she's also written several academic papers and articles on Star Trek over the last few decades.

Short though it is, the book packs in a lot of critical thought about each series. Unlike some of the more academic works she occasionally cites, Hark's book is an easy read, but with enough ideas, criticisms, and arguments to keep the reader from sailing through too breezily. Along the way she discusses the myths built up around the original series and Gene Roddenberry and makes interesting observations on each of the series.

Hark became a fan through the original series, as I did, but she's not blind to its inconsistencies and faults. She's also a major fan of Deep Space Nine and does a good job of pointing out what that show did right, and what its successors, Voyager and Enterprise, did wrong. This is an opinionated work, and I can imagine a fair number of fans disagreeing with Hark on some issues, but she generally makes her case well, even with limited space.

This book could work as a kind of flipside to Pocket's Star Trek 101, introducing the Star Trek universe in a more critical and analytical way. I'd love to see reactions to this book from other fans, but I don't really expect many fans to read it. Star Trek fandom doesn't seem terribly interested in critical nonfiction about the show.

 

[frkcd]

I bought the book after reading the post at Steve's blog. I loved it. I read it in a couple of days and found it entertaining and thought-provoking. Here is my review at Amazon--the first I've written.

Donnie

Star Trek (BFI TV Classics) by Ina Rae Hark is combination fanboy/fangirl ode to the minutiae that create and contain the Trek universe and academic thematic analysis of the five televised Treks. Hark is a professor of English Language and Literature at the University of South Carolina where she specializes in film. And clearly she has an affinity for Star Trek.

I think I'm somewhat observant and able to discern themes in televised Trek, but Ms. Hark illuminated connections and divergences, highlighting the anxieties of each series, that I'd never considered, including a profound (I think) observation about the connection between DS9 and the role of the Other (as inhabitated by Spock, Data, Odo, and others in the five series) and the role of DS9, as a series, vis-a-vis the other series.

This book won't be for everyone, but if you love Trek and used to sit up until the wee hours of the morning with friends during high school or college (or still do), discussing the fine points of, well, whatever you and your friends discussed, this short work will leave you not only satisfied but also fondly recalling those 2 AM consciousness-raising discussions and their thunderbolts of understanding and comprehension...and wanting to find someone else who has read the book and is ready to deconstruct and delve deeper into a world you love.

 

[Una McCormack]

Ina and I are friends, but we met through talking about DS9, so I hope this counts as a balanced review! Talking to her about DS9 transformed how I thought about the show. I think she's lucid and brilliant about Star Trek, a natural communicator talking about something she knows well and loves. Thoroughly recommended.

 

[Sky]

Very interesting. I had no idea a book like that existed. I ordered it right away, it should be in my hands on Wednesday...

 

[Joel_Kirk]

I breezed through the book, and I do agree with all the comments that it is put together really well.

[I think it's a good reference for those who work in Trek in any capacity; and of course, for those who work in television...specifically sci-fi shows].

Yes, I also agree that there are some who may not agree with the viewpoints. [I wouldn't know why, since Miss Hark really brings out some convincing/plausible reasons where Trek succeeded, and where it failed].

 

[Steve Roby]

Very interesting. I had no idea a book like that existed. I ordered it right away, it should be in my hands on Wednesday...

Lots of books like that exist. Okay, some of these books deal with more specific angles on Trek, or on one particular show, but there are a lot of books that take an analytical/critical look at Trek. Hark's book is somewhat rare in its general approach and in covering all five live action TV series, though.

 

[Sky]

Lots of books like that exist. Okay, some of these books deal with more specific angles on Trek, or on one particular show, but there are a lot of books that take an analytical/critical look at Trek. Hark's book is somewhat rare in its general approach and in covering all five live action TV series, though.

Thanks for an excellent link. I have to admit LOLling at "Star Trek and Philosophy: The Wrath of Kant".

 

[Trekwatcher]

In all fairness, there are only a relatively small number of "academic" works on Star Trek. I read Hark's book in one shot on a long plane flight and really enjoyed it as a whole. Her analysis is coherent and, while I didn't agree with her on every point she makes her arguments well. She also acknowledges that others may watch the shows and films and reach very different conclusions than she does. My only real gripe is that IMHO she really gives ENT an unfairly brief and harsh review. It ends the book on a negative chapter and I felt she downplayed many if not all of ENT's strenghts. I would recommend the book highly despite this shortcoming.

 

[Therin of Andor]

In all fairness, there are only a relatively small number of "academic" works on Star Trek.

Compared to what? Other SF media series? Other non fiction about ST? Seems to me there are heaps. Having bought most of 'em, I have a bookshelf to prove it.

 

[Myasishchev]

I bought the book after reading the post at Steve's blog. I loved it. I read it in a couple of days and found it entertaining and thought-provoking. Here is my review at Amazon--the first I've written.

Donnie

Star Trek (BFI TV Classics) by Ina Rae Hark is combination fanboy/fangirl ode to the minutiae that create and contain the Trek universe and academic thematic analysis of the five televised Treks. Hark is a professor of English Language and Literature at the University of South Carolina where she specializes in film. And clearly she has an affinity for Star Trek.

Hey, awesome. Anybody want me to go say hi?

I'll have to check this out.

 

[Trekwatcher]

In all fairness, there are only a relatively small number of "academic" works on Star Trek.

Compared to what? Other SF media series? Other non fiction about ST? Seems to me there are heaps. Having bought most of 'em, I have a bookshelf to prove it.

I dunno. I have a bunch of them as well. Most of them are not rigorous evaluations of Star Trek. There just seems to be a paucity of real academic works on the subject, IMHO. The vast majority of these books are not peer reviewed, or were written by people who have little experience with the academic peer review process. Just writing a serious book about trek does not make it an academic work. Look at the academic works available about the writings of other modern sci fi topics (I.e. the analyses of the works of William Gibson and Robert Heinlein come immediately to mind) and you can very clearly see the difference I am talking about.

 

[Steve Roby]

Will this do for a start?

Drones, Clones, and Alpha Babes: Retrofitting Star Trek's Humanism, Post-9/11 (Relke, Diana M.A.)
Enterprise Zones: Critical Positions on Star Trek (Harrison, Taylor) (Helford, Elyce Rae) (Ono, Kent A.) (Projansky, Sarah)
Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth (Bacon-Smith, Camille)
Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations: The Multicultural Evolution of Star Trek (Kanzler, Katja)
Living With Star Trek: American Culture and Star Trek Fandom (Geraghty, Lincoln)
Narratives from the Final Frontier: A Postcolonial Reading of the Original Star Trek Series (Gentejohann, Volker)
NASA/TREK: Popular Science and Sex in America (Penley, Constance)
Race in Space: The Representation of Ethnicity in Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation (Pounds, Micheal C.)
Science Fiction Audiences: Watching Doctor Who and Star Trek (Jenkins, Henry) (Tulloch, John)
Star Trek: Technologies of Disappearance (Shapiro, Alan N.)
Teaching Toward the 24th Century: Star Trek As Social Curriculum (Anijar, Karen)
Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture (Jenkins, Henry)

Click on the titles for more information on the books. These are academic works on Trek. Several are theses; others are works by professors in cultural studies, film studies, and other disciplines.

 

[Trekwatcher]

Some of these are good reads. I really enjoyed Jenkins and Henry's "Science Fiction Audiences..." I found that one at a garage sale!

 

[seigezunt]

Sounds like it's like the BFI book about Dr. Who, which is a classic, and opinionated.

 

[Trekwatcher]

Sounds like it's like the BFI book about Dr. Who, which is a classic, and opinionated.

It is from the same series. What year is the Dr. Who one from?

 

[seigezunt]

Sounds like it's like the BFI book about Dr. Who, which is a classic, and opinionated.

It is from the same series. What year is the Dr. Who one from?

It came out just when the first promo shots of Tennant as the Doctor were coming out, I recall.

 

[Steve Roby]

The Doctor Who book is by Kim Newman, who's written a lot of good fantasy, SF, and horror fiction, including one of my fave Doctor Who stories, Time and Relative (the first book in the Telos novellas series). Which is not to say I agreed with him about DW as much as I agreed with Hark about ST. But he's always worth reading.

 

[seigezunt]

The Doctor Who book is by Kim Newman, who's written a lot of good fantasy, SF, and horror fiction, including one of my fave Doctor Who stories, Time and Relative (the first book in the Telos novellas series). Which is not to say I agreed with him about DW as much as I agreed with Hark about ST. But he's always worth reading.

I want to get around to reading Time and Relative. I don't have much interest in DW fiction, but that one has me curious.

 

[Cardie]

Hi, this is Ina. Thanks for all the kind words about my book.

If I had to recommend the best two Trek academic studies for the general reader, I'd choose Thomas Richards' The Meaning of Star Trek and Michele and Duncan Barrett's Star Trek: the Human Frontier.