Exploring Star Trek: Voyager: Critical Essays - Paperback

by Robert L. Lively (Editor)

In 1995, Star Trek: Voyager brought a new dynamic to Star Trek's familiar, starship oriented, show. Lost 70,000 light-years in space, Voyager 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 Star Trek: Voyager, 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 Odyssey 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 Voyager negotiated different perspectives for what the future of the galaxy and the USA could be.

Author Biography

Robert L. Lively is a professor of English at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, Nevada. His work has appeared in Rhetoric Review, Popular Culture Review, Tormented Space, Wormhole Weapons, and The Worlds of Farscape: Essays on the Groundbreaking Television Series.