Boldly Go!

“Star Trek was explicitly crafted by its creator, Gene Roddenberry, into a humanist manifesto; the stories Trek told were humanist parables, putting forth the core philosophies to which he was devoted: equality, reason, integrity, fairness, opportunity, community. I was soaking them up before I even really understood what they were. I didn’t...

When Gene Roddenberry conceived Star Trek, he imagined a future very different from what was typically put forth in science fiction - a future where humanity has overcome greed, bigotry, misogyny, materialism, conflict and war. Star Trek’s fans embraced that vision. But many consider it unattainable, if admirable, even those who wrote and...

It’s hilarious these days to watch misguided, insecure fanboys and transparent political panderers break out in rants and whines that Nu Trek – Discovery, Picard, Strange New Worlds – is ‘woke’. Anyone who knows Trek, old or nu, can only laugh; Trek has, of course, been utterly woke since 1966.

Woke. Shining a light on racism. War. Sexual...

We first became acquainted with the power of Federation democracy in “Journey to Babel” in the original series, when Kirk’s Enterprise trucked more than 100 Federation delegates to a neutral planetoid to discuss and vote on the admission of Coridan to its ranks. We saw argument, contentiousness – and a serious, violent effort to disrupt the...

This is by no means the first book to focus on Trek’s lessons for living; it’s not even my first book on the achievability of Trek’s vision for the future.

But in an era as uncertain as this one, where Rules-for-Life books seem like a pretty good idea, why not turn to Trek for some inspiration?

Certainly the hundreds of stories are packed with...