Customer Reviews

The Double Vision of Star Trek: Half-Humans, Evil Twins, and Science Fiction

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Though it's not marketed as such, this book comes across as a Christian counter-rant to some of Roddenberry's humanist ravings while neglecting its ostensible subject - Star Trek. The philosophical arguments often develop with promise but eventually end up shallow and unsatisfying. Title and other reference errors are rampant and distracting (actress Jane *Wyatt* played Spock's mother, not Jane *Wyman*), and a few episodes are whipped to death while neglecting the lion's share of Trek material. Though a few points are provocative the first time one reads them, by the third or fourth pass the luster has gone and as a result the book is about a hundred pages too heavy. It could have used a good editor to tighten it up, preferably someone familiar with the material. (Surprisingly, Phil Farrand - Trek nitpicker supreme - has a blurb on the back. Must have been a bad day when he reviewed it to let some of the screamers through!) The wearisome tirade about some "anti-religious bias" the author invents could be quickly dissolved with a few episodic references the author neglected either from carelessness or perhaps desperation to grind an axe. That struck me - as a long time Star Trekker who "finds the One, quite sufficient" <TOS: "Who Mourns..."> - as a disappointing shame.

Anyway, what starts out as a promising effort soon peters out into tepid Christian apologetics and inexplicable reviews of CS Lewis. If you've read other meta-Trek books you've seen the highlights before - save your money for Krauss' work, or the cast biographies instead.

Hertenstein's examination of the Star Trek "philosophy" and its internal contradictions is vastly entertaining and informative. You don't have to be a Christian (as Hertenstein is, and I am) to notice a certain discontinuity between IDIC and resisting the Borg.

Make no mistake--my own worldview owes a lot to Star Trek, and the crew of the Enterprise helped give me my fascination for things technical. But a consistent, grand vision of the universe it isn't, Roddenberry's grandiose dreams not withstanding. (Read Solow and Justman's book if you don't believe me.)

Thoughtful reading for sci-fi fans. As a pick and choose Star Trek spectator, (I prefer TNG) I found it a great oops-it's-one-thirty-in-the-morning read. It may be a bit deep for some, and downright offensive to the religious intolerant and those who worship Roddenberry and his philosophies, but a view I've never seen before of the Trek Universe.

I loved this book all the way through. Hertenstein brought up a lot of questions in this book, and when he answered them, he answered them from a Christian point of view. I, too, am a Christian, though my views differ a good deal from those of Mister Hertenstein. Nonetheless, I didn't think his views were at all pushy or preachy as some writers can get. Rather, he offered his view and left the reader to discern his own. And I came away from the book with more than a few insights---not from any conclusions he'd drawn, but rather from the questions brought up. I do so enjoy the Trek books focusing on science, especially the works of Mr. Krauss, but it's also nice to have one from a religious point of view. I do not think the two are mutually exclusive. In any case, don't pick up this book expecting to agree with everything (or even most of) what the author writes, but be prepared to have your mind opened by the material. It is a thinking person's book.

Mike Hertenstein is the KING OF NEGATIVITY! If one were to tell him that the glass was half empty-he would loudly declare that the glass was COMPLETLY EMPTY! Does every corner have to be dark? Does everything have to make perfect sense. Its a series. Its entertainment. Its not real life. Calm down.