Customer Reviews

Future Perfect: How Star Trek Conquered Planet Earth

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This book is full of very useful insights into the effect Star Trek has had on humanity in the last 32 years. By reporting on Star Trek's impact on so many different cultures, Jeff Greenwald is following in Gene Roddenberry's footsteps. He is helping his readers see not just themselves, but the diversity that exists among Star Trek's fans world-wide.

Patrick Stewart is quoted in the book as saying how very valuable it is to be able to put yourself in someone else's shoes, to see their point of view (not just your own). If this book helps this happen for its readers, it will have served a very valuable purpose - not just providing a behind the scenes look at Star Trek, but a view of how people of other cultures see themselves as well.

Jeff Greenwald observes and interviews various Star Trek authors, producers and TV Stars as well as Star Trek Fans all around the world. What is the result of that? The answer is: amazing! I can't remember having read anything like it before!

First of all, he has a very fluent, easy-to-read writing style. You just sit there, flip over one page after another and get sucked into the book. After ten pages, I was unable to put the book aside for anything else but work, food or sleep. But the book does not stop there. Jeff Greenwald has written a very thoughtful, very reflective book on the Star Trek Fandom. No matter which facet he meets - may it be authors, producers, stars or the common Trekker - he shows a insight about how Star Trek gives each personal dream and hope a shape.

Jeff tells us those stories of hopes and dreams - but always with a twinkle in his eyes, ready to catch remarks of people who may have hopes, but are as well capable to laugh about themselves.

Oh boy - I waited long for such a book!

In this unprecedented view of how and why Star Trek has captured the psyche of the entire world, Jeff Greenwald has gone where no author has gone before. He has taken an objective view of the Star Trek craze (making this book a must read for not only ST fans, but for everyone!) from the far east to America. With unprecedented access to the sound stages of ST First Contact and Paramount's Hart building (where the writers weave their magic), this book is a ST fan's dream come true. Only after reading Mr. Greenwald's "away missions" can people truly understand how a 35 year old American-made TV show can capture the minds and hearts of people all over the world. Interview with cultural icons such as the Dalai Lama, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Arthur C. Clarke, Leonard Nimoy, Patrick Stewart, and others help make this book the superb creation that it is. Make sure to eat a good meal and have a long nap before attempting to read "Future Perfect," because once you p! ick it up you won't be able to do anything else until you finish it. Mr. Greenwald's clear and concise method of writing allows you to dive into the book, only to resurface once you have read it in its entirety. The only thing I didn't like about the book was that it ended. I could have easily read another 500 pages full of the author's amazing insights and sense of humor! Copywrite 1998.

Greenwald has done an excellent job in explaining, through various interviews done all across the globe, the popularity of Star Trek. From the people who actually create each new episode to the fans who put the 'fan' in 'fanatic', it's a wonderful real life adventure for the search of the meaning of Star Trek. It's also a real insight into the current masters of Star Trek; those who have taken up the work left by Roddenberry's passing. Highly recommended!

Greenwald sets out to explain Star Trek's appeal, arguing that interest in the series soared only when the 'real thing' - the moon landings - had come to an end, and there was nothing else to serve as a vent for people's interest in space travel. The author spent time on the set of 'First Contact,' and he travels the world to interview Trekkers in the UK, Japan, Hungary, Germany, Italy, and India, where he describes how each culture puts its own spin on the Trek legacy. As well, he interviews a variety of celebrities about the impact of Trek. It sounds like a great formula, but somehow the end result falls short of its potential. The interviews of fans get a bit tedious, and Greenwald's style of writing up celebrity interviews puts too much emphasis on the interviewer.

Celebrities interviewed include Leonard Nimoy, Patrick Stewart, Gates McFadden, Kate Mulgrew (who comes across as the nicest of the bunch), Michael Dorn, Producer/writer Brannon Braga, Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur Clarke, and the Dalai Lama (yes, really).

This 'trekker' tribute was written by a Buddhist-loving fan of all genres in which 'Star Trek' appeared from 1966 on. He lived in Kathmandu for awhile and is a fan of Dalai Lama, also. He mentions the science fiction writer, Arthur Clarke as a guide to the motorcycle cop who invented the land of Captain Kirk and his crew along with the 'Enterprise.'

In 1997, Gene Roddenberry's ashes, along with those of LSD guru Timothy Leary and twenty-two other individuals whose families paid $4,800 for the tiny tubes the size of a cigar as they were fired into orbit aboard a Pegasus rocket. After six years, that would make it 2003, the satellite would become a shooting star as it disintegrated into the night sky. He had higher dreams for Roddenberry's (The Great Bird) legacy, "they should be tucked into the armature of some interstellar probe, with digitally encoded episodes of the 'Star Trek' series.

From the comic books to the t.v. series, the crew are still a part of the lives of fans in obscure areas of the world. The movies were not as well-received, reaping almost $100,000 for one of them. Examples of the show's lingo can be heard in Belfast, Tokyo, Berling, London -- anywhere television can be seen.

The 'Enterprise' may be the most famous vehicle since Noah's Ark; more popular that Dr. Who's telephone time-travel box, and Mrs. Peel's fancy car, even Get Smart's shoe phone. England's rocketeer can't be more newsworthy than Homer Hickman of West Virginia ('October Sky' film was made in Knoxville and the surrounding area). The stars are gone now, but the spirit will live on.

Since I didn't watch any of the t.v. '60s series (though my boys did), I saw some of the movies. "Beam me up, Scotty" was Greek to me, a landlubber. That space lingo sounded more like Fred & Wilma (Betty & Barney) in prehistoric fantasy world. Now, I did see all of the 'Star Wars' movies.

Jeff Greenwald's 'Star Trek' was a place "where humanity's highest calling was exploration" (like America's real space program) and its values were freedom and compassion. In America, we have a semblance of freedom but compassion is sorely lacking. Only a made-up comic book world can have both simultaneously. Jeff has also written FEARLESS SALES, SIZE OF THE WORLD, and SCRATCHING THE SURFACE (2002).