Customer Reviews

Jewish Themes in Star Trek

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

 

 

.....as it combines two of my favorite things.

The content alone would get 4 or maybe even 4.5 stars. The discussion of the parallels between Jewish thought and the Star Trek view of the universe really was fascinating ;-)

Unfortunately, I found the lack of an editor's touch very frustrating. Chekov's name spelled multiple ways in different places, the Oklahoma City bomber called Anthony McVeigh (his name was Timothy McVeigh, which a quick visit to Google would have corrected), and calling Worf's adoptive parents his stepparents really got in the way of enjoying the fairly interesting content. Picky - maybe. But missing on details like that makes it hard for me to trust the content -- did the author miss on other, more important details where I didn't know enough to catch it?

So, while the theme/content was covered reasonably well, I can only give the overall book 2.5 (rounded to 3; to be generous and because I really did like the topic discussion) stars.

I ordered this book for an "Adult Education" class at the Synagogue. Unfortunately, the class time and days were changed to the point that I couldn't attend. Seemed like a good idea at the time, so I read it anyway....

(One of our recent Rabbi's was a bit of a Trekkie. The current Rabbi hasn't admitted anything to me, but he has a background that's about as eclectic as Rabbi Gershom's, so....)

Perhaps because I'm Jewish, and fairly Secular at that, I don't see things in Jewish terms the way Rabbi Gershom seems to sometimes, but enjoyed the references anyway. I'd put "plausible" rather than "definite" on a couple of things....

Well written, I think, and while not exactly a page-turner, pretty good. Some things in there that I'd not noticed before. I'm old enough to have watched the Original Series "live", and I think, bless my VCR, I've seen every episode of every version (and probably most of the animated series) at least once. STTNG is kind of sterile, and Voyager a little too off the wall at times. My preference is "Enterprise", although I think I'm alone....

I'd always thought that I understood Saavik's comments to Spock, btw, but never realized why....

My only complaint is that Rabbi Gershom seems to presume we're familiar with the various secondary works - fanzines, novels, etc. I've read a couple and didn't like them. The only book I was familiar with in this sense was the original "Making" for the original series. I might have a copy here, but a recent move and some basement flooding at the prior residence may have killed that.

Just IMHO, but if you're Jewish and a serious Trekkie, a must read. Otherwise, just fun....

Adds to the infinite diversity of views on why the Star Trek phenomena is greater than the sum of its fans.