Drones, Clones, and Alpha Babes: Retrofitting «Star Trek»'s Humanism Post-9/11.

As Diana M.A. Relke points out in her introduction, it is difficult to channel surf today’s television universe without stumbling upon an episode of Star Trek. Due to its almost ubiquitous nature, Relke argues that in our post-9/11 world the Enlightenment style humanism espoused by Star Trek’s many versions requires a new interpretation. Relke reinterprets Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager through a feminist and Canadian lens.

Drones, Clones, and Alpha Babes consists of two separate essays. The first (“Alpha Babes in the Delta Quad: Postfeminism and the Gendering of the Borg”) takes a feminist look at Star Trek. She examines the gendering of Star Fleet captains (specifically Captain Jean Luc Picard from Next Generation and Captain Kathryn Janeway from Voyager) in the context of their relationship with the Borg. Picard is shown to be inherently other than the Borg. The Borg, as personified by the Borg Queen, represents the powerful feminine other. As a result, Picard may briefly be seduced by their manipulative power, but he will never fully succumb. Janeway, by contrast, is shown to be similar to the Borg Queen. Both are powerful female figures who are forced into mothering roles with which they are not entirely comfortable. The second essay (“Drone, Clones and Starship Captains: Encounters with the Posthuman”) explores Star Trek’s anti-posthuman stance. Star Trek provides a vision of the future where technology can both enhance and curtail human life. Relke explores this theme by taking a close look at the relationships between Picard and the humanlike android Data and Janeway and the machinelike human Seven of Nine.

Relke provides a new and powerful interpretation of Star Trek; however, the link between Star Trek and a post-9/11 world, as is touted in the book’s title, is not made explicit in either essay. This does not take away from her larger arguments, as outlined above, in both essays. Both fans and non-fans will benefit from Relke’s insights into the Star Trek narrative.