Booklist

In a valuable critique of all the Star Trek variants, Hertenstein effectively deals with the many series' problems. He notes, for instance, that when any ST troupe finds itself in trouble (no hope of escape, whole galaxy at stake, etc.), it usually falls back on a technical miracle, and he lists the five ways technical miracles occur. He also explores character flaws and the United Federation of Planets' revered Prime Directive, meant to prevent imperialist meddling in the development or culture of other civilizations. All the denizens of the ST universe, however, constantly break that law. Captain Kirk, to take one flawed character, is constantly "helping" cultures (Hertenstein cites occasions of violation exhaustively). Seems federation interference is paternalistic: it is OK to trash the most important ethical tenet to liberate a people or in self-defense. This excellent overview will probably spark a lot of fan discussion. Should it be the next addition to the Star Trek shelf? Make it so.

-- Jeff Ahrens, Booklist

Rain Taxi

In The Double Vision of Star Trek: Half-Humans, Evil Twins and Science Fiction , Mike Hertenstein offers a Christian deconstruction of Star Trek. He establishes his Trek credentials early, opening his acknowledgements section with a humorous reference to the Vulcan mating season, and as he explores various contradictions and paradoxes in Star Trek , his command of the oeuvre is never in doubt. Nor is there any question where Hertenstein's argument will lead. We know that, as an editor of Cornerstone , a magazine published by the Jesus People U.S.A. organization, he will eventually bring things back to the domain of Christianity. What we don't know is exactly what route he'll take.

Hertenstein avoids the easy traps. He knows that since the series has undergone 30 years of collaboration between various producers, directors, writers, and casts, a single monolithic work cannot emerge. While creator Gene Roddenberry is a key figure in his analysis, Hertenstein resists reading him as an outright auteur. He does not lean too heavily on any one phase of the Trek franchise, but draws examples from all its various television and movie incarnations.

In the course of the book, there are a number of high points--an interesting bit on teleportation and the nature of the soul, and some intriguing discussion of Trek's multiculturalism and multi-speciesism in light of how the future society it portrays seems to owe so much more to the Western Europe than to any other terrestrial cultural heritage. Perhaps the book's finest moment is its penultimate chapter, a wide-ranging treatise on poetry, science, religion, the unknown and--most of all--wonder.

Hertenstein occasionally glosses over his subject matter a little too quickly, however, as with his treatment of religion on Deep Space Nine. While he's right to point out that one of that Trek series' major religious characters is a cardboard fundamentalist and another is a fuzzily drawn New Ager, some of DS9's numerous religion-themed storylines also offer instances of characters who act on strong religious convictions--and are portrayed not only respectfully, but even heroically. Considering some of these more positive portrayals of religion in Star Trek more closely probably wouldn't have changed the conclusion Hertenstein reaches, but it would have enriched his analysis along the way.

by Rudi Dornemann, Rain Taxi

Gilbert

Chestertonians-those keen observors of popular culture-who may have wondered how GKC would have replied to the scientism of Carl Sagan and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, need look no further. For Mike Hertenstein's new book uses ample quotes of Chesterton to explore not only Star Trek, but many of the most basic contradictions to be found in contemporary science fiction and scientism in general.

This book will be of interest not only to Trekkies, but to all students of pop culture. It is a careful examination of the mythic and philosophic paradoxes underlying much of our "post-modern" thinking, engaging the television and motion picture renditions of Star Trek as the vehicle for a broader analysis. For the Star Trek fan the dish is even further sweetened by the frequent discussions of behind-the-scenes Trek events and various other points of Trek trivia.

Hertenstein's style is comfortable and playful, as he leads the reader through a complicated tale of Star Trek's development from its inception in the 1960's to the state of its mythos today. The author's approach to his subject is sympathetic and yet penetrating, conceding that in its contradictions Star Trek is "only human," but then pursuing the deeper significance of those very human contradictions.

The logic of Hertenstein's analysis is grounded solidly in C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton. From Lewis the author develops the idea that scientism leads to an abolishment of what it means to be human. In analyzing Star Trek's somewhat ambivalent embrace of scientism, The Double Vision of Star Trek addresses the essential issues of anthropocentric versus theocentric conceptions of the human condition.

As in so many philosophical discussions involving Christianity, Hertenstein often turns to GKC for that perfect insight to make his point. Thus we are treated to Chesterton gems concerning utopias, Eastern philosophies, self-determination, the uniqueness of humans among the species, the nature and importance of wonder, reason and madness, and the assumptions and tenets of scientism.

Most importantly, the concluding point of The Double Vision of Star Trek is founded on Chesterton's famous observation that when he had put the finishing touches on his own invented heresy, he was surprised to find that he had merely discovered Christianity. In like manner does Hertenstein cleverly use the human contradictions found in Star Trek to lead the reader to a new understanding of the sense of Christian doctrine.

Though Hertenstein's purpose appears to be evangelism among those wandering aficionados of the Star Trek subculture, even non-Trekkies like myself can take pleasure in a great example of applying a Chestertonian perspective to the paradoxes of popular culture. The Double Vision of Star Trek is a fun and thought-provoking read.

Thomas Peters, Gilbert magazine

BC Christian News

For a show rooted so strongly in secular humanism, Star Trek has quite the Christian following. Theologian Stan Grenz has lectured on the TV series at Regent College, and Phil Farrand, author of the fannish Nitpicker's Guide series, openly acknowledges his love for Jesus.

Now that books on the physics, metaphysics, biology and meaning of Star Trek have become a literary genre in their own right, the time is more than ripe for an analysis of this phenomenon from a Christian perspective.

Mike Hertenstein's The Double Vision of Star Trek does an admirable, if by no means exhaustive, job of meeting that need, tackling the show from literary, political, moral and philosophical points of view.

According to Hertenstein, editor of Cornerstone magazine and co-author of Selling Satan: The Tragic History of Mike Warnke, the show is "a bundle of unresolved tensions" and it suffers from "a chronic guilty conscience" because it cannot reconcile those tensions without "cheating."

The show does have a fascinating habit of contradicting itself. For example:

• Trek espouses a humanistic philosophy celebrating the triumph of the human spirit. Yet the day is often saved not by human decisions or spiritual feats but, rather, by last-minute bursts of technobabble -- what Hertenstein calls the show's central deus ex machina.

• In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Spock sacrifices his life and saves the ship because, he says, the needs of the many must logically outweigh the needs of the one. But in the next film, Spock's friends reverse, and perhaps betray, that logic, sacrificing their own careers voluntarily to help bring him back to life.

• In 'The Cage,' the original series' first pilot episode, Captain Pike stubbornly resists a world of illusion, as pleasant as it may be, in favor of reality. But in 'The Menagerie,' a two-part episode built around that pilot, Pike -- rendered speechless and immobile by an accident -- changes his mind and chooses the 'unreal' life instead.

• The good guys champion cultural tolerance in the extreme -- most famously in the Vulcan motto 'Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations' -- but they don't seem to approve of tyrants, Klingon ritual murder and the like. Apparently, even infinity has its limits.

• Trek characters who transfer their minds into computers or androids inevitably commit suicide or lose the spark of life that defines their humanity. Yet the android Data and the holographic doctor on Star Trek: Voyager are accepted by most characters as fully conscious persons, even humans, in their own right.

• Trek history was once built on the solidly humanistic premise that human beings learned to achieve peace and harmony on their own, sometime between now and the 23rd century. But the film Star Trek: First Contact undermines that premise by revealing that the world was essentially saved by the arrival of 'alien messiahs' in our near future.

Hertenstein plumbs these and other conundrums, such as the Federation's unexplained political unity and the increased presence of overt religious themes on the series since its strenuously anti-religious creator, Gene Roddenberry, died in 1991. Hertenstein, taking his cue from the likes of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, also sees subliminal traces of the gospel in Star Trek, most notably in the recurring theme of self-sacrifice.

Many of these issues are explored anew -- and complicated further -- in the new film Star Trek: Insurrection, in which Captain Picard and his crew rebel against the Federation to protect a paradisaical planet. Those wishing to explore these themes in further depth should give Hertenstein's book a look.

-- Peter Chattaway, BC Christian News