BLERD WITH A BOOK
Author, journalist, and Star Trek geek Ryan Britt chronicles the five-plus decades history of a sci-fi juggernaut that continues to boldly go where no one has gone before. TITLE: Phasers on Stun! How the Making (and Remaking) of Star Trek Changed the World AUTHOR: Ryan Britt PUBLISHER: Plume PUBLISHING DATE: May 31st, 2022 PAGES: 383 GENRE: Performing Arts - Television - History & Criticism SUMMARY: Featuring more than one hundred exclusive interviews with William Shatner, Walter Koenig, LeVar Burton, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Sonequa Martin-Green, Jeri Ryan, Ethan Peck, Wilson Cruz, and more, author and lifelong Star Trek fan Ryan Britt charts a fun and accessible course through the Star Trek franchise's five-plus decades-long history: from its tumultuous origins in the 1960s, to its influence on diversifying NASA, to its attempts at meaningful LGBTQ+ representation. Britt offers Trekkies and non-Trekkies alike an immersive, approachable, and fascinating look into all things Trek -- including Spock's evolution to unlikely sci-fi icon; the near failure to launch The Next Generation, and the history of Trekkie outrage. STAND ALONE OR SERIES?: Stand alone HOW DID I GET THIS BOOK?: Purchased FORMAT: Hardcover Hello there. It's been a minute... well, in fact, it's been more than a minute. The last time I wrote about a book I was reading on my free time was in 2020 -- two years ago. Of course, I'd been reading some more stuff in the interim, but I either read books for school or found a book that I was unable to finish. Now that it's the summer and I actually have some time to read for fun again, I felt now was a good time to bring back Blerd Reads (née Stay-at-Home Reads), a column where I share what books I've been reading on my down time. Some books are recent releases, others are older classics, and a few might be ones that didn't make your radar. Either way, I'm glad to be back, sharing with you the books and genres that have my attention -- for better and for worse -- as of late. Maybe you'll find a recommendation or two along the line... Leonard Nimoy as Spock and William Shatner as James T. Kirk in Star Trek: The Original Series (Paramount) Because embarrassing yourself on the Internet is the only reliable way to earn likes, shares, and clicks (read: the attention we all so desperately crave), I figure I'd open this post with an embarrassing (but hopefully relatable) short reflection of my Blerd youth. I can't remember the exact year when I first got into Star Trek, but I remember what got me into it. Two words: Benedict. Cumberbatch. Yes, Doctor Stephen Strange himself. Back then, however, he wasn't the (ex-) Sorcerer Supreme of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the early 2010s, Cumberbatch was the star of BBC's Sherlock, a modernized adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famed fictional detective, a TV series I devoured in clips on YouTube and in memes on Tumblr -- back when it wasn't trash -- before buying it on DVD and scratching up the disks by rewatching the first two seasons over and over again. I wish I could say I was really into Sherlock because I was a fan of the character, but, alas, I'm not a good liar. To a middle schooler who had just discovered that her cable package included BBC America, which aired The Graham Norton Show, where Cumberbatch would appear as a guest after making it big across both ponds, the man behind Sherlock Holmes was disarmingly handsome and instantly crush-worthy. If you were to ask me why, I wouldn't be able to pinpoint a specific reason. Maybe it was the curly, kinda emo hair he sported as Sherlock or his sharp cheekbones or his deep voice that perfectly complimented his elegant British accent. But, I'll be real: I was a twelve-going-on-thirteen-year-old who spent too much time on Tumblr, fell down the rabbit hole of Sherlock memes and SuperWhoLock headcanons, became fascinated with how handsome Cumberbatch was, and immediately developed an embarrassing celebrity crush. Which returned with a mortifying intensity upon seeing him as Doctor Strange. (I blame the deep, six-Marlboros-a-day New York dialect Cumberbatch uses in the MCU because it is weirdly sexy.) Because Sherlock was steadily becoming the BBC's best export (right next to Doctor Who, obvs), Cumberbatch was set to become a big star here in the states, and the best way for any British actor to become a major star in Hollywood was to star in a massive, highly-anticipated, million-dollar blockbuster hyped up to be one of the biggest films of the summer. That film was Star Trek Into Darkness, the much-anticipated 2013 sequel to director J.J. Abrams' successful 2009 cinematic reboot of Gene Roddenberry's beloved sci-fi franchise. Joining returning cast members Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, John Cho, and Simon Pegg, Cumberbatch was cast as the film's villain, an apparently sinister rogue commander named John Harrison... a.k.a. Khan Noonien-Singh, one of Trek's most famous villains made famous by Mexican actor Ricardo Montalbán, who originated the character back in the 1960s original Trek series before getting an entire movie named after him in 1982's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Ummm... yeah. Four years before Scarlett Johansson made headlines for portraying a whitewashed version of Major Motoko Kusanagi in Paramount Pictures' unnecessary live-action Ghost in the Shell adaptation, Cumberbatch and Into Darkness team drew ire for whitewashing Khan -- but, if memory serves me correct, the backlash wasn't as intense as the one Johansson faced. Partly because Cumberbatch didn't say in an interview that, as an actor, he should be allowed to play whatever he wants like a tree, an Asian femme cyborg, or a transmasculine massage parlor owner. Regardless, Into Darkness deserved the criticism it got for casting a white British actor to play a character of color, especially since much of Abrams' rebooted cast didn't have many people of color in it. (Take the first two films: Cho and Saldana were the only two major actors of color -- Cho is Korean-American and Saldana is Afro-Latina -- in the cast. This would later expand to a whopping four thanks to 2016's Star Trek: Beyond, which cast Idris Elba as the film's villain and Sofia Boutella as an alien ally to Kirk and his crew.) Of all the people who vocally criticized the casting decision, George Takei -- the original Hikaru Sulu -- was the loudest voice, and understandably so. Star Trek: The Original Series broke ground in the 60s for featuring characters of color that weren't playing into negative racial stereotypes, and Khan was one such character. Whitewashing Khan went against the fictional future Gene Roddenberry's series depicted back in the 1960s and would later expand upon its various iterations on film and television. (Granted, Star Trek: The Original Series featured a white guy as the lead character, but The Original Series wasn't all about Kirk. The bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise was a diverse one, and a diverse TV cast was a pretty big deal in the 1960s.) In author-journalist Ryan Britt's unabashedly geeky and delightfully well-researched Phasers on Stun!: How the Making (and Remaking) of Star Trek Changed the World, Cumberbatch's Khan gets a mere sentence-long mention, and it's a kernel of biting nerdy shade wrapped in a critique of 1989's Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. The Star Trek franchise's commitment to inclusivity, however, is one of the book's major focuses as Britt examines how the franchise not only changed the conversation surrounding what roles actors of color could take on but also how the franchise often fell short of its professed ideals. As easy as it is to laud Star Trek for its overtly anti-racist, pro-science, and inclusive messaging, meaningful and nuanced critiques of the franchise's missteps in regards to multi-racial and LGBTQIA+ inclusion is often overlooked, largely because people don't really like to critique the things they love. (Trust me, as a Marvel fan, I get it.) Yet, Britt doesn't ignore the shortcomings. For him, the shortcomings provide a window to a richer, balanced, and substantive understanding of Star Trek's constant evolutions across film and television. Considering that the Star Trek franchise has been active for more than five decades and, thanks to new shows like Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, Prodigy, and Picard, it will likely be active for a few decades more, writing a book that chronicles the fifty-six-year-long (and counting) history of Roddenberry's influential sci-fi franchise, which spans across thirteen films and twelve television shows, including five shows currently airing, feels like a daunting task for any writer let alone a writer who's as Trek savvy as Britt. Phasers on Stun! could have easily been a dense and dull chronicle of Trek history, complete with the obligatory pull-quotes from the writers, actors, producers, directors, showrunners, and crew members responsible for bringing every single iteration of Trek to life across different media platforms. Given Britt's passion for the Trek franchise, which is endearingly on display throughout the book, Phasers on Stun! could have also been a fanboy's revisionist history project that praised Roddenberry as "the Great Bird of the Galaxy" (that is indeed an actual nickname Roddenberry gave himself) while playing ignorant to the various problems -- whether it be Roddenberry's struggle to sell the concept of Star Trek: The Original Series or how Trekkie outrage over The Wrath of Khan's gutsy move to kill off Spock escalated from taking out full-page print ads in entertainment trade magazines to threats toward Leonard Nimoy and director Nicholas Meyer -- the franchise had to overcome to be the influential pop culture hit it is today. Luckily, Phasers on Stun! is neither of those books. Instead, Britt's book is a entertaining mix of the old and the new, not unlike Trek itself. Examining the franchise as a whole, starting with the scrappy origins of The Original Series and taking us into Trek's current television renaissance with shows like the adult-oriented animated Lower Decks and the TOS prequel Strange New Worlds, Britt chronicles the franchise's ever-expanding, consistently-evolving universe in a throughly well-researched and endearingly witty manner that is not only bound to please longtime and casual Trekkies alike, but also to intrigue newcomers into joining the Enterprise crew in their journey to explore strange new worlds. (See what I did there?) I came into Phasers on Stun! as a relative newcomer to Trek. Sure, I saw Into Darkness in theaters (on opening weekend!) back in 2013, but it was because of an embarrassing celebrity crush not really out of genuine interest in the franchise. If you were to ask me if I remember anything about Into Darkness, I'd only be able to tell you two things: 1) Benedict Cumberbatch is (the whitewashed) Khan and 2) Spock and Khan get into a third-act fight straight out of a mid Mortal Kombat sequel because the Vulcan nerve pinch is essentially a Fatality move, and you can't change my mind about it. As a result, I know fairly little about Trek beyond some general info (i.e. "Live Long and Prosper," Chris Pine poked fun at Shatner's unique Kirk cadence when he hosted SNL, and Whoopi Goldberg joined The Next Generation at the height of her 90s fame) so I was hesitant to start reading Phasers on Stun! I questioned whether I needed to have any requisite knowledge of the franchise in order to understand anything I was about to read. Thankfully, Phasers on Stun! is also an accessible tome for newcomers. (from left to right) James Doohan as Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott, Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, William Shatner as James T. Kirk, DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy, Nichelle Nichols as Nyota Uhura, and Walter Koenig as Pavel Chakov in Star Trek: The Original Series (Paramount) Naturally, Phasers on Stun! begins with the origin of The Original Series, devoting four chapters ("Spock Stole His Own Brain," "Space Cowboys," "Infinite Diversity, Finite Genes," and "The Trouble with Trekkies") to its creation, from the hurdles Roddenberry and Co. faced to get the show on the air to the humble beginnings of the godfather of all fandoms, the Trekkies (or "Trekkers;" the fandom oscillates between the two titles). Depending on the kind of reader you are, your mileage with this extended focus will vary. If you're like me, someone who has little to no knowledge of Trek's early history, then these four chapters won't be a bore. I enjoyed reading about the creation of TOS and the bumps in the road to bringing Kirk and his crew to television. I think something we take for granted today is how much work it takes to bring a television series to life, from developing the concept and finding a crew of writers who can bring said concept to life to casting actors and retooling characters so the actor has some leeway to make the character their own. It truly takes a village to get a show from concept to pilot season, and TOS was faced with major hurdles that it had to clear in order to get Desilu Studios (the production company started by beloved comedy pioneer Lucille Ball and actor Desi Arnaz, the real-life husband-wife duo behind the beloved fictional Lucy and Ricky Ricardo of TV's first hit sitcom I Love Lucy.), including -- but not limited to -- reimagining Spock into the iconic, logic-based Vulcan we know and love and assembling a team of writers (featuring the likes of story editor-turned-mainstay Trek writer D.C. Fontana and beloved sci-fi novelist Harlan Ellison, the latter of which wrote TOS's greatest episode -- "City on the Edge of Forever"-- and hated it) that could script some of Kirk and Co.'s greatest adventures. Britt's extended look at the humble beginnings of the Star Trek franchise reads as one-part unexpected mythbusting (especially when it comes to Roddenberry's revisionist tendencies) and one-part engrossing origin story. For newcomers and casuals with gaps in their Trek knowledge, this lengthy look at TOS is one of the book's most fascinating highlights. For longtime Trekkies, however, devoting four chapters to TOS might read as a little much -- and maybe even repetitive. After all, much has been chronicled about the short-lived 1966 series that established fans coming into this book won't be interested in hearing about history and trivia they're likely well-versed in. Subsequent Trek shows like The Next Generation (which was beset with shifting writers and fandom backlash), Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise are worthy of the same amount of meticulous chronicling and exploration that TOS has received from the likes of Trek historians, stars like Nimoy and Walter Koenig (both of whom wrote about their experiences in the franchise and what it's like to be tied to their famous characters Spock and Chekov respectively), and geek enthusiasts like Britt. In Phasers on Stun!, the subsequent Trek shows -- with the exception of TNG, which devotes three chapters the television and cinematic adventures of Sir Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard and his crew ("Undiscovered Generations," "You Will Be Assimilated," and "Magic Carpet Rides"), get one concise, well-researched, and cleverly written chapter each. As entertaining as those chapters are, I do wish that Britt spent a little more time exploring the later Trek series (sans the ones currently airing) and the respective Kirk-Picard sets of films. Same thing goes for the Kelvin trilogy. Britt sort of treats the reboot trilogy as a blip on the radar within Trek's bigger picture, despite Nimoy's involvement in the first two films and rave reviews from Jonathan Frakes (Lt. Commander William Riker), who would go on to guest star in and direct some episodes of the newer Trek shows, which is unfortunate because those movies have a fanbase of their own, and many (myself included) might see them as a jumping-on point for Trek newbies. Despite these flaws, Britt's writing is crisp, astute and witty from start to finish, telling/re-telling inside-Enterprise stories about Trek's pop culture footprint. Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham in Star Trek: Discovery (Season 4 Promotional Artwork | Paramount) With a sparkling sense of humor, Britt offers readers tales of well-known stories about and related to Trek, such as the famous meeting between Nichols and civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr. that led to Nichols staying on TOS, the Trekkie outrage toward Wrath of Khan's plan to kill off Spock, and, of course, the tale of the making of TOS's two pilot episodes, "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before." Rather than rehashing what's been told before, Britt tells these stories with an eye for detail, offering tidbits that round out familiar history and sometimes provide readers with something new. Although there are other books out there focused on covering the history of Trek across film and TV, Phasers on Stun! feels like more than just a simple chronicle of the franchise's fifty-plus history and enduring impact on pop culture. In addition to the expanding and evolving history of Trek on film and TV, Phasers on Stun! also provides a deft, nuanced, and well-balanced analysis of Trek's commitment to its pro-science messaging and inclusive vision of the future. To accomplish this fairly and successfully means balancing praise with critique, and Britt doesn't let his lifelong love for Trek prevent him from offering critiques when necessary. One of the most eye-opening chapters in the book for me was "The Pride of Starfleet." Although I knew that queer actors had been cast in various Trek series (i.e. Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz in Star Trek: Discovery), queer characters had popped up in a show or two (e.g. Seven of Nine in Voyager and Picard, Beckett Mariner in Lower Decks), and the famous Kirk/Spock ship (Fact: Kirk/Spock walked so Stucky -- Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes -- could run.), I didn't know Star Trek had such explicit ties to queerness and the LGBTQIAA+ communities from throughout its history. Of course, the franchise didn't start adding explicitly queer, lesbian, bi, non-binary, and trans characters and actors until the last four to five years, but to see a sci-fi franchise, let alone one of the biggest sci-fi franchises in global popular culture, be so willing to explore queerness -- even when it got messy and waded into stereotypes, convoluted metaphors about gender and sexuality, and performing gender and sexuality under a cishet gaze -- and constantly push itself to do better and not regress is really mind-blowing. If there's one big takeaway that I got from this book it's that more major franchises should be as willing as Trek to embrace queer identities and queer themes, even if they don't get it right all the time. For example, queer nerds are still waiting for Marvel Studios to include genuine moments of queer and gender non-conforming representation that aren't limited to same-gender-loving couples sharing a quick kiss or a character's gender-fluidity being confirmed via marketing materials rather than in an actual movie or TV episode. If what's stopping Marvel (besides Disney being conservative as hell, of course) is the fear of making mistakes and facing backlash, I'd rather Marvel -- and DC and any other major Hollywood franchise -- to put in the effort and open themselves up to failure and critique. After all, critique has the potential to lead to better, more substantive forms of queer and genderfluid media representation -- just look at Star Trek. Of course, Britt could have expanded upon Trek's struggles with doing right by its queer fanbase and included more conversations with queer Trek fans, podcasters, fandom writers, and critics, but "The Pride of Starfleet" does offer a strong, condensed overview of Trek's queer history. (Personally, I would love to read a book about that. Until that book gets written, though, we've got incredible video essays from YouTube's resident Trek superfan Jessie Gender and this great essay on Seven of Nine's queer identity by S.E. Fleenor.) Britt also offers incisive and engaging deep dives into other topics related to Trek's progressiveness, including the quest to cast Voyager's Capt. Kathryn Janeway and how Janeway broke through the Trek boys' club; the Trek franchise's first Black captain: Avery Brooks' Benjamin Sisko of Deep Space Nine; the recasting (and the sexist handling) of promising Vulcan Starfleet officer Savvik; and the conscious re-tooling of Christopher Pike's future, one that required the franchise to come to terms with writing a disabled character and representing disabled audiences. Although each of these deep dives offer strong evidence of Trek's commitment to inclusivity, Britt occasionally seems hesitant to delve into the mistakes Trek tends to make when upholding its commitment, as well as unsure of how to properly interweave the critiques the franchise has been met with in the process. I don't know if this is because, like many a fan, Britt doesn't want to cast the franchise he's adored for years in a bad light or if he feels that, as a white, cis, heterosexual male author and journalist, his critical perspective is limited and cannot cover the various intersections present throughout the franchise. Either way, Phasers on Stun! can feel somewhat limited in its analysis, but never does it perform reputation-saving revisionist history gymnastics. Britt knows that Trek doesn't need that. Phasers on Stun! also benefits from a number of entertaining and insightful interviews with various actors and creatives associated with the shaping of Trek's many television and cinematic adventures and its pop culture history. From beloved actors like Shatner, Koenig, Takei, and Nichols to the new faces of Trek on television like Ethan Peck (Spock on Strange New Worlds), Sonequa Martin-Green (Michael Burnham on Discovery), Tawny Newsome (Beckett Mariner on Lower Decks), and Blu del Barrio (Adira on Discovery). One of the book's most poignant interviews comes from Discovery actor Kenneth Mitchell, who played Timekeeper Tenavik in "Through the Valley of Shadows." At first, Mitchell opens up about the role he plays in the creative choice to turn Pike's future, how he, alongside Pike actor Anson Mount, worked to turn transform Pike's future -- where the captain will eventually become unable to speak and confined to a mechanized wheelchair for the rest of his life -- into "a victory" instead of "a tragedy." As their conversation goes on, Mitchell opens up about his ALS diagnosis and how that yielded fears about a future where he can no longer hold his children and speak with his family. It's a heartbreaking conversation between two parents (Britt shares a few lovely anecdotes about his young daughter and how Star Trek is becoming part of her childhood) who open up about their darkest fears and the things they take for granted as both fathers and human beings. Yet, before the interview draws to a close, Mitchell imparts Britt with "a gentle reminder that to build the future, you have to live in the present." As Britt writes: "This gift, this bittersweet perspective is something we all take for granted, but for one afternoon, because I happened to love Star Trek as a child, a brave man reminded me of what matters." Mitchell and Britt's honest and heartfelt conversation not only explores the fears human beings hold about not being able to witness the moments that matter most in their lives -- in this case, the fears parents have when faced with an illness that will eventually take them away from their children and families -- but also an encapsulation of Star Trek's power as a piece of commercial yet thoughtful pop sci-fi: the ability to look at ourselves, to find ourselves, and consider making a future where everyday is a day worth living for. Star Trek is more than just Vulcans, Romulans, Shatner screaming "KHAAAAN!" at the top of his lungs, and Zachary Quinto and Benedict Cumberbatch having a Street Fighter-style brawl on top of some moving futuristic vehicles. Gene Roddenberry envisioned a sci-fi series that regaled audiences with tales of human curiosity, human survival, and human triumph, a series grew to constantly evolve and shift without losing sight of what made it so poignant and timeless to begin with. Like many an average Joe or Joanne, Star Trek is constantly looking inward and challenging itself to embrace change, to learn to grow and develop without overlooking the flaws, the ambiguities, and complexities that make you a full being. In addition to being a good read for longtime fans, casual viewers, and confused newcomers alike, Phasers on Stun! offers a humorous and incisive look at the ways Star Trek often resembles humanity's fullness and intricacy, reminding us that the present isn't perfect but daring to envision a future where we embody the ideals we wish to live involves opening yourself to growth and change, fear and heartache, and beauty and joy. How many franchises can say they've been able to achieve that and live to make a movie where Kirk wonders aloud what God would want with a starship? (No, seriously; this happens in The Final Frontier.) Phasers on Stun!: How the Making (and Remaking) of Star Trek Changed the World is available now. You can purchase a physical copy here. If you have any book recommendations, feel free to share them in the comments below or follow the blog on Instagram to share titles via DM or the comments section! This Blerd is Online!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Meet Your Friendly Neighborhood Blerd.Hello, one and all.
Welcome to the mothership and prepare to go on a fantastic voyage through the Blerd space-time continnum! I'm Makayla; it's nice to meet you! Pronouns are they/she. Archives
November 2022
Categories
All
|