The Kelvin Timeline of Star Trek

In an era of reboots, restarts and retreads, J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek trilogy—featuring new, prequel adventures of Kirk, Spock and the rest of the original series characters, aboard the USS Enterprise—has brought the franchise to a new generation and perfected a process that is increasingly central to entertainment media: reinvigorating the beloved classic.
This collection of new essays offers the first in-depth analysis of the new trilogy and the vision of the next generation of Star Trek film-makers. Issues of gender, race, politics, economics, technology and morality—always key themes of the franchise—are explored in the 21st century context of “The Kelvin Timeline.”

Matthew Wilhelm Kapell teaches American studies, anthropology, and writing at Pace University in New York.

The late Ace G. Pilkington was a professor of English and history at Dixie State University. He was the author or editor of eight books and had published more than 100 articles, reviews, short stories and poems.

Edited by Matthew Wilhelm Kapell and Ace G. Pilkington
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 197
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2019
pISBN: 978-1-4766-6966-3
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3623-8
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Toward a “Many Texts” Theory of the Star Trek
Multiverse (Matthew Wilhelm Kapell and Ace G. Pilkington) 1
A Switch in Time: Nero’s Disruptive Trickster Force in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek (Sarah Beth Kiliman) 13
Khanned: Whitewashing Khan in Star Trek into Darkness (Lynnette Porter) 25
Race, the Final Frontier: Star Trek, Trump and Hollywood’s
Diversity Problem (Penelope Ingram) 39
Star Trek into Colonialism (Bart Bishop) 58
Uhura and Linguistics of Star Trek (Olga A. Pilkington) 72
All Talk and No Action: What’s a Girl Gotta Do to Get Noticed Around Here? (Teresa ­Cutler-Broyles) 84
“Throw a punch and kiss a girl”: Gender and Sexualization
in the Kelvin Timeline (Andrea Whitacre) 99
Science Fiction and the New Trek Timeline (Ace G. Pilkington) 115
Priming the Multiverse: Contextualizing the Kelvin Timeline Through Gene Roddenberry’s Original Narrative (Jessica ­Sellin-Blanc) 135
Illegible and Unacceptable Representation: The Liminality of Spock in Star Trek (2009) (Natashia Lindsey) 151
James T. Kirk, Ideal Citizen: Shifting Rhetoric for a New
Timeline (Cait Coker) 166
Conclusion: Is There a Future for Star Trek? (Ace G. Pilkington and Matthew Wilhelm Kapell) 177
About the Contributors 185
Index 187