Future Perfect: How Star Trek Conquered Planet Earth
Future Perfect: How Star Trek Conquered Planet Earth

Summary
Hardcover blurb
Half of all Americans are Star Trek fans – this is the ultimate look at the phenomenon for and about trekkers here and the world over. Eight blockbuster movies. Five TV series, now airing in over a hundred and fifty countries worldwide. Thirteen Trek books are sold every minute. And trekkers log on to hundreds of Internet chat groups. Yet only Jeff Greenwald has captured exactly what the true appeal is behind one of the most incredible pop phenomena ever.

Warp Factors interweaves a lively history of Star Treks impact on our earthly culture, a world tour of diehard trekdom, and on-the-set reporting from the latest Trek movie, First Contact. It shows how Star Treks initial vision of an Earth liberated from war and prejudice still inspires our craving for miracle technology and extraterrestrial exploits. It explores how Trek imagery feeds the collective yearning to get back into outer space and expresses utopian longings in devotees from all walks of life – from NASA engineers to the director of the Klingon Language Institute.

Up-to-the-minute interviews take us inside the mythmaking machinery. Actors like Patrick Stewart and Michael Dorn discuss with Greenwald what they bring to – and get out of – their experiences working on Star Trek. He also consults producers, writers, directors, crew, and wise observers that include Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Arthur C. Clarke, and the Dalai Lama.

Paperback blurb
Future Perfect is a Trek book like no others an insightful, irreverent, and sometimes hilarious look into the myth-making machinery behind the world's most enduring TV show. Bestselling travel and science author Jeff Greenwald has traveled the globe in search of Star Trek lore and signs of its influence, including attending a Klingon wedding in the Black Forest of Germany; interviewing Leonard Nimoy about his tempestuous relationship with his alter-ego, Mr. Spock; visiting NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where a new generation of aerospace engineers are living out their Star Trek-inspired fantasies; and speaking candidly with the Dalai Lama – a longtime Trek fan.

Future Perfect also provides a rare glimpse into the hearts and minds of Treks creators. With broad access to the sets and stages of both Voyager and , Greenwald conducts probing interviews with series stars Patrick Stewart, Michael Dorn, and Kate Mulgrew – as well as with the writers and producers charged with bringing Gene Roddenberry's vision to life. For anyone interested in how American pop culture has taken over the world, Future Perfect is fascinating reading. For Star Trek fans, it's indispensable.

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