Real world article
(written from a production point of view)
Star Trek: Open a Channel - A Woman's Trek
Summary[]
- Blurb
- Nana Visitor, Star Trek's Kira Nerys, explores how the series has portrayed and influenced women. Interviews with the stars, writers, producers, and celebrity fans reveal the struggles and triumphs of women both behind and in front of the camera throughout the sixty-year history of Star Trek, and how they have mirrored the experiences of women everywhere.
- The groundbreaking casting of Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Uhura in 1966 took women and people of color into a newly-imagined future. But it was the 1960s and she had to do it in a miniskirt.
- Since then, each Star Trek show has both refected the values of its time and imagined a more future in which all genders were equal. In her first book, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine star Nana Visitor sets out to discover both how Star Trek led the way for women, and how it was trapped in its own era.
- For Visitor, this is more than a book about Star Trek. It's about how society and the stories we tell have evolved in the last 60 years, and how the role of women has changed in that time.
- STAR AUTHOR: Written by Star Trek actor Nana Visitor, famous for playing Major Kira Nerys. This is both her story and her journey through the stories of other women involved with Star Trek from the 1960s to the 21st century.
- EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS: Features interviews with almost every woman who has starred in Star Trek, including Kate Mulgrew, Terry Farrell, Denise Crosby, Mary Wiseman, and Rebecca Romijn.
- INSPIRING STORIES: Explore how Star Trek has influenced women in the real world, including soldiers, scientists, and even astronauts. In one remarkable episode, author Nana Visitor interviewed astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti while she was in orbit around Earth on the International Space Station.
- PIONEERING SERIES: Star Trek has often taken a leading role in promoting women on both sides of the camera. It had women writers when they were rare, and it introduced female captain Kathryn Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager in 1995.
Excerpts of copyrighted sources are included for review purposes only, without any intention of infringement.
- Original Hero Collector blurb
- Star Trek, from the beginning, has empowered women, creating feminist icons. Deep Space Nine's Nana Visitor looks at how – and the enduring, ongoing impact.
- Nana Visitor played Major Kira Nerys on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, evolving her into one of the franchise's – and pop-culture history's – most formidable female characters.
- But Visitor wasn't first; other Star Trek actresses paved the way. In the new book, A Woman's Trek, Visitor speaks with and pays tribute to those who came before her.
- "Fifty-five years ago, Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Uhura took women and people of color into a newly imagined future," Visitor says. "But she did it in a mini-skirt. It was still 1966 after all. Each Star Trek show both reflected the culture of its time and imagined a more equitable future. How much did we lead the culture into imagining new roles for women? How much did the culture shape us? I'm going to ask these questions to every woman I can. Women on camera, behind the camera, behind the scenes, behind the men, even, and the women we inspired to imagine more for themselves. I want to talk to them all and see what it says about us and about them."
- In Star Trek: A Woman's Trek, Nana interviews a diverse collection of Star Trek actors, Star Trek writers, and other notable people such as Stacey Abrams, Seth McFarlane, and astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.
- This book is packed with hundreds of photos, including behind the scenes images rarely seen.
- This is a book by women, for women – and a must for all fans of Star Trek's long history!
- Included actors: Kate Mulgrew, Sonequa Martin-Green, Jeri Ryan, Roxann Dawson, Terry Farrell, Mary Wiseman, Denise Crosby, Gates McFadden, Penny Johnson Jerald, Nicole de Boer, Hannah Cheesman, France Nuyen, BarBara Luna, Sandy Gimpel, Tania Lemani, Linda Park, Isa Briones, Alison Pill, Tawny Newsome, Noel Wells
- Included writers: Hannah Louise Shearer, Melinda Snodgrass, Diane Duane, Lisa Klink, Jeri Taylor, Phyllis Strong, Jane Espenson
- Included notable people: Stacey Abrams, Seth McFarlane, Jess Zimmerman, Samantha Cristoforetti
- ... and more to come!
Excerpts of copyrighted sources are included for review purposes only, without any intention of infringement.