Essays / Guest Blogs

Turning about Turnabout Intruder

Published on treksphere.com 10/04/2017

"Turnabout Intruder is apparently, an almost universally hated episode.  Ratings were poor, Shatner’s acting is mocked as being campy, it is bashed as being sexist and reactionary – “a knee-jerk response to the increasingly radical women’s movements of the late 1960s” – all in all, a poor final episode to a brilliant and progressive show. Well, so they say – needless to say, I disagree."

The idea for this essay came up after I was doing some research on the episode Turnabout Intruder.  I truly love this episode, but I was dismayed to see that it has consistently had bad reviews from critics.  The main issue seems to have been concerns about sexism in the episode, that Janice Lester is a woman who was denied entry to the 'world of star ship captains' and whose hysterical characterisation conforms to a stereotype.  To me these accusations seem misplaced, (and frankly I think they point to an almost deliberate or wilful misunderstanding of the content of the episode) instead of focusing on the negative I offer a different reading, one which raises interesting commentary on gender fluidity and mental illness.

Book Review: 

BOLDLY WRITING - A Trek Fan and Fanfiction History, 1967 - 1987

Published on treksphere.com 12/09/2017

"Boldly Writing - A Trek Fan and Fanfiction History 1967 - 1987 by Joan Marie Verba is a quietly wonderful book which will appeal to those with an interest in the roots of fanfiction and the development of really the first true fandom as we understand the phenomenon today.

Verba, an avid collector and contributor to fanzines from ‘the beginning’ (she first encountered the fandom in 1969 although she had loved Star Trek from the first episode), gives us a history of fanzines from the valuable perspective of someone who was actually part of the movement.  Her own observations and explanations of events, movements and ‘characters’ give context to that which would otherwise be quite disorientating".

I realised soon after I started reading Boldly Writing that I wanted to write a review on it.  It's a fantastic labour of love by Joan Verba and ensures that the experiences of those pioneering 'first fans' and their work is not forgotten.

'Skant'ily Clad - A Review Of Unlicensed Skants On The Market - Cosplay Boss TOS 'Uhura' Skant 

Published on treksphere.com 27/10/2017

A little while ago I was given the opportunity to buy an unlicensed TOS skant (read: not Anovos) which was going to be made available this Autumn.  I have previously made my own ‘spiral skant’, which is the season three variant, but being unable to source the double knit fabric I’d made it in valour, so I was keen to see what the change in fabric felt like, and what it was like to wear.  My less pure interest was in the construction of the skant ‘sized up’, the patterns which are available have some nutty sizing which among other problems don’t cater for the larger beautiful bottoms, or arms.  If you have larger than sticks for arms the patterns will not work without modification.

So basically I wanted to crib.

Where No (Wo)Man Will Go Again? Where have all the women writers gone in Star Trek literature? And other fables.

Published on treksphere.com 07/12/2017

Once upon a time in a decade not so long ago, a series of books began introducing new stories to a beloved franchise. Some of the stories were very, very bad,  a selection of the stories were ‘alright’, and happily, a good portion were inspired.   

One of the other most exciting things about this series of books was that the publishers in their desire for new and exciting content, cast their nets wide in order to capitalize on the success of their franchise.  This resulted in a whole range of writers being published. Some were professional, published authors in their own right, others were fans and amateurs with promise, others still were scraping the bottom of the barrel – what were the editors thinking? I’ve asked myself after reading some of the more problematic love letters to the franchise. 

The numbers vary in any year but if you look at the distribution of the authors something becomes very clear; in the beginning of the Pocket Books Star Trek TOS novel series there is broadly an even spread of male and female authors.