"Deep Space and Sacred Time examines Star Trek's humanist creed, with its faith in the human capacity for compassion, growth and self-guidance.". "Jon Wagner and Jan Lundeen reveal the evolving tension between Star Trek's liberalism and its subliminal messages of gender, race and class dominance; yet they also take issue with the recent wave of criticism that finds only homophobia, sexism, racism, and other "oppressive" forces dominating the Star Trek mythos. Citing hundreds of examples from the first eight Star Trek feature films and the four television series, the authors consider the ways in which Star Trek invites its audience to explore the nature of the self, the essence of humanity, the construction of gender, the possibility of utopia, and the role of narrative in shaping an intelligible cosmos."--BOOK JACKET.