Why I Write Such Good Books

A preview of the book that will change Star Trek Studies forever

In about a month, my book Late Star Trek: The Final Frontier in the Franchise Era will finally be coming out. Even now, you can preorder it, directly from the press, from Bookshop.org, or from the Bezos Collective. I have already shared some advance praise from prominent Star Trek scholars. But since the purpose of this newsletter is, ultimately, to promote my book and my unique approach to the franchise, I felt I would share some advance praise of my own — namely, some things that make my book unique.

The first is that I am the first and so far only author to treat all post-90s Trek as a unit. There have been studies of the JJ-verse, of Discovery, and at least one forthcoming book on the streaming era—but my approach is unique in giving a view of the franchise’s multiple attempts to reinvent itself after its most successful era wound down.

I am also one of only a handful of Star Trek scholars to take Enterprise seriously. The biggest contributions so far have come from Ina Rae Hark, who is a major point of reference for my book, and in the Zaki Hasan’s chapter in the Routledge Handbook on the failed prequel. But my chapter on Enterprise outstrips both in its thoroughness and depth, and my systematic tracing of the legacy of Enterprise in subsequent productions is unparalleled.

To my knowledge, I am also the only person to have written a study of the post-Nemesis novel continuity (known as the “relaunch” continuity or novelverse) as a whole, and definitely the only one to study the style and approach of particular writers within that larger project. An edited volume on tie-in fiction was released as I was finishing production on my book, but it only has one chapter on the Coda series—not on the novelverse as such. I would also say that my treatment of the importance of tie-in novels for the fandom and the development of the franchise is among the best available.

I am also the only person to have done an in-depth study of the Kelvin Timeline tie-in comics, and I am certainly the only Star Trek scholar to have made continual reference to tie-in comics alongside the “canonical” productions and tie-in novels. More than that, among authors of comprehensive studies of the franchise, I am surely the most plugged into cultures of fan theories, as a decorated veteran of the Reddit forum r/DaystromInstitute.

These are the unique firsts I am most proud of. There are many others that occur more or less through sheer luck. Most notably, mine is the first book (other than the Routledge Handbook) to cover the newest streaming series, and mine was able to address more material simply because it was finalized multiple years later. Even at the very last moment, I was adding references to new material to try to keep it as up to date as possible, despite the very long lead time of academic publishing. (Mercifully, this allowed me to skip the Section 31 movie.) Thus it is able to cover the end of both Picard and Discovery, which marked a genuine “end of an era” even though Paramount+ is continuing to put out new material.

But what I’m most proud of is that it’s fun. It was fun to write, and everyone who has read advanced copies tells me that it’s fun to read. It is published by an academic press, but it is written for a broad audience. I want every Star Trek fan to read it, and I want them to show up here to argue with me about it.