Featuring a discussion that shows how science fiction's ability to make the familiar strange, this book comments on entrenched attitudes toward gender roles and feminist issues. By having aliens or sexually neutral beings enact female dominance or passivity, it provides a view on these experiences and an antidote to explicit cultural biases.

"Roberts is arguing for a truly 'high art,' forged out of gender theory and the highly popular Trek episodes. But it is not only high art she is talking about; it is the cultural history of our century."-Donald M. Hassler, editor of Extrapolation: The Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Studies "A new and worthwhile addition... The issues raised in this book, and on the show itself, are certainly valid and offer a rich field for discussion." - Science Fiction Research Association "Roberts has put together a thorough, rigorous, and insightful analysis of gender in The Next Generation, covering both the elements that imagine a different space-time and the contradictions that derive from contemporary sociopolitical norms... An ideal book to use in courses that address contemporary television, science fiction, media feminism, and, of course, Star Trek." -- Daniel Bernardi, Science Fiction Studies ADVANCE PRAISE "Roberts is a superb explicator of Star Trek: The Next Generation, offering stunning analyses of the figures of the female ruler, the perfect female mate, the female alien as a reworking of the story of the tragic mulatto, and the antiromance perspective of the rape episodes."-Jane Donawerth, author of Frankenstein's Daughters: Women Writing Science Fiction