Few utopian visions of the future have been as influential as Star Trek. The franchise offers over fifty years of TV, books, movies, and music for you to engage with, and rack up Summer Challenge points while you’re doing so. Jeremy and I are going warp factor nine and doubling down on our amount of blog content this summer. All of it Trek because Trek showed us how to build a better world. Like Star Trek, it’s our mission to feature something for everyone.

If you’re ready to go further down the wormhole, I highly recommend The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized, Oral History of Star Trek, the First 25 Years. This covers all of The Original Series, The Animated Series, the birth of conventions, and all Original Series films. Fifty-Year Mission acknowledges Original Series as a groundbreaking work, seeding not only many other Trek iterations, but contemporary fandom. Did you know the first Star Trek convention happened at Newark Public Library, organized by children’s librarian Sherna Comerford? Besides featuring the women that kickstarted fandom, Fifty Year Mission emphasizes showrunners, writers, and behind the scenes folks. This is how TV gets made. This is why writers quit. Yes, Gene Roddenberry created Star Trek, but in a lot of ways he was his own worst enemy. For the fans, it was always more than a TV show. It’s all here and I couldn’t put it down.

If you engage in Trekkerie (see what I did there?) for Summer Challenge, come to the Mission Accomplished! Summer Challenge Star Trek Party in the Commons, Saturday, August 12th, 2pm, at Main Library. We'll hang out, talk Trek, play games, and win prizes. Why not wear a costume?