by James DiGiovanna Enterprise Zones: Critical Positions on Star Trek, edited by Taylor Harrison, Sarah Projansky, Kent A. Ono, and Elyce Rae Helford (Westview Press). Paper, $16.50. SOMEWHERE IN THE deep recesses of academia, hunchbacked scholars pore over ancient texts searching for long-forgotten references to Pliny the Elder. While continuing to ignore their existence, you can nonetheless indulge in joyfully over-analytical exercises in pointless research with Enterprise Zones: Critical Positions on Star Trek, a collection of essays by scholars from American studies, comparative literature, media studies and an assortment of other fields in search of a subject. Perhaps it's because I both enjoy highfalutin academic lingo and have seen nearly every episode of Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation, but I found Zones a rocking good read. Who can resist an essay entitled "Dating Data: Miscegenation in Star Trek: the Next Generation" or "Reading Captain Kirk's Multiple Masculinities"? What I found most compelling was that, even when these writers are entirely critical of Star Trek (always on political, rather than aesthetic grounds) their ability to quote dialog from dozens of episodes reveals their deep and geeky love for the show. It is this intense, unanalyzed fandom which causes these essays to take the show far too seriously: Their ethical and political criticisms are directed at the society in which the show is set. It is as though they assume that this is a real universe requiring a critical reappraisal of its core values, and not just the back story for a space opera. One can easily imagine a group of these writers walking bleary-eyed from a 12-hour videotape marathon of Trek episodes, planning a people's revolution against the hegemony of the Federation, until the bright light of day brings them back to the sad realization of their maudlin 20th-century existence.

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