Teachers & Television
Teachers & Television (1987) examines the use of television in education. With television being the most powerful medium of mass communication, with tremendous potential as an educational tool, to what extent are teachers considering educational television as a component of the curriculum?
Colour Television
Colour Television (1968) examines the technologies involved, the differences in programme-making that colour required, the audience response, and the changes in advertising and network systems that colour broadcasting brought about.
Broadcast Writing
Broadcast Writing (1991) looks at the tools necessary for writers to find and develop stories for radio and television. It addresses the challenges of documentary and dramatic writing for TV and radio, and provides examples for most of the different writing genres.
Global Broadcasting Systems
Global Broadcasting Systems (1996) provides a comprehensive look at broadcasting throughout the world. It discusses how new technology and political, social and economic factors influence the global media, and shows how increasing privatization has changed patterns of control and access.
Broadcasting in Ireland
Broadcasting in Ireland (1978) outlines the historical and sociological background of Ireland to place the progress of its broadcasting service in the context of its post-independence development, it being bound up with the process of building the political, economic and social framework of the new State.
Broadcast Voice Performance
Broadcast Voice Performance (1989) incorporates the insights and experience of more than 100 successful practising voice performers to succinctly and realistically examine the techniques, equipment and criteria of announcing within the context of major types of radio and television productions and programming formats.
Audio Production Techniques for Video
Audio Production Techniques for Video (1987) looks at the mechanics and operation of audio tape and video tape recorders; audio and video synchronization-technology; studio and location audio production processes; video and audio post-production; troubleshooting time-code problems.
Broadcasting in Canada
Broadcasting in Canada (1977) examines the unique challenges to broadcasting in the country: the size of the country, its small, dispersed population, and two official languages make radio and television coverage a difficult and costly enterprise.
Television and the Political Image
Was the 1959 UK General Election the first television election? Could television be used to create a Party 'image'? Television and the Political Image (1961) provides answers to both these questions.
The Lively Audience
The Lively Audience (1986) studies television from the children's own point of view. Contrary to most prevailing opinion, it contends that television has much to teach children, and gives us a different understanding of the child audience and the impact of their television viewing.
Television in the Making
Television in the Making (1956) looks at television in its infancy, with essays by the leaders of the medium at the time, people who were forging new paths as they imagined and actioned the possibilities of television.
Broadcast Indecency
Broadcast Indecency (1997) treats broadcast indecency as more than a simple regulatory problem in American law. The author's approach cuts across legal, social and economic concerns, taking the view that media law and regulation cannot be seen within a vacuum that ignores cultural realities.
Images of the Enemy
Images of the Enemy (1985) discusses and decodes British television news coverage of the superpower disarmament talks and east-west crises and examines the structures, organisations and political constraints that encouraged negative views of the USSR to flourish.
Global Telecommunications
Global Telecommunications (1992) clarifies the complex, politically-charged arena of international telecommunications, looking at the demands created by dynamic Western countries in the grips of deregulation and the needs of developing nations.
Broadcasting in Mexico
Broadcasting in Mexico (1979) traces the birth and growth of Mexico's broadcasting services against the background of its geographical, cultural, demographic, economic and political structure.
The Politics of Broadcasting
The Politics of Broadcasting (1985) examines the state of broadcasting at a time when new telecommunications and information technology revolutionised television and radio. The book describes and analyses the problems faced by politicians and broadcasters in responding to these changing technological and political environments.
Media Use in the Information Age
Media Use in the Information Age (1989) analyses new technologies, their impact on mass communications, and their effects on the users of these new systems. It looks at technologies such as videotex, and their successes and failures around the world, and examines the early adoptions of technologies such as home computers.
Broadcasting and Society 1918-1939
Broadcasting and Society (1983) is a critical examination of the social changes brought about by radio broadcasting in the crucial and formative stages between 1918 and 1939 - whether broadcasting was successful in keeping people better informed, in introducing wider interests, and its influence on social behaviour.
Global Television
Global Television (1993) looks at how satellites, fibre optics, compressed digital transmission, and interactive and high-definition television have converged with computer technology to revolutionise TV and film production, TV sets and even the smart home in which TV is viewed.
Communications Systems
Communications Systems (1999) examines various communications systems using satellites, and includes much information on coding and modulation systems. It explores the rapid convergence between satellite and terrestrial services and provides a solid base of principles, including mathematics.
Odyssey ’84
So. Man of many turns. Tell us your story. From the beginning. As the strike begins miner John O'Donnell finds himself thrust into a fight for survival, taking him far from South Wales. Meanwhile, at home, his wife Penny goes on her own epic personal journey whilst striving to support her community. When they are finally reunited, they find that their very different journeys have transformed their lives forever. Set against the backdrop of one of the most turbulent periods in our recent history, Odyssey '84 promises a spectacular theatre experience. This major new play tells of the adventures our ideals take us on. This edition was published to coincide with the production at The Sherman in Cardiff.
Here for All the Reasons
The Bachelor franchise has been around for over two decades and amassed an army of fans across its four shows. While contestants battle to prove they're here for the right reasons, Bachelor Nation is confronting their own question-Why are we here and why can't we stop watching?Devout franchise fans Ilana Masad and Stevie Seibert Desjarlais pose the big questions to Bachelor Nation: Who are we? What does the franchise mean to us? And seriously, why on earth can we not stop watching?For years, fans of the Bachelor franchise have laughed with and at contestants; cried along with their heartbreaks; tuned in again and again each season despite feeling betrayed by producer and contestant decisions alike; and celebrated, alone and together, the love (or loveless) lives of perfect strangers on our television screens. And we wonder, really, why? With reality TV broadly characterized as "trash TV," why are so many intelligent, funny, and critical people watching and discussing it?Here For All the Reasons seeks to answer this question, diving into the complex negotiations of gender, racial, and class politics that arise within the fandom. This anthology is a polyvocal exploration of Bachelor Nation for Bachelor Nation. So, will you accept our rose and join the chat?Contributors include: Iftin Abshir - AN - Joy Alicia - Samantha Allen - Stevie Seibert Desjarlais - Claire Fallon - Ness Ilene Garza - Sarah Gerard - Emma Gray - Carolyn Huynh - Alana Hope Levinson - Jeanna Kadlec - Erin Kayata - Shir Kehila - Ilana Masad - Jessica Masterson - Tamara MC, PhD - Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodr穩iacute;guez - Julia Moser - Milo R. Muise - Zainab Omaki - Ren矇eacute;e Reizman - Emma Rohloff - Samantha Paige Rosen - Adriane Stoner - Courtney Tenz - Chrissy Tolley - Alisa Ungar-Sargon - Sophie Vershbow - Serena Zets
Here for All the Reasons
The Bachelor franchise has been around for over two decades and amassed an army of fans across its four shows. While contestants battle to prove they're here for the right reasons, Bachelor Nation is confronting their own question-Why are we here and why can't we stop watching?Devout franchise fans Ilana Masad and Stevie Seibert Desjarlais pose the big questions to Bachelor Nation: Who are we? What does the franchise mean to us? And seriously, why on earth can we not stop watching?For years, fans of the Bachelor franchise have laughed with and at contestants; cried along with their heartbreaks; tuned in again and again each season despite feeling betrayed by producer and contestant decisions alike; and celebrated, alone and together, the love (or loveless) lives of perfect strangers on our television screens. And we wonder, really, why? With reality TV broadly characterized as "trash TV," why are so many intelligent, funny, and critical people watching and discussing it?Here For All the Reasons seeks to answer this question, diving into the complex negotiations of gender, racial, and class politics that arise within the fandom. This anthology is a polyvocal exploration of Bachelor Nation for Bachelor Nation. So, will you accept our rose and join the chat?Contributors include: Iftin Abshir - AN - Joy Alicia - Samantha Allen - Stevie Seibert Desjarlais - Claire Fallon - Ness Ilene Garza - Sarah Gerard - Emma Gray - Carolyn Huynh - Alana Hope Levinson - Jeanna Kadlec - Erin Kayata - Shir Kehila - Ilana Masad - Jessica Masterson - Tamara MC, PhD - Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodr穩iacute;guez - Julia Moser - Milo R. Muise - Zainab Omaki - Ren矇eacute;e Reizman - Emma Rohloff - Samantha Paige Rosen - Adriane Stoner - Courtney Tenz - Chrissy Tolley - Alisa Ungar-Sargon - Sophie Vershbow - Serena Zets
Dramaturgy
In this book, Michael Evans discusses what he calls standard dramaturgy a set of seven principles upon which most plays, from ancient Greek dramas to modern works, are based.
Enveloping Worlds
Enveloping Worlds is a collection of essays that analyzes the phenomenon of immersive, participatory performance as it has developed in the US. As this collection demonstrates, immersive performance offers three-dimensional multisensory experiences, inviting audience members to be participants in the unfolding of the story, and challenging pre-existing ideas about the function of performance and entertainment. Enveloping Worlds questions audience agency and choice, the space and boundaries of performance, modes of immersion, empathy and engagement, and ethical considerations through fifteen essays. Case studies in the volume include the Choctaw Cultural Center in Oklahoma and Choctaw sovereignty; a Black artist's autoethnographic performance challenging White audiences' entitlement to full inclusion; Immersive Van Gogh experiences and their scenographers; telephone performance during the COVID-19 lockdowns; Diane Paulus's The Donkey Show; the Battle of Atlanta panorama; an antebellum-themed department store display from the 1920s; escape rooms at Disney Parks; remotely staged plays about aging and dementia; tiki bars; anachronistic costuming at Renaissance Festivals; the technologies that shape the boundaries of immersive worlds; and tabletop role-playing games. Taken together, these essays contribute a rich discussion of immersive performance across radically different contexts, offering analytical models and terminology with which to clarify and advance this emergent discourse.
Hemispheric Blackface
In Hemispheric Blackface, Danielle Roper examines blackface performance and its relationship to twentieth- and twenty-first-century nationalist fictions of mestizaje, creole nationalism, and other versions of postracialism in the Americas. Challenging both the dominance of the US minstrel tradition and the focus on the nation in blackface studies, Roper maps a hemispheric network of racial impersonation in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Jamaica, Cuba, and Miami. She analyzes blackface performance in the aftermath of the turn to multiculturalism in Latin America, the emergence of modern blackness in Jamaica, and the rise of Barack Obama in the United States, showing how blackface remains embedded in cultural entertainment. Contending that the Americas are linked by repeating nationalist fictions of postracialism, colorblindness, and myths of racial democracy, Roper assesses how acts of impersonation mediate the ongoing power of these narratives and enable people to comprehend advancements and reversals in racial equality. Rather than simply framing blackface as liberatory or oppressive, Roper traces its emergence from a shared history of slavery and the varied politics of racial enjoyment throughout the hemisphere.
Hemispheric Blackface
In Hemispheric Blackface, Danielle Roper examines blackface performance and its relationship to twentieth- and twenty-first-century nationalist fictions of mestizaje, creole nationalism, and other versions of postracialism in the Americas. Challenging both the dominance of the US minstrel tradition and the focus on the nation in blackface studies, Roper maps a hemispheric network of racial impersonation in Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Jamaica, Cuba, and Miami. She analyzes blackface performance in the aftermath of the turn to multiculturalism in Latin America, the emergence of modern blackness in Jamaica, and the rise of Barack Obama in the United States, showing how blackface remains embedded in cultural entertainment. Contending that the Americas are linked by repeating nationalist fictions of postracialism, colorblindness, and myths of racial democracy, Roper assesses how acts of impersonation mediate the ongoing power of these narratives and enable people to comprehend advancements and reversals in racial equality. Rather than simply framing blackface as liberatory or oppressive, Roper traces its emergence from a shared history of slavery and the varied politics of racial enjoyment throughout the hemisphere.
Undesirability and Her Sisters
How Black women's visual work functions in an era of new racial and gender meaning In the wake of contemporary art's post-Black turn and the mainstreaming of intersectionality, Undesirability and Her Sisters charts a new genealogy of Black women's art that exposes the unfinished project of racial and gender empowerment in the twenty-first century. Tiffany Barber argues that Black women's social positions at the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, and class are inherently queer, thus spurring unexpected aesthetic strategies that throw into high relief the ethical terrain of what it means to be Black and a woman now. Undesirability and Her Sisters collates what Barber terms "undesirable" representations of Black female bodies in recent American sculpture, collage, photography, and dance-based performance art by Kara Walker, Wangechi Mutu, Xaviera Simmons, and Narcissister. These works not only engage the visual senses but also incorporate olfactory, haptic, and sonic experiences that challenge traditional interpretations of Blackness and womanhood in art history, Black Studies, feminist and gender studies, dance and performance studies, and queer studies. Instead of transcendental beauty, wholeness, and individual and collective becoming, the perverse Black female figures profiled here eschew sublimation and synthesis as necessary responses to racial and gender subjugation in the past, present, and future. Through its unique, groundbreaking analysis, this book contributes to the ongoing discussions on the ethics of representation--the capacity to speak and act for oneself, to have significance and impact, and ultimately, to reject acknowledgment.
Adobe Premiere Pro Classroom in a Book 2025 Release
The fastest, easiest, most comprehensive way to learn Adobe Premiere Pro Adobe Premiere Pro Classroom in a Book 2025 Release contains 17 lessons that use real-world, project-based learning to cover the basics and beyond, providing countless tips and techniques to help you become more productive with the program. You can follow the book from start to finish or choose only those lessons that interest you. Learn to: Edit video in Adobe Premiere Pro Use automation and AI-based features to speed up the completion of professional creative projects Organize media, combine elements as a continuous sequence, edit video using text-based editing tools, add music and background audio, apply transition effects, create titles, add video and audio effects, and add filmic looks Take your projects further by sweetening and mixing sound, retiming music, compositing footage, automatically reframing visuals, adjusting color, using advanced editing techniques, managing projects, exporting, and much more Classroom in a Book(R), the best-selling series of hands-on software training workbooks, offers what no other book or training program does an official training series from Adobe, developed with the support of Adobe product experts.
Opening Doors
"In this honest, self reflective piece, John so beautifully and succinctly shares of his experience in theatre and the passion with which he pursues the opportunity to create art that is connective tissue for humanity and a reflection of the time we live in." - Cynthia Erivo, Tony, Grammy and Emmy Award-winning star of Wicked Director John Doyle is an unlikely revolutionary. Described by critics as 'the saviour of the Broadway musical', the 'amazing Mr Musicals' and 'the man who changed the face of the American musical', his name alone has become synonymous with a style of reinvention that has opened doors to what commercial musical theatre can be in the 21st century. In his first book Doyle reflects on the 50-year theatrical journey taken by a boy who never dreamt it could happen to him. Through simply working at his craft and trying to earn a living he gained a reputation for thinking outside of the box and is credited with helping create a new art form - that of actor-musician led musical theatre. From the Highlands of Scotland to prestigious regional theatres and Broadway, he has achieved multiple Tony Awards thanks to revolutionary productions of Sweeney Todd, Company and The Color Purple. This reflective yet practical book tracks a rich and celebrated journey in theatre from one of its most important and recognized contemporary artists. Through anecdotes, industry insight and practical advice, this book inspires students of theatre both young and old to look into themselves and discover what makes each of us unique. From working directly with esteemed artists such as Stephen Sondheim, John Weidman, John Kander and Terrence McNally to actors such as Patti LuPone, Chita Rivera, Judy Kuhn and Michael Cerveris, it also considers the challenges of programming and running a prestigious New York theatre at the height of Covid and against an ever shifting social background. This book is a record of a remarkable career in the theatre that demonstrates how art comes from within and our journeys make us who we are.
The In-Between
In a world of marquee names and big personalities, Jenny Anderson is a legend in her own right. As a celebrated Broadway photographer, she has worked with the most important performers in theatre and used the power of photography to tell the stories behind the stories: what happens backstage on a Broadway show. The In-Between: Intimate and Candid Moments of Broadway Stars has been years in the making. It is Anderson's personal ode to the theatre community, including more than 100 of her photographs taken behind the scenes of the most iconic shows of the last decade: Hamilton, Wicked, The Lion King, Kinky Boots, Sweeney Todd, Waitress, Hadestown, Phantom of the Opera, and many, many more. With a foreword from Tony Nominee and Oscar Winner Ariana DeBose and rare photography of performers like Patti LuPone, Hugh Jackman, Chita Rivera, Jonathan Groff, and Gavin Creel, this gorgeous book gives Broadway fans a privileged glance behind the curtains of the world's most prestigious theaters and the stars who grace their stages.
Nigel Kneale and Horror
Nigel Kneale's writing career spanned the second half of the twentieth century, arguably contributing to the shape of British television drama, as well as having lingering influence in science fiction and horror. This collection focuses on Kneale's horror writing, particularly in film and television. Taking a number of different academic perspectives, the chapters approach questions of medium, adaptation, genre, and style, emphasising the role that time plays in Kneale's horror, and how he connected to wider cultural concerns. The work covered includes more famous productions, such as the Quatermass serials, The Woman in Black and Nineteen Eighty-Four, as well as some that have received less attention, including the social horror of Kneale's film adaptations of Look Back in Anger and The Entertainer, 'lost' productions such as 'The Chopper' and Bam! Pow! Zap!, and unproduced work such as The Big, Big Giggle. Drawing on archival sources, including Kneale's own archives, alongside the productions themselves, the collection portrays Kneale as a writer deeply concerned with society and social change, with the potential and responsibility of the media, and not as a horror writer, but a writer deeply concerned with the horrific.
The 80th Birthday Trivia Challenge
Are you looking for fun 80th birthday gifts?Step right up, trivia enthusiasts and birthday celebrators alike, because The 80th Birthday Trivia Challenge is hitting the shelves with a bang!Get ready to test your knowledge and spark some serious nostalgia as you dive into this ultimate trivia extravaganza tailor-made for those who've seen it all and still want more!This is The 80th Birthday Trivia Challenge, a unique quiz book specially compiled with 80-year-old quizzers in mind, to celebrate turning the big 8-0. Divided into twelve themed rounds, the book contains dozens of questions covering everything from history to food and drink, and politics to sports and games. And each round in turn contains 15 questions, compiled not only to test the birthday boy or girl's knowledge, but to give them a fun trip down memory lane too-with questions on the music, movies, and TV shows of the last eight decades, as well as historical events, political landmarks, and famous people and figures from the past.Specially compiled to celebrate an 80th birthday;Covers all kinds of subjects, from history to sport and science to pop music;Each round gives the reader a trip down memory lane;Fun facts, illustrations, and jokes provide some additional fun between the quizzes;Full solutions and explanations included after each quiz.Inside this treasure trove of trivia delights, you'll find everything from pop culture gems of the past to historical milestones that shaped the world. Whether you're a seasoned trivia pro or just looking to flex your brain muscles, there's something for everyone in this celebration of eight decades of life.Gather your friends, family, and anyone else who's up for a challenge, because The 80th Birthday Trivia Challenge is about to take your birthday bash to the next level! Let the games begin.
Richard Foreman: No Title
Cryptic, lyrical and philosophical words from a paragon of experimental New York theater, juxtaposed with the haunting maquettes he created for his playsAn avant-garde comrade of Jonas Mekas, George Maciunas, Jack Smith and others, Richard Foreman (born 1937) was at the forefront of downtown New York's experimental theater scene of the 1960s. He wrote and directed more than 80 verbally and visually singular productions with his Ontological-Hysteric Theater company in a career that spanned 45 years. Foreman's visually arresting plays made heavy use of static tableaux, frantic choreography, projected text and Foreman himself sitting in front of the stage operating the lights and sound. While Foreman has published many of his scripts, No Title is a text unlike anything preceding it. Handwritten on a series of note cards, these aphoristic declarations and philosophical asides hover between being a stream-of-consciousness dialogue and a message sent from another world. Foreman's wonderfully elliptical words are counterposed with photographs of the mystifying diorama-like maquettes that he created while staging a number of his plays.
Theatre History Studies 2024, Vol 43
The official journal of the Mid-America Theatre ConferenceWhere past and performance converge--scholarship that moves the stage forward.Theatre History Studies (THS) is a peer-reviewed journal of theatre history and scholarship published annually since 1981 by the Mid-America Theatre Conference (MATC), a regional body devoted to theatre scholarship and practice. The conference encompasses the states of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. The purpose of the conference is to unite persons and organizations within the region with an interest in theatre and to promote the growth and development of all forms of theatre. THS is a member of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals and is included in the MLA Directory of Periodicals. THS is indexed in Humanities Index, Humanities Abstracts, Book Review Index, MLA International Bibliography, International Bibliography of Theatre, Arts & Humanities Citation Index, IBZ International Bibliography of Periodical Literature, and IBR International Bibliography of Book Reviews. Full texts of essays appear in the databases of both Humanities Abstracts Full Text as well as SIRS.Along with books reviews on the latest publications from established and emerging voices in the field, this issue of Theatre History Studies contains four sections with two introductions, nine essays, and eleven book reviews total. In the general section, three essays offer an array of insights, methods, and provocations. In the special section titled "Manifestos for Black Theatre, Then and Now," contributors capture their moment, their ways of working, and their experience as scholars, humans, and citizens in 2023. In part III, Ariel Nereson's Robert A. Schanke Research Award-winning paper from the 2023 MATC conference examines collective dance histories through the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company's Continuous Replay. Taken together, volume 43 captures how this journal serves theatre historians as scholars and laborers as they work to attend and tend to their field. CONTRIBUTORSDaniel E. Atkinson / Ashlyn K. Barnett / David Bisaha / Jocelyn L. Buckner / Julie Burrell / Jordana Cox / Jordan Ealey / Eric M. Glover / Adam Goldstein / Chao Guo / Amy B. Huang / Ariel Nereson / Zachary F. Price / Danielle Rosvally / Letica L. Ridley / Bradford G. Sadler / Richard Sautter / Michael Schweikardt / Margo Skornia / Dennis Sloan / Josh Stenberg / Paul Michael Thomson / Scott Venters / Isaiah Matthew Wooden
Theatrical Consciousness
Investigating late imperial Russian and early Soviet modernism's reinvention of the actor In this wide-ranging study, Alisa Ballard Lin argues that Russian theatrical theory and practice contributed to a broad pre- and postrevolutionary discourse about the mind, profoundly reshaping concepts of consciousness, perception, identity, and the constitution of the subject. Theatrical Consciousness: The Actor's Mind in Russian Modernism examines efforts in Russian theater--from around the turn of the century through the mid-1930s--to stimulate, train, imagine, and ultimately understand the actor's, as well as the spectator's, mind. Discussing key figures of the period, including Nikolai Evreinov, Konstantin Stanislavsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold, and Alexander Tairov, Lin identifies an underappreciated dimension of humanism within Russian modernism: a humanism that resisted the pressures of an increasingly technologized, industrialized, and politicized modernity that challenged the place of the human within it.
The Performance Apparatus
The publication of Louis Althusser's 1969 article "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses," made a deep impact on cultural studies and was instrumental in the formation of the apparatus theory in film studies. While contemporaneous with the emergence of performance art, this article and the questions of ideology and apparatus it raises barely registered in the field of performance studies, which was then in its formative phase. Jakovljevic takes this absence of Althusser's apparatus theory from performance studies as an indicator of the ideological position of the field at the moment of its emergence, arguing that, while theories of ideology played no major role in early performance studies, performance art itself offered a number of incisive critiques of ideology. Jakovljevic looks at permutations of the apparatus by investigating the work of theorists such as Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, and Judith Butler, and engagements with the apparatus by a number of artists, such as Amiri Baraka, Philippe Thomas, New York Art & Language, Terry Fox, Every house has a door, Clive Robertson, and Cassils. Jakovljevic suggests that the centrality of behavior in early performance theory is important for the understanding of contemporary society, which is dominated by surveillance capitalism. If ideology is lodged in behaviors, and if surveillance capitalism thrives on the monetization of the behavioral surplus, then performance theory can make significant contributions to our understanding of the moment in which we live and the future we are facing. The Performance Apparatus argues for the importance of continuing attention to the question of ideology in contemporary, neoliberal order.
Late Star Trek
How Star Trek's twenty-first-century reinventions illuminate the unique challenges and opportunities of franchise-style corporate storytellingLate Star Trek explores the beloved science fiction franchise's repeated attempts to reinvent itself after the end of its 1990s golden age. Beginning with the prequel series Enterprise, Adam Kotsko analyzes the wealth of content set within Star Trek's sprawling continuity--including authorized books, the three "Kelvin Timeline" films, and the streaming series Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Prodigy, and Strange New Worlds--along with fan discourse, to reflect on the perils and promise of the franchise as a unique form of storytelling. Significantly including the licensed novels and comic books that fill out the Star Trek universe for its fans, Kotsko brings the multiple productions of the early twenty-first century together as a unified whole rather than analyzing them in their current stratified view. He argues that the variety of styles and approaches in this tumultuous era of Star Trek history provides the perfect opportunity to reflect on the nature of the franchise storyworlds that now dominate popular culture. By taking the spin-offs and tie-ins seriously as creative attempts to tell a new story within an established universe, Late Star Trek highlights creative triumphs as well as the tendency for franchise faithfulness to get in the way of creating engaging characters and ideas. Arguing forcefully against the prevailing consensus that franchises are a sign of cultural decay, Kotsko contends that the Star Trek universe exemplifies an approach to storytelling that has been perennial across cultures. Instead, he finds that what limits creativity within franchises is not their reliance on the familiar but their status as modern myths, held not as common cultural heritage but rather owned as corporate intellectual property. Retail e-book files for this title are screen-reader friendly with images accompanied by short alt text and/or extended descriptions.
