The cast of the original “Star Trek” television series is the classic example of science fiction’s myopia. A mostly male, mostly white crew on an interstellar exploration vessel seems to assume that American society as it was in the 1960s could go on forever. But as an insight into the time that produced it, the vision was pretty sharp — and the same is true of the Queens Museum’s sprawling, consistently mind-bending “Mundos Alternos: Art and Science Fiction in the Americas.”

A somewhat remixed version of an exhibition originally presented as part of the transcultural initiative Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, the show is an impressively broad sample of styles and sensibilities from every corner of the United States and Latin America. And its focus on science fiction amplifies and exemplifies the way art can illuminate reality by imagining the unreal.

Space travel is especially incisive for Adál ( Adal Maldonado), one of the standout artists. In his black and white video “La Coconauts Interrogation,” the artist’s native Puerto Rico has literally sunk and disappeared under the weight of the mainland’s domination. It’s a heavy-handed metaphor, but that’s what makes it so effective: On the one hand, it’s an expressionist cri de coeur about what really has happened, and continues to happen, to the island under United States control . On the other hand, because it’s obviously a fantasy calling for suspension of disbelief, its subtler points catch you unaware and cut more deeply. An actor playing a survivor of the disappearance stares into the camera, his thoughts subtitled but his mouth unmoving: In the United States, his voice just doesn’t register.