There are 116 pieces of officially sanctioned moving image entertainment featuring the main characters of the original 1966 Star Trek TV series. I know that thanks to ATB Publishing’s latest entry in its Outside In series: Outside In Boldly Goes.

A look at the cover of Outside In Boldly Goes

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The general idea of the books, previously limited to the Doctor Who universe, is to gather a wide range of writers to each “review” (more on that in a moment) one TV episode or film from a given property. The viewpoints come from diehard fans to near newcomers and everything in between. Boldly Goes, as the name would suggest, applies that formula to “Kirk-era” Trek, covering all 79 TOS episodes, the 22-episode run of Star Trek: The Animated Series, the four TNG episodes featuring TOS characters, one episode each from DS9 and Voyager and all nine films starring the Kirk-era characters. (It’s not limited to stories involving the original cast; the Abramsverse Trek movies make the list as well.) There's even a bonus chapter devoted to the ultimate Trek homage film, Galaxy Quest.While many of the writers are hardcore Trekkies (and often describe their fandom at considerable length) some are more casual fans. Others still describe themselves as more or less uninvested in the property. Pros with serious Trek cred like Robert Greenberger, Paul Simpson and the book’s publisher Arnold T. Blumberg join the founder of the official Star Trek Fan Club Dan Madsen, moonlighting scientists, historians, avowed non-fans, unlikely amateurs and more. The mixture provides variety but unevenness as well. Most chapters are highly intelligent, interesting and/or funny, but some are duds with a fair amount of jokes that fall flat, grammatical awkwardness and the odd typo here and there. Expanding the range of authors to include newbies and non-fans gives a wider spread of perspectives but their chapters aren’t of much value for longtime fans who may not find a neophyte’s opinions all that insightful.Now about those “reviews”: there really aren’t that many traditional reviews assessing a given episode or film’s artistic merit. More common are thought-provoking philosophical pieces like Ivy Glennon’s examination of feminism in "Wink of an Eye." Indeed the greatest takeaway from many of these pieces is the hard but well-known-among-fans truth that, while light years ahead of its time on equality and social justice, the original Trek was nevertheless deeply flawed in its treatment of gender roles and stereotypes, often to the point of outright misogyny. This isn’t limited to Kirk’s well known penchant for charming alien ladies, it pervades both the casting and writing of women characters in the original series, most of whom lack any real power. No matter how formidable they appear at first, these women always seem to find themselves in need of a good man to take charge in the end.But this is a book written for fans, mostly by devout fans. The writers who cast the objective light of modern sensibilities on the difficult areas do so with a sense of respect for the import of the original series and its progeny, and its optimism for a future free from prejudice, poverty, disease and war.117 chapters is a lot of ground to cover so to keep it fresh writers were clearly encouraged to get creative. The result is a goodly number of chapters that veer off into the humorous or even the ridiculous. There’s an excellent obituary for one of the many redshirts who perish in the original series, complete with a local newspaper’s inaccurate rendering of Kirk’s name, a logical proof showing the object of Spock’s affection in Amok Time was a crappy Vulcan, Star Trek mad libs, a recipe book for giant blob clouds, a collectible trading card game, an “awful seductress-plot drinking game”, and countless other unique takes on the eps and films. Unsurprisingly many of the more ludicrous entries come in the sections devoted to The Animated Series because, well, one can only say “it’s not very good” in so many ways.Outside In Boldly Goes won’t reveal any earth shaking commentary for diehards but those superfans may nonetheless find something to love, whether it's in the passionate essays about feminism and character motivation, whimsical deep dives like what might have happened if "Assignment: Earth" had managed to successfully spinoff a series about Gary Seven, or the goofy lampooning of some of the low points in Trek history. For the rest of us -- full disclosure, I reside somewhere between dilettante and casual aficionado, having as yet failed to see a number of DS9, Voyager and Enterprise episodes -- it’s a worthwhile read because, in addition to some laugh out loud humor and thoughtful prose, the mélange of opinions means that every so often a particular writer’s voice can sound surprisingly like the reader's own point of view at one milestone or another on the uniquely personal path of fanhood.Outside In Boldly Goes is available now from ATB Publishing