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| | Beam Us Back, Scotty! |
 | | NASA astronauts have asked for tours of Star Trek ships because to them, as to most of us, Star Trek is spaceflight. |
 | | Star Trek's audience has always been far bigger than the hard-core fan base widely mocked for wearing Vulcan ears, or more precisely, for the intensity of their commitment to a shared communal fantasy. |
 | | All the previous Star Trek series, over three decades, have been about becoming progressively more catholic, more aware of the astonishing diversity of the galaxy, the provincial limitedness of one's own assumptions and one's own potential to harm people who are different. |
| www.thenation.com /doc/20020325/minkowitz (962 words) |
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