Star Trek and the Tragic Hybrid: Children of Two Worlds from Spock to Soji

Spock, Data, Worf, B'Elanna Torres, Seven of Nine, Odo, Michael Burnham, Soji. Many of Star Trek's most beloved characters are children of two worlds, the products of competing biologies, materials, and cultures. Their popularity is unsurprising: authors mine conflicted identities for dramatic effect, and viewers see their own struggles reflected in the challenges of individuals who never seem to quite fit in.

This book demonstrates that the tradition is not new. Spock and his fellow hybrid...