As a kid growing up in the “Us vs. Them” culture of the Cold War era, I was drawn to the televised exploits of Captain Kirk and the crew of the starship Enterprise warping across the universe on their 5-year mission “to seek out new life and new civilizations,” all the while upholding Starfleet’s “Prime Directive,” a philosophical concept familiar to Trekkies all over the galaxy—non-interference (no matter how well-intentioned) in the development of alien cultures. The original Star Trek series reflected many of the societal dilemmas of our own world as the 1970s loomed on the horizon—race/gender equality, ecology,