Star Trek Past and Future: Neuroqueering the Final Frontier

Abstract In this essay, I argue that the more recent versions of the Star Trek television series ( Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , and Star Trek: Picard ), look forward to a future that boldly goes beyond the timelines of the legacy series ( Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager ) while imagining a past that prefigures the events of Star Trek: The Original Series . Using time travel, time loops, and mirror universes the cosmopolitanism of the legacy series is neuroqueered through both coding and decoding neurodivergence, offering viewers a glimpse into a neuroqueer futurity that is both future and past. In the process, the recent series present us with the realization that neurodiversity has always been central to a cosmos defined by infinite diversity in infinite combinations.