Tripney discusses the challenges and paradoxes of exploring utopian themes on stage. While numerous fictional Utopias exist in literature, film, television, and comic books, there aren't that many notable theatrical Utopias. On the whole dramatists don't go in for utopias. Dystopias, yes. It turns out it's impossible to have a conversation about utopianism in fiction without sooner or later arriving at Star Trek. The universe created by Gene Roddenbery in the 1960s has spawned numerous series, films, and novels. As well as being products of their time, Utopian fiction also necessarily reflects the preoccupations, struggles, and divisions of the country and culture in which they were produced. Even if a piece of theater is Utopian in its ideas, this will be undermined if those making it are struggling or hemmed in by a system that undervalues or is actively damaging to them.