- 3 hours ago
Some shows were certainly subtler than others with their references, but each surely left a huge smile plastered across the face of any fan watching...
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00There is absolutely no denying that Star Trek is a pop culture juggernaut. It has been around
00:05for over 50 years and managed to imprint itself upon nearly every corner of sci-fi, not to
00:12mention having been lovingly homaged, referenced and parodies in all types of TV, movies, video
00:19games, books and music. But outside of its own canonical universe, Trek has been showing
00:24up on other TV shows for literally decades at this point. Some shows were certainly
00:29subtler than others with their references, but each surely left a huge smile on the face
00:35of any fan watching. So, with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with TrekCulture and here are
00:4010 times Star Trek appeared in other TV shows.
00:44Number 10, The Simpsons. It is no secret that The Simpsons creator Matt Groening and his writers
00:51room are big fans of Star Trek, which has been continually referenced in more than 50 episodes
00:57of the animated sitcom. But the most memorable of them all was a more involved parody of the
01:02original series in 1992's season 4 episode, Itchy and Scratchy the Movie. The episode begins
01:09with a mocking faux trailer for a new Star Trek film entitled Star Trek 12 So Very Tired, with
01:16an over the hill Captain Kirk monologuing, Captain's Log, Stargate 6051. Had trouble
01:22sleeping last night. My hiatal hernia is acting up. The ship is drafty and damp. I complain,
01:28but nobody listens.
01:29The trailer narrator assures audiences the film will be the crew's latest, greatest adventure,
01:35all while Sulu is seen sporting a cane and Scotty is too overweight to reach the control panel.
01:40This was quite clearly a lampooning of the later Trek film starring the original series,
01:46cast, particularly 1991's Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country, where William Shatner
01:52and co. were clearly starting to show their age. Fittingly, The Undiscovered Country was
01:57the final film to feature all of the original Enterprise crew, likely enlarged due to sentiments
02:04like this being made by fans and critics alike.
02:07Number 9. Black Mirror Black Mirror may be best known for its blackly comedic social satire,
02:14though writer Charlie Brooker managed to roll this into a pin-sharp Trek parody in the Emmy-winning
02:20season 4 episode USS Callister. The episode follows video game programmer Robert Daly, who in order to
02:27take out his frustrations against his unappreciative co-workers, creates a modded version of the game and
02:34inserts digital clones of his co-workers into it by surreptitiously obtaining their DNA. The modded game
02:40modelled off Daly's favourite sci-fi TV show Space Fleet bears a blinding resemblance to Trek's original
02:47series, right down to the costumes, hairstyles and design of the USS Callister. The scenes set within
02:53this modded game also adopt the stylistic tropes of classic Trek, the 4 by 3 aspect ratio, use of
03:00Dutch angles and by the episode's end, a shift towards the sleeker widescreen style of the JJ Abrams reboot series.
03:08Jessie Plemons even worked with the vocal coach to approximate the delivery style of William Shatner.
03:13In addition to winning four Emmys, this episode was widely acclaimed by critics and Trek fans alike,
03:19praising its clear admiration for the franchise and its impressive attempts to recreate its style and tone.
03:27Number 8 – Family Guy
03:29The Family Guy team are clearly also huge Trek fans, as evidenced by the dozens of episodes which
03:35have even a mere passing crack about the show. Though there are lots of good ones, such as the
03:41entire cast of The Next Generation playing themselves in Season 7's Not All Dogs Go to Heaven. Easily the
03:48single most iconic Trek reference in Seth MacFarlane's irreverent animation has to be its outrageous
03:54portrayal of William Shatner. Season 1's I Never Met The Dead Man features a number of cutaways depicting
04:01a hilariously exaggerated version of Shatner's performance as Kirk, characterised here by
04:06idiosyncratic, nonsensical line delivery and excessive gesticulations. As luck would have it,
04:12Shatner then knocks on Peter's door after getting a flat tyre, and the two go to an Octoberfest-style
04:18event together. At episode's end, however, Meg accidentally hits Shatner with the car and kills
04:24him. Shatner's physically implausible movements and disjointed line delivery, as impersonated by
04:30Seth MacFarlane, just might be the single greatest pop culture reference in all of Family Guy.
04:36Number 7 – Mad Men
04:39Though most of the TV shows on this list are unsurprisingly animations and sitcoms, there is
04:44a little room for some solid gold prestige TV drama too. Mad Men, of all shows, managed to pull off
04:52one of the most memorable nods to Trek's original series in the season 5 episode Christmas Waltz.
05:00With Mad Men being a 60-set period show, this episode takes place in Christmas 1966, while the
05:07original series was midway through its first season. One of the episode's subplots involves the re-emergence
05:13of ex-copywriter Paul Kinsey, who meets with former colleague Harry Crane at a coffee shop to catch up.
05:20Among other developments, Paul hands Harry a script that he wrote on spec for Star Trek,
05:24hoping that Harry would pass it to the right people and get it seen. The episode was called
05:29The Necron Complex and focused on a race of white people who were subservient to a race of colour.
05:34The script was, by Harry and Peggy's declaration, quite terrible, prompting Harry to try and gently
05:40let Paul know that he didn't have a future in screenwriting. There is some additional amusing
05:45context though. The Necron Complex bears a similar resemblance to an episode that did get made,
05:51Season 3's Let That Be Your Last Battlefield. As a result, though Harry did manage to persuade
05:58Paul not to sell his script, this suggests that he did indeed persevere and get his script bought,
06:03which was then heavily rewritten into Let That Be Your Last Battlefield. Who knows?
06:10Number 6. Futurama
06:13Back to Matt Groening now, who outs up the Star Trek references considerably in his glorious sci-fi
06:19comedy Futurama. All in all, there are close to 100 separate Star Trek references across Futurama,
06:26but arguably the piece de resistance is Season 4's episode where no fan has gone before.
06:33This widely acclaimed Nebula Award-nominated episode reveals that Star Trek is banned on Earth after
06:39it became a global religion in the 2200s. And in the wake of the bloody Star Trek Wars,
06:46the remaining tapes of the show and movies were jettisoned into space. And so, with the help of
06:52Leonard Nimoy's head, Bender, Fry and company set off on a mission to recover the tapes, bringing them into
06:58contact with almost every major cast member from the original series. The exceptions are James Doohan,
07:04whose agent flatly refused, and DeForest Kelly, who had passed away a few years prior and so only
07:10appeared in likeness form. With its loving array of homages to Trek, while also making light-hearted
07:17fun at the fans' obsessiveness, there is arguably no single better sustained parody of Trek than this.
07:25Certainly not in animated form, that is.
07:28Number 5. The Orville
07:31Further proof of Seth MacFarlane's love for Star Trek can be found in his live-action parody homage
07:36series The Orville. When it first launched, Star Trek fans were enormously sceptical, feeling that
07:42McFarlane would just relentlessly be making fun of Star Trek without much affection. And though the
07:48first season was certainly more of a parody than a due-eyed homage, season 2 received considerably more
07:54acclaim from critics and fans for its more earnest, sincere storytelling that veered away from outright
08:00parody. But the single most interesting thing about the Orville? Star Trek actually exists within its
08:07universe. Well, sort of. The first season's fifth episode shows the crew watching a clip of Seinfeld.
08:14And considering that there was a number of Star Trek jokes made in Seinfeld, we're left to conclude that
08:20Star Trek actually exists as a TV show within the world of the Orville. Genius.
08:26Number 4. South Park
08:28This one's both subtle and really, really weird. To be fair, Star Trek has been referenced in more than
08:3630 episodes of South Park. But there's one that stands tall above all the others for its hilariously
08:43deranged specificity. In the season 4 episode, Something You Can Do With Your Finger, the boys plan
08:49to form a boy band. But when Randy finds out what his son Stan is up to, he throws a fit of rage,
08:55screaming, NO! NO! and headbutting the glass doors of the nearby living room cabinet, smashing the china
09:01plates inside. You could easily miss it, but the sound effects are actually sampled from Star Trek
09:07First Contact, namely the scene where Picard smashes his own glass cabinet with a gun during an intense
09:13argument with Lily Sloan. It's such a bizarre way to reference such a memorable moment from the film,
09:19and yet the sound effects are just vague and brief enough that the more casual Trek fans might just miss it.
09:26Number 3. The Big Bang Theory
09:29Love or hate the Big Bang Theory, there is no denying the love it's writer's harbour for Star Trek,
09:35given that the four central characters are all shown to be major fans of the franchise and are even
09:40fluent in Klingon. Trek is by far the most commonly referenced franchise in the series, and it has even
09:47enjoyed cameos from the likes of Will Wheaton, Brent Spiner, George Takei and William Shatner. But the
09:53single greatest invocation of Trek occurred in the season 6 episode The Bakersfield Expedition,
09:59where the guys dress up as the next generation characters Worf, Data, Picard and a Borg drone
10:04respectively, to visit a comic book convention in Bakersfield. The boys end up stopping off at the
10:10iconic Vasquez Rocks, where numerous Trek episodes have been filmed, including Kirk's infamous encounter with
10:17Gorn. But their car and clothes are stolen in the process, and so they never end up making it to
10:22the convention, and are instead forced to walk to a nearby diner to call the cops. Incidentally,
10:28this was the first episode of the series to cross the 20 million viewer mark, seemingly confirming how
10:35much everyone loved the Trek homage. Number 2. Robot Chicken
10:40Believe it or not, Robot Chicken is still on the air today, and even celebrated its 200th episode
10:46last year, proving the unexpected viability of a stop-motion animated series made with toys,
10:53action figures and plaster scene. While it's fair to say that it has parodied Star Wars far more
10:58extensively, even releasing three Star Wars specials, Robot Chicken has delivered more than 15 skits
11:05making fun of Star Trek too. There are a ton of hilarious ones to choose from, though the easy
11:11winner is the Season 7 skit Star Trek The Sex Generation. Patrick Stewart lends his voice to
11:17portray Captain Picard, who exits the bridge to be relieved by the Enterprise's night crew,
11:22led by Captain Jake, who just so happens to be voiced by Chris Pine of all people. As it turns out,
11:28Captain Jake is a beer-swigging meth head without any real leadership capabilities,
11:32as becomes a major problem when the Borg attack. Jake tries to defuse the situation with a keg party,
11:38but the Borg simply tell him, partying is futile. Yet, when they attempt to assimilate him,
11:44his beer-filled blood sends the Borg into a beer-chugging frenzy. Back on the Enterprise,
11:49a seemingly angry Picard arrives to relieve Jake from his shift, only for Picard to then ask for a beer
11:54and start partying with the crew himself. The fact that Patrick Stewart agrees to play the part
12:00himself makes this a truly legendary parody. Number 1. Boston Legal
12:06William Shatner spent five seasons playing the legendary attorney Denny Crane on the legal comedy
12:13series Boston Legal. And it goes without saying that the writers simply couldn't resist making
12:18Star Trek references every now and then, but then simply went past mere wink-nudge nods and damn near
12:24implied that, somehow, Denny and Kirk were the same person. In the Season 2 episode Finding Nimmo,
12:31Denny and Alan take a fishing trip to British Columbia, where Alan reads a book that describes
12:36a type of sea lice as cling-ons, hilariously prompting Denny to pause and ask, did you say cling-ons?
12:42Later in Season 2, the episode The Cancer Man Can has Denny open up his new flip phone,
12:48which makes the exact same sound as the personal communicators on the original series.
12:53In other episodes, Denny talks about beaming himself to Boston every morning, refers to
12:57himself as the captain of the ship, and even flat out tells reporters that he was once the captain
13:02of his own spaceship. There comes a point where the Metanus is stretched beyond snapping point,
13:07and Boston Legal pretty much got there. You love to see it.
13:11And that concludes our list. If you can think of any other examples, then do let us know in the
13:16comments below. And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
13:21We are on the road to 200,000 followers here on YouTube, and with your help,
13:25we can meet that goal by the summer. Just don't forget to hit the subscribe button.
13:30Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social medias
13:34just by searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with Trek Culture. I hope you have a wonderful
13:39day and remember to boldly go where no one has gone before.
Be the first to comment