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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...
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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 Trek Culture and here are 10
00:40times Star Trek appeared in other TV shows. Number 10, The Simpsons. It is no secret that
00:48The Simpsons creator Matt Groening and his writer's room are big fans of Star Trek, which has been
00:54continually referenced in more than 50 episodes of the animated sitcom. But the most memorable
01:00of them all was a more involved parody of the original series in 1992's season 4 episode
01:06Itchy and Scratchy the Movie. The episode begins with a mocking faux trailer for a new Star Trek
01:12film entitled Star Trek 12 So Very Tired, with an over the hill Captain Kirk monologuing
01:18Captain's log, Stargate 6051. Had trouble sleeping last night. My hiatal hernia is acting up. The
01:25ship is drafty and damp. I complain, but nobody listens. The trailer narrator assures audiences
01:31the film will be the crew's latest, greatest adventure, all while Sulu is seen sporting a
01:36cane and Scotty is too overweight to reach the control panel. This was quite clearly a lampooning
01:42of the later Trek films starring the original series cast, particularly 1991's Star Trek
01:496 The Undiscovered Country, where William Shatner and co. were clearly starting to show their age.
01:55Fittingly, The Undiscovered Country was the final film to feature all of the original Enterprise crew,
02:01likely enlarged due to sentiments like this being made by fans and critics alike.
02:079. 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
02:33and inserts digital clones of his co-workers into it by surreptitiously obtaining their DNA.
02:39The modded game, modelled off Daly's favourite sci-fi TV show Space Fleet, bears a blinding
02:45resemblance to Trek's original series, right down to the costumes, hairstyles and design of the USS Callister.
02:53The scenes set within this modded game also adopt the stylistic tropes of classic Trek,
02:57the 4x3 aspect ratio, use of Dutch angles and, by the episode's end, a shift towards the sleeker
03:04widescreen style of the JJ Abrams reboot series. Jesse Plemons even worked with a vocal coach to
03:10approximate the delivery style of William Shatner. In addition to winning four Emmys,
03:15this episode was widely acclaimed by critics and Trek fans alike, praising its clear admiration
03:21for the franchise and its impressive attempts to recreate its style and tone.
03:268. Family Guy
03:29The Family Guy team are clearly also huge Trek fans, as evidenced by the dozens of episodes
03:35which have even a mere passing crack about the show. Though there are lots of good ones,
03:41such as the entire cast of The Next Generation playing themselves in season seven's Not All Dogs
03:46go to heaven. Easily the single most iconic Trek reference in Seth MacFarlane's irreverent animation
03:53has to be its outrageous portrayal of William Shatner. Season one's I Never Met the Dead Man
03:59features a number of cutaways depicting a hilariously exaggerated version of Shatner's performance as
04:05Kirk, characterised here by idiosyncratic, nonsensical line delivery and excessive gesticulations.
04:11As luck would have it, Shatner then knocks on Peter's door after getting a flat tyre,
04:16and the two go to an Oktoberfest-style event together. At episode's end however,
04:21Meg accidentally hits Shatner with the car and kills him. Shatner's physically implausible
04:26movements and disjointed line delivery, as impersonated by Seth MacFarlane, just might be
04:32the single greatest pop culture reference in all of Family Guy.
04:377. Mad Men
04:39Though most of the TV shows on this list are unsurprisingly animations and sitcoms,
04:44there is a little room for some solid gold prestige TV drama too.
04:49Mad Men of all shows managed to pull off one of the most memorable nods to Trek's original series
04:57in the season 5 episode Christmas Waltz. With Mad Men being a 60-set period show, this episode takes
05:04place in Christmas 1966, while the original series was midway through its first season. One of the
05:11episodes' subplots involves the re-emergence of ex-copywriter Paul Kinsey, who meets with former
05:16colleague Harry Crane at a coffee shop to catch up. Among other developments, Paul hands Harry a
05:22script that he wrote on spec for Star Trek, hoping that Harry would pass it to the right people and
05:27get it seen. The episode was called The Necron Complex and focused on a race of white people who
05:32were subservient to a race of colour. The script was, by Harry and Peggy's declaration, quite terrible,
05:38prompting Harry to try and gently let Paul know that he didn't have a future in screenwriting.
05:43There is some additional amusing context though. The Necron Complex bears a similar resemblance to an
05:49episode that did get made, Season 3's Let That Be Your Last Battlefield. As a result, though Harry did
05:57manage to persuade Paul not to sell his script, this suggests that he did indeed persevere and get his
06:02script bought, which was then heavily rewritten into Let That Be Your Last Battlefield. Who knows?
06:106. Futurama
06:13Back to Matt Groening now, who aunts 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,
06:27but 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
06:39after it 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, Ben DeFry and company set off on a mission to recover the tapes,
06:57bringing them into contact with almost every major cast member from the original series.
07:02The exceptions are James Doohan, whose agent flatly refused, and DeForest Kelly,
07:07who had passed away a few years prior and so only appeared in likeness form.
07:12With his loving array of homages to Trek, while also making lighthearted fun at the fans'
07:18obsessiveness, 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
07:37series The Orville. When it first launched, Star Trek fans were enormously sceptical, feeling that
07:42MacFarlane 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 dew-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
08:20that Star 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 its 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. 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
12:24him. In the season 2 episode Finding Nimmo, Denny and Alan take a fishing trip to British Columbia,
12:34where Alan reads a book that describes a type of sea lice as cling-ons, hilariously prompting Denny to
12:40pause and ask, did you say cling-ons? Later in season 2, the episode The Cancer Man Can,
12:45has Denny open up his new flip phone, which makes the exact same sound as the personal communicators on
12:51the original series. In other episodes, Denny talks about beaming himself to Boston every morning,
12:57refers to himself as the captain of the ship, and even flat-out tells reporters that he was once the
13:02captain of his own spaceship. There comes a point where the Metanus is stretched beyond snapping point,
13:08and Boston Legal pretty much got there. You love to see it. And that concludes our list. If you can
13:14think of any other examples, then do let us know in the comments below. And while you're there,
13:18don't forget to like, and subscribe, and tap that notification bell. We are on the road to 200,000
13:23followers here on YouTube, and with your help, we can meet that goal by the summer. Just don't
13:27forget to hit the subscribe button. Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found
13:32across various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with Trek Culture,
13:38I hope you have a wonderful day, and remember to boldly go where no one has gone before.
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