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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 subtler
00:30than others with their references, but each surely left a huge smile on the face of any fan watching.
00:36So with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with Trek Culture and here are 10 times Star Trek appeared
00:42in other TV shows. Number 10, The Simpsons. It is no secret that The Simpsons creator
00:49Matt Groening and his writer's room are big fans of Star Trek, which has been continually referenced
00:55in more than 50 episodes of the animated sitcom. But the most memorable of them all was a more
01:01involved parody of the original series in 1992's season 4 episode Itchy and Scratchy the Movie.
01:08The episode begins with a mocking faux trailer for a new Star Trek film entitled Star Trek 12
01:14so very tired, with an over the hill Captain Kirk monologuing, Captain's log, Stargate 6051.
01:22Had trouble sleeping last night. My hiatal hernia is acting up. The ship is drafty and damp. I complain,
01:28but nobody listens. The trailer narrator assures audiences the film will be the crew's latest,
01:33greatest adventure, all while Sulu is seen sporting a cane and Scotty is too overweight to reach the control
01:39panel. This was quite clearly a lampooning of the later Trek films starring the original series cast,
01:46particularly 1991's Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country, where William Shatner and co. were clearly
01:54starting to show their age. Fittingly, The Undiscovered Country was the final film to feature
01:59all of the original Enterprise crew, likely enlarged due to sentiments like this being made by fans and
02:06critics alike. 9. Black Mirror
02:09Black Mirror may be best known for its blackly comedic social satire, though writer Charlie
02:15Brooker managed to roll this into a pin-sharp Trek parody in the Emmy-winning season 4 episode USS
02:22Callister. The episode follows video game programmer Robert Daly, who, in order to take out his frustrations
02:29against his unappreciative co-workers, creates a modded version of the game and inserts digital clones of
02:35his co-workers into it by surreptitiously obtaining their DNA. The modded game, modelled off Daly's
02:41favourite sci-fi TV show Space Fleet, bears a blinding resemblance to Trek's original series,
02:48right down to the costumes, hairstyles and design of the USS Callister. The scenes set within this modded
02:54game also adopt the stylistic tropes of classic Trek, the 4 by 3 aspect ratio, use of Dutch angles,
03:01and by the episode's end, a shift towards the sleeker, widescreen style of the JJ Abrams reboot
03:07series. Jesse Plemons even worked with a vocal coach to approximate the delivery style of William
03:12Shatner. In addition to winning four Emmys, this episode was widely acclaimed by critics and Trek
03:18fans alike, praising its clear admiration for the franchise and its impressive attempts to recreate
03:25its style and tone. Number eight, Family Guy. The Family Guy team are clearly also huge Trek fans,
03:33as evidenced by the dozens of episodes which have even a mere passing crack about the show. Though
03:39there are lots of good ones, such as the entire cast of The Next Generation playing themselves in season
03:45seven's Not All Dogs Go to Heaven. Easily the single most iconic Trek reference in Seth MacFarlane's
03:51irreverent animation has to be, its outrageous portrayal of William Shatner. Season one's I
03:57Never Met the Dead Man features a number of cutaways depicting a hilariously exaggerated version of
04:03Shatner's performance as Kirk, characterised here by idiosyncratic, nonsensical line delivery
04:09and excessive gesticulations. As luck would have it, Shatner then knocks on Peter's door after getting a
04:15flat tyre, and 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 movement
04:27and disjointed line delivery, as impersonated by Seth MacFarlane, just might be the single greatest
04:33pop culture reference in all of Family Guy. Number seven, Mad Men. Though most of the TV shows on this
04:41list are unsurprisingly animations and sitcoms, there is a little room for some solid gold prestige TV
04:48drama too. Mad Men, of all shows, managed to pull off one of the most memorable nods to Trek's original
04:56series in the season five episode Christmas Waltz. With Mad Men being a 60-set period show, this episode
05:03takes place 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 script
05:22that he wrote on spec for Star Trek, hoping that Harry would pass it to the right people and get
05:27it
05:27seen. The episode was called The Necron Complex and focused on a race of white people who were
05:32subservient 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
05:49an episode 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?
06:10Number 6. 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,
06:26but 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 it
06:39became a global religion in the 2200s. And in the wake of the bloody Star Trek Wars, the remaining
06:46tapes of the show and movies were jettisoned into space. And so, with the help of Leonard Nimoy's head,
06:53Ben DeFry and company set off on a mission to recover the tapes, bringing them into contact with
06:59almost every major cast member from the original series. The exceptions are James Doohan, whose agent
07:05flatly refused, and DeForest Kelly, who had passed away a few years prior and so only appeared in likeness
07:12form. With his loving array of homages to Trek, while also making light-hearted fun at the fans'
07:18obsessiveness, there is arguably no single better sustained parody of Trek than this. Certainly not
07:26in animated form, that is. Number 5, The Orville. Further proof of Seth MacFarlane's love for Star
07:34Trek can be found in his live-action parody homage series, The Orville. When it first launched,
07:39Star Trek fans were enormously skeptical, feeling that MacFarlane would just relentlessly be making fun
07:45of Star Trek without much affection. And though the first season was certainly more of a parody than
07:51a dew-eyed homage, season 2 received considerably more acclaim from critics and fans for its more
07:57earnest, sincere storytelling that veered away from outright parody. But the single most interesting
08:03thing about The Orville? Star Trek actually exists within its universe. Well, sort of. The first season's
08:11fifth episode shows the crew watching a clip of Seinfeld. And considering that there was a number
08:16of Star Trek jokes made in Seinfeld, we're left to conclude that Star Trek actually exists as a TV
08:22show within the world of The Orville. Genius. Number 4, South Park. This one's both subtle and really,
08:31really weird. To be fair, Star Trek has been referenced in more than 30 episodes of South Park,
08:38but there's one that stands tall above all the others for its hilariously deranged specificity.
08:45In the season 4 episode Something You Can Do With Your Finger, the boys plan to form a boy band.
08:50But when Randy finds out what his son Stan is up to, he throws a fit of rage, screaming,
08:55NO! NO! and headbutting the glass doors of the nearby living room cabinet, smashing the china plates
09:02inside. You could easily miss it, but the sound effects are actually sampled from Star Trek First
09:07contact, 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
09:25miss it. Number 3, The Big Bang Theory. Love or hate The Big Bang Theory, there is no denying the
09:32fact that we love its writer's harbour for Star Trek, given that the four central characters are all
09:37shown to be major fans of the franchise and are even fluent in Klingon. Trek is by far the most
09:43commonly referenced franchise in the series, and it has even enjoyed cameos from the likes of Will
09:49Wheaton, Brent Spiner, George Takei and William Shatner. But the single greatest invocation of Trek
09:55occurred in the season 6 episode The Bakersfield Expedition, where the guys dress up as the next generation
10:01characters Worf, Data Picard and a Borg drone respectively, to visit a comic book convention in
10:07Bakersfield. The boys end up stopping off at the iconic Vasquez Rocks, where numerous Trek episodes
10:13have been filmed, including Kirk's infamous encounter with Gorn. But their car and clothes are stolen in
10:19the process, and so they never end up making it to the convention, and are instead forced to walk to
10:25a nearby diner to call the cops. Incidentally, this was the first episode of the series to cross the
10:3120 million viewer mark, seemingly confirming how much everyone loved the Trek homage.
10:38Number 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 Sext Generation. Patrick Stewart lends his voice to portray
11:17Captain Picard, who exits the bridge to be relieved by the Enterprise's night crew, led by Captain
11:23Jake, who just so happens to be voiced by Chris Pine of all people. As it turns out, Captain Jake
11:29is a
11:29beer-swigging meth head without any real leadership capabilities, as becomes a major problem when the
11:35Borg attack. Jake tries to defuse the situation with a keg party, but the Borg simply tell him
11:40partying is futile. Yet when they attempt to assimilate him, his beer-filled blood sends the Borg into a
11:46beer-chugging frenzy. Back on the Enterprise, a seemingly angry Picard arrives to relieve Jake
11:52from his shift, only for Picard to then ask for a beer and start partying with the crew himself.
11:57The fact that Patrick Stewart agrees to play the part himself makes this a truly legendary parody.
12:03Number 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 a
12:36type 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,
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
13:07snapping point, and Boston Legal pretty much got there. You love to see it.
13:12And that concludes our list. If you can think of any other examples,
13:15then do let us know in the comments below, and while you're there, don't forget to like,
13:19and subscribe, and tap that notification bell. We are on the road to 200,000 followers here on
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13:28subscribe button. Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various
13:33social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with Trek Culture. I hope you
13:38have a wonderful day, and remember to boldly go where no one has gone before.
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