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Notable and Notorious Star Trek Parodies
Imitation, they say, is the sincerest form of flattery. By the same token, parody may be the truest measure of cultural significance.
The extent to which a film, television series, or other work of art has been absorbed into the popular consciousness can be gauged by the frequency with which it is lampooned. After all, you won’t win many laughs poking fun at a show no one has seen. By this yardstick, the multitude of Star Trek spoofs can be considered a sort of cockeyed testimonial. Over the years, cartoonists, filmmakers, animators, stand-up comics, disc jockeys, and even pornographers have mocked Trek, with skits, strips, and movies ranging from witty and insightful to crass and puerile. An exhaustive accounting of these parodies would fill this book many times over, but the following notable (and notorious) spoofs serve as a representative sampling.
Mad Magazine (December 1967 and October 1976)
One of the earliest Star Trek parodies arrived in the pages of Mad magazine’s December 1967 issue. The five-page spoof “Star Blecch” by artist Mort Drucker and writer Dick De Bartolo follows Captain Kook and Mr. Spook of the Starship Booby-Prize as they beam down to planet Rama IV to rescue Fob, sole survivor of a planet devastated by disease and pollution. Kook and Spook bring him aboard the Booby-Prize, until Dr. BeCoy determines that Fob is contagious; then Kirk (er, Kook) tries to shove the Raman out the nearest airlock. “Star Blecch” includes caricatures of Nichelle Nichols and James Doohan as well as those of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley. It’s satire of the typically sophomoric Mad variety, but it has its moments—working in a joke about the apparent lack of restrooms on the starship Enterprise and some not-so-subtle commentary on L.A. smog and other environmental issues.
This was one of the few Star Trek spoofs created while the show was still in production. Publicity photos show Nimoy and Shatner yukking it up as they read “Star Blecch” during location shooting for “A Private Little War.” While the Mad parody was on newsstands, Nimoy appeared on The Carol Burnett Show in a skit titled “Mrs. Invisible Man.” Burnett played a confused young mother in search of parenting advice who mistakenly calls in Mr. Spock (Nimoy, in full makeup and costume) rather than famed pediatrician Dr. Spock.
Tellingly, however, the real flood of Star Trek parodies began in the 1970s, after the show became a syndication sensation. The rising tide of Trek spoofs included “Keep on Trekkin’—the Mad Star Trek Musical,” from Mad’s October 1976 issue. Its cover featured a painting of Kirk and Spock dancing with Alfred E. Neuman. The seven-page parody, written largely in verse (to the tune of popular songs and show tunes) lampoons the lack of post-Trek success among the show’s cast (“None of the engines are workin’ and neither am I,” the Doohan caricature croons to the tune of “Send in the Clowns”). It also toys with various Star Trek clichés, including the short life expectancy of red-shirted extras. “Keep on Trekkin’” not only includes caricatures of the show’s entire regular cast, including Majel Barrett and George Takei, who were omitted in “Star Blecch,” but gives every character at least one solo “vocal.” By and large, it’s a very clever and well-observed piece, although it misses the mark at the end, in which the cast refuses to reunite and return to TV because they are making easy money from the sale of Star Trek toys and other merchandise. Actually, cast members saw very little of this revenue; Nimoy sued Paramount over this issue.
Saturday Night Live , 1976 and 1986
Saturday Night Live, which has targeted Star Trek numerous times over the years, scored a bull’s-eye with “The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise” on May 29, 1976 (toward the end of SNL’s first season). The frequently copied idea behind the sketch was that Star Trek’s stars have lost touch with reality. Completely consumed by their characters and the twenty-third-century sets and props, they have forgotten it’s all just a TV show. John Belushi stars as Captain Kirk, with Chevy Chase as Mr. Spock and Dan Aykroyd as Dr. McCoy. As the skit begins, the Enterprise is pursued through space by a 1968 Chrysler Imperial. Out of the car steps an NBC executive played by host Elliott Gould, arriving to break the news that the show has been cancelled due to low Nielsen ratings. Spock attempts to stun the executive, but since his phaser is just a prop, nothing happens. “Most peculiar, captain,” says a puzzled-looking Chase. “I can only assume that they possess some sort of weapons deactivator.” Gould nonchalantly collects the phaser and then plucks the ears off “Nimoy’s” head. As workmen dismantle the bridge set around him, Belushi delivers a final Captain’s Log entry: “We have tried to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before, and except for one television network, we have found intelligence everywhere in the galaxy.”
When Shatner himself hosted SNL ten years later, the show inevitably included another Trek parody, titled “Star Trek V: The Restaurant Enterprise.” In this spoof, the Enterprise is purchased by Marriott and turned into a hotel. Shatner, naturally, starred as Captain Kirk, with Kevin Nealon as Spock and Phil Hartman as Dr. McCoy. Dana Carvey appeared as Khan, who attempts to gain revenge by bringing a health inspector to the restaurant. Kirk defuses the threat by bribing the inspector. The skit’s funniest moment belongs to Hartman. Told that a customer needs medical attention, he replies, “Dammit, Jim, I’m a doctor, not a—oh, sure.”
“The Restaurant Enterprise,” while amusing, was eclipsed by the episode’s other Star Trek-themed sketch, which lampooned Trek conventions. Shatner appeared as himself, railing at “Trekkies” played by Nealon and Carvey, to “get a life!” When Shatner reminds them that Star Trek was only a TV show, Carvey asks, “Are you saying we should pay more attention to the movies?” Many Trekkers didn’t appreciate being the subject of such lacerating satire and believed the sketch reflected Shatner’s real feelings toward Star Trek fans. The actor insisted it was only a skit, but the fallout inspired Shatner to write his 1999 book Get a Life! about his sometimes strained relationship with fandom and experiences at Star Trek conventions.
Trek or Treat , 1977
Eleanor Ehrhardt and Terry Flanagan’s 1977 paperback Trek or Treat featured Star Trek photos with satirical captions.
Authors Terry Flannagan and Eleanor Ehrhardt published this slim paperback book, which provided humorous captions to freeze-frames from various Star Trek episodes. The cover of the book illustrates the formula. It’s a shot of Spock (wearing the IDIC medallion from “Is There in Truth No Beauty?”) flashing the Vulcan hand sign. But instead of “Live long and prosper,” he’s saying, “Same to you, fella!” Most of the humor in Trek or Treat functions on this level, and many of the jokes are badly dated (with references to The Waltons, citizens band radios, and other 1970s fads). But its publication by a major publisher (Ballantine Books) speaks to the era’s insatiable appetite for all things Trek.
The Muppet Show , 1977–81
Three episodes into its second season, producer-puppeteer Jim Henson’s The Muppet Show premiered a new recurring sketch: “Pigs in Space,” which spoofed science fiction in general but Star Trek and Flash Gordon most directly. Set on the bridge of the starship Swinetrek, “Pigs in Space” starred the preening Captain Link Hogthrob, insubordinate First Mate Miss Piggy, and the bumbling Dr. Julius Strangepork. It quickly became one of the program’s most popular recurring bits. In all, The Muppet Show aired thirty-two “Pigs in Space” adventures over the course of its final three seasons, although some of those installments parodied movies and programs other than Star Trek. (In 1980, for instance, an extended Star Wars-themed “Pigs in Space” consumed nearly half an episode. It featured host Mark Hamill, along with R2-D2, C-3PO, and Chewbacca.) The recurring skit grew so popular that “Pigs in Space” posters, T-shirts, lunch boxes, storybooks, and even an Atari video game, among other products, were issued. Henson’s short-lived prime-time series Muppets Tonight (which ran on ABC in 1997) revived the sketch as “Pigs in Space: Deep Dish Nine (The Next Generation of Pigs in Space),” which (as the title suggests) parodied Star Trek’s sequel series. Leonard Nimoy made a cameo appearance in this skit.
In Living Color , 1990 and 1992
Saturday Night Live was hardly the only sketch comedy series to fire a shot at Star Trek; in fact, virtually every such program has taken a whack at it. Keenan and Damon Wayans’s In Living Color took their turn in 1990 with “The Wrath of Farrakhan,” which simultaneously satirized both Star Trek and controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. The skit featured Jim Carrey (doing an extremely exaggerated William Shatner impression) as Captain Kirk and Damon Wayans as Farrakhan. Farrakhan boards the Enterprise to free the “enslaved” minorities aboard the vessel, including Sulu and Spock but beginning with Lieutenant Uhura. When Kirk asks Uhura to contact Starfleet Command, Farrakhan interrupts: “My Nubian princess, how long have you placed his calls? I watch this show every week, and all I see is the back of your nappy wig.”
Two years later the program served up a second spoof, “Star Trek VII: The Really Last Voyage,” which poked fun at the aging of the classic Trek cast. “We just left the Romulan galaxy and we are approaching … senility,” reports Carrey (again playing Kirk) in an opening Captain’s Log entry. He moves around the bridge with the assistance of a walker, and applies a defibrillator to Sulu when the geriatric lieutenant collapses at the helm. In a knowing nod to “slash” fan fiction, Spock (David Allan Grier) reminds Kirk that as a Vulcan he must mate every seven years. “I only have two days left and you’re looking pretty good to me,” Grier says. At the conclusion of the skit, a nurse and two orderlies arrive to fetch the crew back to the Sunnyside Retirement Colony.
MADtv , 1997
Not to be outdone, in 1997 MADtv aired “The Kirk and Spock Variety Hour,” which parodied both Star Trek and 1970s variety shows. Kirk (Will Sasso) and Spock (Pat Kilbane) cohost a Laugh-In-like comedy-variety program featuring (intentionally) lame comedy routines and awkward musical numbers. Special guests include McCoy (guest star Tim Conlon) , Uhura (Debra Wilson), Sammy Davis, Jr. (Phil LaMarr), Phyllis Diller (herself), the June Taylor Tribbles (dancers in giant, puffy tribble costumes), and a go-go dancing Orion slave girl. Sasso attempts to mock Shatner’s notorious performances of “Rocket Man” and “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” but fails to recapture their astounding weirdness and hilarity. Midway through the sketch, Diller opines, “Beam me up, Scotty. This show sucks!” In a later episode, Sasso and Kilbane reprised their roles as Kirk and Spock in “Estrella Viaje!” a Trek spoof performed entirely in Spanish and based on Hispanic stereotypes. During MADtv’s long run (from 1995 to 2009), the program also lampooned The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, with mixed results.
Galaxy Quest , 1999
Director Dean Parisot’s delightful Galaxy Quest (1999) parodied both Star Trek and its fans without condescending to either.
The washed-up stars of Galaxy Quest, a Trek-ish cancelled TV series with a cultish fan base, are abducted by the Thermians, aliens from a distant planet who want the Questers to help them defeat an interplanetary warlord. The Thermians have modeled their entire culture after Galaxy Quest, developing all the sci-fi gadgetry used on the show (which they don’t realize was a work of fiction). The Galaxy Quest stars—played by Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Sam Rockwell, and Tony Shalhoub—gamely offer to help, but don’t know how to work the gizmos from their own program. As a result, they’re forced to rely on their obsessive fans, who have memorized every minute detail of the “imaginary” technology.
Clever and keenly observed, with a rare combination of sweetness and directness, Galaxy Quest was a surprise hit, earning more than $90 million worldwide and scoring mostly glowing reviews. It was enthusiastically embraced by Star Trek fans and actors including William Shatner and George Takei, both of whom went on record as Galaxy Quest devotees. “I was rolling in the aisles,” Takei told a Sci Fi Channel interviewer. “And Tim Allen had that Shatner-esque swagger down pat.”
Interestingly, the producers of Deep Space Nine considered a story idea very similar to the plot of Galaxy Quest. The idea was to send Captain Sisko to planet Sigma Iota II, last seen in the classic yarn “A Piece of the Action,” in which the highly imitative Iotians have built up an entire culture based on Chicago gangs of the 1920s. Sisko would have discovered that, following their encounter with Kirk, Spock and McCoy, the Iotians have now developed a culture imitating Starfleet of the twenty-third century. The concept was intended as a playful jibe at fandom, but given the reaction to Shatner’s “Get a Life!” SNL sketch, the idea was abandoned. Instead, producers developed “Trials and Tribble-ations,” which transported Sisko and his crew back into the classic episode “The Trouble with Tribbles.”
Futurama , 2002
Futurama, an animated comedy sci-fi series created by The Simpsons’ Matt Groening, was often replete with inside jokes derived from Star Trek. In 2002, however, Futurama created what may be the ultimate spoof/tribute with “Where No Fan Has Gone Before.” The episode reunited Star Trek’s entire surviving cast (except for James Doohan, who declined to participate) and also featured a cameo by Jonathan Frakes of The Next Generation. Shatner, Nimoy, Nichols, George Takei, and Walter Koenig played themselves—or, rather, they played their living disembodied heads, sustained in glass jars.
The series’ protagonist was Philip J. Fry (Billy West), a twentieth-century pizza delivery boy accidentally placed in a cryogenic deep-freeze and thawed out in the year 3000. In “Where No Fan Has Gone Before,” Fry discovers that Star Trek has been banned for 800 years after the show’s ardent fan following grew into a full-blown religious cult. A flashback shows the Church of Star Trek, where a priest reads from “scripture”: “And Scotty beamed them to the Klingon ship, where they would be no tribble at all.” To which the congregation chants, “All power to the engines!” To quell the growing power of the cult, Fry learns, Star Trek was banned and the last surviving copies of the seventy-nine original episodes and six movies “along with that blooper reel where the door doesn’t close all the way,” were shipped to the forbidden planet Omega III. To save Star Trek, Fry convinces his friends to travel to Omega III, which they discover houses a cloudlike noncorporeal alien intelligence named Melllvar (yes, with three “l’s”). Melllvar gathers the preserved heads of the show’s cast and, after creating new bodies for them, forces them to hold a Star Trek convention that will last until the end of time. (At the convention, Shatner talk-sings a version of rapper Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady.”) Fry vows to rescue the Trek cast from Omega III but is forced into an “Arena”-like hand-to-hand battle with the actors.
All this plays just as fast and furious (and funny) as it reads. More so, in fact. “Where No Fan Has Gone Before” was written by Trek buff David A. Goodman, who labored meticulously to ensure that its nonstop stream of Star Trek references (to dozens of episodes) were all accurate. The episode also makes clever use of original Trek musical cues and sound effects. It not only lampoons the show itself, but the excesses of fandom and the strained relationships between some of the show’s former cast members. (At one point Shatner asks, “Wasn’t there an episode where I threw my shoe at the enemy?” To which Nimoy replies, “You mean Doohan?”) While the satire remains barbed, “Where No Fan Has Gone Before” also includes a moment of affectionate tribute to Star Trek as well. While trying to explain the appeal of the show, Fry says that Trek “taught me so much. Like how you should accept people, whether they be black, white, Klingon or even female. But most importantly, when I didn’t have any friends, it made me feel like maybe I did.”
Because of that moment, for its persnickety accuracy, and because it’s roll-on-the-floor, gasping-for-breath funny, “Where No Fan Has Gone Before” quickly became one of the Star Trek parodies most widely beloved by Star Trek fans. The producers of Star Trek: Enterprise were so impressed that they invited Goodman to write for their series. He wound up penning four episodes.
More Parodies (of Dubious Quality and Questionable Taste)
William Shatner seems amused by Mad Magazine’s parody “Star Blecch,” Leonard Nimoy less so. This shot was taken during location shooting for “A Private Little War.”
On the other end of the spectrum, Star Trek has been the butt of many dunderheaded, lowbrow spoofs, too. For instance, Airplane II: The Sequel (1982) wasn’t so much a follow-up to the original Airplane! (1980) as a wide-ranging lampoon of numerous sci-fi movies and TV shows, including Star Trek. It included many (mostly lame) Trek-themed jokes and even featured William Shatner as Commander Buck Murdock of the Starship Mayflower. Writer-producer Mel Brooks’s scattershot Spaceballs (1987) took a similar approach, and generated almost as few laughs. But for truly inept satire, Trek fans should seek out Turist Ömer Uzay Yolunda (1973), a Turkish film that must be You Tubed to be believed. The film, whose title translates as “Ömer the Tourist in Star Trek,” was part of a series of comedies starring unfunny funnyman Sadri Alisik as the bumbling traveler Omer, who continually finds himself in one scrape after another. In this adventure he’s beamed aboard a cut-rate copy of the Enterprise, led by a remarkably swishy Captain Kirk, and becomes embroiled in a scenario similar to “The Man Trap.” The movie’s title theme and spaceship footage are lifted directly from actual Star Trek episodes, which only makes everything else seem even cheesier.
Turist Ömer Uzay Yolunda would be the nadir of Star Trek spoofery, were it not for Sex Trek . From 1991 to 1999, Moonlight Entertainment issued a series of seven (!) pornographic parodies, and Platinum Blue Productions revived the Sex Trek franchise with two more entries in 2006. These pictures lampooned specific original series episodes, primarily those with romantic or sexual themes, such as “Charlie X,” “Amok Time,” “Mudd’s Women,” “The Cage,” and “Turnabout Intruder.” Lest Next Gen fans feel left out, Moonlight also issued Sex Trek: The Next Penetration, along with four sequels set in Trek’s twenty-fourth century milieu. Hustler Entertainment released the appropriately titled This Ain’t Star Trek XXX in 2009, in the wake of director J. J. Abrams’s blockbuster Star Trek reboot.
And, finally, we have (whether we want it or not) “Star Trek: The Lost Episode,” a notorious, raunchy audio collage created anonymously in the late 1980s. After airing on the Dr. Demento radio show in the early 1990s, it was replayed many times by “shock jock” comedians on stations across the country. “The Lost Episode” is a patchwork of sound bites, music, and sound effects from several classic Trek episodes reassembled to form a new narrative in which Kirk and Spock engage in a graphic sexual encounter. When two disc jockeys played this bit for James Doohan during a visit to Norfolk, Virginia, rock radio station WNOR, Doohan became enraged and threatened to leave unless they stopped the tape immediately.