The continuing popularity and deeply loyal fandom of the Star Trek universe is truly, as Mr. Spock might have put it, “fascinating.” For a franchise that started out with a mere three seasons and 79 episodes, Trek has far outlasted its originally stated “five-year mission”; it recently celebrated its 57th year in our firmament, and is still going strong. The high-minded idealism and hopeful vision of humanity’s future created by Gene Roddenberry in 1966 has earned a place of pride in our pop culture pantheon—which means that it can certainly take a bit of ribbing from time to time. Whether in the form of affectionate homage or full-on parody, Trek and its cast of characters continue to also fuel some memorable movies, TV episodes, and sketches. And the best part? The original cast members of the various series are often in on the gag!
Here, then, are seven of my favorite alternate takes on the worlds of Trek— boldly, and occasionally hilariously, putting a new twist on the characters and situations we’ve seen before…
Saturday Night Live (1975-Present)
Star Trek had only been off the air for six years when Saturday Night Live launched, but it wasn’t long before the sketch series was lampooning it, with “The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise” featuring John Belushi in the Captain’s chair, Chevy Chase as Spock, and Dan Aykroyd as Dr. McCoy. Since then we’ve gotten Owen Wilson as Capt. Jeff Bezos in “Billionaire Star Trek,” and Chris Pine reprising his rebooted Kirk role in a “lost episode.” Most memorable and controversial, though, was not exactly a Star Trek parody—but the episode in 1986 when William Shatner (the original Capt. Kirk) showed up in a sketch about a Trek fan convention to tell his admiring followers to “get a life.” Is it the nadir or apex for SNL parodies? Maybe both.
In Living Color (1990-1994)
With “The Wrath of Farrakhan,” the second episode of In Living Color dipped into the Trek universe with a wildly over-the-top parody featuring Jim Carrey as an overacting Captain Kirk, David Alan Grier as Mr. Spock, and Kim Wayans as Lt. Uhura. (It was the most diverse version of the franchise until Star Trek: Discovery began airing decades later.) In the typically irreverent sketch, Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan (Damon Wayans) comes aboard the Enterprise and incites mutiny, then becomes the new captain and sets a new course: “Warp factor 5. We’re going home—destination 125th Street.”
Galaxy Quest (1999)
More a loving hug than a parody of the Star Trek universe, Galaxy Quest is a true homage to several things at once: fan conventions, actors stuck in career-defining roles who clearly have not embraced their inner Shatners, and the power of a science fiction TV show inspiring enough that it manages to travel across the universe and convince aliens to seek out its heroic crew. At a reunion convention for the stars of the 1980s space adventure series Galaxy Quest (some of whom are there more grudgingly than the others) tempers and egos flare—until most of the cast is transported into space by aliens called Thermians, drafted into their conflict with an extraterrestrial warlord. With a cast that includes Alien star Sigourney Weaver and Professor Snape himself, Alan Rickman, plus Tony Shalhoub, Tim Allen, and Sam Rockwell, it’s hard to find a missed step in this delightful, funny, and affectionate comedy.
Futurama (1999-Present)
Futurama itself isn’t based on Star Trek, but all the science fiction staples, spaceships, and aliens on hand (plus its writers’ love of pop culture) make it a natural home for all manner of riffing on the classic series. And boy, does it riff, with tons of references sprinkled over its many seasons: Leonard Nimoy’s (Spock) head appears in the very first episode, while whole episodes replay classic Trek storylines (like Fry going to Zoidberg’s home planet for mating season in “Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love”). But the ultimate expression of Futurama’s love of Star Trek has to be “Where No Fan Has Gone Before,” when Fry learns that the Trek franchise became a religion in the 2200s. Every main cast member from the original series appears in the episode, except for the late DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy) and James Doohan (Scotty)—instead, a likeness of McCoy was used without dialog, and instead of Doohan’s Scotty we had a newcomer called “Welshie.”
The Orville (2017-Present)
There’s so much love out there for the idea of a hopeful voyage to the stars that Seth MacFarlane (of Family Guy fame) was able to get a series that was basically a Trek homage—and a surprisingly earnest one—greenlit. After two years on Fox it moved to Hulu, though it’s not yet renewed for a fourth season. MacFarlane (who also stars) has long been a Star Trek superfan; he’s included multiple references to the show on Family Guy (where he also roped in a bunch of TNG, Voyager, and DS9 actors to share their voices). But many devoted to The Orville have noted that it has outgrown mere comparisons to Trek and become its own thing—an organic, looser evolution of the original franchise.
Stalled Trek (2012-Present)
Muppets! In! Space! No, wait—this is the crew (sort of) of the Enterprise, but not as you’ve seen them before—Capt. Krok, Mr. Spott, Dr. McGruff, Lt. Uhiya, and they’re all animated…but rather muppety at the same time. This is the vision of Mark R. Largent, who has crowdfunded and released two parodies of Trek episodes (“Amutt Time” echoes “Amok Time”; “The City on the Edge of Foreclosure” echoes “The City on the Edge of Forever”) that are deeply funny—and also deeply adoring of the original material.
“The Dumbsday Machine,” which remakes “The Doomsday Machine,” was funded on IndieGoGo, and Largent told me he’s thinking about Stalled Trek: The Next Generation. “Star Trek was in heavy syndication when I was growing up,” he says in an email. “My friends and I would come home from school as kids, watch Star Trek and then go outside and play Star Trek. Around the same time, I discovered Mad Magazine and Cracked… and my uncle took me to see Airplane when I was 12. Toss all of those things into a young, impressionable mind and you get Stalled Trek.”
Black Mirror (2011-Present)
Blending its take on Trek with the world of multiplayer online gaming and an embittered programmer (played by Jesse Plemons), “USS Callister,” a standout, 76-minute episode of the ongoing anthology series, won four Emmy Awards in 2018. The episode focuses on Plemons’ character Robert, who’s created his own mini-world within the larger game he created, and the parts of the episode set aboard the Callister are more a homage than a parody of Trek. In this virtual world, he turns his digitally cloned co-workers into the crew of his own spaceship, where he runs the show as captain. It’s a story that references Trek in various small details and in its visuals as well as in more obvious ways. But while there are funny moments, Robert is disturbingly abusive to his characters/co-workers—and there’s a very dark comeuppance for him in the end. (This is Black Mirror, after all.)
Randee Dawn is the author of the funny, fantastical pop culture novel Tune in Tomorrow, which was a finalist in the 2023 Next Generation Indie Awards. She’s also the co-editor of The Law & Order: SVU Unofficial Companion and co-edited the anthology Across the Universe: Tales of Alternative Beatles. An entertainment journalist who writes for The Los Angeles Times, Variety, Today.com, and many other publications, Randee is working on her follow-up to Tune in Tomorrow and lives in Brooklyn with her spouse and a fluffy, sleepy Westie.
In print, there’s Scalzi’s RED SHIRTS.
It’s a misapprehension that Galaxy Quest is exclusively a Trek parody. Yes, Trek is one of the main things it parodies, but there’s a lot more in the mix as well. Indeed, the in-universe Galaxy Quest TV series is uncannily similar to Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, mainly its second season where it was retooled into a starship-based series. Within the film’s reality, the Galaxy Quest series ran from 1979-82, while Buck Rogers ran from 1979-81. Both GQ and BR S2 were Star Trek-like starship adventure series with a macho male lead whose actor tended to hog the spotlight (Taggart/Buck), his stoic alien warrior best friend who’s the last survivor of a slaughtered people and has a skullcap-based makeup (Dr. Lazarus/Hawk), and a somewhat marginalized token female lead/love interest who has a vaguely defined shipboard role and is basically there as eye candy (Tawny/Wilma). Meanwhile, Laredo, the child prodigy navigator of the Protector, strongly reminds me of Gary Coleman’s Hieronymous Fox from Buck season 1.
Granted, Buck season 2 was only set on a starship because its incoming producers retooled the show to be more like Star Trek. But there’s a good deal of other classic SFTV referenced in GQ as well. The cheesy wire-work special effects are a nod to Irwin Allen’s shows, and the child-genius character also owes something to Lost in Space and Galactica 1980. Alexander Dane’s personality is very similar to Space: 1999‘s Barry Morse, a distinguished British actor who was embarrassed by his association with a cheesy sci-fi show. Tawny Madison’s role as a crew member whose job is mainly to repeat what the computer says is similar to the Space: 1999 character David Kano (although he was at least reading from printout tape). And then there are things like the corridor of gratuitous deathtraps, the casting of a non-East Asian actor as an East Asian character (Tech Sergeant Chen), and the countdown stopping on 1 second, which are just generic TV tropes not specific to any one show.
But the thing is, Star Trek is the only one of these shows that most people remember, so they mistakenly assume it’s the only thing GQ is sending up, when really it’s just the central part of a more eclectic mix of pop-culture references. The Buck Rogers parallels in particular are so strong that I can’t believe they were coincidental.
Also in print form, there’s John M. Ford’s HOW MUCH FOR JUST THE PLANET.
@3/LisaJulie: Except How Much… actually is a licensed Star Trek novel, not a Trek parody or homage. So it doesn’t fit the category.
The Orville is a fine, proper homage to Berman-era Trek, but my favorite MacFarlane related Trek riff was when Stewie kidnapped the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. You’d think the tiny fanboy/devil child would drive the actors nuts, but the reverse happened: The TNGers were like a bunch of cranky five year olds and Stewie nearly exploded from aggravation.
You have to think that Patrick Stewart (a MacFarlane regular on American Dad) gave the Family Guy writers tips on how the cast interacts off camera, because the episode felt very “inside baseball.”
Well, also, despite what the makers might say about it being officially part of the canon, Lower Decks is obviously meant to be a parody of some sort. At least it comes across that way to me.
The CSI episode “A Space Oddity” included several fantastic sequences that parodied original Trek (primarily “The Gamesters of Triskelion”), while also praising Trek fandom for being optimistic and taking some fantastic potshots at the “Darker and Edgier” trend exemplified by the then-recent (this was a 2009 episode) Basttlestar Galactica reboot.
Most notably, in the story a producer has bought the rights to the old SF TV show “Astro Quest” and is rebooting it D&E style. He shows a clip at a convention, and the crowd is stunned and horrified, until someone yells “You suck!” triggering a near-riot.
The yeller was played by Ron D. “the guy who rebooted BSG” Moore.
The episode has a story credit to Dr. Naren Shankar, who went from a Ph.D in applied physics and electrical engineering to interning for the TNG staff (he is he namesake of Narendra III, the linchpin planet/battle in the episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise”), to writing and serving as science consultant, to producing, and was at the time an executive producer on CSI. (He went on to EP The Expanse.) The episode was written by Bradley Thompson and David Weddle, who were writing partners on DS9 before being hired by Moore to BSG and then eventually joined the CSI writing staff. (They’re now writing for For All Mankind, another Moore show.)
Basically this was an entire episode of inside baseball.
There’s a little 1999 movie called Free Enterprise about a couple of devoted fanboys who accidentally cross paths with William Shatner (played by himself in self-deprecating fashion with exaggerated over-the-top swagger). I only saw it once, but thought it was funny!
@2,
I am showing my age here but I will refer to the 1970’s Buck Rogers in the 21st Century as “the reboot.” I still remember the original Buck Rogers movie serials which in some ways was better than the Flash Gordon films.
Galaxy Quest certainly pulled on all the tropes of the 1960’s and 170’s SF shows whether it be Star Trek, Buck Rogers, or Space 1999 (the REAL Moonbase Alpha)
Saturday Night Live also had an episode with William Shatner and the Enterprise becoming a restaurant.
Its not that great. https://youtu.be/SpPgavT5am4?si=cJZuv4-4WJlhlPdr