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.
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 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. Number 9, Black Mirror. Black Mirror may be best known for its blackly comedic
02:13social satire, though writer Charlie Brooker managed to roll this into a pin-sharp Trek parody
02:19in the Emmy-winning season 4 episode USS Callister. The episode follows video game programmer Robert
02:26Daly, who in order to take out his frustrations against his unappreciative co-workers, creates a
02:32modded version of the game and inserts digital clones of his co-workers into it by surreptitiously
02:38obtaining their DNA. The modded game, modelled off Daly's favourite sci-fi TV show Space Fleet,
02:44bears a blinding resemblance to Trek's original series, right down to the costumes, hairstyles and
02:50design of the USS Callister. The scenes set within this modded game also adopt the stylistic tropes of
02:56classic Trek, the 4x3 aspect ratio, use of Dutch angles and by the episode's end, a shift towards
03:03the sleeker, widescreen style of the JJ Abrams reboot series. Jesse Plemons even worked with a
03:09vocal coach to approximate 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 for the
03:22franchise and its impressive attempts to recreate its style and tone. 8. Family Guy
03:29The Family Guy team are clearly also huge Trek fans, as evidenced by the dozens of episodes which
03:36have even a mere passing crack about the show. Though there are lots of good ones, such as the entire
03:42cast 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
03:55portrayal 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 idiosyncratic,
04:08nonsensical line delivery and excessive gesticulations. As luck would have it, Shatner then knocks on
04:14Peter's door after getting a flat tyre, and the two go to an Oktoberfest-style event together.
04:19At episode's end however, Meg accidentally hits Shatner with the car and kills him. Shatner's
04:25physically implausible movements and disjointed line delivery, as impersonated by Seth MacFarlane,
04:31just might be the single greatest pop culture reference in all of Family Guy.
04:367. Mad Men
04:38Though 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. Mad Men, of all shows,
04:51managed to pull off one of the most memorable nods to Trek's original series in the Season 5 episode
04:58Christmas Waltz. With Mad Men being a 60-set period show, this episode takes place in Christmas 1966,
05:06while the original series was midway through its first season. One of the episode's subplots
05:12involves the re-emergence of ex-copywriter Paul Kinsey, who meets with former colleague Harry Crane
05:18at a coffee shop to catch up. Among other developments, Paul hands Harry a script that
05:23he wrote on spec for Star Trek, hoping that Harry would pass it to the right people and get it seen.
05:28The 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,
05:56though Harry did manage to persuade Paul not to sell his script, this suggests that he did indeed
06:01persevere and get his script bought, which was then heavily rewritten into Let That Be Your Last
06:08Battlefield. Who knows?
06:10Number 6, Futurama. Back to Matt Groening now, who
06:14aunts up the Star Trek references considerably in his glorious sci-fi comedy, Futurama. All in all,
06:22there are close to 100 separate Star Trek references across Futurama, but arguably the piece de resistance
06:29is Season 4's episode where no fan has gone before. This widely acclaimed Nebula Award-nominated
06:36episode reveals that Star Trek is banned on Earth after it became a global religion in the 2200s.
06:43And in the wake of the bloody Star Trek Wars, the remaining tapes of the show and movies were
06:49jettisoned into space. And so with the help of Leonard Nimoy's head, Ben DeFry and company set
06:55off on a mission to recover the tapes, bringing them into contact with almost every major cast
07:00member from the original series. The exceptions are James Doohan, whose agent flatly refused,
07:06and DeForest Kelly, who 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 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 sceptical, feeling that MacFarlane would just relentlessly be making
07:45fun of Star Trek without much affection. And though the first season was certainly more of a parody
07:50than a 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
08:10season's fifth episode shows the crew watching a clip of Seinfeld. And considering that there was a
08:16number of Star Trek jokes made in Seinfeld, we're left to conclude that Star Trek actually exists as a
08:22TV show 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
09:32love it's writer's harbour for Star Trek, given that the four central characters are all shown to be
09:38major fans of the franchise and are even fluent in Klingon. Trek is by far the most commonly referenced
09:44franchise in the series, and it has even enjoyed cameos from the likes of Will Wheaton,
09:50Brent Spiner, George Takei and William Shatner. But the single greatest invocation of Trek occurred
09:56in 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
10:13episodes have been filmed, including Kirk's infamous encounter with Gorn. But their car
10:18and clothes are stolen in the process, and so they never end up making it to the convention,
10:23and are instead forced to walk to a nearby diner to call the cops. Incidentally, this was the first
10:29episode of the series to cross the 20 million viewer mark, seemingly confirming how much everyone
10:36loved the Trek homage. Number 2, Robot Chicken. Believe it or not, Robot Chicken is still on the
10:43air today, and even celebrated its 200th episode last year, proving the unexpected viability of a
10:50stop-motion animated series made with toys, action figures and plaster scene. While it's fair to say
10:56that it has parodied Star Wars far more extensively, even releasing three Star Wars specials, Robot
11:03Chicken has delivered more than 15 skits making fun of Star Trek 2. There are a ton of hilarious ones to
11:10choose from, though the easy winner is the Season 7 skit Star Trek The Sext Generation. Patrick Stewart
11:16lends his voice to portray Captain Picard, who exits the bridge to be relieved by the Enterprise's night
11:22crew, led 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, as becomes a major
11:34problem when the Borg attack. Jake tries to defuse the situation with a keg party, but the Borg simply
11:39tell him, partying is futile. Yet, when they attempt to assimilate him, his beer-filled blood sends the
11:45Borg into a beer-chugging frenzy. Back on the Enterprise, a seemingly angry Picard arrives to relieve
11:51Jake from his shift, only for Picard to then ask for a beer and start partying with the crew himself.
11:57The fact that Patrick Stewart agreed to play the part himself makes this a truly legendary parody.
12:04Number 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 Star
12:19Trek references every now and then, but then simply went past mere wink-nudge nods and damn near implied
12:25that, somehow, Denny and Kirk were the same person. In the Season 2 episode Finding Nimmo, Denny and
12:32Alan take a fishing trip to British Columbia, where Alan reads a book that describes a type of sea lice as
12:37cling-ons, hilariously prompting Denny to pause and ask, did you say cling-ons? Later in Season 2,
12:43the episode The Cancer Man Can has Denny open up his new flip phone, which makes the exact same sound as
12:50the personal communicators on the original series. In other episodes, Denny talks about beaming himself
12:55to Boston every morning, refers to himself as the captain of the ship, and even flat-out tells reporters
13:01that he was once the captain of his own spaceship. There comes a point where the Metanus is stretched
13:06beyond snapping point, and Boston Legal pretty much got there. You love to see it. And that concludes our
13:13list. If you can think 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.