Star Trek parodies and pop culture references (film)
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.
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The following are Star Trek parodies and references in film.
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[edit] Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
In this film, Jim Carrey – as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective – does impressions of several characters from Star Trek: The Original Series. While investigating an empty pool for clues as to the abduction of Snowflake, the dolphin mascot for the Miami Dolphins, Ace impersonates Captain Kirk, holding his sunglasses as though they were a communicator. As Kirk, Ace "records" a log entry into his sunglasses, complete with William Shatner's clipped dialog, stating:
- "Captain's log, stardate 23.9, rounded off to the... nearest decimal point. We've... traveled back in time to save an ancient species from... total annihilation. So far... no... signs of aquatic life, but I'm going to find it. If I have to tear this universe another black hole, I'm going to find it. I've... GOT TO, MISTER!"
Ace then jumps forward to look at a drain in the pool and, with his face in the camera, impersonates Scotty:
- Ah just can't do it, Captain. Ah don't have the POWER!
And Dr. McCoy:
- For God's sake, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a pool man!
[edit] Airplane II: The Sequel
While the original Airplane! movie was a parody of airplane disaster films, the second picture parodied science fiction, including Star Trek with scenes such as:
- The doors aboard the Mayflower hiss open with the same sound effect used for the doors on the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
- The Mayflower is equipped a "worp drive" (sic), an obvious reference to Star Trek's warp drive. The maximum speed is "worp 0.5", which is the first speed ordered by James T. Kirk in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
- The "voice-activated doors" at the Alpha-Beta Lunar Base are activated by the user imitating the door sound effect from the classic Star Trek series.
- Commander Buck Murdock is played by William Shatner, who plays him in the vein of Captain Kirk.
- Commander Murdock is confronted with "this thing that has red lights that keeps going back and forth" which seemingly has no other function. The prop, is in fact, part of the Regula I set from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, where it serves the same function. The same prop has gained notoriety later by appearing frequently on TNG, Voyager and even Enterprise, although at some later times the blinking lights were blue instead of red. Later, Murdock is confronted with "lights that are blinking out of sequence", a reference to the computer displays on the bridge of the Enterprise in the classic series.
- Murdock orders "a complete file on everyone who's seen The Sound of Music more than four times." The Sound of Music was directed by Robert Wise, who directed Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
- While gazing through a periscope, Commander Murdock is astounded to find the Enterprise flying through space.
[edit] Austin Powers films
Although the movies are a parody of various James Bond films, the so-called "Fembots" in the first movie – Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery – are a parody of the androids seen in TOS: "I, Mudd". They are even described as "the latest in android replicant technology".
In the second movie of the trilogy, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, a scene involving time travel also pokes fun at Trekkies' notorious reputation for analyzing seemingly inconsequential continuity errors. Doctor Evil travels back in time from the 1990s to 1969 in order to steal Austin Powers' "mojo" while Powers is cryogenically frozen. When the future Austin realizes his mojo is gone and is about to be sent back in time to stop Doctor Evil, he and Basil Exposition have the following exchange:
Austin: So, Basil, if I travel back to 1969 and I was frozen in 1967, I could go look at my frozen self. But, if I'm still frozen in 1967, how could I have been unthawed in the 90's and traveled back to the Sixties? Oh, no, I've gone cross-eyed.
Basil: I suggest you don't worry about those things and just enjoy yourself. (turns to camera): That goes for you, too!
[edit] Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey
Another film that parodies "Arena." While Bill and Ted are watching the episode, they are visited by their android duplicates (aka "evil robot us-es"). The androids drive them out to Vasquez Rocks, the location where "Arena" was filmed, and the ensuing sequence duplicates the camera angles and editing from the "Arena" scene Bill and Ted had just been watching.
[edit] The Boondock Saints
Scene in Irish pub. A Russian gangster walks in and introduces himself as Chekov. Murphy claps his neighbor's shoulder and says "So you're Chekov, huh? Well, this here's McCoy. Find a Spock, we got us an away team."
[edit] The Cable Guy
This dark comic film, released in 1996, stars Jim Carrey (see also: Star Trek parodies (television)#In Living Color) as a lonely, television-obsessed cable TV installer named "Chip Douglas". In the film, the fanatical Chip befriends Steven (played by Matthew Broderick), his latest "customer". In what is perhaps the most memorable scene in the film, Chip and Steven visit a Medieval Times restaurant, where they engage in a staged jousting and fighting tournament. During one of the fights, Chip begins to picture their fight as the battle between Jim Kirk and Spock in the TOS episode "Amok Time". He battles Steven – whom he refers to as "Jim" – while handling his pole-axe like a Vulcan lirpa and vocalizing the highly-recognizable music used during the "Amok Time" battle sequence. The real music from the episode begins playing in the background as Chip and Steven continue to duel. Also, on a list of Cable TV company employees, a Jean-Luc Picard is found.
For the record, Andy Dick portrays the Medieval Times host who assists the two combatants.
- See also: The Cable Guy at Wikipedia
[edit] The Coneheads
At the end of this film's teaser, a radar operator is watching "Arena" on television while the Coneheads' spaceship appears as a blip on the radar screen. The music cue from the "Arena" scene (a stock cue from Sol Kaplan's score to "The Enemy Within") segues into a similar melody in the film's score (by David Newman), leading into the main titles.
[edit] Crimson Tide
The 1995 submarine thriller starring Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman has multiple Star Trek references. When repairs on the ship's electronics are proceeding badly, the First Officer of the damaged sub asks his sonar man if he has ever watched Star Trek and then tells him how Scotty always repaired everything and gave more power whenever the Klingons harrassed them.
[edit] Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story!
In the direct-to-DVD "movie" Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story!, Rene Auberjonois supplied the voice of Odo in a scene that parodied Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. In the scene, Stewie mentions his cousin, Quark Griffin, who is shown being harrassed by Odo, before Quark tells him to morph into "someone with something interesting to talk about."
During the opening credits, one of the still frames shows Brian climbing a mountain with Stewie watching from a pair of rocket boots, a spoof of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
Near the beginning of the film when Stewie is clinging to Peter's arm, refusing to get into the swimming pool, Stewie screams "I don't want to die! I want to live! LIIIIVE!!!" This appears to be a spoof on the "evil" Kirk's exclamation of the same wish in the original series episode "The Enemy Within".
Later in the movie, Stewie meets up with his future self. When his future self is about to travel forward in time, Stewie leaps up, clinging to his future self, yelling "Surprise!", as Gillian Taylor did in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
[edit] Free Enterprise
This film focuses on a group of friends, all of whom are avid science fiction and Star Trek fans. Trek is mentioned throughout the film, along with others such as Soylent Green and Logan's Run, and the characters often use direct quotes.
The film also stars William Shatner, who plays an exaggerated version of himself.
The film is directed by Roger Meyer Burnett, who can be seen in the documentary, Trekkies 2.
[edit] Galaxy Quest
The entire movie is really a parody of Star Trek. It is about a group of actors who used to be on a Trek-style TV show. They tour the country going to conventions when they are caught up in an actual galactic war, which pits a barbaric species against one that has modeled their entire culture on broadcasts of the old television series.
- External Links
[edit] Hunt for Red October
The aircraft carrier depicted in the film is the USS Enterprise, and has the radio callsign "Starbase". The captain of the Enterprise was portrayed by TNG guest star Daniel Davis.
[edit] Ice Age
At one point during the film, the animals Sid, Diego and Manny, along with a prehistoric human baby, come across a "flying saucer" UFO frozen inside a block of ice. As they walk away, the child takes time to flash the Vulcan salute in the direction of the spaceship.
[edit] The Lost Boys
In a scene where three boys are attempting to flee a vampire lair before sundown, they reach their borrowed car and pile in. One of the boys tells another (who got in behind the wheel) to "Burn rubber!" He tries to comply, but the car is in reverse and nearly goes off a cliff before the driver can stop it. After a moment's hard breathing, the first boy says " 'Burn rubber!' does NOT mean 'Warp speed!' "
[edit] Sex Trek
Sex Trek is a series of nine pornographic parodies of Star Trek. The first film, Sex Trek: The Next Penetration, was directed by Scotty Fox in 1990. It was followed by four VHS sequels from 1991 to 1994. Sex Trek II and III were also directed by Scotty Fox, Sex Trek IV and V were directed by Mark Stone. These films were produced and distributed by the Moonlight Entertaiment studio.
The original saga was followed up in 1999 with two DVD releases: XXX Trek: The Final Orgasm (aka. Porn Comixxx 1: XXX Trek) from the Dreamland U.S.A. studio and Sex Trek: The Man Eater (aka. XXX Trek or XXX Trek: The Man Eater) from the Erotic Angel studio. Both were directed by Cash Markman.
The first five films of the series were re-released as a 5 DVD boxed set titled The Entire Chronicles: Sex Trek by the Arrowhead Productions studio in 2005.
In 2006 the Platinum Blue Productions studio continued the saga with two new DVD releases Sex Trek: Charly XXX and Sex Trek: Where No Man Has Cum B4 also directed by Cash Markman. Both are parodies of several TOS episodes. Charly XXX takes it's main plot from "Charlie X" and "Turnabout Intruder" with elements from "Amok Time", "Wolf in the Fold" and "The Cage". Sex Trek: Where No Man Has Cum B4 takes plot ideas from such episodes as "Space Seed" and "Mudd's Women".
- See also:
- Sex Trek: The Next Penetration (1990) at the Internet Movie Database
- Sex Trek II: The Search for Sperm (1991) at the Internet Movie Database
- Sex Trek III: The Wrath of Bob (1992) at the Internet Movie Database
- Sex Trek IV: The Next Orgasm (1994) at the Internet Movie Database
- Sex Trek V: Deep Space Sex (1994) at the Internet Movie Database
- XXX Trek: The Final Orgasm (1999) at the Internet Movie Database
- Sex Trek: The Man Eater (1999) at the Internet Movie Database
- Sex Trek: Charly XXX at Platinum Blue Productions
- Sex Trek: Where No Man Has Cum B4 at the Internet Movie Database
- Sex Trek: Where No Man Has Cum B4 at Platinum Blue Productions
[edit] South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut
The climax of this feature-length film based on the series features Satan throwing his abusive lover, Saddam Hussein, into a fissure filled with molten lava while shouting "I have had ENOUGH of YOU!", an obvious reference to Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
It is noteworthy to mention that Brent Spiner of TNG fame lent his voice to this film as Conan O'Brien.
[edit] Spaceballs
The Mel Brooks film Spaceballs parodied several popular sci-fi movies including Star Wars, Star Trek, Alien, and Planet of the Apes.
Several moments of Trek-ness stand out in particular. First, there is a short scene with a Scottish engineer named "Snotty" (All-New Dating Game host Jeff MacGregor) whom Commanderette Zircon (played by future DS9 guest star Leslie Bevis) says "Snotty beamed me twice last night. It was wonderful." After Zircon suggests President Skroob be transported to the command deck, Skroob says "What the hell? It works on 'Star Trek'." "Snotty" beams Skroob about fifteen feet into the next room only to find he has beamed the president's head on backwards. He manages to reverse the process and reassemble Skroob, who opts to WALK to the command deck, which is just outside his office.
The chairs on our hero Lonestar's ship, the Eagle-5 resemble like the captain's chair aboard the Defiant from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, although Deep Space Nine was first produced many years after Spaceballs had been released.
The merchandising scene – which included Spaceballs: The Toilet Paper, Spaceballs: The Cereal, and Spaceballs: The Flame Thrower – was poking fun at the innumerable merchandising ventures made under the Trek brand, modeling its naming convention after Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
Later, Lonestar, the hero, attempts to do the Vulcan neck pinch unsuccessfully. The guard he's doing it to corrects him and he knocks the guard unconscious. He later performs the pinch on another guard after attacking him with shaving cream.
Near the end of the film, when Lone Star asks Yogurt if they'll ever meet again, Yogurt replies, "God willing, we'll all meet again in Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money," a play both on the title Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Trek's fondness for sequels.
For the record, the film also features Tim Russ in one of his first screen roles as one of several Spaceball soldiers literally "combing the desert" (using ridiculously oversized combs) for the escaped prisoners. When asked about his progress, Russ' character (who is using an oversized afro pick with another black Spaceball soldier) raises his helmet's visor and angrily responds "We ain't found shit!"
- See also: Spaceballs at Wikipedia
[edit] Star Warp'd
This claymation film parodies Star Trek, Star Wars, The Terminator, Robocop, E.T., Predator, Alien, and 2001, which features the Consitution class refit, U.S.S. Consolationprize, with Captain Kwirk, Mr. Spuck, Robofuzz, N.T. and Squatty, battling Dark Vapor and Mini-Maul on the Imperial Star Destroyer. Kwirk, Spuck and Squatty are wearing 2280s style uniforms with laser pistols from The Cage, The theme from Star Trek II is used throughout the movie, the theme music mixes the Star Wars theme and the Star Trek: The Next Generation theme together. In one scene, Kwirk yells, "KHAAAAAAAN!" before Spuck sends him flying to deactivate the magnet beam. And another, Spuck enters from the turbolift, wearing black Terminator's sunglasses, says, "Gas! Gas, captain. Whatever their designation is merely, foul-smelling gas." then Kwirk replies, "What about that extra equipment for cataloging gasious anomalies. Guys! It's got to have a tail pipe." similar to the scene in Star Trek VI.
[edit] Stay Tuned
This film features parodies of a large number of TV shows, and includes a scene in which John Ritter's character Roy Knable finds himself as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, sitting on a command chair on the bridge of the USS Enterprise-D. The scene features alternate verisons of Data and Worf, and concludes with Ritter exclaiming "Holy Shatner!"
[edit] Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Both the Trade Federation droid and Republic Clone Trooper armies have uniforms with Yellow/Gold, Blue, and Red "shoulders" marking different types of troops. The "red shoulder" droid troopers, in particular, are destroyed in vast numbers. The Trade Federation's name may have itself been a reference, as in Episode II, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda refer to their vessels as "Federation Starships", while the word "starship" is rarely used in the Star Wars Films.
[edit] Toy Story
Toy Story is a first CGI movie made by Disney and Pixar, it is about a pull string cowboy doll named Woody and a spaceman action figure named Buzz Lightyear in the world where toys come to life. In the back of Buzz's suit, a symbol resembles the Star Trek badge. Buzz Lightyear does his mission log similar to the captain's log. Buzz is stationed at the Gamma Quadrant in Sector 4, that reference is taken from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine In the fight of the gas station, Woody jumps on Buzz Lightyear the same way Admiral Kirk does at Commander Kruge from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Buzz does a Vulcan salute at Woody after the fight. At the commercial of the Buzz Lightyear action figure, there is a reference of the wrist communicator from Star Trek: The Motion Picture and as Buzz Lightyear fires lasers in the commercial, the laser sound is from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier when the Klingon Bird of Prey destroys God of Sha-Ka-Ree.
[edit] Transformers (2007)
In the new Transformers movie, written by Star Trek scribes Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman, the Transformer called Bumblebee – who only communicates using recorded sounds and songs – can be heard relaying messages using sound clips of Uhura from Star Trek: The Original Series, using the lines "Message from Starfleet, Captain" and the famous "Hailing frequencies open".
- Although Orci and Kurtzman, both Star Trek fans, wrote the script for Transformers, Orci stated that the Uhura references were not in the script but were rather added during post-production. [1]
- See also: Transformers at Wikipedia
[edit] "Turkish Star Trek"
Turist Ömer Uzay Yolunda (literally translated, "Ömer the Tourist in Star Trek") is part of a Turkish series of comedy films focusing on a character called "Ömer the Tourist" who winds up in strange situations while traveling across Turkey. In this film, Ömer is beamed aboard the Enterprise – or a bad copy thereof, with an effeminate Kirk and a more-emotional-than-normal Spock – and winds up as part of The Original Series episode "The Man Trap" (but also with elements of "Amok Time" and "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"). The special effects are notable, as some of which are ripped directly from copies of classic Trek episodes.
- See also:
[edit] Universal Soldier: The Return
Toward the end of this 1999 movie staring Jean-Claude Van Damme, an encryption key that flashes up on a computer screen is "NCC170182461VIR".
[edit] Veggie Tales
In the 1995 video, "Are You My Neighbor," one segment is based around a visit to a starship called the "U.S.S. Applepies" (with an appropriate dessert replacing the primary hull). The ship features a Scottish engineer named Scooter. In addition, in the 1997 video "Larry-Boy and the Fib from Outer Space," Jimmy and Jerry Gourd (who appeared as crew members of the Applepies) wear pointed ears.
[edit] Zapped
The lead character plays with a model spaceship he built (made from a Millennium Falcon with a pair of movie-era nacelles and pylons glued onto it) and daydreams about an encounter between the ship and his pet dog. The bridge crewmembers are recognizable parodies of the classic Trek crew.
[edit] Zoolander
Directed by, and starring avid Trek fan Ben Stiller, the antogonist of the film is named after the Mugato. The film is also produced by Stiller's own production company, Red hour Films.
