Welcome to the final weekend of Two Weeks of Trek, so we thought we’d bring you some cartoons.
And no, not the Animated Series, as that is, as they say, teh suck.
Shatner’s Log, Airdate. . .unknown. The impossible has happened. It would take days to recount the events I have witnessed. So, settle in. It all began. . .
And thus began the greatest animated homage to Trek ever. Futurama managed to both laugh at Star Trek while giving an incredible number of homages to the series and actors involved. It also happens to be one of the best episodes of Futurama as well.
The episode chronicles how over the centuries, Star Trek became more than a cultural icon and turned into a full-blown religion. With the power of Trek being so huge, eventually it was banned and the original episodes, movies and cast banished to a forbidden planet. Along with the head of Leonard Nimoy in a jar, Fry, Bender, and Leela set out to retrieve the forbidden Star Trek.
Once on the planet, they encounter the rest of the original cast, being held hostage by the self-described biggest Star Trek fan, an energy cloud named Melllvar. Now that his “collection” is complete that Spock is there, he declares the beginning of TrekFest 3002.
Fry: Cool! A Star Trek convention!
Bender: Can people who hate Star Trek leave?
Walter Koenig: Good question!
Melllvar: NO- You have to stay even longer!
***
Melllvar: Um, uh, sign it to Melllvar. “Melllvar” has three “L’s”.
George Takei: I think I’ve done enough conventions to know how to spell “Melllvar”.
Shatner “sings” Slim Shady, there’s a trivia contest, and then the cast is forced to act out Mellvar’s fan script, which is as terrible as most fanfic is.
Shatner: Alas, my ship, whom I love. . . like a woman, is . . .disabled. (Oh, Lord!)
Nimoy: Fascinating, Captain, and logical too. Yet we need some help.
Takei: Look, Captain –Melllvar will help us.
Koenig: Keptin, I wope he will welp our … vessel.
Melllvar: Wessel! You’re not acting hard enough!!!!
And so the Planet Express crew is forced to rescue the Star Trek cast:
Fry: This is wrong. We shouldn’t have abandoned them there.
Bender: I dunno, I’m feeling pretty good about it.
Leela: I didn’t wanna leave them either, Fry, but what are we supposed to do?
Fry: Well, usually on the show someone would come up with a complicated plan then explain it with a simple analogy.
Leela: Hmm. If we can re-route engine power through the primary weapons and reconfigure them to Melllvar’s frequency, that should overload his electro-quantum structure.
Bender: Like putting too much air in a balloon!
Fry: Of course! It’s so simple!
***
Leela: It’s not working! He’s drawing strength from our weapons.
Fry: Like a balloon and . . . then something bad happens.
There are too many classic Trek references in here to catalog, but I’ll try to name the most obvious ones:
A giant green energy cloud that looks like a hand grabs the Planet Express ship
Sets from several different classic episodes appear on Melllvar’s planet
Fry first appears in the episode in the same sort of chair Captain Pike uses and only communicates through the same sort of beeps
Zapp Brannigan makes an appearance, himself simply a caricature of Kirk
Nimoy tells Shatner, “You have been, and always shall be my friend. . . but I just signed a 6 month lease on my apartment.”
“He’s dead, Jim.”
Welshie.
Welshie wears a red uniform, and so immediately dies.
Welshie!!!!!
The points in the trivia contest are “quatloos”
“You and I are of a kind. In a different reality I could have called you ‘friend.'”
And, of course…
For those of you with Netflix, “Where No Fan Has Gone Before” is available on Instant Watch. For those of you without, a couple of clips are available on Comedy Central’s website.
And for Next Generation fans, I guess there’s always that episode of Family Guy with the Next Gen cast.
This…was…exhausting. This whole experience, was absolutely…exhausting. You people have ruined Star Trek: The Next Generation for me, you are absolutely, the most insufferable group of jackasses I have ever had the misfortune of spending an extended period of time with, I hope you all f@#ing die.
Now I guess we’ll just wait to see a Bob’s Burgers crossover with Deep Space Nine.