TVSquad

Do not adjust your web browser. You are now entering the Retro Squad, where we are reviewing past episodes of classic TV shows.

The original version of Star Trek has been a show with two faces. On the one face, it was a serious show that dramatized the good and glorious future we humans could have after we screwed everything up (though, with so many wars going on around the galaxy, how good and glorious could it be?). On the other face, at least to some, it was a campy science fiction show that featured poor special effects, bad acting, and tunics that really didn't hold up to space travel too well.

Since the show left the airwaves in 1969, that second face is the one that television shows throughout the decades have parodied. Whether it be the original series itself, or the subsequent movies, or the conventions that sprung up from this show that lasted only 79 episodes. Shows both animated and live-action have found ways to skewer the show's, and its fans', good intentions. After the jump you'll find a few examples of those parodies either to laugh with or be angry at.

Two of the most famous parodies come from NBC's Saturday Night Live. The first is from the very first seasons of the series and features John Belushi as Captain Kirk and Chevy Chase as Mr. Spock. Titled "The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise," the sketch portrayed the Enterprise's last adventure against the most horrible of enemies: the network executives.

The next, and probably most famous, Star Trek parody on SNL was one featuring William Shatner at a science fiction convention. With three little words -- "Get a life" -- this sketch gained a bit of immortality.

Another sketch program, In Living Color, also parodied Star Trek. In the first sketch, Captain Kirk meets his match, Louis Farrakhan, in the episode titled "Wrath of Farrakhan".

In the second sketch, time moves ahead for the crew of the Starship Enterprise as they celebrate their seventh and last movie Star Trek VII: The Really Last Voyage. It's Kirk in a toupee and a walker as he tries to keep his senses, and his bathroom skills, in check.

Even Carol Burnett offered up a Star Trek parody during one of her later sketch-show incarnations. In this scene, it seems like Kirk, Spock and the rest of the male crew of the Enterprise are not the men they thought they were.

Over to animation, The Simpsons gave us one of the funniest parodies of the original Star Trek with a commercial for Star Trek XII: So Very Tired. Both William Shatner (I believe) and George Takei provided voices for Captain Kirk and Mr. Sulu.

Finally, the deeply-missed Futurama provided both a parody and a very nice dedication to Star Trek that featured the voices of most of the actors, save for McCoy and Welshy. It is probably one of the best episodes of Futurama and I always look forward to watching it when it airs. Well, at least I did when it was still on Adult Swim.