Friday 16 October 2015

30 Days of Trek - Day Sixteen


Ok. Toughy?

I put this one in as a nice meaty challenge to see what is going to come out of the woodwork here and what we may have missed. 

Star Trek has been referenced in more programmes and media in general than I care to think and probably know of. I was even surprised to see nods in the latest Doctor Who story (last weekend) and potentially in The Avengers but that one might be me just looking for something that isn't actually there or is a pure coincidence.

Even one of the spacesuits from The Tholian Web showed up in Mork and Mindy once but that's a reuse on the cheap rather than an actual reference I suspect. Futurama and Family Guy have provided some classic Star Trek events during their lifetimes both effectively donating episodes to the show and utilising the vocal talents of the cast to full effect. Nimoy appeared on The Simpsons several times and The Big Bang Theory is chock full of Star Trek nods at every turn. Oddly I even remember James Doohan turning up in Knight Rider 2000 as himself which was certainly unforeseen. I could go on.

But the one which really resonated with me comes from Breaking Bad. It took me until after the show had finished to binge-watch the five years of the show and to see what everyone had been talking about. From the ninth episode of the final year, Blood Money, the character Badger relates his idea for a script which involves a rather bizarre and extreme pie-eating contest. Let's just say a transporter has never been used so inventively in the show and that's probably why I think it's interesting. 

Adding Star Trek into such a brilliant and realistic series pays homage to a classic in a rather surreal way. In fact Badger and Skinny Pete have referenced Deep Space Nine and Voyager before in passing as well as Babylon 5 and it does ground the characters even if their conversations may be drug-fueled on occasion.

Frankly I loved every second of Breaking Bad and the inclusion of Star Trek in such an imaginative and extensive fashion was something I never thought would happen and has become my favourite reference very easily.

Now it's over to you! What's your favourite Star Trek reference in another show?

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