5 Best Movies And TV Shows That Parodied Star Trek

As Paramount embarks on the latest Star Trek venture with "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy," fans are once again divided on their opinions, with some saying they love it and others arguing it's just the latest attempt to milk the franchise with a derivative cash grab that doesn't add up to the glory of Trek's golden years. It's not a new conversation, with every new Trek getting slapped with a fresh wave of criticism through the decades. But through every divisive new installment, one thing continues to ring true: It's difficult to overstate the cultural impact of the popular franchise, a fact echoed by its many homages and parodies through the years.

From a tribute so good many fans see it as a spiritual successor to "Star Trek: The Next Generation" to an all-out lampoon of the franchise, Star Trek has certainly seen its share of imitators between all of its films and series. Take the short-lived 1977 comedy series "Quark," the space sitcom that followed Captain Adam Quark (Richard Benjamin) aboard the United Galaxy Sanitation Patrol Cruiser. Heck, the show even parodies itself with the hilarious animated series "Star Trek: Lower Decks," a show chock full of metareferential humor that makes for some of the funniest moments in "Star Trek" history. Because imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery no matter what century you're in, here are the best parodies every fan needs to watch at some point.

"Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane, who played Crewman Rivers on two episodes of "Star Trek: Enterprise," is such a huge "Star Trek" fan that, as a teen, he helped create a fan film in which he played the iconic Captain Kirk. So of course he'd cast himself as the captain in his excellent "Star Trek: The Next Generation" parody "The Orville," a series that started off as a spoof but quickly became every bit as emotionally grounded and nuanced as the series it set out to pay tribute to. Many fans of the series will even argue that it is a Trek program in their eyes. As one Redditor put it, "The Orville IS an actual Star Trek show and it's a far sight better than anything put out recently (post Enterprise) with the exception of Strange New Worlds."

The series follows the crew of the U.S.S. Orville under the capable leadership of Captain Ed Mercer (MacFarlane), who works alongside his ex-wife Commander Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki) as his second-in-command. Episode topics cover a wide range of "TNG"-familiar subjects like diplomacy, battles, aid, first contact, and life aboard the ship. Other than having different species and a few more humorous premises (like when the ship's Moclans became severely addicted to cigarettes in "Lasting Impressions"), "The Orville" has the same general vibe of "TNG." And by the show's final season, its ability to take on heavier topics had been proven just as solid as the canon series.

"Galaxy Quest" is another "Star Trek" parody that is so good that many fans consider it unofficial Trek canon. In fact, "Galaxy Quest" characters are the only non-Trek characters to appear in the Scopely multiplayer game "Star Trek Fleet Command." The 1999 science fiction-comedy follows the cast of a 1970s cult classic space series as they get unexpectedly thrust into an intergalactic conflict. The adventure begins when the show's former star, the self-absorbed Jason Nesmith (Tim Allen), agrees to help some fans at a convention who turn out to be aliens called the Thermians in need of an actual hero. Having recreated the show's space vessel, the NSEA Protector (which Jason initially believes to be a set), the Thermians bring Jason and his former "crew" aboard the ship for help defeating their enemies.

A good deal of care and attention was put into making the sci-fi's aliens believable to the extent that "Galaxy Quest" had an "alien school" for its Thermian actors to learn to act weird. Besides Tim Allen, the hilarious film also stars Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, Justin Long, and a pre-"Office" Rainn Wilson.

Who would have thought that "Black Mirror," the series responsible for creating some of the darkest visions of a future tech-fueled dystopian nightmare, would also manage to create one of the best retro-vibing "Star Trek: The Original Series" parodies? And yet that's exactly what the series did with the creation of "U.S.S. Callister," a virtual reality space vessel meant to parody toxic fans and their problematic relationship with content meant to embody progress, diversity, and inclusion.

The two-episode arc stars Jesse Plemmons as Captain Robert Daly. In the real world, he's the programmer behind an uber-popular Star Trek-style virtual reality MMORPG. But in the virtual world, in which he plays the captain of the U.S.S. Callister, Daly torments copies of his real-world colleagues, who are effectively eternally enslaved in his little microcosmic universe.

Both an excellent Star Trek parody and an incisive commentary on toxic fandom and deepfakes, "U.S.S. Callister" and "U.S.S. Callister: Into Infinity" will feel nostalgic and well-crafted to Trekkies. And as an added bonus, they cough up one of the rare happier endings in the "Black Mirror" universe — perhaps proof that Trek really is about optimism.

"Star Wreck" is an entire series of Finnish parody films that offer their take on the Star Trek universe, all released under a Creative Commons license to allow fans to freely distribute and enjoy. First developed by Samuli Torssonen in 1992 as a simple animation, "Star Wreck" follows the adventures of the familiar-sounding Captain James B. Pirk (Torssonen) of the C.P.P. Kickstart. Formerly an obscure fan series, the franchise became more widely known with the 2005 release of "Star Wrek: Into the Pirkinning."

Names of the eight films give a glimpse into the kind of content you can expect from "Star Wreck," with titles like "Star Wrek II: The Old S***" and "Star Wrek III: The Wrath of the Romuclans." Thinks of it as if Mad Magazine made a Star Trek series with main characters like Sergei Fukov (Janos Honkonen), the "Plingon" Commander Dwarf (Timo Vuorensola), and a silver android named Info (Petri Lehtinen). It's silly, and it's also a surprisingly good Star Trek parody. 

Think of "Avenue 5" as the opposite premise of "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Whereas "TNG" follows a Starfleet captain who spends a significant amount of time enjoying the amenities aboard what arguably feels like a luxury cruise liner in space, "Avenue 5" follows a captain of a space luxury cruise liner who ends up having to actually do difficult space captain work.

Starring Hugh Laurie as Captain Ryan Clark, the series imagines a luxurious space cruise ship meant for a short-term voyage that ends up getting just a little knocked off course. And in space, as Captain Kathryn Janeway of "Star Trek: Voyager" is all too familiar with, getting knocked a little off course can mean adding decades or even centuries to your travel itinerary. In the case of "Avenue 5," the ship's .21-degree divergence lengthens the flight plan from eight weeks to three years. It's an awfully long time under any circumstances, but Avenue 5 is packed full of entitled cruise ship passengers without the skill of a Starfleet crew.

A little dark, well-written, and very funny, "Avenue 5" is an excellent series that pays tribute to and often parodies Star Trek. Ethan Phillips, who plays Neelix on "Star Trek: Voyager," even plays a former astronaut with a drinking problem.