Star Trek References in the general culture

[Nardpuncher]

I really don't want to sound like the old spoilsport, but hearing Trek refernces got me pretty excited with the "Wow! That show/actor/comedian just mentioned a Trek thing!!!" but that was when I first became a fan and I was 13 or 14.
Now I don't think much of it if some guy says "Beam me up,Scotty" on some TV show.
Star Trek is so big that it's not really the same as if someone references something obscure that only you and your best freind know about.

 

[Canuck69]

I really don't want to sound like the old spoilsport, but hearing Trek refernces got me pretty excited with the "Wow! That show/actor/comedian just mentioned a Trek thing!!!" but that was when I first became a fan and I was 13 or 14.
Now I don't think much of it if some guy says "Beam me up,Scotty" on some TV show.
Star Trek is so big that it's not really the same as if someone references something obscure that only you and your best freind know about.

For me it depends on what the reference is. Something like "Beam me up Scotty" is so widely known and used it is not uncommon to hear it. But something more obscure like "There are four lights" is only something you would know if you actually watched the episode. That may have been a poor example though...

 

[Isis]

I don't believe this. I'm sitting here watching Chris Matthews. He does this piece on presidential salutes and ends it with Obama doing "Live Long and Prosper" at state affairs. Interspersed with a photo of TOS Spock doing same. Talk about timing!

Matthews is a Trekkie. it's one of his few virtues

Thanks, indranee, I didn't know Matthews is a Trekkie.

 

[Cyke101]

The new Lincoln ads feature the phrase "Starships don't need keys." Not necessarily Star Trek ("starship" wasn't invented for Star Trek but I think the word is most identified with Trek).

I'm not sure if it was Lincoln or not, but I do remember this one commercial. We are watching snow fall from the perspective of a speeding car at night. The headlights make the snow flakes look like TNG style warp streaks, the pitch black night looks like space. Then, the TOS music starts... the camera pulls back and you see the sleek upper class car.

 

[I am not Spock]

I really don't want to sound like the old spoilsport, but hearing Trek refernces got me pretty excited with the "Wow! That show/actor/comedian just mentioned a Trek thing!!!" but that was when I first became a fan and I was 13 or 14.
Now I don't think much of it if some guy says "Beam me up,Scotty" on some TV show.
Star Trek is so big that it's not really the same as if someone references something obscure that only you and your best freind know about.

For me it depends on what the reference is. Something like "Beam me up Scotty" is so widely known and used it is not uncommon to hear it. But something more obscure like "There are four lights" is only something you would know if you actually watched the episode. That may have been a poor example though...

Yes. You don't have to be a fan to know 'Beam me up, Scotty', but when something references a more obscure quote which requires you to have watched the episode, I am impressed.

Like the 'Gamesters of Triskelion' scene in the Simpsons episode 'Deep Space Homer' (I'll bet 15 quatloos on the winner). Or the 'Dagger of the Mind' South Park (complete with Dr Van Gelder!)

 

[Nerys Myk]

A few Trek references on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson tonight. Partially because the guests where the Build Team from Mythbusters and they showed clips from the "Gorn Cannon" episode. Craig talked with Grant about building robots with emotion ships and Grant mentioned current AIs have the intelligence of a cat.(which scares Craig, because cats want to kill us) Which lead to a closing bit where Craig imitated Kirk battling a Cat robot bent on destruction.

 

[buckeyenation]

This just in.... 1-24-10....last night on the NFL network's NFC post game show, host Rich Eisen referenced "The Empath". It was, however, unclear whether or not he was talking about the TOS episode, or referring to Troi, or perhaps both.None the less, i thought it was fairly coo, especially given the fact it was a football post game show.

 

[S'kai]

Dec 18 2009 Science , p 1602

A review of the life extension molecule rapamycin is headlined "Live Long and Prosper."

 

[buckeyenation]

In Kill Bill Vol. 1, the opening title card reads "Revenge is a dish best served cold" -Old Klingon Proverb

 

[Mandra]

Two references from author Dean Koontz.

In Mr. Murder, one of the characters is a Trekkie who is constantly reading a Star Trek novel. His partner keeps making up ridiculous titles for the book (ie "Kirk and Spock on the Planet of Nude Waitresses, or whatever the hell it was").

In Life Expectancy, Koontz uses the phrase "all our yesterdays" as part of a paragraph describing the contents of a library.

 

[Starbreaker]

Charlotte jokingly says she speaks Klingon in a S5 Lost episode. There have also been a couple of other references over the years.

 

[S'kai]

"Presented at the 2010 Motor Show, the “Sbarro Autobau” is a strange, if not utterly illogical, car concept that seems straight out from Star Trek."

http://www.thedesignblog.org/entry/sbarro-autobau-concept-weird-to-the-core/

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

The movie Zoolander had a character named Mugatu, played by Will Ferrell

Ben Stiller is a bit of a fan, his production company is called "Red Hour Productions", a nod to Return of the Archons.

Yes. You don't have to be a fan to know 'Beam me up, Scotty', but when something references a more obscure quote which requires you to have watched the episode, I am impressed.

Like the 'Gamesters of Triskelion' scene in the Simpsons episode 'Deep Space Homer' (I'll bet 15 quatloos on the winner)

Greg Proops threw that line into one of his stand up gigs. The line wasn't in reference to a Star Trek skit, he just dropped "15 qualtoos on the bespectacled one" in as an aside.

 

[Too Much Fun]

The movie Zoolander had a character named Mugatu, played by Will Ferrell

Ben Stiller is a bit of a fan, his production company is called "Red Hour Productions", a nod to Return of the Archons.

I also recall a scene in "Tropic Thunder" where Stiller's alone and scared huddled up in a makeshift shelter in the forest watching "Arena" on a portable TV.

 

[Finn]

"Presented at the 2010 Motor Show, the “Sbarro Autobau” is a strange, if not utterly illogical, car concept that seems straight out from Star Trek."

http://www.thedesignblog.org/entry/sbarro-autobau-concept-weird-to-the-core/

Obviously quoted by someone who doesn't follow Trek. I immediately thought "Star Wars" when I saw the picture.

 

[stonester1]

In the movie "From Paris With Love", the two main characters, Charlie Wax (John Travolta) and James Rees (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) were talking about their respective childhoods. Wax was, to nobody's surprise, a kid from the wrong side of the tracks who had done some thuggery as a youth. To Wax's surprise, Rees was also from the "hood". He had spent his youth hiding in his apartment. "Star Trek" was a key show that kept him dreaming and helped get him out of that situation. When guessing which character inspired Rees most, Wax ventured, "Spock?" Rees answered, "Uhura." Rees is a language expert in diplomacy work, currently assigned to the American embassy in Paris, but he wishes to go into covert intelligence ops.

Buffy season 7 episode "Dirty Girls", Andrew is bringing the potential Slayers up to speed on the just arrived Faith. While describing her exploits, we get clips of Faith's most notorious moments, including her fighting a very familiar looking...Vulcan.

One of the potentials had to point out that Faith had killed a volcanologist.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

Greg Proops threw that line into one of his stand up gigs. The line wasn't in reference to a Star Trek skit, he just dropped "15 qualtoos on the bespectacled one" in as an aside.

I forgot one from that same gig. He was having a laugh at Costner's Robin Hood film and had the women on the film set ovulating at the mere sight of Sean Connery. A spectacle he compared to the Horta episode, so many eggs lying around

"Presented at the 2010 Motor Show, the “Sbarro Autobau” is a strange, if not utterly illogical, car concept that seems straight out from Star Trek."

http://www.thedesignblog.org/entry/sbarro-autobau-concept-weird-to-the-core/

Obviously quoted by someone who doesn't follow Trek. I immediately thought "Star Wars" when I saw the picture.

Yeah, I thought at first Blade Runner, but it was too bright for that film, so Star Wars it is.

 

[T'Girl]

Obviously quoted by someone who doesn't follow Trek. I immediately thought "Star Wars" when I saw the picture.

Yeah, I thought at first Blade Runner, but it was too bright for that film, so Star Wars it is.

The nose section reminds me more of the Mach Five from Speed Racer.

 

[scotpens]

To me, that car looks like a pimped-out version of one of these Italian concept cars from the 1970s.

Bertone Stratos:

Pininfarina Modulo (looks kind of like a Trek shuttlecraft, doesn't it?):

 

[Deckerd]

In the movie "From Paris With Love", the two main characters, Charlie Wax (John Travolta) and James Rees (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) were talking about their respective childhoods. Wax was, to nobody's surprise, a kid from the wrong side of the tracks who had done some thuggery as a youth. To Wax's surprise, Rees was also from the "hood". He had spent his youth hiding in his apartment. "Star Trek" was a key show that kept him dreaming and helped get him out of that situation. When guessing which character inspired Rees most, Wax ventured, "Spock?" Rees answered, "Uhura." Rees is a language expert in diplomacy work, currently assigned to the American embassy in Paris, but he wishes to go into covert intelligence ops.

Buffy season 7 episode "Dirty Girls", Andrew is bringing the potential Slayers up to speed on the just arrived Faith. While describing her exploits, we get clips of Faith's most notorious moments, including her fighting a very familiar looking...Vulcan.

One of the potentials had to point out that Faith had killed a volcanologist.

Again this is not general culture. TV shows referencing other TV shows is not general culture. It's vulcanology, by the way, unless you go for modern spellings.