References to Star Trek in Futurama
For more information on this topic visit
Glossary.com
This page is part of References to Star Trek.
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
- Right after the title sequence, a door opens with the same sound effect as the doors in Star Trek: The Original Series (actually, it's the sound effect for doors closing).
- Fry approaches a door which opens automatically and exclaims: "Cool, just like on Star Trek!"
- Fry and Bender hide in the head museum where Fry meets Leonard Nimoy's head in a jar:
- Nimoy: Welcome to the head museum, I'm Leonard Nimoy
- Fry: Spock?! Hey, hey, do the thing! (does the vulcan salute to Nimoy)
- Nimoy (laughing): I don't do that anymore.
- When Fry and the others board the starship the door opens with the ST:TOS sound effect (this time the one for a door opening) and the coffee machine also makes a sound effect that we recognize from ST:TOS.
When one of Bender's neighbors closes her cell phone it makes the same sound as the ST:TOS communicators.
There are many subtle and not so subtle references in this episode.
- Zapp Brannigan's outrageously self-centered personality is a parody of captain Kirk, and his chair (the whole bridge even) is similar to that of the USS Enterprise.
- Zapp says the uniforms are made of velour, just like the Star Trek uniforms are.
- Zapp files a captain's journals, giving a stardate.
- Zapp confuses chess with poker, a reference to Kirk and Spock's chess/poker discussion in The Corbomite Maneuver.
- "The Democratic Order of Planets prohibits interfering with undeveloped worlds", known as Brannigan's Law is of course a parody of the Prime Directive.
Trisolians (the people of the planet Trisol) are liquid lifeforms, and one of them refer to Fry as "the solid". This may be a reference to the Changelings/The Founders from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine whose natural state is a gelatinous liquid and who also refer to people as "solids".
Fry finds a Mr. Spock collectors plate on the surface of the big ball of garbage.
Zapp tells Kif: "Divert power from the shields. Full speed ahead!" This is probably a reference to the constant habit of diverting power from one thing or another in Star Trek.
As Fry pilots the ship to defend earth against invading alien ships, he says "I'm gonna be a science fiction hero, just like Uhura, or Captain Janeway, or Xena!".
Leela and Professor Farnsworth are playing a game of 3D Scrabble, a reference to the game Tri-D Chess which can be seen for example in the ST:TOS episode Where No Man Has Gone Before.
The empathy chip that Professor Farnsworth installs in Bender is probably a reference to the emotion chip that Data gets in Star Trek: Generations.
This episode in many ways parodies the ST:TOS episode Amok Time. Dr. Zoidberg and Fry take on the roles of Spock and Kirk respectively.
- Dr. Zoidberg becomes violent and erractic when his species' mating season comes, just like Spock begins to lose control when he enters pon farr.
- The king of Dr. Zoidberg's homeworld is similar to T'Pau in many ways: a throne which is carried with removable handles, a similar staff and the same accent and speech pattern.
- The national anthem of Dr. Zoidberg's world is the ST:TOS fight theme.
- Dr. Zoidberg and Fry must engage in a fight to the death over Edna, just as Spock and Kirk do over T'Pring.
- Fry is allowed to chose from three weapons. The top and middle ones are a lirpa and an ahn'woon respectively – both traditional vulcan weapons used in the fight between Kirk and Spock.
- Dr. Zoidberg rips Fry's shirt, as Spock does Kirk's.
Flexo – an evil Bender – has a goatee. In all likelihood, this is a reference to the mirror Spock in Mirror, Mirror.
Sitting around the briefing table, Fry discovers that Hermes has a brainslug:
- Fry: Wait a second, he's got a brainslug on his head!
- Leela: Sssh! You're gonna get us all assimiliated.
- Amy: Just act normal and switch to a garlic shampoo.
This is of course a reference to the Borg and their practice of assimilation.
- Captain Muskie (a former member of the Planet Express team) has a disfigured face and sits in an advanced wheelchair covering everything but his head and shoulders. His appearance closely resembles that of Captain Christopher Pike in the ST:TOS episode The Menagerie. Muskie is an abbreviation of muskellunge, a member of the pike family. The music that plays while Muskie rolls in is from Star Trek: The Original Series. Muskie beeps once, which in the ST:TOS episode means "yes".
- Professor Farnsworth has invented a universal translator, a device used in all Star Trek series. Unfortunately "it only translates into an incomprehensible, dead language" (French).
The alarm that sounds when the Planet Express ship is dragged down under water is the ST:TOS red alert effect.
- The title parodies the ST:TOS episode The Trouble with Tribbles.
- Leela takes some readings on the distant planet and concludes: "Well, it's a type M planet, so it should at least have roddenberries."
Nichelle Nichols, dressed as Uhura, appears in this episode with the Vice Presidential Action Rangers to protect the space-time continuum.
Fry plays with a model Planet Express ship: "Giant space robot, this is Captain Fry of the USS Planet Express ship. We come in peace." USS is the prefix of all Federation starships, e.g. the USS Defiant.
One of the nominees for "best soft drink product placement" at the Academy Awards ceremony is Star Trek: The Pepsi Generation.
The title is derived from "where no man has gone before", and this whole episode is centered around Star Trek and Trek fandom.
