Star Trek has spawned over forty years of interplanetary delight for fans of lusty Captain Kirk, cerebral Spock, noble Captain Picard and Deep Space Nine’s gelatinous Odo. Whatever Trek show or movie is your most favorite, chances are there’s a pretty cool pop music connection attached to Gene Roddenberry’s sci-fi universe. So fire up those iPods, spin some old school vinyl or stream a few tunes from Pandora, as “Star Trek” boogies down and gets musical.
Mick Fleetwood – “Star Trek: The Next Generation”
This British musician and founder of super popular rock band Fleetwood Mac is an ace drummer who loves “Star Trek” so much, he agreed to throw on a weird fish costume to snag himself a memorable, yet truly fishy cameo. In the 2nd season of TNG, Fleetwood donned a silvery robe and a big fish head – the eyes are really amazing props – to be a terrorist assasin masquering as a diplomat. He’s en route to a political conference on the water planet of Pacifica, a beautiful world known for warm oceans and dazzling white beaches. Fleetwood even got to play at eating an icky looking goo soup of something called Vermicula – his alien race’s favorite delicacy.
John Tesh – “Star Trek: The Next Generation”
He’s an internationally respected musican who excels as a pianist and composer, and he’s also connected to “Star Trek”. In the 2nd season episode, “The Icarus Factor”, Worf (Michael Dorn) is in a quandary. His Klingon race has a sort of Bar Mitzvah ceremony for young males. It’s called Age of Acension, and Klingons are needed to help Worf through the rite. Starship Enterprise is warping in deep space, so Captain Picard’s ship isn’t close to any Klingon colony. With Wesley (Wil Wheaton), La Forge (Levar Burton) and O’Brien’s (Colm Meaney) help, an Ascension Ritual is cooked up in holographic form on the Holodeck. Tesh, then an anchor and correspondent for “Entertainment Tonight” along with Mary Hart, donned costume and latex make-up to be one of the Klingons who give Worf a big dose of pain, courtesy of nasty weapons called painsticks.
Adam Sandler – “Star Trek” (Captain Kirk & Mr. Spock)
Adam Sandler (Big Daddy) is now one of the biggest box office Hollywood stars around, but at one time he simply made up silly songs on “Saturday Night Live. Sandler would poke fun at all types of subjects, and a favorite was having fun with his own Jewish hertiage. In a classic SNL comedy bit and parody song, “The Chanukah Song”, he sings about all the many Hollywood stars claiming Jewish heritage which may be unknown to much of the public. This line says it all, “You don’t need ‘Deck the Halls’ or ‘Jingle Bell Rock’, When you can spin a dreidel with Captain Kirk and Mister Spock – Both Jewish!”
Information Society – “What’s On Your Mind”
This was a mega 1980’s hit, that while not about Star Trek directly, evokes the show, and puts Mister Spock to work by actually singing part of the song. Through the magical technique of sampling, the group took a line of dialogue from the episode “Errand of Mercy”, where Spock comments on aliens called Organians. Leonard Nimoy’s ultra intellectual science officer intones, “Pure energy.” – in describing what the aliens are composed of and why they can do such amazing things. In an extended cut of the song, good old Bones or Dr. McCoy (Deforest Kelley) is sampled from the “I, Mudd” episode, where he says at the outset of the song, “It’s worked so far, but we’re not out yet!”
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek_parodies_and_pop_culture_references_(music)
