Trek has referenced countless things in pop-culture. Let's go over some of the most interesting.
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00:00Human culture in Star Trek has changed so much over the centuries, yet there still exist
00:04many relics of art and inventions from modern times.
00:08Pop culture references appear in many different forms, from brief mentions in dialogue to
00:13background appearances and sometimes even important plot devices.
00:17So with that in mind, I'm Ellie with Trek Culture, here with 10 examples of real pop
00:21culture in Star Trek.
00:2310.
00:24Rick and Morty
00:26Rick and Morty has been the center of a lot of controversy lately.
00:29With Justin Roiland, the voices of both Rick and Morty, being fired from the show for domestic
00:33abuse, the future of the show is uncertain.
00:36But if the second season of Star Trek Picard is to be believed, the show will do just fine
00:41without Roiland in 2024.
00:43In the episode Assimilation, right after Rios met Teresa's son Ricardo, Teresa told the
00:48boy in Spanish to finish his homework or else he couldn't watch Rick and Morty.
00:53Aside from the fact that Rick and Morty seems a bit mature for a 9-year-old kid, lots of
00:57folks online have pointed out how strange it is that the creator of Star Trek Lower
01:01Decks, Mike McMahon, now exists in Star Trek canon, given that he also worked on Rick and
01:06Morty as a writer, producer, story editor, and fourth season showrunner.
01:11Does this mean that the show Lower Decks also exists in Trek canon?
01:14It raises a lot of confusing questions, though the same questions could probably be raised
01:18for many of the entries on this list.
01:209.
01:21The Nintendo Switch
01:23Video games, as we know them today, don't pop up in Star Trek that often, as most humans
01:27prefer to spend their time on holodecks during the 24th century, and things like recreation
01:32rooms and basic holographic tech were available at least a century before.
01:36Yet we've seen some older forms of media that still exist in Trek, like books, plays, and
01:41we've even seen characters like Tom Paris and the NX-01 crew watch television and films.
01:46It seems odd that classic video games are virtually absent from human society in the
01:51show.
01:52Perhaps one of the only relics of the classic video game industry was a Nintendo Switch
01:55that appeared very briefly as part of Colonel Hoz's collection in the Lower Decks episode
02:00Kaishon, His Eyes Open, along with dozens of other rare artifacts from real life and
02:05Star Trek history.
02:06You can see the console in a display case behind Beckett and Jet while they're fighting
02:11over the Kaishon doll and trying to escape Hoz's automated defense systems.
02:15Video games have been referenced before in dialogue, and the Catarian headset from The
02:20Next Generation episode The Game could be seen as a form of video game.
02:24Still, it seems odd that we haven't seen more references to real world video games
02:28or video game consoles in Trek.
02:30We'd love to see more stuff like the episode Lasting Impressions from The Orville, when
02:34the crew opened a time capsule from 2015 that contained a copy of Minecraft for the Xbox
02:39360.
02:408.
02:41Fidget Spinners
02:42In the same display case as the Nintendo Switch, you may have noticed another pop culture reference,
02:48just to the left of the console.
02:50Anyone who lived through 2017 will recognize the shape of fidget spinners, and remember
02:54the hugely popular craze that spread across the world that year.
02:58Fidget spinners seemingly came out of nowhere in 2017 and were gone from pop culture almost
03:03as fast.
03:04Yet, while they were popular, you couldn't visit any market, convenience store, or virtually
03:08any establishment without seeing a huge collection of fidget spinners on display, usually positioned
03:13strategically near the checkout counter.
03:15It's unclear why Kerner-Hawes was so attached to the fidget spinner.
03:19Maybe it was an actual relic from 2017 Earth, since it's unlikely that a replicated spinner
03:25would be as impressive to him.
03:26The episode Keishon His Eyes Open was absolutely packed with references to Trek, but the Switch
03:31and this fidget spinner were the best examples of modern pop culture items in his collection.
03:367.
03:37Movie Night
03:38The crew of the NX-01 Enterprise held regular movie nights in the ship's mess hall.
03:43In these movie gatherings, several real-world films appeared.
03:46Most of the ones we saw were from the mid-20th century, but the ship's database had an extensive
03:50catalog of over 50,000 films.
03:53In the episode Cogenitor, we see Trip look through a list of some of the films in their
03:57database, which included popular classics like The Day the Earth Stood Still, which
04:01also appeared in the beginning of the first episode of Strange New Worlds, but also films
04:05based off of holodeck programs we've seen throughout Trek.
04:09The film titled Dickson Hill and The Black Orchid referenced Captain Picard's Dickson
04:13Hill programs, and The Bride of Chaotica is from Tom Paris' Captain Proton programs.
04:19Members of the crew that often attended Movie Night included Trip, Archer, Mayweather, and
04:23Sato.
04:24While Phlox and T'Pol didn't enjoy the films as much as the human crew members, they still
04:28occasionally attended to better understand human interests.
04:32After watching the 1931 film Frankenstein, T'Pol compared the villagers' reactions to
04:37Frankenstein's monster to humanity's reaction when the Vulcans made first contact.
04:42She also made a recommendation to Ambassador Saval that any Vulcans newly arriving on Earth
04:47should be shown the film as preparation, much to Archer's dismay.
04:516.
04:52The Flux Capacitor
04:53Technobabble is basically just made-up words that writers can use to explain sci-fi technology.
04:59Star Trek really loves to use Technobabble in dialogue, but it's far from the only franchise
05:03to do so.
05:04Perhaps the most famous example of Technobabble is the Flux Capacitor from Back to the Future,
05:09which somehow allowed Doc Brown to time travel.
05:12Star Trek made an homage to this famously ambiguous device in the Next Generation episode
05:16Hollow Pursuits, albeit accidentally.
05:19While trying to figure out why the anti-grav units failed, Wesley suggested that Lieutenant
05:23Barclay should check the flow capacitor.
05:25Later in the episode, Barclay complained about the incident to a hologram of Counselor Troi,
05:29saying,
05:31Apparently, the term was accidentally changed from flow capacitor to flux capacitor by Dwight
05:39Schultz, but regardless, the inclusion of a flux capacitor into the Star Trek Technobabble
05:44dictionary is certainly welcome.
05:465.
05:47Morn
05:48Deep Space Nine wouldn't be the same without everyone's favorite Lurian barfly, Morn.
05:53Morn was one of Quark's best customers, and can be seen at his bar in dozens of episodes.
05:58He was known for being a brilliant storyteller, a shoulder to cry on, and one of the most
06:02talkative creatures the crew had ever encountered.
06:05Throughout Deep Space Nine, many people aboard the station came to consider Morn a close
06:09friend.
06:10You may not know that Morn was actually based on the character Norm, who appeared at the
06:14bar in every episode of the television show Cheers.
06:17Both characters were heavy drinkers and the subject of several running gags in their respective
06:21shows.
06:22Morn's legacy lives on today through the numerous other Lurians we've seen in Star Trek Discovery.
06:27Morn himself even returned to television in the Lower Decks episode, Here All Trust Nothing.
06:32It's great to know that after everything that's changed on the station, Quark still has his
06:35most loyal customer by his side.
06:384.
06:39Dungeons & Dragons
06:40Dungeons & Dragons, the hugely popular tabletop role-playing game, was referenced in a really
06:45fun way in the Lower Decks episode, The Least Dangerous Game.
06:48In the episode, Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, and Rutherford played a Klingon-themed role-playing
06:53game called Bartleths and Bynooks, where the goal was to die with as much honor as
06:58possible.
06:59The gameplay shared many similarities with Dungeons & Dragons.
07:02The game had figurines, multiple expansion packs, and even a 20-sided dice.
07:07Tendi saying to herself, come on, natural 20 was also a nice touch.
07:11The game also featured a screen with interactable simulations of famous Klingons like Martok
07:16and Gowron, who would basically act as the dungeon master of the game by telling the
07:20story and introducing obstacles for the players to overcome.
07:23The interactable Klingons on the screen also seemed to be a reference to Star Trek The
07:27Next Generation A Klingon Challenge, which was an interactable VHS board game that featured
07:32a video of a Klingon named Kavok, who would explain the game to players as they tried
07:36to stop him from taking the Enterprise D to Kronos.
07:393.
07:40Star Wars
07:41Interestingly, R2-D2 popped up briefly in both the 2009 Star Trek film and Star Trek
07:47Into Darkness.
07:48In the 2009 film, he can be seen through the Enterprise's view screen after they warped
07:53to Vulcan, and in Into Darkness, he got sucked into space along with several crew members
07:57when the Enterprise suffered a devastating hull breach.
08:01While these appearances were obviously just little Easter eggs that hardly anyone noticed,
08:05it's much more fun to take it overly seriously, and Pretend Like This proves that R2-D2 traveled
08:10through a wormhole from a galaxy far, far away to be in these films.
08:14So there you have it.
08:15Star Wars is officially canon to Star Trek.
08:18And it's not just the alternate timeline either, because the Millennium Falcon can
08:22actually be seen during the battle with the Borg in Star Trek First Contact.
08:26All this time, we've been arguing over whether Star Trek or Star Wars was better, but we
08:30failed to realize that they were in the same universe all along.
08:342.
08:35Doctor Who
08:36Here at WhatCulture, we're huge fans of both Star Trek and Doctor Who, so we love when
08:41the two franchises reference each other.
08:43Doctor Who is a lot more direct with its references.
08:46Star Trek has actually been mentioned by name on multiple occasions, like when Joy
08:50asked if a member of the Silence was wearing a Star Trek mask in the episode The Impossible
08:54Astronaut.
08:55Trek, by comparison, has been a bit more discreet.
08:59This reference was removed from the Blu-ray remaster of The Next Generation, but in the
09:03original version of The Neutral Zone.
09:05The graphic of Claire Raymond's family history included several names of actors who have
09:09played the Doctor.
09:11William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, John Pertwee, Tom Baker, and Peter Davison, which
09:16was spelt incorrectly, by the way, and Colin Baker.
09:19They all appeared as part of the family tree.
09:22Also, in The Naked Now, Riker asked for a sonic driver to open a force field, which
09:27seems to be a clear reference to the Doctor's sonic screwdriver.
09:31The Doctor has encountered the Federation in comic books, but we would love to see this
09:35happen on screen.
09:36Both franchises have already shown that interdimensional travel is possible, so maybe we'll get a full
09:41crossover episode one day.
09:43But it's probably a pipe dream.
09:45But I will take this opportunity to direct you towards our sister channel, WhoCulture,
09:50if Doctor Who is also something that you are interested in.
09:52Number 1.
09:53Shakespeare
09:54It's well known that Picard was a massive Shakespeare fan.
09:57When Q visited the Cerritos in the Lower Decks episode, Veritas, he even complained about
10:03Picard, saying that he's no fun, he's always quoting Shakespeare, he's always making wine.
10:08Q wasn't wrong.
10:09In the very first Next Generation episode, Encounter at Farpoint, he quoted Kill All
10:14the Lawyers' line from Henry VI, Part 2.
10:17Then, in the episode Ménage à Troyes, he recited several lines from Shakespeare's sonnets
10:21and Othello in order to save Lwaxana Troyes from Damon Togg.
10:26This habit continued into Star Trek Picard, with Jean-Luc quoting No legacy is as rich
10:30as honesty, from All's World That Ends Well to His Dog, Number One.
10:35We can see in the Next Generation episode Hide and Queue that Picard kept a copy of
10:39Shakespeare's complete works in his ready room, and the Enterprise D often held live
10:43performances of Shakespearean plays, so it's safe to say that the playwright was a major
10:48inspiration to the Captain.
10:50And that concludes our list.
10:51If you think we missed any, then please do let us know in the comments below.
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11:09I've been Ellie with Trek Culture.
11:10I hope you have a wonderful day.
11:12And remember to boldly go where no one has gone before.