Saturday Night Live Parodies Star Trek In Latest Episode

Saturday Night Live was back with another new episode on Saturday, and it took the opportunity to spoof Star Trek. The Star Trek franchise is expanding on Paramount+ with several new shows and continuing series. The parody sketch takes the form of a Paramount+ Star Trek prequel titled Starcharter Andromeda. It sees the crew of a starship in typical Starfleet crisis mode until they're interrupted by two younger officers played by episode host Carey Mulligan and series regular Mikey Day. The rest of the crew characterizes them as rich white kids from an expensive Starfleet academy used to having the world revolve around them. You can watch the sketch below.

This bit is hardly SNL's first time basing a segment on Star Trek. The live comedy show's relationship with the sci-fi franchises dates back to SNL's first season when John Belushi impersonated Captain Kirk in the sketch titled "The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise." Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner, would host the show in 1986 and participate in the notorious "get a life" sketch that almost sullied his relationship with Star Trek fans. In 1994, as Star Trek: The Next Generation neared its finale, Patrick Stewart hosted the show and played Captain Picard for the spoof "Love Boat: The Next Generation." In 2009, Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto appeared on the show to explain the first Star Trek Kelvin Timeline movie's premise with Leonard Nimoy's support.

While Starcharter Andromeda is not among the shows slated to join the Star Trek universe on Paramount+, the streaming service offered sneak peeks at the shows that are one the way during last week's First Contact Day celebration. That included the first teaser trailers for Star Trek: Picard Season Two, Star Trek: Discovery Season Four, and Star Trek: Lower Decks Season Two, plus the first look at Captain Janeway in Star Trek: Prodigy.

That's only the beginning. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is in production on its first season, and Star Trek head producer Alex Kurtzman has plans for the franchise for years to come.

"Heather Kaden and Aaron Baiers, who work with me at Secret Hideout — we literally just got off a call with the network mapping out with us through 2027," Kurtzman said during an episode of a Hollywood Reporter podcast. "Now, when I say that, it's not like it's set in stone. It's just, 'Here's a plan. Here's what we're looking at. Here's how the different shows are going to drop.' Consider the fact that it takes a year from inception — from starting production — to airing, you have to plan way, way, way in advance to get these things done, and you have to stay on top of the zeitgeists and make sure that what you're doing is relevant. So you have to plan so far in advance now in different kinds of ways [like safety and budget] to seem loose and improvisational, but there's nothing loose and improvisational about it."

All of Star Trek is streaming now on Paramount+.