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The Way To Eden Stardate: 5832.3 Original Airdate: 21 Feb, 1969

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Published Feb 21, 2024

Lessons Learned on 'The Way To Eden'

In a world where violence is met with violence, this episode begs us to consider mercy.

StarTrek.com

" Headin’ out to Eden. Yea, Brother ."

To Star Trek viewers who were fans of The Original Series , these words are both familiar and possibly cringeworthy. The episode from which it originates is considered by some to be one of the most skippable of all three of the seasons. " The Way to Eden " introduces a group of followers determined to find a rumored paradise akin to the Garden of Eden of Biblical times.

While the premise could have been much stronger had the characters been less cartoonish, the episode falls flat on many levels and consistently ranks low on fans’ must-watch list. Surprisingly, though, "The Way to Eden" has its redeeming qualities with some fairly solid life lessons applicable today.

For its 55th anniversary of when it first premiered on February 21, 1969, let's revisit the episode's message.

"The Way To Eden"

Suffering from a deadly disease, the group's leader, Dr. Sevrin, is desperate to reach this perfect planet as he believes he can only be healed among primitive people. His promise of Utopia entices followers, but they fail to recognize Dr. Sevrin’s madness, and he uses their loyalty against them. They weren’t ready to believe that not every leader is worthy of being followed, no matter his promises.

The disciples blindly trust that the doctor only wants what is best for all of them. So desperate are they to find the promised paradise they don’t question their leader’s motives or decisions —  even when he encourages them to overtake the Enterprise and threaten the lives of the crew. When learning of Dr. Sevrin’s intentions and past medical history, the group fails to see (or chooses not to see) that he isn’t concerned with them as much as he is with himself. The consequences of their choices soon reveal that unconditional allegiance can result in regret and even tragedy. Few, if any, people are deserving of such devotion.

In the search for a perfect life, Dr. Sevrin's followers miss the appreciation of their own lives. With a "grass is greener" mindset, they limit themselves to a never-ending search that quickly results in devastation. Though Eden is discovered, its bright blue skies and beautiful foliage hides deadly secrets. Its poisonous fruit kills, while native acidic plants and grass render the planet uninhabitable.  It’s a stark reminder that our lives aren’t meant to be perfect, and by seeking out that which is unattainable, we lose sight of what we’ve been given.

None of these people realized what their ambition had driven them to until it was too late. So fixated were they on their end goal that they saw Captain Kirk and his crew as obstacles that needed to be eradicated. We can do that in our own lives when we lose our focus and fail to be happy in the journey of life. By believing in a myth, Dr. Sevrin's followers walked away from all their lives could have been, and Dr. Sevrin himself lost his own life when he refused to believe his idea of perfection was tarnished.

However, as Mr. Spock clarified, there was no insanity in what this group sought, as there is nothing wrong with reaching for a dream or having beliefs that others don’t. Just as there was nothing wrong with Irina leaving Starfleet to pursue an alternate path. It was simply the manner in which she and the others chased those dreams that led them astray.

There will always be people that don’t agree with nonconformity, and while Dr. Sevrin's acolytes chose to express themselves differently than those who wore Starfleet uniforms, they weren’t bad people or typical villains of the week. They were simply misguided in their intentions and willing to remove what they considered barriers on the path to the realization of their goals. Their inability to see reason, though, proved to be detrimental as is the case when we ignore rationale in order to be right.

"The Way to Eden" wraps up on a positive note with Mr. Spock convinced that Irina would find Eden a different way. The Enterprise ’s first officer offered the former Starfleet cadet hope for the future in spite of the dangers she and her friends had inflicted upon him and the crew.

In his quiet, logical way, Mr. Spock’s assurances also delivered a measure of forgiveness. In a world today where violence is often met with violence, this episode gives viewers a look into a future where mercy is the answer. In the end, Irina and her three remaining friends are left to follow their own individual paths, as they should have from the beginning.

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This article was originally published on March 17, 2020.

Rachel Carrington is a freelance writer and author whose work can be found a Startrek.com, The New York Times, The Writer, and Short-Edition as well as many others. Find her on Twitter @rcarrington2004.

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“The Way To Eden” Remastered Review + Screenshots & Video

| June 15, 2008 | By: Jeff Bond 144 comments so far

REVIEW by Jeff Bond

Finally Trek Remastered arrives at one of the biggest targets where classic Trek third season silliness is concerned: Star Trek’s infamous space hippies episode. You know the drill: the Enterprise overtakes the space cruiser Aurora which explodes while attempting to escape the starship; elephant-eared Dr. Sevrin (Skip Homier) and his gang of followers are beamed onboard, Spock-jams ensue. While people who actually watch the show may conjure up “Spock’s Brain” or “And the Children Shall Lead” as representing the worst of Trek, I’d argue a lot more casual viewers—or people who’ve never sat through an entire episode—can recall that there was a terrible Star Trek episode about space hippies.

So we all know the bad—I’d like to try to concentrate on what’s actually good about this episode.

Okay, gimme a minute…

Seriously—if you remove a few key squirm-inducing elements (Charles Napier’s grinning whack-job performance as Adam, the jam sessions and the soapy romance scenes between Chekov and his old flame), “The Way to Eden” is a serviceable episode with a few nice touches. Remember that the American counterculture was a huge force at this time, something both terrifying and compelling to the millions of viewers who would have been watching this show in 1969. Like Kirk himself, the production crew of the original series was made up of quite a few military men, and you have to acknowledge the bravery of the attempt here to reach out to the angry youth culture that was rebelling against the status quo at the time.

“Way to Eden” functions best as a time capsule—its hippy outfits aren’t really much more out there than a lot of what was being worn at the time, and if anything the whole story is just too on-the-nose. Where better Trek episodes clothed their metaphors in more elaborate sci fi trappings, Arthur Heinemann’s teleplay simply puts recognizable hippies in outer space (and the story is radically different from Dorothy Fontana’s original script “Joanna,” a story that would have not only fleshed out McCoy’s character but offered some unusually hard-hitting inter-character drama and conflict for Trek’s third year).

Nevertheless, the decision to have Spock mediate the conflict between authority figure Kirk and the countercultural Edenites was right on the nose. Spock was a figure who conceivably spoke to the counterculture well before this episode was written—he was hugely popular with young people and it’s clear from Leonard Nimoy’s thoughtful performance that he took the responsibility of playing this episode seriously. Shatner’s Kirk too is put in an interesting position, confronted with a group for whom he represents unthinking authoritarianism. Kirk is clearly ill at ease with the Edenites, yet Shatner underplays enough that there’s a sense that he’s rather more crestfallen and a little embarrassed than offended that these people just don’t “get” him. (By the time Shatner has to portray being attacked by sonic waves, however, any remaining subtlety is out the airlock)

Dr. Sevrin himself is a compelling figure and his concealed illness is quite forward-thinking as a concept—if you listen to McCoy and Sevrin describe it, they’re talking about the kind of “super-bug” that’s actually threatening hospitals right now due to the over-prescribing of antibiotics (and for all we know, the use of antibacterial soaps). Having Sevrin totally reject a technological culture that’s made him into a deadly Typhoid Mary, yet having him be in total denial about his situation, makes perfect sense. And blue-haired Tongo Radd is an interesting minor character, well played by Victor Brandt.

As for the rest, well…how do you produce a handful of songs that play as counterculture anthems but sound like they could be played 300 years from now? Charles Napier (who would follow up this role with bits in a number of Russ Meyer soft-core porn films before doing movies like Rambo: First Blood Part 2 and Silence of the Lambs) co-wrote and performed his own songs in the episode, and as goofy is the lantern-jawed actor looks in his half-dome wig and bare chest, he’s got a tough role (and some of the worst lines in the teleplay) as the poetic cheerleader for the Edenites. At least he’s better than Mary-Linda Rapelye as Chekov’s old flame Irini and her dueling Russian accents scenes with Walter Koenig (watching their two-shots in the new hi-def transfers you’re just blown away by all the friggin HAIR sticking out all over those shots). As for the songs, yes, they’re lame—but I’m more amused than embarrassed now by scenes like the Enterprise bridge crew rocking out while Scotty shakes his head disapprovingly. In fact, I’ve developed a weird fondness for Napier’s “Headin’ Out To Eden” song—so one of the big annoyances of the syndication cuts this time is that they eliminate it almost entirely from the episode, which drains the impact of some purely instrumental quotes of the material late in the story.

Speaking of which—the fact that Eden is a.) found so easily, and b.) covered with acidic plants doesn’t really help matters. It’s ironic, but wouldn’t Sevrin’s own disease killing off his followers have been a bit more appropriate? In any case, we can all give thanks for one thing about this episode: it inspired Shatner’s unforgettable Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. And in that one God’s planet was every bit as easy to find as Eden.

As CBS-Digital moves into the final handful of episodes on the Remastered project they seem to be pulling out all, or at least some, of the stops, which is ironic in itself since the episodes they’re lavishing some bold new shots on are generally considered to be the worst of the original series. “Way to Eden” gets a brand new Aurora, a nicely-detailed retooling of Harry Mudd’s ship from “Mudd’s Women” (appropriate since the opening chase sequence is almost a blow-by-blow remake of the Mudd pursuit sequence minus the asteroids). CBS-D takes a subtle approach to the Aurora’s overheating, adding a glowing impulse/antimatter mixing deck and gradually glowing engines to replace the overall red glow on the original miniature, as well as a nicely detailed explosion.

Other than library Enterprise shots that’s it until the starship reaches Eden, where CBS-D conjures up what may rank as the most “super-Earthlike” of all their Earth-like planets (so super it’s got two moons). But it’s also enhanced by a ravishing matte painting that really helps to open up the original’s simple planet set. Somebody should produce some posters of these matte shots as they crystallize Star Trek’s idealized Chesley Bonestell aesthetic better than just about anything I’ve seen.

SCREENSHOTS

Remastered vs. Original

BONUS VIDEO: Spock Rock

Seasons One and Two discounted at Amazon The Season Two box set is now available at Amazon for pre-order, discounted to $63.99 (Amazon has a low price guarantee that if they drop the price before ship date of August 5th you will get that lower price). The Season One DVD / HD DVD combo disk is available now for $129.95 (retail is $194.99).

Herbert: if you don’t know what it is, you probably are one.

When people I know mention having seen this episode, I cringe in admitting I’m a fan of the series! What a stinker!

All the cgi came together nicely. I always enjoy seeing some of the original opticals recreated as in the overhead saucer shot. Overall, the use of cgi in the context and sensibility of what they might have done in back in the 60’s, really works with this episode.

And if they seems to pulling out all the stops in these last few episodes, whatever the reason, I’ll take whatever they can give. I was hoping for a little different take for only a few shots in remastered episodes, so I’m very glad they have done this project.

It gives me something to type about.

Pretty backdrop! Still a silly episode.

*illicit substances sold seperately.

Star Trek truly was a mirror of our species and the time it comes from, not surprising then that a reflection of the 60’s, including hippies and counter culture would be included.

I couldn’t help but think of other social groups that reject technology or modern society like the Amish or the FLDS group from Texas.

One of the worst episodes flat out. The episode wouldn’t have been so mad if it hadn’t fallen on its face at the very end. The scene on the planet was ridiculous. It’s like the director just told everybody to do whatever they wanted. How can the grass be acidic but not the tree Dr. Severin climbs up? He should not be able to climb up the tree or eat the fruit. The same goes for Adam. Ouch! This apple is really acidic. I’m gonna eat it!

I’m a firm believer that any story (even one that sounds weak) could be well-done, but that it depends on the execution. This could have been a good episode if some things were done differently. I agree with the point that it would be more interesting for Sevrin’s followers to die from his disease than the poisonous plants.

# 8. “How can the grass be acidic but not the tree Dr. Severin climbs up? He should not be able to climb up the tree or eat the fruit. The same goes for Adam. Ouch! This apple is really acidic. I’m gonna eat it!”

You’re being far too literal, dude! Look, it’s about hippies looking for paradise. And when they think they’ve found it, it turns out to be made of deadly… ACID!!!

Get it? ; )

Come on, get with the third season hit you on the head with a frickin’ shovel “half-black, half-white” social “messages”!

The only way a viewer can take “The Way to Eden” seriously is to see it as a parable of how idealistic young kids + an insane, charismatic leader = doom. Otherwise it has none of the inspired elements of the Godshow from STV, to which it is compared. One of the worst episodes of this or any other generation…only made more bearable by the excellent FX and matte work this week. Can someone post a larger, brighter still of the Eden planet matte? That was gorgeous.

Im gonna crack my knuckles and junp for joy i got a clean bill of health from dr. mccoy. Yay brother. True about the planet being acid like. How can you walk on the grass and not get burned and also why were they taken off the shuttle and then layed on the ground when there feet were badly burned. Should’t the ground burned them more and climbing the tree should have been a big no no. I liked the ship and the explosion was good to. But everyone listning to music on the bridge and kirk letting them. man im not reaching that. Thats the only time kirk ever relaxed the disipline on the bridge.Even though this was one of the worst trek from the tos it is still good trek.Yay brother. Are you reacing me brother. If not you must be a herbert.

herbert! herbert! herbert! herbert! herbert!

It’s really to bad that the original DC Fontana story wasn’t filmed. The idea of McCoy dealing with his feelings for his daughter and being confronted with seeing Kirk with the eyes of a father instead of a comrade would have made the episode the highlight of the otherwise dismal 3rd season. McCoy would not have simply rolled his eyes at Kirk’s advances or Joanna’s attraction. I can envision him lecturing both of them rather angrily.

i actually liked this episode- the space hippies are still not as annoying as neelix or the incomparable jar jar binks…

nice FX- wish they had done a set extension- butt new matts r always welcome.

I think there’s only ONE way to really watch this episode, (Cough)

*hides in corner and quietly admits to having liked this episode.*

Does being ashamed of it make me a herbert?

That groovy tune with Spock on harp and the alien hippy chick on bike wheel really reached me, bother! I’ve got it on an mp3 file and I’m gonna make it my ring tone.

Then I’m gonna have all my friends call me every 5 minutes.

For kicks, me and my buddy would drive around using his PA system in his car and sing that “steppin into Eden, yay brother!” and annoy the heck out of everybody that was within earshot.

Thanks for posting the video, but is it just me or… is the video pixelating wildly to be almost unwatchable in parts? It’s like it “burps” every so often.

Nice review (except for the “sonic over-acting”, of course – I mean, have you ever been attacked by sonic waves…?? Do you know what it feels like..?? Ok, shut up then, will ya…;)

I.do.like.this.episode. (No, I won’t run for cover;) I like the message, I like it when Spock tells them “I have no doubt you will find it… or make it yourselves”, I like the jam session and those crazy silly wonderfully oldfashioned hippy songs, and I like finding out whether I’m “Herbert” or not…

#18 We reach, sister..:)

Yeah…, …those guys must have been smokin’ some pretty crappy space weed… …a least Spock could jam with them ;-)

Michael Richards is actually a pen-name of D.C. Fontana. She also used it in TNG.

And the original “lake shot” on Eden was just stock footage from “Shore Leave”. I’ve noticed it first when I was ten years old. It was a huge disappointment.

Herbert….yeah….this video is of pretty poor quality. Too bad someone talented couldn’t post one that we could watch without spilling the bong water. I guess the life of BIG DADDY Herbert must be too overwhelming. Seriously…its jumps like a space hippie sitting in the Captains Chair with a ditch (or space weed) in one hand and a phaser on overload in the other. Just not kewl – cool!

Moral of this story: Acid is bad (in ALL its forms).

I’m not sure what I think of this explosion. I think the other one looked a bit more real.

GREAT matte shot. It almost looks photo-real. In fact, it makes me wonder if someoe on staff didn’t just contribute this photo they had of a real place, and they just photoshopped in a couple of moons.

Another good review by Jeff Bond (all you TREK people need to check out Film Score Monthly — is Mr. Bond still writing there?)

Yes, The Way to Eden is weird and dumb but it’s still, strangely better than Masks or Phantasms (both of which I sort of watched in syndication recently) — not meaning to make this anti-TNG, which I love sort of, but The Way to Eden almost exemplifies how the “worst” of TOS is at least more fully entertaining than the worst of TNG.. Not that that should be the mark of good television.

In some respect, The Way to Eden is a freaky (and foolish) peak and peek into 60s counterculture at least in TOS’s last season, and now it is a way for new fans to look into the America of 1968 that spawned some of TOS, as cartoonish as it may be depicted. Actually, watching the the third season again recently, I’m surprised how many good (and haunting) episodes there are– but thee are also a lot of dogs and dross.

I actually like Star Trek V’s revisionist take on the same basic material; it embraces what is the core theme of TREK: mankind’s rejection of Paradise in order to achieve something higher and more hard-earned on our own terms.

Also: “I’m gonna crack my knuckles and jump for joy, I got a clean bill of heatlth from Doctor McCoy!”; I know ot was said elsewhere but what the hell.

I love this episode. Wonderful music and some funny scenes. A camp classic.

I could swear that Dr. Sevrin says “Rejoice, brothren!”

Unfortunately, “brothren” is not word.

Yeah, brether!

We reach… I like the music. Damn KPDX Fox Frackin’ 49 in Portland, Oregon instead ran an infomercial on colon cleansing! Bloody hell! Borgus frat! Yes, I’ll buy the dvds and show these TV programmers who to mess with.

I think this episode really exemplifies the whole “Everything I know I learned from Star Trek” idea, for me.

Growing up in Iowa in the 80s, I didn’t know what a hippie was when I was a kid. But I was raised on Star Trek from the moment I could talk. I didn’t know what those weird people were in this episode. Later, when I was maybe 10 or 11, some of my family members were talking about hippies. I said, “Oh they sound like those guys on Star Trek!”

Amazing how many things that happened with . . . Oh how weird it feels to have your first memories of President Lincoln being the “Giant Space Abraham Lincoln” on the Enterprise View Screen. :P

I grew up in a house hold where pop music was basically verboden. As sad as it is to some to hear me say this….The Monkees and this episode were my introductions to something other than classical music. I seemed to also see a little deeper into this episode than some give it credit for. I saw a whole culture and language being introduced to the audience in a short amount of time (something I believe Star Trek’s writers did well). Even as a little kid I picked up on that and recognized how well done that was. Just dig that little exchange between Spock and Adam in his quarters. “Give”. (I use that to this day when I’m soloing in a group.)

Something I don’t think anyone’s pointed out….I always thought Sevrin was supposed to represent Timothy Leary and his ideas. Maybe I was wrong.

I still love seeing the crew being knocked out with the hippie pinch behind the ears and letting out a drug induced, orgasmic sounding groan.

Yay, brother.

Unfortunately, Star trek Remastered is not shown anywhere in Central, Southern, or Western Louisiana anymore, the stations that carried it up until last week now air infomercials in their place, money hungry I guess. Good news is it happened when this episode was to be shown, I think I just saw all the good parts on the remastered FX reel. Although #11 makes a good point, you have to view it in a certain perspective, not as just another sci fi story from outer space.

#33, I had to add this, how synonymous, as I pointed out in another post, I was flipped out by the songs in this episode when it first aired, and I still like the hippie songs from it, but I also was exposed to this and The Monkees and that was it, other than my Dad’s C&W and Bluegrass records!

And speaking of Tongo Rad’s groovy way of knocking people out (did anyone else think he looked like Mind Worm from Spider-Man 139 but me?)…there’s a topic that needs to be addressed some time…not really the physics of Star Trek but “The anatomy” of Star Trek. That maneuver is right up there with that blow right above the tail bone that seems to be part of hand to hand training at Star Fleet. We used to practice all these moves on each other as a kid.

Yay brother. That’s real now.

I reach that, brother. I really do.

That Spock Rock video is real now, brother!

A lot more watchable than all the bad episodes of TNG, though.

It may be hard to find, but there was an LP released in the 70s of Star Trek bloopers. Basically someone found magnetic tapes of the raw, on set audio. One track is listed as “The ol’ Vulcan Harp Bicycle wheel duet”.

It’s on the intrawebs if you google it.

Insert lame space hippy joke*

Well the new effects are decent anyway

The 1st window on the side of the Aurora looks like a stylized Peace sign.

We reach, baby.

This episode is, like, totally 1968. Dr. Sevrin totally deserved to buy the farm. He was a complete a**hole.

The rest of the Space Hippies probably got drafted and sent to Vietnam.

I wish the deleted scene with Uhura, McCoy and Spock in the rec deck had survived on film, all we have now are pictures. According to the script it would have been a nice scene.

Is it just me, or was there some effort to make Scotty sound old? “Why can’t a young mind be a disciplined mind?’ he asks here. And in “Lights of Zetar”, Kirk refers to “a man of Scotty’s years…”

The only TOS episode that makes me embarrassed to be a Star Trek fan!

Did anyone notice Phyllis Douglas, who played Yeoman Mears in “The Galileo Seven” was in this episode as the dark haired female hippie, listed as Girl #2 in the credits?

Herberts need to lighten up! This is fun stuff.

I reach brother, I reach!.

Very nice lipstick on a pig for this one!

I actually enjoy this episode. The only part that doesn’t work for me is the Chekov subplot — the rest is fun, and I even like the songs and the made-up slang.

Did they fix those two image-reversed shots of Kirk near the end of the episode?

No, they didn’t.

I know that, if they had flipped them, Kirk would then have been looking in the wrong direction when Dr. Severin ran from the shuttlecraft; but that’s the lesser of two evils compared to having the badge on the opposite side of Kirk’s shirt. Twice.

I really thought CBS-D would take a moment to flip those shots over. Ah well.

good move to cut the songs out, they sucked.

Hey, Out There!

• View history

" Hey, Out There! " was a song in 2269 .

It was sung by Adam at a concert attended by the USS Enterprise crew that year. ( TOS : " The Way to Eden ")

• Listen to Adam sing "Hey, Out There!"  file info

Background information [ ]

The song was written by Charles Napier , Arthur Heinemann , and Craig Robertson , and recorded under the supervision of Wilbur Hatch . It features vocals by Napier, organ by Clark E. Spangler , guitar by John Caleffie and William K. Pitman , and percussion by Larry Bunker . It was recorded on 20 November 1968 . ( Star Trek: The Original Series Soundtrack Collection liner notes ; These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Three , p. 555)

• 3 Ancient humanoid

To Boldly Sing

Star trek has inspired plenty of pop culture, but nothing is as bizarre as the musical fandom following its warp trail..

 Filed under: filk , music , novelty music , star trek , star trek music , star trek songs

Hey all, Ernie here with a fresh one from David Buck , who is helping us maintain our mental-health-break status for this week. If you’re a Star Trek enthusiast, you will enjoy this one.

Today in Tedium : Some readers might have noticed my absence last month. Unfortunately, my father passed suddenly and I was out of commission for a while. As I looked through some of his stuff, I came across some things that reminded me of the times we would sit down together to watch Star Trek: the Next Generation or Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . Thinking about those moments reminded me of some old files and pitches that I was working on a few years ago. I came across one idea and decided to flesh it out a bit: a piece on songs about a certain science fiction television show. If I recall correctly, the original outline of the piece was written for a certain site that ghosted me a few years ago. So, here it is, completely rewritten with fresh insights. So set your phasers to stun and beam up your sense of humor because in today’s Tedium, we’re going where no one has gone before: down the black hole of songs about Star Trek . — David @ Tedium

Today’s GIF comes from a claymation music video for the well-known novelty song “Star Trekkin’” by The Firm.

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“And on no other show do I police myself as much, because I’m such a fan of Star Trek that it’s important to me that we are as funny as we can be without breaking Star Trek at all times and without being mean about Star Trek. With the network and with the studio, the conversations are mostly when I’m pitching an episode, I’ll be like, ‘Here’s what inspired this episode.’ And it’s always coming from a thing that I love about Star Trek, and then ‘Here are the things that we love about these characters, here’s how we want to explore them, and then this is why it’s going to be funny.’”

— Mike McMahan , creator of Star Trek: Lower Decks , discussing his approach to comedy on the show in a 2021 interview with Collider .

Where no musician has gone before (well, not really)

Last year, I discovered something rather silly: a radio station with an apostrophe in its call letters. I joked with Ernie that it reminded me of the Klingon language. This led to a very interesting journey about Klingon that ended up going pretty far and even made an appearance on Vice’s Motherboard —something for which I am eternally grateful. Revisiting this idea only further brings home the point that science fiction television can be a goldmine for weird stuff.

Star Trek has always been a great source of humor. Where Deep Space Nine and Picard readily take on more serious themes, there’s something to be said about the ever present sense of humor that runs a deep vein through most Trek shows. It’s in “The Trouble With Tribbles,” all over TNG (especially in some of Riker’s most memorable scenes ), interspersed between more maudlin moments of DS9 , and encapsulated by certain characters on Voyager . And that’s only naming a few shows! It’s not difficult to see the humor in the shows.

A few years ago, a surprising new Star Trek show was announced, focusing on the non-bridge crew of a “second contact” starship called The Cerritos . That show was Star Trek: Lower Decks . Created by Mike McMahan (who also worked on shows like Rick & Morty and Solar Opposites ), the show centers on a few quirky characters who aren’t officers but perform the ship’s grunt work. It’s hysterical and the characters are quite fun to spend 22 minutes with each episode.

With Star Trek: Lower Decks already two seasons into its run and a plethora of Trek shows coming out, it’s almost as if a renaissance for the series is upon us. Also, Strange New Worlds looks amazing.

Lower Decks goes out of its way to take itself less seriously, proving there’s definitely some room for a bit of comedy interspersed with the more abstract seriousness the show often aims to hit. What Lower Decks does so well is how it leverages that crazy sense of humor into the fandom at large. It sort of reminds me of what happens when enthusiastic, musically inclined fans get together to write songs about the show.

Music has always been integral to Star Trek . From the opening theme of Star Trek (TOS) onward, music has been an integral part of Star Trek , inspiring viewers and musicians alike. While each show’s own music is instantly recognizable, the program also inspired a great deal of music by other artists (often related to TOS ). You’ve probably heard “ The Trouble With Klingons ,” a pastiche created by Dennis Williams for a certain novelty song contest or “Spock Rap” by the animators at Will Vinton Studios (under the name The Neural Paralyzers ) in the ’80s. Admittedly, not everything in this category is great, but there are plenty of gems around. Here are a few artists/songs that explore strange musical worlds, seek out new melodies, and boldly sing where no one has sung before!

You won’t find William Shatner’s The Transformed Man or Leonard Nimoy’s Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy here. Likewise, we won’t revisit the original Trek theme and its lyrics . Rather, these songs and sketches represent unique takes on Trek by various musicians and comedians past and present.

5. “Banned from Argo,” Leslie Fish & the Dehorn Crew

“ And we’re banned from Argo every one, banned from Argo just for having a little fun…”

Filk music is full of talented musicians who share a love of science fiction and community. Filk music—folk music with lyrics based on science fiction—has a rich history , with a strong connection to Trek.

Leslie Fish is perhaps the genre’s best known figure. With her 12-string guitar and larger than life persona, Fish writes about science fiction and beyond.

“ Banned from Argo ” is an upbeat shanty with slightly twisted lyrics. The Enterprise crew goes on shore leave and various hilarious hijinks ensue. It doesn’t reference TOS characters by name, it’s obvious which crew members she’s singing about.

The first few lines of a song explore the mischievous misadventures of the crew checking out “every joint and bar” on Argo during their shore leave. Listeners then learn about the Captain’s sinful tastes and complex methods, the engineer’s ability to “outdrink space marines and a demolition crew,” and the first officer teaches the computer how to swear. It’s a shame what happened to the doctor … but I digress.

Surprisingly, Fish doesn’t seem to like the song much. As she states in several interviews (notably her brief appearance in Trekkies 2 ), the tune was written as quickly to fill out an album. It rapidly became her best known song—something she is a bit cranky about .

Leslie Fish has a large ouvre of other songs, both Trek related and otherwise. Her exuberant performances and love for storytelling shine during her performances. If you’re not a fan of folk music and/or sea shanties, you may want to give this one a pass.

If you enjoy her Trek music, check out the song “Carmen Miranda’s Ghost” and its accompanying anthology . For the full Leslie Fish experience, give Folk Songs for Solar Sailors a spin—if you can find it .

4. “Everything I Do, I Do with William Shatner,” Warp 11

”I don’t want to go to work, just wanna hang with Captain Kirk and if I had my way, I’d make it so…”

Dedicated to all things Trek , Sacramento’s Warp 11 built a career playing Trek -themed music. Originally devised as a “band that only plays Trek songs” for a one-time video project of bass player/singer Karl Miller, the idea stuck and Warp 11 was born. Two decades and six albums later, the band is still on their musical journey.

Through incredible energy, crunchy electric guitar, and hilarious lyrics, “ Everything I Do, I Do with William Shatner ” from 2002’s Red Alert perfectly reflects the band’s “mission statement” —to convert listeners into Trek fans. Despite its title, the song is about Captain Kirk rather than Shatner himself.

Effortlessly juxtaposing the manic energy of The Presidents of the United States of America and the killer chops of The Ramones with a wider mix of blues, rock, and punk styles. Add their DIY punk-meets- TOS cosplay aesthetic, and you get one very eclectic listening/visual experience.

With Warp 11, you’ll find songs about Q and Betazoids, an entire album covering The Borg, and a few sporadic tunes about Voyager . The band’s healthy mix of TOS and TNG material is the epitome of Trek music created by fans, for fans.

While I enjoy their music, it skews toward a teenager/adult audience and is definitely not for kids. Warp 11 are well known for their sense of humor and double entendre and they can be a bit R-rated at times, with mildly NSFW album art. Some of their stuff can be a bit of an acquired taste, but if you dig pink, scifi, humor, and Star Trek , they’re worth checking out!

For those interested in Warp 11, start with Red Alert , then dive into any of their post-2007 work from It’s Dead Jim onward, available at their website and most streaming services.

3. “StarDrek,” Bobby “Boris” Pickett and Peter Ferarra

“ To boldly go where everyone has gone before !”

What do The Godfather , the most famous Halloween song of all time, and Star Trek have in common? Bobby “Boris” Pickett, of course. After having his breakout smash with “The Monster Mash” in 1962 (we wrote about this classic novelty tune in 2018 ), Pickett forged a career as a writer, playwright, comedian, and songwriter.

In 1975-1976, Pickett got together with producer Peter Ferrara to record “Godfather’s Respect”—a song about the 1972 film set to the tune of Aretha Franklin’s “Respect”—and an original spoken word spoof of TOS called “Star Drek” (not to be confused with the MAD Magazine spoofs of a similar name).

The sketch follows the daily operation of a parody version of The Enterprise and its crew, focusing on the most exaggerated aspects of each character.

It isn’t an outright mockery of the franchise and its fans, either. “Star Drek” is a carefully crafted satire of the genre that plays to the absurdity of the occasional technobabble used on the show, taking a light hearted approach to the action. We won’t spoil the punchline for you here.

Barrett Hansen—a.k.a. radio host Dr. Demento—included the sketch on his 25th Anniversary collection, writing the two were on opposite coasts during the recording process so Peter ended up doing all the voices himself. They shared the credits, as Pickett helped write the piece.

The sketch is uproariously funny every time you hear it—a rare accomplishment for a comedy/novelty song—full of nuance and spot-on characterizations. Of course, your mileage may vary. The humor may be a bit dry for some, but it’s a fun piece that holds up remarkably well today.

If you like Pickett and Ferrara’s style consider listening to Pickett’s The Monster Mash LP. For more Peter Ferrara, watch the Jonathan Winters specials On the Ledge and Spaced Out .

(via Terry McGovern’s website )

2. “Beam me up Scotty,” Terry McGovern

”Beam me up Scotty, oh beam me up Scotty, life sure is trouble below …”

Terry McGovern is known today for his voice acting (he was the voice of Launchpad McQuack in the original Duck Tales ), but he began his career as a radio broadcaster . Later, he would work in movies and television as well. In 1976, he released a Trek song of his own, “Beam me up, Scotty” on Baseball Records as a B-side to his rendition of the classic tune “ Pachalafaka .” You can hear the entire thing on SoundCloud .

Not to be confused with an obscure country tune of the same name, McGovern’s song is a quiet rumination on how boring/awful life on earth can seem sometimes. The singer longs to join the crew of The Enterprise and escape the banality of modern life.

The song received airplay on various radio shows, but languished in obscurity for years until being officially re-released on a compilation album in the early 2000s. While it may not be the most well known Trek tune, it’s certainly well loved .

McGovern regularly attends conventions and teaches acting classes—on top of his legendary voice work.

1. “Star Trekkin’,” The Firm

“ There’s Klingons on the starboard bow, starboard bow, starboard bow… ”

The final entry in our list may be the best known: “Star Trekkin’” by The Firm. No, not Jimmy Page’s post Zeppelin band; this group was a side project of John O’Connor, a British music producer.

The song was popular in its own time—it hit Number One in the UK music charts and stayed there for quite awhile back in 1986—but took on new life in the internet age. It was used in one of the episodes of a Flash-based web series called Stone Trek (a mashup of The Flintstones and TOS ) and a claymation video makes the internet rounds every so often. Not bad for a novelty song that was rejected by every record company O’Connor approached. Then it became a million seller, prompting O’Connor’s move to America, where he went on to compose for television .

The Firm released a full-length LP, Serious Fun , that’s worth at least a slip of gold pressed latinum. “Star Trekkin’” is the best and catchiest of the tracks. Good luck getting the tune out of your head.

The number of songs in the Star Trek musical Boldly Go! Written by a Caltech theoretical physics graduate , Grant Remmen, and his brother Cole, the show is a humorous and satirical take on The Original Series . With songs like “Dammit Jim, I’m a Doctor” and “Captain’s Log (As Great As I Know I Am),” the show is well worth watching for its two hour runtime. According to a 2016 Caltech ad for the show, Boldly Go! is ”a story about being true to oneself and one’s convictions, about friendship and love, about discovery and wonder, about the triumph of the individual over adversity, and about the joy of sharing with each other this vast and mysterious Universe.” For those interested in such things, it’s available in its entirety on YouTube .

When I originally outlined this —several years ago now—it had quite a few more songs. But over time, my interest and enthusiasm for Trek has waned somewhat.

And of course we couldn’t fit all of our favorite goofy science fiction songs into this piece. But there are plenty of great Trek bands around like “one-chord punk rockers” No Kill I (and NKI: the Next Generation and NKI:Deep Space Nine; they’re all different bands), modern filkers Ookla the Mok , and the Klingon metal group Stovokor , whose performances take Trek music to the next level.

Songs and sketches about Trek continue to endure well into the 21st century and beyond and it will be interesting to see what strange musical moments the future of Trek fandom holds.

And although this piece no longer resembles anything close to the original idea I had for it, I’m glad I was able to take a quick reprieve from the insanity of our modern world to find—and share—some humor from the bridge of The Enterprise that can still resonate with audiences today.

Thanks again to David for the great piece. Find this one a worthy read? Share it with a pal ! And see you all next week.

Your time was just wasted by David Buck

David Buck is a former radio guy/musician who researches and writes about all manner of strange and interesting music, legacy technology, Nintendo and data analysis.

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The Hippie Songs from 'Way To Eden'

Discussion in ' Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series ' started by Spock's Barber , Nov 3, 2015 .

Spock's Barber Commodore Commodore

Is there anyone else out there is the ST universe that thinks the songs from 'Eden' are cool?  

Ssosmcin Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

I always liked them. Hated the episode, but really enjoyed the songs. I still sing "Steppin' Into Eden."  

Mr. Spook said: ↑ I always liked them. Hated the episode, but really enjoyed the songs. I still sing "Steppin' Into Eden." Click to expand...

Zaminhon Captain Captain

I enjoyed the episode. I particularly liked Spock's jam session. My siblings and I called each other"Herbert" when we were kids, usually accompanied by a "spaz" gesture.  

Zaminhon said: ↑ I enjoyed the episode. I particularly liked Spock's jam session. My siblings and I called each other"Herbert" when we were kids, usually accompanied by a "spaz" gesture. Click to expand...

Forbin Fleet Admiral Admiral

Well, the best actual hippie music at the time was written by actual counter-culture young people under 30. I'm assuming the songs in the episode were written by an old "establishment" geezer (over 30) who had no real connection with the youth movement. I always thought of them as lame attempts at rebellious youth songs by The Man. Parodies at best. Pretty painful to listen to. It's good to cleanse your pallet with some Dylan, Joan Baez, Joanie Mitchell, Jefferson Starship, Doors, or CSN afterward.  

telerites Commander Red Shirt

Yeah I'm no Herbert either. This is one of those guilty pleasure episodes for me. It's corny and campy but enjoyed it. Spock rocking out with hippies is great. And finally a rival to best ears with those honkers on Dr. Sevrin.  

TOSalltheway Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

I can't shake the image of the friends in the movie "Free Enterprise" belting out "steppin' into eden, yeaaahhh brother...." PS If you have not seen the movie Free Enterprise it is a must see.  

Nebusj Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

Well, I like the music. It doesn't really have the spirit of actual hippie music, but as a Future Hippie music, well, why not? Grab your bicycle wheel and strum along. To bring authority into this, James Blish --- who was among other things a fairly stern music critic --- took the time to praise the construction of the episode's music in the novelization. Given that Blish wasn't actually writing the novelizations by this point, and that nobody would notice if the book said nothing about the music, I suppose that this reflects his actual opinion.  

Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

Forbin said: ↑ I'm assuming the songs in the episode were written by an old "establishment" geezer (over 30) who had no real connection with the youth movement. Click to expand...

drt Commodore Commodore

Spock's Barber said: ↑ Is there anyone else out there is the ST universe that thinks the songs from 'Eden' are cool? Click to expand...

T'Girl Vice Admiral Admiral

Forbin said: ↑ Dylan, Joan Baez, Joanie Mitchell, Jefferson Starship, Doors, or CSN Click to expand...

^ CSN = Crosby/Stills/Nash  

Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

Espaço-chica said: ↑ Forbin said: ↑ Dylan, Joan Baez, Joanie Mitchell, Jefferson Starship, Doors, or CSN Click to expand...

FormerLurker Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

I always heard it as "Headin' Out to Eden" rather than "Steppin' In to Eden".  

FormerLurker said: ↑ I always heard it as "Headin' Out to Eden" rather than "Steppin' In to Eden". Click to expand...

Kor Fleet Admiral Admiral

Jefferson Airplane at that time. Kor  

BoredShipCapt'n Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

Well, as long as we're being pedantic, it's Joni Mitchell. And palate.  

ZapBrannigan Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

Spock's Barber said: ↑ Yes, 'Eden' is much better than the 'Lost in Space' episode called 'The Space Destructors', which dealt with Space Bikers/Hippies that come to destroy the planet where the Jupiter 2 is marooned. BTW, I think it was Bob Justman who stated that Herb Solow was the inspiration for the derogatory name 'Herbert', just as an inside joke for the cast and crew. Click to expand...

ZapBrannigan said: ↑ Spock's Barber said: ↑ Yes, 'Eden' is much better than the 'Lost in Space' episode called 'The Space Destructors', which dealt with Space Bikers/Hippies that come to destroy the planet where the Jupiter 2 is marooned. BTW, I think it was Bob Justman who stated that Herb Solow was the inspiration for the derogatory name 'Herbert', just as an inside joke for the cast and crew. Click to expand...

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The way to eden (1969), full cast & crew.

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