Gimme That Star Trek Ep.30: The Shakespeare Connection

Shakespeare's works have been intertwined with Star Trek since the very beginning. How? Why? Siskoid and Fanholes' Derek William Crabbe talk up the Bard and his connection to Trek. To be or not to be listening, is the question. We suggest: To be!

Listen to Episode 30 below!

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Credits:
"Star Trek Theme" by Alexander Courage, with the Irredeemable Shagg on vocals. End theme: "Deep Space Nine Theme" by Dennis McCarthy.

Bonus clips from: Star Trek The Next Generation's "Ménage à Troi", starring Patrick Stewart and Majel Barrett; Star Trek Deep Space Nine's "The Die Is Cast", starring Andrew Robinson; Star Trek Discovery's "Context Is for Kings", featuring Julianne Grossman; and "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country", starring Christopher Plummer.

And thanks for leaving a comment!

17 responses to “Gimme That Star Trek Ep.30: The Shakespeare Connection

  1. Great episode! I had no idea Derek was so cultured (sorry Derek)! I will be honest and admit a lot of my early exposure to Shakespeare came from Trek. Of course, even though I am in no way a scholar, I had an appreciation of the bard from an early age. After all, his bust was the gateway to the Batcave! It leaves a mark on a kid, ya know?

    Having Star Trek VI be SO Shakespeare heavy was a fantastic touch by Meyer, Nimoy and company. It’s a good chunk of foundation for the series, and its philosophy. Another wrinkle that makes that movie the perfect sendoff for the original crew.

    Chris

  2. Great episode! Always love hearing from Derek.

    “It’s a tribute to Next Gen…with fart jokes.” Pretty sure this will be incorporated into The Orville’s SSN 3 marketing materials.

  3. Good show, and thanks, Siskoid, for your spirited defense of Shakespeare not as a superman, but as a superb man. There was a novel, The Cry of the Onlies, as you might guess, Methuselah met Miri; I don’t remember if it took a stance on Shakespeare, I only remember that it said that as Johannes Brahms, Flint did feel totally blown away by Beethoven, as his biographies have it.

  4. Great episode and interesting discussion, as usual. One of my first encounters with Shakespeare was playing the Thane of Ross in our 5th grade production of Macbeth, but the first time Shakespeare really grabbed me was when I watched Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V. That was the first (and only) time I have ever rewatched a movie immediately after having just seen it for the first time.

    I do have to admit that this episode left me feeling a little melancholy. On one hand, it’s fun to imagine Shakespeare having that kind of (literally) universal appeal. On the other hand, that would seem to imply that humanity reached its literary peak back in Elizabethan times, which is a little depressing.

  5. So as far as Shakespeare connections my son is named Horatio and I live in the sister city of Wittenberg in Denmark.

    “Horatio: If your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will forestall their repair hither and say you are not fit.”

    OH, as far as the Star Trek connection my son is named Horatio. After Hornblower who both Kirk and Picard are based on.

  6. I wonder if the Black crew members ever got together to perform Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun or Chinwa Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, two works my IB program exposed me to in addition to Bill Shakespeare’s.

  7. I never correlated the Vulcan salute with Romeo’s farewell to Balthasar (“Live and be prosperous”) until I rewatched the Baz Lurhmann version of Romeo and Juliet, and immediately thought of this excellent episode.

    1. It’s hard to know. Nemo took the jesture from the nesiat kapayim (raising of the hands) and thus the Live long and Prosper ” could be a Shakespeareian way of shortening the birkat kohanim the blessing taken from Numbers 6:23-26
      ” The Lord bless you
      and keep you;
      the Lord make his face shine on you
      and be gracious to you;
      the Lord turn his face toward you
      and give you peace.”’

  8. No the jesture is completely Jewish. The hand is done to look like the Hebrew letter Shin ש. But “Live Long and Prosper” could have been used as the summation of numbers 6: 23-26 because of “Live and be prosperous, and farewell, good fellow” from Romeo and Juleit.

  9. Nice work, gentlemen. I, too, am a Star Trek fan AND an English major who owns the Collected Works of Shakespeare. And as a BURBAGE, I have a strong affinity for my family’s old buddy, William.
    (For those who might not know, Richard Burbage was one of William Shakespeare’s friends and main actors, and one of the owners of the Globe Theatre.)

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