The Menagerie (Star Trek: The Original Series) - Cultural References

Cultural References

• The South Park episode "4th Grade" has two characters arguing over how many episodes there were for the original run of Star Trek. Counting "The Menagerie" as one or two episodes is the point of disagreement, because they keep arguing if there were 73 or 72 (they are both wrong; Star Trek ran for 79 episodes total). In a later episode of South Park, "Pre-School," the kids revisit the past after they hear about an old classmate getting released from prison. The events that led up to the imprisonment involved the kindergarten teacher getting burned to near death. Now, she travels in a wheelchair much like the one used by Pike.

• In the Futurama episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before," Fry and the other crewmen on board the Planet Express were being interrogated during a court martial while they were in a "wheelchair" similar to Pike's. The rest of the episode also contains actors from Star Trek. Also, in the season 2 episode "A Clone of My Own," the Planet Express Ship's former captain appears in a chair and condition similar to that of Pike. His name, Captain Muskie, is also a reference to Pike.

• The Farscape episode "Losing Time" features a Diagnostic Repair Drone communicating with John Crichton by blinking. Because of this, John names the tiny robot "Pike."

• According to Steve Jobs' biography written by Walter Isaacson, Apple engineer Bud Tribble coined the term "Reality Distortion Field" by making a reference to this episode of Star Trek. The Reality Distortion Field, referring to Steve Jobs' ability to bend reality for audiences to suit his purposes, would go on to be referred to hundreds of times at Steve Jobs' famous keynote speeches introducing new Apple Products.