Star Trek

Star Trek logo (1966-present)

William Shatner as James Tiberius Kirk, Leonard's favorite character in Star Trek.

Leonard Nimoy as Spock, Sheldon's favorite character in Star Trek.

Star Trek is one of the most successful and well-known fiction franchises of all time. Conceived by Gene Roddenberry in the mid-1960's, Star Trek has evolved into a massive canon franchise including seven live-action television series, fourteen movies, an animated series, video games, comics and hundreds of novels. Star Trek is renowned for its enormous and dedicated fan base. In 2009, the movie "Star Trek" came out using the original USS Enterprise crew and rebooting the film series using an alternate timeline. The reboot's sequel, Star Trek into Darkness was released on May 9, 2013. A third film in honor of the series' 50th anniversary, [w:c:memory-alpha:Star_Trek_Beyond|Star Trek Beyond]] was released on July 21, 2016.

In The Big Bang Theory

As science fiction geeks, Leonard, Sheldon, Howard and Raj are all fans of Star Trek. There have been references made to the first four television series - Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager - the first six films, Star Trek: First Contact, and J.J. Abrams' 2009 reboot film, but none yet to the fifth and final television series Star Trek: Enterprise or directly to Star Trek: The Animated Series. Of all of the movie and television franchises that are referenced in the show, Star Trek is mentioned most often.

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Sheldon dressed as Spock at the Renaissance Fair.

Both Leonard and Sheldon agree that "The Original Series" is better than "The Next Generation", but that Captain Picard of The Next Generation is superior to Captain Kirk of The Original Series. Sheldon believes that Star Trek: The Motion Picture was the worst movie and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was “in-arguably the best,” while Raj believes Star Trek V: The Final Frontier to be the worst and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan to be the best.

References to Star Trek in The Big Bang Theory are frequent. All four male main characters are fluent in Klingon and often play Boggle in the language. Leonard has every day and dress Starfleet uniforms, Sheldon has a Spock uniform, and Raj has a Uhura uniform that Priya wears. All of them can recite Spock's dying words, and Sheldon has recited dialogue of Khan Noonien Singh as well as Picard's speech about drawing the line in "Star Trek: First Contact". Sheldon, a self-proclaimed honorary graduate of Starfleet Academy and Captain Kirk of theoretical physics, introduces "Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock", invented by Sam Kass, and the guys always choose Spock. Sheldon has an adversarial relationship with "Star Trek: The Next Generation" star Wil Wheaton, who has appeared as a fictionalized version of himself on ten occasions as of Season 8. Sheldon likes Mr. Data but Brent Spiner replaces Wheaton as his enemy.

Hitch-hiking TNG characters.

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Klingon Boggle and dictionary.

Sheldon invites LeVar Burton, TNG's Geordi La Forge, to his home for a raffle, but he comes too late for anyone to notice him. Meanwhile, George Takei has appeared to Howard in his mind. Leonard has mentioned the Romulan Neutral Zone. The constant references to Star Trek seem to have had some influence on Penny, who was shocked when she referenced deflector shielding to Alicia in The Dead Hooker Juxtaposition. She also mentions that her shields were up below the waist when she spent the night in Leonard's bed in The Love Car Displacement.

Spock appears as an in "The Transporter Malfunction" (S05E20). The action figure was voiced by the now-deceased Leonard Nimoy and talked to Sheldon in his dreams.

In "The Codpiece Topology", the guys return to the Renaissance Fair with Sheldon portraying a Vulcan Star Fleet officer (probably Spock) from a landing party observing a planet that resembled middle-ages Earth which also included strange modernistic anomalies.

In "The Thespian Catalyst", Sheldon is taking acting lessons from Penny and they are performing a short skit based upon a story Sheldon wrote as a child. Penny portrayed Mr. Spock.

Spock is the Star Trek character that Sheldon most identifies with since he feels they are both intelligent, logical and unemotional. Also, when Sheldon describes their group as a Star Trek landing party, he is Spock, Leonard is Kirk, Howard is Scotty and Raj is the guy in the red shirt that is killed or is Lt. Uhura.

After "The Colonization Application" and after "The Leftover Thermalization" preview, The Big Bang Theory gave tribute to Nimoy by Chuck Lorre's vanity card, the essay is replaced with a picture of Nimoy, who died that week, saying, "The Impact you had on our show and on our lives is everlasting". A similar tribute happened to Carol Ann Susi in 2014.

In "The Spock Resonance", Leonard Nimoy's son Adam Nimoy and Wil Wheaton are making a film on Star Trek fan and they interview Sheldon who shows them his napkin with Nimoy's DNA on it. He also confuses that he planned on proposing to Amy who has since broken up with him.

Young Sheldon

• Sheldon mentions "warp factor 5" when talking to President Linda Hagemeyer of East Texas Tech. She later sends him Star Trek merchandise

Trivia

• Many fans have asked William Shatner (Captain Kirk) if he would ever appear on the Big Bang Theory. The actor said in an interview that he would be interested in a cameo if the writers came up with something interesting for him. Interestingly, Kaley Cuoco (Penny) has met Shatner in real life, when she played the actor's daughter in a series of commercials. She was seen asking him for autographs for her Big Bang Theory co-stars, but declined one for herself. (Similar to how the guys love Star Trek, but Penny doesn't.)
• Shatner did appear as himself in "The D & D Vortex" .

Gallery

Leonard and Geordie action figure.

Gorn nightmare.

Sheldon's farewell to Zack at a bar.

Spock speaks to Sheldon.

Sheldon and Vulcan salute.

Jim Parsons and Leonard Nimoy.

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Data and Wesley Crusher.

LeVar Burton coming to their party.

George Takei.

Sheldon and Spock cut-out.

Sheldon impersonates Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: First Contact.

Sheldon threatened to beat up Wil Wheaton unless he apologizes to Amy.

Wil Wheaton is a guest on "Fun with Flags".

Wil Wheaton is a guest on "Fun with Flags".

Raj as a Worf.

Lt. Commander Data aka Sheldon is hit by an Icee.

Amy in an original series Starfleet medical uniform.

The Next Generation players posing for the camera.

Sheldon as Lt. Commander Data.

Action pose with Sheldon/Data using his mind.

Hike-hitching back to Star-base Pasadena.

TNG characters walking through the desert.

Looking for some help while lost in the desert.

Very tired The Next Generation cosplayers.

The gang dressed at The Next Generation characters after "trek"ing through the desert.

The gang dressed as The Next Generation characters.

Tired The Next Generation characters at a roadside diner.

LeVar Burton on Fun with Flags.

LeVar on the last episode of Fun with Flags.

Gorn from Sheldon's nightmare.