“‘Galaxy Quest’ is without a doubt, the best ‘Star Trek’ movie.”
So said Wil Wheaton in 2019 “Galaxy Quest” documentary “Never Surrender” and he should know a thing or two about the subject, having spent years boldly walking in “The Next Generation”, “Picard” and “Prodigy“.
While we respectfully disagree with Mr. Wheaton— “The Wrath of Khan” is clearly number one — The “Trek” spoof from 1999 is not too far behind. It’s the rare parody that fully understands what makes its subject matter tick, without ever making fun of the source material or – crucially – the fans.
Dean Parisot’s film manages to cram in all the necessary story beats while pointing a finger at some familiar “Trek” tropes — one of which apparently inspired the name of a weapon in “300th Night,” the penultimate episode of “Starfleet Academy’s” first season.
The Omega tab
In “Galaxy Quest”, the so-called Omega 13 device was installed on the NSEA Protector. Unfortunately, none of the regular crew had any idea what it was.
In the original TV show-within-a-movie “Galaxy Quest,” Commander Peter Quincy Taggart ordered the activation of Omega 13, only for a season-ending cliffhanger — and the show’s subsequent cancellation — to leave fans trapped in eternal limbo, destined to spend eternity wondering about its actual purpose.
But when Jason Nesmith (the actor who plays Taggart, himself played by Tim Allen) activated the device “for real” in the fully functioning Protector built by Thermians (the film is so meta), it turned out to be a “rearranger of temporal affairs”. TL;DR version? It gave users the ability to travel a few seconds back in time.
A version of the unstable Omega particle already existed in “Star Trek,” and Captain Janeway’s crew had a mission to neutralize the highly dangerous substance in the “Voyager” season 4 episode “The Omega Directive” (which debuted before “Galaxy Quest”).
But it certainly can’t be a coincidence that the top-secret variety “Starfleet Academy” Big Bad Nus Braka stolen from Starbase J19 Alpha in “Come, Let’s Away” is called Omega 47, just a stone’s throw away (34, to be precise) from Omega 13.
In fact, while the functionality of this Omega is very different from the “Galaxy Quest” iteration — it shreds subspace, making warp travel impossible within its blast radius — it feels like the “Trek” writers’ room is taking the opportunity to unleash a big NSEA Protector in jest on an unsuspecting 32nd century.
It’s hard to imagine the guardians of the James Bond franchise doing something similar with the sharks with laser beams attached to their heads from “Austin Powers”…
Agent 47
As for 47, it is also relevant.
As well as being – like 13 – a prime number, 47 has a long history in “Star Trek”. In fact, it is arguably the final frontier’s answer 1138 in “Star Wars”, A113 in Pixar, or 42 in “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.
“Trek’s” numerical obsession was initiated by “The Next Generation” writer Joe Menosky, who began writing the number into the script as a tribute to his time at Pomona College in California.
Forty seven has special meaning there thanks to a prank student project from the 60s, which tried to prove that the number appears in nature more often than anything else. It has no basis in scientific facts, but the idea caught on to such an extent that the educational institution now has an annual celebration on 7 April (4/7).
It also inspired Menosky to ensure that 47 became ubiquitous in the Federation’s idealized future. The number has subsequently made dozens of cameos across “TNG,” “Deep Space Nine,” “Voyager,” “Enterprise,” “Discovery” and now “Starfleet Academy.”
And while I’m no conspiracy theorist, adding 47 and 13 gives us 60, and this year is Star Trek’s 60th anniversary. Coincidences? Almost certainly yes, but fun nonetheless.
So as Nus Braka and his Venari Ral fleet prepare to deploy their new Omega 47 toy to cut off the Federation from the rest of the universe, comfort yourself in the knowledge that the name appears to have been inspired by the writers of “Starfleet Academy” who are having a little laugh.
The final episode of “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” season one debuts on Paramount+ on Thursday, March 13.
