OCTOBER 4, 2021 - Saturday Night Live has a long history of Star Trek-themed skits, dating all the way back to the original cast’s “Star Trek: The Last Voyage” starring Chevy Chase as Spock and John Belushi offering up an uncanny Shatner impression as Captain Kirk. The tradition continued this past weekend as part SNL’s season premiere with a send-up of the current private market space race called “Billionaire Star Trek”.

Guest host Owen Wilson donned a bald cap and a cowboy hat to take the con as Captain Jeff Bezos in the fictional show Star Trek: Ego Quest, proclaiming, “Dude, space is freakin’ awesome!” He was joined on the bridge by Wilson’s real-life brother Luke playing First Mate Mark Bezos, and cast members Heidi Gardner and Andrew Dismukes playing real-life astronaut Wally Funk and Science Officer “Some Rich Kid from the Netherlands,” respectively. 

Suited-up in uniforms featuring a modified Starfleet Delta shield (now complete with Amazon logo), the crew shares adventures and battles with other billionaire astronauts (no spoilers, but one is British and the other hosted SNL just a few months ago) in the 2-½-minute fake preview. Along the way they also squeeze in a dig at rumored mistreatment of Amazon delivery drivers and at the whole private space endeavor in general, saying:

“Their mission: to just sort of fly around space goofing off in a ship that looks like a penis.”

You can catch the sketch on the SNL YouTube channel along with other classic Star Trek-themed skits like “Star Trek V: The Restaurant Enterprise” (featuring William Shatner) and “Star Trek: Lost Episode” (with Chis Pine). No word if Patrick Stewart’s “Love Boat: The Next Generation” sketch will be available online anytime soon, but one can only hope.