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"The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise" is a comedy sketch that first aired an May 29, 1976, during episode 22 of the first season of the NBC variety show, ''Saturday Night Live''. The twelve-minute sketch was written by Michael O'Donoghue during a month-long process consulting with actor John Belushi. The sketch is a satire of the 1969 cancellation of ''Star Trek: The Original Series''. The set design featured an effective replica of the bridge of the U.S.S ''Enterprise''. Dress rehearsal was difficult, with the writer doubting whether Belushi would be able to pull off an effective parody of William Shatner's performance as Captain James Kirk. However, the result was a success, and O'Donoghue immediately congratulated Belushi after his performance and reflected that he had perfectly parodied Shatner as Kirk. The sketch became an instant cult classic hit among ''Star Trek'' and science fiction fans. The 1977 book ''Saturday Night Live'' edited by Anne Beatts and John Head included a copy of a note from ''Star Trek'' creator Gene Roddenberry praising the comedic bit. The sketch was released on a 1985 ''Saturday Night Live'' compilation VHS that featured ''The Best of John Belushi'', and re-released with the same title in DVD format in 2011. In his book ''Metapop'' author Michael Dunne called the comedic bit among the most well-known of all ''Saturday Night Live'' routines. The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' referred to it as an intelligent satire of ''Star Trek''. The ''Los Angeles Times'' placed the parody among the program's top ten sketches of all-time. On the series' 40th anniversary, ''Tulsa World'' listed the sketch as one of the television show's most iconic. ''The New Yorker'' film critic Anthony Lane wrote that Belushi was flawless and captured Shatner's essence while adding simultaneously his own layer of weariness to the character. ''The Hollywood Reporter'' interviewed Tom Hanks and Elliott Gould in 2015; Gould called the sketch a favorite, while Hanks placed it among the best five of all time. ''Rolling Stone'' ranked every single ''Saturday Night Live'' cast member by talent in 2015, and John Belushi was placed at number one. ''Rolling Stone'' called the Captain Kirk parody as one of Belushi's most memorable and wrote that it was evidence of the actor's youthful innocence. ==Plot synopsis== The sensors of the starship U.S.S. ''Enterprise'' pick up a strange alien spacecraft following it in hot pursuit. Mr. Spock, played by Chevy Chase, identifies it as a 1968 Chrysler Imperial with a tinted windshield and retractable headlights.〔 Captain Kirk, played by John Belushi, orders the ship to outrun the strange craft. Unable to do so, he orders phasers and photon torpedoes to destroy the craft. Unfortunately, all of the ship's equipment fails for no reason and the Enterprise's systems break down. Suddenly, Dr. Leonard McCoy, played by Dan Aykroyd, runs onto the bridge saying that the aliens are on the ship. He says they did not beam aboard, but merely walked out from behind the curtains. It turns out that the aliens are NBC executive Herb Goodman, played by Elliott Gould, and his associate Curtis, played by Garrett Morris. They announce that the ''Star Trek'' series has been cancelled. Captain Kirk orders the crew to fire their hand phasers at the aliens but nothing happens. Mr. Spock assumes that the aliens have a type of weapons de-activator and tries to employ his famous Vulcan nerve pinch on him, but that does not work either. The executive confiscates Mr. Spock's pointed ears. Spock then mind-melds with Goodman only to discover that, as he describes it, his brain is devoid of substance and contains only a few rodents. Other NBC executives and staff show up and dismantle the ''Enterprise'' set. Other crew members accept the cancellation, but Shatner and Nimoy try to hang on to their ''Star Trek'' personae as Kirk and Spock. However, Nimoy is eventually reduced to a sobbing, nervous wreck, and is carried off the set. Shatner remains defiantly in the Captain's chair, as Herb Goodman mentions a phone call from a margarine company. Finally, the set is completely dismantled, and still in his chair, Shatner, as Captain Kirk, makes a final entry into his log recalling his previous three years of space exploration, concluding: "And except for one television network, we have found intelligence everywhere in the galaxy." Raising his hand in the Vulcan salute, he goes on, "Live long and prosper". Then he brings his fingers together, his hand still raised, and adds, "Promise". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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