"Star Trekkin' " is a song by British novelty band the Firm. It parodies the first television series of Star Trek, and prominently features comical voice caricatures of the original Trek characters, provided by members of the band, a studio technician, and the wife of one of the songwriters. One of the song's phrases, "It's life, Jim, but not as we know it", originated with "Star Trekkin, but has been subsequently misattributed to the TV series.
"Star Trekkin'" was released as a single in May 1987. The song's promotional video was created by a team of art students called The Film Garage, featuring a combination of puppetry, stop motion animation and computer-generated imagery. The song entered the UK charts at number 74, eventually climbing to spend two weeks at number one. It also found chart success in a number of other countries, selling more than a million copies.
Origin and recording
"Star Trekkin originated from songwriter Rory Kehoe, who was a member of an English Civil War combat reenactment society called The Sealed Knot. Kehoe had written a series of verses about the principal characters who appear in the 1960s American science fiction television series Star Trek, which were sung in pubs and around campfires, after Sealed Knot battles, to the tune of "The Music Man". This version was re-titled "I Am The Star Trek Man". Chris Steinhauer performed this version at a folk club one evening in 1986, which is where it was first heard by Grahame Lister, of novelty band the Firm. Lister convinced Steinhauer to record the song onto an audio cassette and took it to his writing partner John O'Connor.
The duo dropped "The Music Man" melody, and wrote a new chorus. They at first attempted to set Kehoe's lyrics to the tune of their 1982 hit single, "Arthur Daley E's Alright", creating an alternative version initially entitled "Captain Kirk (He's Alright)". Unsatisfied, they sought to create something original, locking themselves away for a week to write "Star Trekkin, based on an increasing tempo seen previously in Rolf Harris' "The Court of King Caractacus". They sought to have it recorded professionally, but were received unfavourably by potential recording labels. Instead, they recorded it at O'Connor's and Brian O'Shaughnessy's Bark Studios in Walthamstow, East London. The arrangement was by Bill C. Martin, and the rest of the Firm was made up of Dev Douglas and Peter Sills. O'Shaughnessy later said "One of the greatest highlights of my career was producing 'Star Trekkin. The record was produced to mock the series and we had no idea it was going to be a big hit."
The song features the catchphrases of several Star Trek characters, including Captain James T. Kirk, Spock and Doctor Leonard McCoy. These were intended to be recognisable to British listeners who had seen the episodes of the series on re-runs throughout the 1970s and 1980s, or those who were only relatively familiar with the source. While several of the lines such as Scotty's "Ye cannae change the laws of physics!", or Uhura's "There's Klingons on the starboard bow." had been said in the series, other phrases had not. Spock's quote, "It's life, Jim, but not as we know it", never featured in The Original Series but "Star Trekkin subsequently so popularised the phrase that it is now commonly misattributed. The closest equivalent in the series is the phrase "No life as we know it" in "The Devil in the Dark". Kirk's "We come in peace; shoot to kill" also never featured, and was suggested by author Brian Robb as having "summed up the popular impression of the trigger-happy captain's approach to alien encounters". The voices of the characters were not provided by the actors who portrayed them in The Original Series; O'Connor voiced Kirk and McCoy, while Douglas voiced Spock. Scotty was voiced by a studio engineer and O'Connor's wife, Shelly, voiced Uhura.