Back in 1987, The Star Trek franchise had established a strong cult following after a string of successful motion pictures and decades of reruns of the original series on TV. Public enthusiasm was so strong that the now ubiquitous reboot, Star Trek: The Next Generation. began in the Fall.

But this song is not about TNG. A British novelty music act called The Firm created “this song”Star Trekkin'” with lyrics based on catch phrases and dialog from Star Trek: The Original Series which originally aired in the 1960s.

They tried to get the track published on a major label but they all declined. So the band decided self-published single on 7 in 45 RPM. The original run was just 500 copies. These original pressings are highly collectible today.

The song caught on, but not in North America, It hit number one in The UK and charted in Australia, Japan and parts of Europe. The group subsequently included the song on their first album.

The music video is weird and goofy. It utilized crude puppetry and stop frame animation. It’s so bad that it’s good. It kind of reminds me of Robot Chicken. The original print is believed to be lost today. YouTube has a a few attempts at recovery. The best one I could find is included at the top

Back in North America, “Star Trekkin'” was released on Dr. Demento Presents the Greatest Novelty CD of All Time in 1988, Dr. Demento: 20th Anniversary Collection in 1991, and Dr. Demento: Hits from Outer Space in 2006.

I had a very cool and strange roommate my sophomore year in college. He was lucky enough to own one of the compilations. I had never heard the syndicated radio show, but I had seen music video specials, so I was aware of the good doctor. This was not quite the beginning of my love affair with novelty records but Dr D has obviously been a huge influence on me and this radio channel.

Of course we also love Star Trek around here too.