Star Trek (American Dad!)

Unreferenced|date=October 2007|section called "Cultural references"Infobox American Dad! episode
Title =Star Trek
Series =American Dad!


Caption =Steve in his pool of jello
Season =1
Episode =15
Airdate =November 27, 2005
Production =1AJN15
Writer =Matt McKenna, Chris McKenna
Director =Mike Kim
Guests =
newspaper_headline = "Bush Appoints Stephen King As Ambassador To Terror"
Episode list =List of American Dad! episodes
Season list = Infobox_American_Dad!_Season_1
Prev =Stannie Get Your Gun
Next =Not Particularly Desperate Housewife

__NOTOC__"Star Trek" is an episode of the animated series "American Dad!". The title is the same as that of the popular science fiction franchise, "Star Trek".

Plot

Steve is seen from below floating in a pool of cherry Jell-O.

The action shifts to a few weeks ago, when Roger was reading "Us Weekly" and yearning to be a celebrity. Steve tried to trick his father into signing his report card by claiming his teacher wanted Stan's autograph. But Stan doesn't fall for it and learns that Steve is flunking the creative writing class.

To inspire Steve, Stan shows him his "Patriot Pigeon" children's book series. Stan has written 3012 of them and has received over 10,000 rejection letters. Then, Stan sits Steve down at a desk and glues his right hand. At this time, Roger comes in and babbles incoherently in a drunken stupor, then passes out. Inspired, Steve writes about him.

The creative writing teacher sends Steve's story, "Roger the Alien", to a publisher. The publisher buys Steve's story and Stan opens the acceptance letter, thinking that "Patriot Pigeon Poops on Planned Parenthood", has been picked up.

Steve quickly becomes a success, and soon Stan and Francine proceed to use him for their own needs. Distraught, Steve is convinced by his new agent to divorce his parents and moves into a mansion with his best friends. But eventually he comes to distrust his friends too, and kicks them out of the mansion. Steve's agent shows up with Spike Baltar, an actor who will play Steve in the movie.

Meanwhile, Roger opens a shipment of "Roger" talking dolls and becomes enraged that Steve's book portrays him as clumsy (which is actually an accurate portrayal of Roger). Roger goes to the mansion and attempts to kill Steve, but instead Spike Baltar accidentally falls in and drowns in Steve's pool filled with cherry Jell-O. In a voiceover, Steve admits that the beginning where Steve supposedly died was "a screw to the audience." The episode ends with Steve reuniting with his parents and the three ditching Spike Baltar's body in a lake (with Steve getting drowned in a lake by Roger as revenge for the way Roger was portrayed in Steve's book).

Cultural references

* The opening shot of "Steve" lying dead in a swimming pool is lifted directly from the film "Sunset Boulevard".
* In the beginning, Steve lists the things that he got during his "rise to stardom", including the "joke about the 10 inch pianist". The joke is popular adult bar joke [http://www.jokething.com/jokes/1/1027] .
* Steve's attack dogs are named Sulu and Chekov, after Hikaru Sulu and Pavel Chekov on "Star Trek".
* Steve's "Pleasure Dome", Steveadu, is a reference to the mansion built by Charles Foster Kane, Xanadu, in the film Citizen Kane.
* In Steve's "Pleasure Dome", Han Solo frozen in Carbonite is seen.
* Roger's entrance and consequent behavior at Steve's mansion are very similar to the frequent secret entrances of Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons, most notably his emergence from a gumball machine that is shaped like his head.
* The Paul McCartney song that Stan sings as he leaves Steve's teacher's house is "Silly Love Songs".
* When Roger is dropped from Stan's car, he is clinged in the same way Max Cady is in "Cape Fear".
* The ring tone of Steve's agent is similar to the main theme music of the Halloween franchise
* When Captain Monty says "Arg.", it possibly refers to the Simpsons' Sea Captain, who usually says "Yarr!".

Notes

*Steve is right-handed, forcing him to write with his left after Stan glues that hand to the desk.
*Steve is disgusted by the old supermodel woman from the '50s Stan brings him in this episode, but in "Con Heir", Steve has an affair with an old woman from the retirement home that Stan's supposed father lived in before he died.
*The doorbell chime to Steve's Mansion is the exact melody tune used by the broadcasting company NBC.
*This episode sees the first appearance of Captain Monty and Beauregard.