The Federation Will Not Be Televised Video and Star Trek Live

Ahead of their latest transplanting of a television and film pop culture icon to a very small stage, the folks at The Dark Room Theater have produced a music video to get the message out that this version of the Star Trek mythos will be appearing exclusively live on stage and not on any set top box. In other words: “The Federation Will Not Be Televised”.

They may well have outdone themselves with this promo for “Star Trek LIVE! “The Way To Eden””, which opens in September. The video simultaneously displays a prodigious amount of Star Trek geekery and an appreciation for the works of the great proto-rapper and poet Gil Scott-Heron, who recently passed away.

Playing on Scott-Heron’s classic The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, this pure nerdfest of a video showcases the talents of Jay Huston (also of Chicken Scratch Improv) who stars in the show as Captain Kirk. The title of the play is a reference to “The Way to Eden” episode of the original Star Trek TV show, which fans just call “the space hippies episode”.

“The Way to Eden” follows a long line of film/tv adaptations at The Dark Room such as The Twilight Zone Live, currently in its eighth season. Others include The Shining, the 60s Batman TV show, Star Wars, and Young Frankenstein. I’ve performed in a few of these, and I’ll play Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in this play–and I promise I’ll give her all she’s got!!

Below are a video of Gil Scott-Heron’s original song and a clip from the space hippies episode…


mikl-em
Mikl-em

Actor, nerd, poet, producer, writer mikl-em made his name short so you wouldn't have to. In addition to his blog you can find his writing in "Hi Fructose" magazine and witness him almost life-sized in various plays at The Dark Room Theater in SF's Mission district.

He tends to write about theater, humor, San Francisco culture and history, and stuff that's just plain weird. He thanks Scott for sharing the keys to the Laughing Squid virtual HQ and promises to uphold whatever it is that the mirthful cephalopod would prefer to be uplifted.

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