Is it possible for a single song parody on YouTube to unite science-fiction nerds and musical theater nerds? Writer Tim Murphy attempted it with The Spocky Horror Picture Show, but that was over 20 years ago, before the entertainment landscape became as fragmented as it is today. Now, into the deeply divided world of 2016, arrives Jackson Lanzing’s “My Spock,” a tune that takes its melody from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s smash Broadway musical Hamilton and its lyrics from the plot of J.J. Abrams’ fairly well-received 2009 reboot of Star Trek. In a way, this is a natural pairing. With his musical, Miranda is attempting to put a fresh spin on American history for a modern day audience, just like Abrams is dragging the Trek franchise into some semblance of modernity. Revisionism is the order of the day here.
The central premise of the parody is rather simple: “I’m not throwing away my shot” becomes “I’m not throwing away my Spock.” If the latter sounds like an odd turn of phrase, please know that most of the song is sung (or, more precisely, rapped) from the perspective of Spock’s father, Sarek, as shown in the lyrics Lanzing posted to Twitter. Kirk, Bones, Chekov, and Spock himself all get solo verses, however. While Bones laments that he’ll “never be cool,” Chekov continues to struggle with his pronunciation of the word “vessel.” And Kirk’s just a horndog as usual. One of the most amusing moments comes when Sarek gets meta when talking about the Star Trek franchise: “A bunch of hot, embattled officers too young to run the Enterprise / They gotta be this young so Paramount can fucking advertise!”