Star Trek TOS Parody-Turk Trek
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Star Trek TOS Parody-Turk Trek
Turkish Star Trek aka Turk Trek (Turist Ömer Uzay Yolunda) (1973)
This made-in-Turkey film featured the character of Ömer the Tourist (or Turist Ömer), played by actor Sadri Alışık, who was like the Charlie Chaplin of Turkey. He played this character in several films, going back to 1964 and this was the latest (and possibly, the last), placing him into the Star Trek setting. See, this wasn't just a Star Trek-like setting, similar to TOS; this was a direct copy or steal of that show. The characters are named Kaptan Kirk and Mr. Spak, and there are even exact duplicates like Uhura. On the surface, if one knew nothing about this film, this appeared to be made by some resourceful Star Trek fans in Turkey around the same time as the Star Trek animated series, during the Trek drought of the seventies between the original series (ended in 1969) and the 1st Star Trek movie in 1979. But, this was in reality produced by professional filmmakers in Turkey; available copies of this, such as DVD-Rs, are usually of mediocre quality. As others have pointed out, it's not an attempt to clone Star Trek, as a cheap copy, but is a Turist Ömer film which happens to use the Star Trek universe.
One can also look at it as a lost episode of the original series, composed of Star Trek bloopers, discarded scenes, and an overabundance of the ridiculous. It begins with the standard Star Trek visuals of the Enterprise zooming about in outer space, but as if shot through a red filter and quite blurry. This also uses the standard Star Trek background music and FX sounds from the sixties show (the music, however, doesn't always fit the action in the scene).
Unfortunately, my version doesn't have an English vocal track or subtitles - nor does the YouTube version, but I could figure out within a few minutes that this aimed for a remake/parody of The Man Trap episode of the original show, featuring that salt-sucking monster (since that was the first episode of the original series to air, this makes me wonder if they intended to remake later episodes - next would have been Charlie X). The beginning of this 'episode' introduces us to the various crew members, on their latest mission to a planet. This comic version also included some androids, which resemble male models dressed only in loin cloths. Overall, it's an intriguing precursor to other Trek spoofs such as the famous "Saturday Night Live" episode with John Belushi. There also exists a Turkish Star Wars.
About 15 minutes in, the plot abruptly diverts to some Turkish guy (Sadri Alışık) in the present times suddenly whisked away (beamed away) from his low rent (shotgun?) wedding into the Star Trek adventure, where he interacts with all the main characters as a 'tourist' - kind of a wish fulfillment dream of all the Turkish fans, I guess.
In the meantime, the salt creature takes the identity of several characters, though the way it sucks the salt out is portrayed a bit differently from the original episode. The costuming accurately copies that of the original series, with the same style uniforms. This also reminded me just how sexy those mini-skirted uniforms were on the female crew members - there are a few of 'em here - especially in one amusing scene where they train their 'phasers' on the visitor. Also, one female crew member has the hairdo emulating the Yeoman Rand character hair style - the beehive, quite humorous.
The sets of the bridge do not copy the TOS Enterprise interior; I don't know if there was an effort here to do so, but this is where it deviates; the exteriors in the ruins are better realized, but also do not resemble those in The Man Trap episode. The humor really kicks in during the last half, with the salt creature terrorizing the tourist and other action scenes copying scenes from the Arena episode and, even better, the Kirk-Spock fight from Amok Time. The scenes with the multitude of loin-clothed androids is a bit too bizarre, but the conclusion is appropriately amusing. The whole thing's just over 70 minutes long on my version. Who knows, maybe this helped in getting a new Star Trek series green-lit, then the motion picture, when it was realized that the whole planet was desperate for new Trek.
This made-in-Turkey film featured the character of Ömer the Tourist (or Turist Ömer), played by actor Sadri Alışık, who was like the Charlie Chaplin of Turkey. He played this character in several films, going back to 1964 and this was the latest (and possibly, the last), placing him into the Star Trek setting. See, this wasn't just a Star Trek-like setting, similar to TOS; this was a direct copy or steal of that show. The characters are named Kaptan Kirk and Mr. Spak, and there are even exact duplicates like Uhura. On the surface, if one knew nothing about this film, this appeared to be made by some resourceful Star Trek fans in Turkey around the same time as the Star Trek animated series, during the Trek drought of the seventies between the original series (ended in 1969) and the 1st Star Trek movie in 1979. But, this was in reality produced by professional filmmakers in Turkey; available copies of this, such as DVD-Rs, are usually of mediocre quality. As others have pointed out, it's not an attempt to clone Star Trek, as a cheap copy, but is a Turist Ömer film which happens to use the Star Trek universe.
Unfortunately, my version doesn't have an English vocal track or subtitles - nor does the YouTube version, but I could figure out within a few minutes that this aimed for a remake/parody of The Man Trap episode of the original show, featuring that salt-sucking monster (since that was the first episode of the original series to air, this makes me wonder if they intended to remake later episodes - next would have been Charlie X). The beginning of this 'episode' introduces us to the various crew members, on their latest mission to a planet. This comic version also included some androids, which resemble male models dressed only in loin cloths. Overall, it's an intriguing precursor to other Trek spoofs such as the famous "Saturday Night Live" episode with John Belushi. There also exists a Turkish Star Wars.
About 15 minutes in, the plot abruptly diverts to some Turkish guy (Sadri Alışık) in the present times suddenly whisked away (beamed away) from his low rent (shotgun?) wedding into the Star Trek adventure, where he interacts with all the main characters as a 'tourist' - kind of a wish fulfillment dream of all the Turkish fans, I guess.
In the meantime, the salt creature takes the identity of several characters, though the way it sucks the salt out is portrayed a bit differently from the original episode. The costuming accurately copies that of the original series, with the same style uniforms. This also reminded me just how sexy those mini-skirted uniforms were on the female crew members - there are a few of 'em here - especially in one amusing scene where they train their 'phasers' on the visitor. Also, one female crew member has the hairdo emulating the Yeoman Rand character hair style - the beehive, quite humorous.
The sets of the bridge do not copy the TOS Enterprise interior; I don't know if there was an effort here to do so, but this is where it deviates; the exteriors in the ruins are better realized, but also do not resemble those in The Man Trap episode. The humor really kicks in during the last half, with the salt creature terrorizing the tourist and other action scenes copying scenes from the Arena episode and, even better, the Kirk-Spock fight from Amok Time. The scenes with the multitude of loin-clothed androids is a bit too bizarre, but the conclusion is appropriately amusing. The whole thing's just over 70 minutes long on my version. Who knows, maybe this helped in getting a new Star Trek series green-lit, then the motion picture, when it was realized that the whole planet was desperate for new Trek.
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