Parks And Recreation Travels To The Future And Meets Star Trek
This article is more than 2 years old
You don’t normally associate NBC’s sitcom Parks and Recreation with science fiction. Sure, Adam Scott’s character Ben Wyatt is a total geek and has been known to expound on Star Wars, Star Trek, various comic book titles, and more, but outside of that, it’s pretty well rooted in the real world. You know, as much as any show on TV can be. As based in reality as it is, that’s not to say the gang from Pawnee, Indiana doesn’t have an eye on the future, and moving into their final season, they jump a few years beyond where we are now. And as you can see in this latest promo for the farewell season, it is a strange world indeed. We’ve also got a fun Parks and Recreation/Star Trek mash up if you’re interested in such a thing.
We jump into a vaguely dystopian setting, one where everything has been turned on its head. Drones hover outside of your door, and Terry has usurped Gary/Jerry. He may even be a respectable, respected citizen now. I don’t know if I can wrap my brain around that bit of news. Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) has ascended to his rightful status as mogul, which means he runs shit, which is a truly frightening prospect for a bleak, bleak future. In the distant year of 2017, Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt) has even become a major television star, a definite step up from his Johnny Karate persona playing kid’s birthday parties.
We’re at the end of an era, not only in regards to Parks and Recreation, but with the network as well. For decades, you’ve been able to tune into NBC on Thursday night and find some of the network’s most notable comedies, shows like Cheers, Seinfeld, Friends, and many more. But after struggling to fill the space—Parks and Rec was one of the last to make an impact on Thursdays, even though the final season will air on Tuesdays—they’re replacing Must See TV comedies with dramas like The Blacklist. The future is truly a dark, alien place.
But that’s okay, because the Parks and Rec crew is about to boldly go where no one has gone before in these Parks and Trek drawings from artist Neill Cameron. As you probably guessed from the title, these images do things like imagine Lesley Knope (Amy Poehler) as The Next Generation’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard…
…Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) as Commander William Riker…
…Tom Haverford as their Engineering Chief (he did give us DJ Roomba after all)…
…and Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones) as their Medical Officer.
Cameron told Mashable that after a conversation, “The image of Ron Swanson dressed up as Riker with his leg up on a chair has been burned into my brain, and I finally had to get it out.” And we’re glad he did. We also imagine that Ben Wyatt has a thing for women in Star Trek uniforms, and seeing his wife cast as Picard probably does things to him.
The final season of Parks and Recreation starts Tuesday, January 13.
