MacFarlane was about 16 or 17 when he appeared in his fan film, a movie that resourceful internet dwellers should be able to find easily enough. The film uses Gustav Holst’s “Mars, Bringer of War” as its score and it features MacFarlane as Captain Kirk barking orders to an off-screen Scotty about needing more power. MacFarlane does his best Shatner impersonation, which is, even as a teen, pretty good. The short also features some rudimentary blue-screen compositing that was pretty sophisticated SFX for amateurs working in the late 1980s. Spock is played by John Parley, who did not go on to a career in television. The actor who plays Uhura was only identified by MacFarlane as “Anouk.”
The short follows the U.S.S. Enterprise through a space portal that deposits them “outside the space-time continuum.” It’s an earnest “Star Trek” homage, so don’t expect a punchline or a comedy bit at the end. After watching the clip, MacFarlane congratulated Anouk and John for appearing on “The Tonight Show” (something they likely didn’t know was going to happen).
MacFarlane was characteristically flippant when watching the short, stating that his only thoughts concerned his wig and the fact that he was so young:
“First of all, I don’t know how they constructed whatever was on my head. But, yeah, what comes to mind is, like, I wish I had had the future knowledge of aging to say, ‘Go down to the corner store, get a bag of Chips Ahoy!, and eat it all in one sitting, because it’s the only time you’re going to be able to do it.'”
MacFarlane turns 51 in 2024.