Star Trek: 10 Bloopers You Need To See

10. If You Say So, Mr Spock

The blooper reel for The Original Series, now available in its entirety online, is a zany delight for any fan. As Susan Batho details in her PhD thesis, the TOS bloopers were originally put together simply for the private enjoyment of the cast and crew at Wrap Parties, until Gene Roddenberry began to show them at conventions. In fact, the reels were made from discarded outtakes "rescued from dumpsters outside Paramount". Leonard Nimoy also tried, and failed, to prevent them from being shown publicly.

As megafan Gerald Gurian, aka The Star Trek Prop Authority, recalls, the reels were often a highlight of Star Trek conventions in the 1970s and 1980s. They were also distributed by fans for years on bootleg video and audio tapes. They weren’t released "professionally" until 1997.

The outtakes are narrated in mockumentary style. Whilst some of the humour is now certainly outdated, there are quite a few gems. Amongst the clips of the actors walking straight into doors that don’t open, we see someone pretending to shovel coal in engineering, and William Shatner (jokingly) grabbing Mudd by the moustache. Part way through, we get a classic slip-up from Nimoy from the episode This Side of Paradise. "The plants act as a suppository," he gives us, before returning to one of his famed lollipops for consolation.

There are delightful moments from Nichelle Nichols, such as when she replies to Nimoy, "If you say so, Mr Spock, sugar!" In a moment that was also shown in the documentary For the Love of Spock, we also see a young Adam Nimoy’s visit to set, surprising his father on the bridge with an adorable "Hello, Daddy".

"Have no fear, Sargon’s here!" ~ William Shatner, TOS Bloopers.