The song's promotional video was created by a team of art students called The Film Garage, featuring a combination of puppetry, stop motion animation and computer-generated imagery.

"Star Trekkin'" originated from songwriter Rory Kehoe, who was a member of an English Civil War combat reenactment society called The Sealed Knot.

Chris Steinhauer performed this version at a folk club one evening in 1986, which is where it was first heard by Grahame Lister, of novelty band the Firm.

Unsatisfied, they sought to create something original, locking themselves away for a week to write "Star Trekkin'",[3] based on an increasing tempo seen previously in Rolf Harris' "The Court of King Caractacus".

"[5] The song features the catchphrases of several Star Trek characters, including Captain James T. Kirk, Spock and Doctor Leonard McCoy.

While some of the lyrics bear a resemblance to real lines uttered on the show eg Scotty's "Ye cannae change the laws of physics!"

Notably, Spock's, "It's life, Jim, but not as we know it", never featured in The Original Series but "Star Trekkin'" so popularised the phrase that it is now commonly misattributed.

[7] Kirk's "We come in peace; shoot to kill" also never featured and was suggested by author Brian Robb as having "summed up the popular impression of the trigger-happy captain's approach to alien encounters".

A Radio 1 disc jockey, Simon Bates, promoted the song and after an initial release where it reached 74th position on the UK Singles Chart, it climbed the following week to 13th place.

"Star Trekkin'" was track one on the A-side of the record, and the album featured previous single "Arthur Daley (e's Alright)".

[19] Following the success of the single, the band realised that they would be expected to appear on the British television series Top of the Pops on BBC1 the following week.

They approached several potential providers,[2] including the production company behind the television series Spitting Image, which had previously produced the video for the single "Land of Confusion" by Genesis.