Dress rehearsal was difficult, with the writer doubting whether Belushi was able to pull off an effective parody of William Shatner's performance as Captain James Kirk.

The 1977 book Saturday Night Live, edited by Anne Beatts and John Head, included a copy of a note from Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry praising the comedic bit.

The New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane wrote that Belushi was flawless and captured Shatner's essence while adding simultaneously his own layer of weariness to the character.

In ranking every single Saturday Night Live cast member by talent in 2015, Rolling Stone called the Captain Kirk parody one of Belushi's most memorable and wrote that it was evidence of the actor's youthful innocence.

He demonstrated his intense desire to get the role by trimming his distinctive sideburns to closely resemble Kirk's facial appearance in the original series.

[1] As the scene began, the viewscreen of the ship depicted the USS Enterprise being pursued by a type of automobile commonly manufactured in the United States and from the time period when Star Trek was cancelled.

[1] Belushi in particular struggled to memorize his lines while delivering a believable yet humorous imitation of William Shatner's original performance, [1] especially after having to sit still for several hours while being made up to look the part.

[1] He knew that Belushi was a fan of Star Trek, and had previously rescued sketches that others thought would flop, but O'Donoghue was nervous that the actor was not able to pull off a comedic performance on this occasion.

[15] In an interview with the Los Angeles Daily News on the 1985 VHS release, Belushi's widow commented she was not sure if her husband had a particular sketch he liked the most, but that he considered the Star Trek parody among his favorites.

[22][23] Writing for American Humor, academic Robert G. Pielke observed that the sketch was a very well-done, and moving, reflection on NBC management's fealty to Nielsen ratings and profit.

[25] He wrote that Belushi finished off the sketch with a moving rendition of the introduction to the original Star Trek series, while modifying it slightly to emphasize that NBC's greed had ended the Enterprise mission.

[25] Mother Jones magazine additionally commented upon the key theme of satire over conflict between the critical success of Star Trek and the decision to cancel the program by the studio executives.

[5] Mother Jones found it ironic that in the sketch the Enterprise was defeated not by its traditional enemies such as the Klingons, but by a stupid NBC executive in charge of the network's programming schedule.

[26] Lane thought that the sketch was an effective satire of the cancellation of the series and simultaneously served as a death knell for the Star Trek franchise.

[32] Kelley overheard Belushi discussing the Saturday Night Live parody of Star Trek with William Shatner, and mentioned to both of them that he had not yet seen the sketch.

[32] He later remarked that he had trouble going back to act on the Star Trek set in a scene opposite Shatner because he could not stop laughing remembering the Saturday Night Live parody and Belushi's portrayal.

[29] Elliott Gould later told The Hollywood Reporter that the success of the sketch inspired Roddenberry to create the first feature film version of his series: Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

[33] Yoshimura, who has been a production designer on SNL for the entirety of its run, has been pressed into service to play Sulu whenever the show did a Star Trek spoof—most recently on the Season 42 episode that aired on May 6, 2017—a full 41 years after the original parody.

[16] In his 1992 book, Metapop: Self-referentiality in Contemporary American Popular Culture, author Michael Dunne called the comedic bit: "one of SNL's most famous sketches".

[34] In a 1999 article reflecting on the 25th anniversary of Saturday Night Live, Los Angeles Times journalist Susan Keller placed the Star Trek parody at number eight on a list of the program's top ten all-time sketches.

[35] In a contribution to the 2001 compilation book Faith, Reason, and Political Life Today, Paul A. Cantor calls the sketch among the best of Star Trek parodies, saying it is "hysterical".

[13] Reflecting on Belushi's impact 25 years after the actor's death, a 2007 Associated Press article noted that the parody of Captain Kirk, Bluto from Animal House and the Saturday Night Live Samurai were among the characters that illustrated his acting versatility.

[38][39] In a 2008 article published by Huffpost TV, columnist Richard Keller characterized the sketch as one of the most well-known satires of Star Trek; the other being another Saturday Night Live episode where William Shatner appeared playing himself.

Club, Phil Dyess-Nugent described "The Last Voyage Of The Starship Enterprise" as lovable in-depth satire of Star Trek with a touching impression of Shatner that was likely the best routine from the first year of Saturday Night Live.

[44] In a subsequent review of the episode in an October 2013, Dyess-Nugent again praised the sketch, writing that it was an outstanding work both as a form of humor and a tribute to Star Trek fans.

[46] Time magazine included the sketch in a retrospective on classic Saturday Night Live works, placing the comedic bit among the most iconic from the program's first years on television.

[50] John Belushi was ranked at number one, with Rolling Stone citing his Captain Kirk parody as evidence of his youthful innocence among his often lunatic-like performances in a 2015 article.