Where No Fan Has Gone Before

Set in a retro-futuristic 31st century, the series follows the adventures of the employees of Planet Express, an interplanetary delivery company.

Melllvar gives Nimoy a body, and orders the actors and the Planet Express crew to participate in a Star Trek convention until the end of time, killing Welshie, a supporting character, to ensure their obedience.

While Melllvar forces the cast to perform his fan script, Bender, Leela and Fry escape in the Planet Express Ship.

After seeing the Planet Express crew's attempt to defeat him, Melllvar wonders if they are more worthy of his adoration than the Star Trek cast, and decides to force them to battle to the death.

Zapp Brannigan boards the Planet Express Ship and holds a court-martial of the occupants for trespassing on Omega 3.

[4] Executive producer David X. Cohen assigned the writing task to Goodman, as they agreed he was the biggest Trek fan of the group.

[5][6] All of the living members of the original Star Trek cast agreed to appear in the episode with the exception of James Doohan, whose agent replied, "No way.

[7] Shinagawa noted that even so, the final design for Melllvar is more sophisticated than some energy beings featured in the original series.

In the DVD audio commentary, Goodman noted his pride in having included a large number of quotations from The Original Series, particularly those items which he claims "the people on the internet" had not found on their own.

[9] The episode was subsequently nominated for a Nebula Award in 2004 for best script, but lost to the film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002).

He felt that having the framing device set during the event rather than afterwards as "delightful", and that the Star Trek references were both "relevant to the story and funny in their own right".