You Can't Say No To This 'Star Trek' And 'Hamilton' Mash-Up
I'm the hardest sell in the world when it comes to internet mash-ups of any kind. Just because you can mash something up with another thing doesn't mean that you should. I'm a firm believer in the "Think Twice Before You Draw The Mad Max: Fury Road Cast Like a Peanuts Characters" school of thought – not every single popular thing needs to be re-imagined as Calvin and Hobbes. No. Stop it. Please.
And yet, I'm kind of bowled over by this new video that mashes up Star Trek with Hamilton, two things that seemingly have no right to go together at all. Maybe it's because it plays directly to my very specific tastes, or maybe it's because there's a certain amount of impressive effort on display, but here's a goofy combination of two things that earns a thumbs up from yours truly.
The honest truth here is that "My Spock" is very silly and will probably only appeal to people who happen to love the greatest science fiction series in the history of entertainment and great broadway musicals about America's first treasury secretary. If that applies to you, then welcome to my clubhouse. If not, this may very well get on your nerves in about ten or fifteen seconds.
Anyway, the basic gist here is that YouTuber Jackson Lanzing has taken "My Shot" from Hamilton and rewritten it from the perspective of Spock. Namely, Zachary Quinto's take on the character from the new rebooted universe. The original song finds a young Alexander Hamilton, fresh off the boat in New York City, meeting up with future friends and comrades John Laurens, Hercules Mulligan, and Marquis de Lafayette and singing about his dreams and aspirations. Naturally, this video replaces those historical figures with Star Trek characters, with Spock taking the lead while Kirk and Chekov chime in with their own bits.
And for the record, here's the original "My Shot," which is a standout song in a musical filled with standout songs. Seriously, there's a reason tickets to this show cost so much.
As silly as this whole thing is, it's a finely executed parody from someone who manages to capture both Star Trek and Hamilton, which sounds like no easy feat. Plus, you can draw more than a few comparisons between America's founding fathers and the men and women of Starfleet – here are courageous, highly intelligent, individualistic people who live by strong principles that shape everyone they come into contact with. This is a weird bliss for everyone out there who loves science fiction and show tunes and American history.
Plus, you know that Hamilton star, writer and lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda would probably get a kick out of this. After all, he wrote music for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, so it's not like he's a stranger to science fiction. Surely this is the kind of oddball tribute he's appreciate.