Warning: contains spoilers for Rick's New Hat!
Rick and Morty have traveled to strange new worlds before, but the duo's latest adventure is taking them to a truly horrifying place: a pastiche of one of the worst Star Trek episodes ever made. In Rick's New Hat!, written by Alex Firer with art by Fred C. Stresing and colors by Andrew Dalhouse, Rick and Morty do what the show does best and lampoons an entire plot structure. Of course, it wouldn't be Rick and Morty without some hints at a larger, darker meaning behind the humor.
The fifth season of Rick and Morty debuts on June 20th. The show depicts the ongoing adventures of mad scientist/perpetual drunk Rick and his shy, awkward, much put-upon grandson Morty. Created by Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland (the latter of whom voices both Rick and Morty), the show was released in 2013 and has remained popular ever since. The show is famous for lampooning science fiction and fantasy plots for entire episodes (Mad Max's post-apocalyptic wasteland, Nightmare on Elm Street's horrifying dreamscape, etc), and Rick's New Hat finally gives readers the Star Trek parody they've been waiting for. However, it comes in the form of the single worst episode of the original series, Spock's Brain.
In the aftermath of Rick and Morty's latest adventure, in which Morty is temporarily turned into a puzzle piece and is slotted in with hundreds of others by a puzzle-themed villain, an insecure Morty buys a strange ushanka hat from a gift shop. Rick quickly snatches it away, but later puts it on to discover its properties. His mind is sucked up into the upper part of the hat, and two ushanka-wearing members of the "council of dunces" appear to harvest his brain, but are stopped by Rick's security system. When Morty appears, Rick is frantic - his connection to the universe has been severed and, effectively, his mind is gone: "Whoever made this hat wanted to keep me nice and dumb!" Rick and Morty go on the run from the Council of Dunces, hiding on a used-bandage planet, of all places.
Astute Star Trek fans will immediately find similarities to Spock's Brain, the infamous first episode of the third season of the original series. The Enterprise is attacked and boarded by a mysterious assailant who quickly incapacitates the crew. When they come to, Kirk and company realize that Spock is left in a comatose state, and in the words of Dr. McCoy, "He's worse than dead...his brain is gone!" The Enterprise flies off in search of the first officer's brain - and when the thief's planet is located, the landing party beams down to the planet - along with Spock, wearing a ridiculous contraption on his head so Dr. McCoy can direct him like an RC car. The absurd episode was seen as a massive step back from the high-concept episode of the first and second seasons and is widely regarded as the worst episode in the original series (if not the entire franchise).
Leave it to Rick and Morty to not only lift a classic Star Trek plot, but the worst one possible. If Rick's New Hat! follows Spock's Brain to its conclusion, the titular duo are liable to eventually find a society-ruling computer that can teach Morty to fix Rick's mind in seconds. But more likely, it will reveal some dark truth concerning Rick and Morty's existence, even as they're pointing and laughing at early Star Trek episodes.
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