There’s nothing trivial about the connection between Star Trek and the popular board game, Trivial Pursuit. The franchise and the game crossed paths several times over the years.
Back in 1992, Hasbro -- which owned Trivial Pursuit after Selchow and Righter and also Coleco Industries -- introduced Trivial Pursuit, which they supported with a major television advertising campaign that included a spot featuring DeForest Kelley. In it, a woman asks the following question from the Science and Nature category: How many chambers are there in a human heart? Viewers then see and hear a loud wipe cut, which gives way to a familiar door whooshing sound. And out steps a cantankerous DeForest Kelley, sporting blue medical scrubs and grousing, “How should I know. I’m an actor, not a doctor.” That, of course, is a spin on Kelley's beloved Star Trek: The Original Series character, Dr. McCoy, and the moody medic's trademark gripe.
The spot runs all of 15 seconds, but it’s effective: to the point, funny, particularly amusing for Star Trek fans, and does a nice job of selling Trivial Pursuit.
A few years later, in 1995, Telstar Video Entertainment released -- only in the UK -- Trivial Pursuit -- Star Trek Edition VCR Game. So, yes, we’re talking about a VHS tape, 100-plus questions, and footage from The Original Series and the TOS features. Then, in 2016, USAopoly upped the ante by releasing Trivial Pursuit: Star Trek 50th Anniversary Edition, a Trek-specific version of the board game boasting 1,200 questions covering TOS, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise, and the films from The Motion Picture to Nemesis. The game cards came in a Galileo NCC 1701-7 shuttlecraft model.
A quick look at eBay shows that the 10th anniversary version of the game can be bought, sealed, for as little as $13.99. Someone out in the UK has the Trivial Pursuit -- Star Trek Edition VCR Game available for $6.48 or best offer, though shipping to the United States will cost you about $32.72. And, not surprisingly, the Trivial Pursuit: Star Trek 50th Anniversary Edition is something of a collector’s item, with an opened, pre-owned version priced at $36 and sealed versions of it going for between $70 and $100. The game cost $29.95 upon release in 2016.
Did you own any of the games? What are your memories of playing them?