Star Trek Finally Shouts Out Tom Cruise (In An Unexpectedly Funny Way)
Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4, Episode 3 - "Human Best Friend"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds unexpectedly and hilariously shouted out Tom Cruise and one of his classic movies from the 1980s. Directed by Yana Gorskaya and written by Kathryn Lyn, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4, episode 3, "Human Best Friend" teams up Lieutenants Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) and Scotty (Martin Quinn) on a madcap adventure inspired by The Hangover.
For the last four decades, Star Trek and Tom Cruise have been cornerstones at Paramount. Cruise remains one of the biggest movie stars in the world, thanks to the Top Gun and Mission: Impossible franchises. Star Trek preceded Cruise's rise at Paramount, delivering multiple hit movies and TV series. Paramount Skydance still considers both to be crown jewel IPs, and is developing Top Gun 3 and new Star Trek movies.
However, Tom Cruise and Star Trek have never directly intersected. Cruise's name was mentioned early in the development of J.J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek reboot, while Leonard Nimoy and several Star Trek actors also starred in the classic Mission: Impossible series that Cruise's movie franchise is based upon. Simon Pegg, who played Scotty in Abrams' trilogy, teamed with Cruise's Ethan Hunt on-screen.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Hilariously Shouts Out Tom Cruise’s Cocktail
Dr. Joseph M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) referencing Tom Cruise's Cocktail in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4, episode 3 was unexpected and hilarious. High from the intoxicating atmosphere of the resort planet Cesnar, M'Benga turned into a happy bartender, flipping bottles like Cruise's movie character, Brian Flanagan.
Unfortunately, M'Benga is a better physician than a bartender. Butterfingers Joseph drops his bottles behind the bar and is nonplussed as he keeps making drinks, including pouring Scotty something that he described as, "It's green." Back with his druthers aboard the USS Enterprise at the end of "Human Best Friend," M'Benga does a better job flipping bottles and pouring cocktails.
Cocktail was a hit movie for Paramount in 1988 that helped cement Tom Cruise as a movie star despite poor reviews. Almost 40 years later, Cocktail is best remembered for how cool Cruise and Bryan Brown's acrobatic flare bartending looked and the chart-topping song "Kokomo" by The Beach Boys rather than the movie's characters or story.
Tom Cruise's bottle flipping and drink pouring in Cocktail doesn't look easy, and the inebriated Dr. M'Benga proved it isn't. In a Star Trek: Strange New Worlds comedy derived from The Hangover and Dude, Where's My Car?, Joseph's Cocktail callouts were laugh-inducing sight gags.
Tom Cruise’s Cocktail Has Another Star Trek Connection
Just a year after Cocktail premiered in theaters, however, Tom Cruise's bartending fantasy gained a direct connection to Star Trek. Director William Shatner cast Lawrence Luckinbill as the villainous Sybok, the Vulcan half-brother of Spock (Leonard Nimoy), in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
In Cocktail, Luckinbill played Robert Mooney, the father of Jordan, Elisabeth Shue's character. Jordan and Tom Cruise's Brian Flanagan become lovers in the film, and her wealthy father tries to buy Brian off to prevent the bartender from running off with his pregnant daughter.
Although Cocktail permated in pop culture, William Shatner didn't cast Lawrence Luckinbill in Star Trek V because he was in a Tom Cruise moneymaker. Instead, Shatner was flipping channels and saw Luckinbill perform as President Lyndon B. Johnson, which made Lawrence Bill's choice to play Spock's emotionally charged brother.
Star Trek celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2026 and has been a stalwart of Paramount along with Tom Cruise for about 40 years, yet the final frontier has not directly referenced the box office's top gun. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has tacitly equated helmsman Erica Ortegas as Star Trek's version of Cruise's iconic Maverick, and now, Dr. M'Benga made 'cocktails and dreams' come true.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 4's new episodes premiere Thursdays on Paramount+.