When James Woods made his return to Family Guy in 2005's "Peter's Got Woods", Peter mentions that his bizarre encounter with the actor reminded him of a creepy episode of Star Trek. The inevitable cutaway takes us to the bridge of the Enterprise-D - an (animated) Picard remarks that Worf's forehead "looks like a fanny", causing the whole crew (even the android Data) to burst out laughing. "Suck my ridges!", Worf barks, before Picard tells him to get a sense of humor.

Family Guy has never struggled with class (surely I jest), but this loving elbow in the side works for so many reasons. Primarily, of course, because Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes and Sir Patrick Stewart voiced their characters, but also because that one cutaway scene hit the reason I was never too enamored with the Worf character on The Next Generation - a humorless, glowering giant that always suggested (in snarling monotone) raising shields or arming photon torpedoes. Again, it's easy to make fun of Star Trek - the show hasn't done itself too many favors that way - but for MacFarlane's humor to be so spot on, that it would cross divides of sexual angst and appeal to both Trekkies and non-Trekkies alike? That's dedication. That's love, damnit. 

The crème de la crème of Star Trek tributes came with 2009's "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven", where Stewie, frustrated that none of his questions at a convention were answered, builds a transporter that brings the original The Next Generation cast to his room. He spends the day with all of them (save Denise Crosby, who he kills for continuity reasons), but the adventure turns out to be a nightmare - finding them much uncooler than their sci-fi characters, Stewie angrily calls them "the most insufferable group of jackasses [he] ever had the misfortune of spending an extended period of time with", claims they ruinedStar Trek: The Next Generation for him, and hopes they all die.

If that isn't a loving tribute from a fan, I don't know what is.

There are a plethora of other Star Trek references in Family Guy- some obvious (Brian and Lauren Conrad re-doing the Carol Marcus/James Kirk scene in the Genesis Cave from Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan in "We Love You, Lauren"), and some subtle (two servants fighting to the death with the music from "Amok Time" in the background in "Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater"). Then there's the downright brilliant, like the cliffhanger of "Stewie Kills Lois" paying homage to the heart-stopping ending of "The Best Of Both Worlds, Part One". Again, I say: anybody can make a "Beam me up, Scotty!" joke. But the level of detail and ingenuity Seth MacFarlane puts into his Star Trek ribbing makes me wish that, someday, we'll see the Griffins leave the galaxy of Death Stars and lightsabers, and try their hand at in a universe of Klingons, warp engines and Shakespeare in space.

With the Star Wars franchise having been conceived with cinema in mind, it makes sense for Family Guy to focus more on that particular series for its full-episode riffage ("Blue Harvest", "Something, Something, Something Dark Side" and "It's A Trap!"). Star Trek, meanwhile, has to share space with parodies of The Incredible Hulk, live performances by Conway Twitty, and an ensemble rendition of "Shipoopi".  And that's fine - much as I like Star Trek, I'll be the first to admit that George Lucas' space opera probably commands a larger slice of pop culture's science fiction pie. And, to its credit, there's a Star Trek joke in "Something, Something, Something Dark Side". But with JJ Abrams successfully bringing Star Trek back from the dead in 2009, I have to wonder if there's a special Star Trek feature inFamily Guy's future. After all, as Peter says to his daughter Meg, in only the second episode of Family Guy ("I Never Met The Dead Man"):

"Daddy loves you. But daddy also loves Star Trek. And, in all fairness, Star Trek was here first."

Beat that, Lucas.