Star Trek Actually Had Wild TBBT Easter Egg You Never Noticed
The fantastic show made it up to The Big Bang Theory’s most underrated character in a very weird way.
For more than a decade of its immensely successful TV run, The Big Bang Theory has served as some kind of extra promo for the “geeky” part of pop culture like superhero comic books or sci-fi movies and shows, and one of those actually had a nod to the sitcom in a very questionable way.
Just like Sheldon Cooper has constantly been clear about his love for Star Trek, the sci-fi saga once acknowledged The Big Bang Theory, though the favor was actually returned to a different character.
Star Trek’s seventh series, Star Trek: Discovery, released back in 2017 has a tiny reference to CBS’ fan-favorite show, and it is indeed something that not so many fans could have noticed. The first season’s episode 5, titled Choose Your Pain, is the first to feature Harcourt Fenton "Harry'' Mudd, portrayed by The Office star Rainn Wilson, and catches him being stuck on a Klingon prison ship.
Despite that, things aren’t actually that bad for him, as Mudd has a pet insect that is trained to bring him food or whatever else he would need. Ironically, the insect’s name is Stuart.
Though the creature’s initial name was much more appropriate, as the creators had nicknamed him Bugsy, the show eventually opted for a minor homage to The Big Bang Theory’s Stuart Bloom, a comic book store owner and also a huge fan of all the sci-fi and superhero stories.
Such an Easter egg was surely inserted in the series for the best of reasons, yet it’s still not clear whether Stuart’s actor Kevin Sussman was really happy about the fact that Star Trek’s insect had been named after him.
The sci-fi franchise’s awkward attempt to return the favor to The Big Bang Theory for all the love it’d given to Star Trek and especially its outstanding character Spock comes as yet another proof that Stuart was actually never taken seriously neither by The Big Bang Theory itself nor by other shows, as it now turns out.
Throughout the whole series’ run, the character was never given the slightest chance to get lucky in his professional or personal life while also being constantly mocked by Sheldon and his friends even after officially joining their group.