Turist Ömer: Uzay Yolunda

This is surely one of the biggest cult of Turkish movie history and also one of the biggest of science-fiction genre too. Although you would miss some great jokes if you are not familiar with turkish culture, you wouldn't miss the classic cult dialogues between Mr.Spak and Turist omer.

Try to catch this one!

Without a doubt this film is the funniest Turkish film ever made. I wish you guys knew Turkish so you could understand the funniest scenes like Turist Omer breaking down the main computer by asking him silly questions, or getting on Spock's nerves. Many people think this is like "Dunyayi Kurtaran Adam (aka Turkish Star Wars)" but it's not. Dunyayi Kurtaran Adam was also OK but it was a ripoff and not intended to be a comedy. "Turist Omer Uzay Yolunda (Turkish Star Trek)" on the other hand is asking the question "what if a Turk was among the crew of Star Trek". Another great thing about the movie is, especially Captain Kirk and Mr Spock look and act exactly like in the TV series, not a single exaggeration. Love this movie. It's the funniest Turkish movie ever made, and Sadri Alisik is the funniest Turkish actor ever lived.

This was apparently made by some resourceful Trek fans in Turkey around the same time as the Star Trek animated series, during the Trek drought of the seventies between the original series (ended in '69) and the 1st Trek movie in '79. One can look at it as a lost episode of the original series, composed of Trek bloopers, discarded scenes, and an overabundance of the ridiculous. It begins with the standard Trek visuals of the Enterprise zooming about in space, but as if shot thru a red filter, and quite blurry. This also uses the standard Trek background music and FX sounds from the sixties show (the music, however, doesn't always fit the action in the scene). Unfortunately, my version doesn't have an English vocal track or subtitles, but I could figure out within a few minutes that this aimed for a remake/parody of "The Man Trap" episode of the original show, featuring that salt-sucking monster (since that was the first episode of the original series to air, this makes me wonder if they intended to remake later episodes - next would have been "Charlie X"). This comic version also included some androids, including a male model-type dressed only in a loin cloth. Overall, it's an intriguing precursor to other Trek spoofs such as the famous "Saturday Night Live" episode with John Belushi.

About 15 minutes in, the plot abruptly diverts to some Turkish dude from present times suddenly whisked (beamed away) from his low rent (shotgun?) wedding into the Trek adventure, where he interacts with all the main characters - kind of a wish fulfillment dream of all the Turkish fans, I guess. In the meantime, the salt creature takes the identity of several characters, though the way it sucks the salt out is portrayed a bit differently from the original episode. The costuming accurately copies that of the original series, with the same style uniforms. This also reminded me just how sexy those mini-skirted uniforms were on the female crew members - there's a few of 'em here - in one amusing scene where they train their 'phasers' on the visitor. Check out, also, the hairdo emulating the Yeoman Rand character - trippy. The sets also attempt to copy the Enterprise interior, though less successfully; the exteriors in the ruins are better realized. The humor really kicks in during the last half, with the salt creature terrorizing the tourist and other action stuff copying scenes from the "Arena" episode and, even better, the Kirk-Spock fight from "Amok Time." The scenes with the multitude of loin-clothed androids is a bit too bizarre, but the conclusion is appropriately amusing. The whole thing's just over 70 minutes long on my version. Maybe this helped in getting a new Trek series greenlit, then the motion picture, when it was realized that the whole planet was desperate for new Trek.

1. The character "Turist Ömer / Omer the Tourist" played by Sadri Alisik was first introduced as a sidekick in the movie "Helal Olsun Ali Agbi", starring Ayhan Isik. The character became very popular and 7 films were shot for this character between 1964-1973. This movie is the last one. 2. The 7 Turist Ömer movies are: - Turist Ömer / Omer the Tourist (1964) - Turist Ömer Dümenciler Krali / King of the Con-Men (1965) - Turist Ömer Almanya'da / In Germany (1966) - Turist Ömer Arabistan'da / In Arabia (1969) - Turist Ömer Yamyamlar Arasında / Among Cannibals (1970) - Turist Ömer Boga Güresçisi / The Bullfighter (1971) - Turist Ömer Uzay Yolunda / Star Trek (1973) 3. Star Trek was very popular in Turkey at the time. Because of that, the crew of USS Enterprise were played by the dubbing artists of the show in Turkish TV channel TRT, which was the only channel at the time. 4. The adventure of USS Enterprise in this film (the story with the salt-monster) was taken from an episode of the original show. 5. The film contains multiple Turkish jokes. They're mostly shown as the funny clash between Omer's humorous character and Spock's rationality.

This movie is a masterpiece among Turkish movies in the sense that it may be the first example of making fun of another movie or TV show. Foreigners will probably not understand that the movie solely intents to make you laugh, and that Turist Omer(Alisik) makes fun of and teases all that legendary Star Trek characters.Sadri Alisik is a true legend in Turkey, not a dirty looking 'Muslim' guy, who has great talent, not only in physical comedy but also verbally. The movie has no 'religious' motives, Omer's transfer to Enterprise is a coincidence which we can see any movie, anyway God won't be any peculiar in a science-fiction, either. opening hands and praying to God is gesture in Turkey which has no religious meaning. As it can be anticipated, you must be a Turk or good Turkish speaker to understand the simple but powerful humor in this movie. Insulting a dead legend and millions of people due to trendy "Islamfobia" and poor understanding is not fair. Here, I am saying that if you do not speak Turkish or have a Turkish friend to assist you through the movie, do not watch it, otherwise you will fall in the pit in which "one of the North American comments" is, the pit of prejudice..

Late Note: It is true that there are stolen scenes in the movie, then SUE the dead man. What could they do to show a spaceship in space? And do not forget that the movie is a free advertisement of the TV-series..