The Lanthonite connection with the Grateful Dead

24 January 2026

At Bang a Gong HQ we have been loving the latest iteration of the Star Trek universe, Starfleet Academy.

We were excited to post after last week’s first episode about the 1967 Scott McKenzie hit San Francisco getting a 32nd century makeover. See: 1960s ‘Summer of Love’ song propelled into the 32nd century

Another nod to music of our era comes via the character Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter), who has Grateful Dead records in her quarters. Ake, who is a Human-Lanthanite hybrid, is Chancellor of Starfleet Academy. It seems Ake may be a Deadhead, with at least one Grateful Dead vinyl album in her collection.

In Trek lore, Lanthanites are a very long-lived species and a group of them lived among Humans on Earth for thousands of years, undetected until the 22nd century.

Another Lanthanite, Pelia (Carol Kane), is a character in the Star Trek series Strange New Worlds. We learned in series 3 that Pelia was once a roadie for the Grateful Dead. Being quite a playful character, we bet she had a fun time with Jerry and the boys.

Out in fandom we are seeing an overlap between Deadheads and Trekkies as passionate fan subcultures. Some articles and discussions suggest Deadheads (Grateful Dead fans) and Trekkies (Star Trek fans) share similar diversity and enthusiasm, which has been seen in marketing for events and tours.

We have two songs by the Grateful Dead on BaG: Truckin’ and Box of Rain, both from the American Beauty album. Perhaps we should also add their 1968 song Dark Star with its spacey jams to our website!

New episodes of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy arrive each Thursday on Paramount+.