So did you see Kelsey Grammer speaking Klingon during a bar mitzvah Tuesday night? This week's episode of Frasier built its punchline on the phenomenon of Star Trek fandom, and recruited a prominent figure in that world to help out.

In the episode, titled "Star Mitzvah," Frasier Crane (Grammer) is getting ready to travel to Boston to attend his son Frederick's bar mitzvah. He has written a speech for the ceremony, but he'd like to deliver it in Hebrew. Noel (Patrick Kerr), an ultra-geeky fellow radio station employee, offers to help him with the task in exchange for a favor: A Star Trek convention is in town that weekend, and all the Enterprise captains will be there (presumably that would be Shatner, Stewart and Bakula ... boy, that'd be nice, wouldn't it?). Noel needs Scott Bakula's autograph to complete his collection, but he can't attend himself because William Shatner's restraining order against him is still in effect. ("It wasn't even a real phaser!") So Frasier agrees to do it, and Noel hands him a picture of Bakula as Captain Archer within an acid-free covering, and cotton gloves to handle it with.

Well, Frasier fails to follow through on the favor, so Noel plots his revenge: He teaches Frasier to say his speech in Klingon rather than Hebrew (and Frasier, naturally, can't tell the difference). Noel is later surprised to learn that Frasier actually made good on the favor — he acquired the wig worn by Joan Collins in the Original Series episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" and left it for Noel as a present (gotta wonder how he did that ... and how much it cost!). But too late — Frasier is already in Boston making a fool of himself. Frasier's speech sounds like gibberish to the rabbis, but the Klingon language is immediately recognized by Frederick's nerdy friend, Jeremy Berman. ("Berman"? Interesting...)

We have learned that the Frasier writers actually consulted the foremost expert on the Klingon language, Marc Okrand — author of "The Klingon Dictionary" and related books — to write the speech and therefore ensure authenticity.

The episode is rich with Trek-related quotes and good-natured ribbing of its fans. Why doesn't Noel get a friend to secure Bakula's autograph? "Trust me — there are no friends in the world of Star Trek autography." Noel tells Roz (Peri Gilpin) that Klingon is "the fastest-growing language on the planet! This is what you people don't understand. A man named Gene Roddenberry had a vision...!" Jeremy Berman translates the speech for Frederick (on the fly!), and it turns out to be quite touching. But Jeremy comments, "It's a lot more beautiful in the original Klingon."

This is not the first time Star Trek has been a part of Frasier. Two seasons ago Dr. Crane went to a science fiction convention to find a comic book for Frederick, and encountered a number of amateur Klingons and Vulcans and such, before he ran into an actor he admired and whose classical career he tried to revive.

Frasier, as you might know, is a cousin Paramount show. Besides being shot on the same lot as Enterprise (and every other Star Trek production), its star and executive producer Grammer made a cameo appearance in a 23rd-century Starfleet uniform as "Captain Morgan Bateson" in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Cause and Effect." Plus, this episode featured the recurring character of Lilith, played by Bebe Neuwirth, who was also memorable in a TNG cameo as the love-struck "Lanel" in "First Contact."

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We issue a challenge: If you taped this episode of Frasier and can translate the Klingon speech Kelsey Grammer gave (in other words, can you verify that he really said what the script claims he said?), let us know about it in the Star Trek message boards!