William Shatner 'Appalled' by IRS 'Star Trek' Spoof

Captain Kirk is not amused.

William Shatner — the actor who portrayed the iconic captain of the Starship Enterprise on TV's " Star Trek " — has spoken out via Twitter denouncing a government funded video parody of the series made in 2010.

"So I watched that IRS video," Shatner wrote via his Twitter account (@WilliamShatner). "I am appalled at the utter waste of US tax dollars."

CBS News obtained a copy of the IRS video last week and released it on the web. The video shows a high quality mockup of inside the Enterprise and reportedly cost $60,000 in taxpayer money to create along with a "Gilligan's Island" spoof in the same vein.

Officials with the IRS explained that the video was part of a larger training effort by the government body.

"In addition, the IRS has instituted tough new standards for videos to prevent situations similar to the 2010 video," officials said in a statement reported by CBS.

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While the IRS spent thousands on its "Star Trek" video, fans of the real science fiction franchise have a chance to catch every live-action series in the show's history for free on Hulu.

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The company announced last week that it will stream all five series — "The Original Series," "Voyager," "The Next Generation," Deep Space Nine" and "Enterprise" — online for free to honor Shatner's 82nd birthday. There was also a short-lived cartoon version of the series, "Star Trek: The Animated Series," but that is not part of the Hulu project.

Follow Miriam Kramerand. Follow us, Facebook  and. Original article on SPACE.com.

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