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The original “Star Trek” television series lasted only three years (1966 to 1969) and wasn’t much of a hit in its time. But as any Trekkie will happily inform you (telepathically or otherwise), it had a latent meteoric impact on American pop culture.

We don’t want to pass judgment on those who idolize the former cast members. We don’t understand them. But hey. We never understood James Joyce, either.

Still, there is something a bit strange in the latest news from the Starship Enterprise. In a guest appearance on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” show Monday night, William Shatner, the former Capt. Kirk and star of “Boston Legal,” talked about a recent trip to the hospital to have his kidney stone removed.

“The hospital was very crowded,” Shatner said. “They put me on a maternity gurney, the one with the stirrups, and rolled me down the hall into a room. I was yelling in pain and people were pointing at me saying, look, “Capt. Kirk is having a baby.”‘

A non-Trekkie’s response would have been, “Thank you for sharing, Bill.” Jimmy Kimmel’s reaction? “Can I have the stone? I really want it. It is the ultimate Star Trek collectible.”

This is why they pay talk-show hosts big bucks. It’s that vision thing.

Shatner and Kimmel decided to sell the kidney stone on e-Bay and donate the proceeds to their favorite charities. You can’t bid yet. You have to wait for it to get back from the lab.

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HUMOR DOESN’T TRAVEL WELL

Sacha Baron Cohen hosted the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards early this month in Lisbon, appearing as the fictional sex-obsessed, widowed Kazakhstani Borat Sagdiyev. The audience loved the act, but it upset some Kazakhstanis.

Consequently, Cohen – best known for his satirical HBO series, “Da Ali G Show” – may be sued, Reuters reports.

“We do not rule out that Mr. Cohen is serving someone’s political order designed to present Kazakhstan and its people in a derogatory way,” ministry spokesman Yerzham Ashykbayev told reporters at a press conference on Monday.

At the awards ceremony, Cohen – as Borat – played the role of an earnest foreign correspondent who arrived on an Air Kazakh propeller plane captained by a one-eyed pilot clutching a vodka bottle.

Not funny, complained Ashykbayev. “We view Mr. Cohen’s behavior at the MTV Europe Music Awards as utterly unacceptable, being a concoction of bad taste and ill manners, which is completely incompatible with ethics and civilized behavior.”

Ashykbayev threatened legal action, although he did not specify exactly what options the government of the former Soviet republic was considering.

So far, HBO has declined to discuss the controversy. So has Cohen.

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(Philadelphia Inquirer wire services contributed to this report.)

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(c) 2005, The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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AP-NY-11-15-05 1816EST