WATCH: CNN’s John Berman Sets Phasers on ‘NERD’ with Extended Star Trek-Themed Voting Rights Explainer

CNN anchor John Berman seized on a Star Trek metaphor to illustrate the state of play in the Democrats’ push to pass voting rights legislation, much to the confusion and eventual approval of his colleagues.

On Wednesday morning’s edition of New Day, Berman and co-anchor Brianna Keilar hosted legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin for a discussion of Senate Bill 1, the For the People Act, which was just filibustered by Republicans in a test vote Tuesday.

In the middle of the discussion, Berman asked “Are either of you Star Trek fans?”, to which he received a “No” and some skeptical glances.

“So, Kobayashi Maru [pronounced MAH-roo for some reason], in the movies,” Berman began, as a perplexed Keilar asked, “Where is he going with this?”

“…is the test they take in the Starfleet Academy, they have to pass this test in order to go through in training,” Berman continued. “It turns out there’s no way to pass it. The test is rigged. So you fail every time.”

“Mitch McConnell is Kobayashi Maru on voting rights. Democrats can’t get past him no matter what,” Berman said, and explained “Kirk, what he ultimately did, was he changed the programming. The only way to get beyond the Kobayashi Maru test is to change the programming. And unless Democrats, and I’m not saying they should, but unless they’re willing to change the programming, which is to change the filibuster rules, this is a moot point. It’s done. It’s rigged.”

Berman brought the metaphor up several more times during the segment, and by the end had convinced his colleagues of its worthiness.

“I will say thank you for your Star Trek analogy. I actually found it very illustrative,” Keilar told Berman at the close of the discussion, to agreement from Toobin.

“I was going to say ‘May The Force be with you, but that’s the wrong movie. I was trying so hard,” Toobin joked.

Berman’s take is essentially correct on its own terms, if not completely accurate — the Kobayashi Maru is not rigged so you can’t “pass,” it is rigged to test a captain’s response to a no-win situation, so you can “pass” the test without winning the simulated engagement.

And while Toobin couldn’t quite find the phrase he was looking for — “Live long and prosper” — at least he made it through the segment without firing any photon torpedoes on air.

Watch above via CNN.