Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Charles Boustany Jr., R-La., first asked the IRS to hand over copies of the videos in a Feb. 11 letter to Acting Commissioner Steven T. Miller.

“It is important to determine whether and to what extent taxpayer resources were devoted to activities unrelated to your agency’s core functions,” Boustany wrote, claiming the Star Trek video “did not contain meaningful training content.”

Miller acknowledged the existence of both videos in his March 4 response along with the $60,000 price tag. A copy of the Star Trek parody surfaced on Friday.

The IRS said the video “was a well-intentioned, light-hearted introduction to an important conference” in a statement to the Associated Press.

The segment opens with lines similar to actor William Shatner’s original narration: “These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise Y. Its never-ending mission: to seek out new tax forms, to explore strange new regulations, to boldly go where no government employee has gone before.”

The six-minute plot that follows is simple: The Enterprise must help the planet “No-tax” that is plagued with money laundering, tax evasion using off-planet accounts and alien identity theft–all due to a “lack of tax leaders.”

Famous Star Trek character Spock is on board along with Scotty in engineering, and another crew member doing his best impersonation of the Pavel Chekov character.

“Back in Russia, I dreamed one day I’d be rich and famous” he says in a rough attempt at a Russian accent.

“Me too,” says his fellow crew member. “That’s why I became a public servant.” The two conclude their exchange with a fist bump.

“The IRS recognizes and takes seriously our obligation to be good stewards of government resources and taxpayer dollars,” the agency told AP. “There is no mistaking that this video did not reflect the best stewardship of resources.”

If you’re a frequent Last Word viewer, you already know that the actor, activist and Facebook superstar visited the show last week to talk with Lawrence about his recent blog, “Tax Me, Please,” where he asked Congress to raise taxes on the top 2% in order to avoid the looming fiscal cliff. But after the show ended that night, Takei agreed to stick around to discuss more of his thoughts in a web exclusive on marriage equality.

The core value of marriage is two people who love each other and are committed to each other. It isn’t necessarily defined by gender… You want security for your spouse, whatever may happen, and our laws do not provide that… This kind of legalistic barrier that we insist on putting up is, to me, unfathomable. In the case of [Asians like me] being incarcerated during the Second World War, we looked different—visually identifiable. But in the case of homophobia, we are literally members of a family. We are sons and daughters of heterosexual parents. We are brothers and sisters. We are literally kin, blood kin. And yet we deny the LGBT member of a family the same legal protections and rights that they enjoy… It’s irrational.

Takei’s “Very Last Word” segment will air during Tuesday’s program.

When we were promoting [“The Celebrity Apprentice”] I said I’d like to have lunch with [Trump] and discuss [his] concern about marriage equality, and I expected him to demur. But he said ‘you know something George, I think I can learn something from you.’ So he agreed to it. I was a little taken aback by it, I must say… He is a good business man. We have marriage equality in New York… There are going to be more marriages here, more celebration of their marriages. People coming from other states, like New Jersey, that don’t have marriage equality and coming to New York to celebrate and legalize their union.

And his thoughts on marriage equality:

The core value of marriage is two people who love each other and are committed to each other. It isn’t necessarily defined by gender… You want security for your spouse, whatever may happen, and our laws do not provide that. We want security for when we should pass. I can give you an example: we had friends—it’s past tense now—in Washington, D.C. They’d been together for over a decade. One partner went out of town on a business trip, came back, opened his apartment door and his partner was on the floor…died of a heart attack in his absence. The deceased partner’s relative was a lawyer-brother in Boston from whom he had been estranged. He came and took everything. The laws were against the one that spent more life…They shared their lives and their fortune, yet he lost it all. So this grieving partner lost not only the love of his life, but everything they had built together. There’s that kind of injustice. And this kind of legalistic barrier that we insist on putting up is, to me, unfathomable. In the case of our being incarcerated during the Second World War, we looked different—visually identifiable. But in the case of homophobia, we are literally members of a family. We are sons and daughters of heterosexual parents. We are brothers and sisters. We are literally kin, blood kin. And yet to deny the LGBT member of a family the same legal protections and rights that they enjo…It’s irrational.

“And those republicans can’t seem to get it. They are so bullheadly wedded to their dogmatic philosophy,. We need to raise taxes in order to meet this crisis – the fiscal cliff. They’d rather plunge down that cliff and plunge us into another economic catastrophe because the sequester’s going to cancel all the military contracts that we have and that means unemployment for many, many years ahead. And all it takes is everyone rallying together and sacrificing just a tiny bit. Going back to what we enjoyed during the Clinton years – higher taxes but great prosperity. Lots of jobs being created. The Republican position of cutting taxes, trickle-down philosophy of creating jobs has never proved to be true. With the middle class maintaining the tax cuts, they’re going to be spending money, creating jobs, retail sales is going to go up. So it’s to me absolutely baffling that the Republicans don’t get it.”

George Takei originally gained fame for portraying Mr. Sulu, the helmsman of the USS Enterprise on Star Trek; but in more recent years, he’s become equally famous for his presence on Facebook, with over three million followers who flock to his daily comedic posts. But the actor and internet star posted something more serious today:  his thoughts on the looming fiscal cliff.

In a blog post titled “Tax Me, Please,” Takei issued a plea to lawmakers:

In the coming weeks, Congress and the President must come to an agreement on taxes and spending, or face the dreaded “fiscal cliff” no one wants to jump off. I’m just one citizen, but here’s what I have to say for what it’s worth: Tax me higher.

I didn’t grow up wealthy. In fact, when I was a little boy, the government took everything away from my family and shipped us off to an internment camp. Years later, when we returned to Los Angeles, we had to scrape our way up from nothing, living on skid row and saving our money, until my parents could start up a cleaning business and move us slowly and steadily back into a middle class lifestyle. I know what it’s like to be dirt poor, and to struggle to make it in this country.

But as an actor today, I enjoy a lifestyle my parents probably never dreamed of. Despite how this country has at times misstepped and mistreated us, I love America and believe in her promise of providing equal opportunity for all. I want to see her back on top. That is why I feel it is not only fair, but my patriotic duty to support higher taxes on the top 2% percent of incomes.

During the first few years of the George W. Bush era, when there was still a surplus, they cut these taxes a few percentage points. These marginal tax rate cuts were never meant to be permanent; none of us who got them expected them to be. We always knew they’d one day return to the levels they were during the Clinton era. To suggest that we now shouldn’t give them up is silly, especially in a time where we are facing huge deficits and a looming “fiscal cliff.”

I don’t want to go off that cliff. So Congress, roll up your sleeves, compromise if you must, but don’t start from the position that my taxes can’t go up. They must, and they should.

–GT

“As you know, tomorrow, November 6, is voting day. We would like to urge you to get out there and vote,” McCartney said in an online video surrounded by his touring band.

“Three of the guys are American in the band. They voted already. And you know who they voted for? Obama! And this is who we think you should vote for. Tell your friends, get all your mates. Let’s get him back into office. Let’s go Obama… vote Obama… ‘get back,’” he concluded, alluding to his 1969 single with the Beatles.

President Obama presented McCartney with the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize in 2010 for his contributions to popular music. He returned to Washington later that year as a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors, which is given to those in the performing arts for contributions to American culture. He praised the president at that appearance, saying with a smile, “Getting this prize would be good enough. But getting it from this president…”