Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek (1966), once jokingly said that Ice Pirates "was singularly responsible for bringing back the death penalty to California." The Ice Pirates is a 1984 comic science fiction film directed by Stewart Raffill, who co-wrote the screenplay with Krull writer Stanford Sherman. The film stars Robert Urich, Mary Crosby and Michael D. Roberts; other notable featured actors are Anjelica Huston, Ron Perlman, Bruce Vilanch, John Carradine, and former football player