10 Star Trek Quotes That Made Us Trekkies

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"Beam me up, Scotty"?!  Let's hear those words spoken IN Star Trek!

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00:00Live long and... alright, okay, you know the drill, you know the drill.

00:03But there are those quotes in Star Trek that we tend to live by.

00:07The ones that we can mould ourselves around.

00:09The ones that, quite frankly, help us to be better people.

00:13Without too much preamble, let's get right into it.

00:14I'm Sean Ferry for Trek Culture and here are 10 Star Trek Quotes That Made Us Trekkies.

00:20Number 10. Risk is our business.

00:22If we're talking making Trekkies, or Trekkers if you prefer,

00:25we first have to go back to the makings of Trek.

00:27In the original series episode, Return to Tomorrow,

00:29the crew of the Enterprise get a strange call from an unexplored region of space.

00:33When they arrive at the source, they find a devastated planet and, beneath the surface,

00:36the remnants of a once powerful species who might have seeded life on Earth and Vulcan.

00:40They are Sargon and co, the Aretans, now living as energy in big balls.

00:45Asked by the Aretans if they might lend out their bodies for a bit,

00:48Kirk gives his now legendary, rousing speech to reassure those crew members assembled in the briefing room.

00:54What this starship is all about is, by extension, what Star Trek and its fandom are all about too.

00:59Kirk is not asking anyone, crew or audience to take reckless risks without proper consideration,

01:04but to dare, to dare to move beyond our trepidations and to make choices that just

01:09might lead to new possibilities, knowledge and advancement.

01:12Risk is the business of every explorer, whether you've got a starship to do it or not.

01:17Risk is also part of Star Trek's very existence.

01:19No one had to take a punt on that second pilot after all.

01:22Number 9. Live long and prosper.

01:24Everyone knows and can celebrate the wonderfully ubiquitous live long and prosper,

01:28all the while practicing the dexterity defying hand gesture that goes with it.

01:32Trekkies around the world are united by four letters alone, LLAP.

01:36What a Star Trek fan will also know is that there exists a less familiar,

01:40but equally quotable counterpart to the Vulcan greeting, peace and long life.

01:44There are parts of the internet that suggests that peace and long life was first said in a muck time,

01:48but this is not true. Only live long and prosper, and variation on, is given in that episode by

01:53Spock and T'Pau. The first time peace and long life was said on screen was, in fact,

01:57not by a Vulcan at all, but a human, Dr. Miranda Jones, played by Diana Maldauer.

02:01The Doctor says the line to Spock as a form of goodbye on the transporter pad at the end of

02:06Is there in truth no beauty? And he then replies, live long and prosper.

02:10Of course, what also makes the Trekkie a Trekkie is not just knowing those Vulcan sayings in Federation

02:14standard, but being able to give your best live long and prosper in the Vulcan language.

02:18That, transliterated and transcribed, is naturally Difturhechsmusma, first heard in Star Trek The

02:25Motion Picture. Number eight, Technotrechnobabble. The word's got babble in it, so unless we're talking

02:30about a brook, we're off to a bad start. This is also not one quote, but an entire quote concept.

02:35Okay, now I'm babbling. I think there's been a phase shift in my bilateral kelelaterals.

02:39I'll try rerouting the primary Heisenfram terminals. Technobabble, also known as Trekknobabble and

02:44Technospeak, really is one of those hate to love, love to hate type phenomena. Writers and actors

02:49over the years have certainly had a few non-technical words to say about it, and yet

02:53there's something so quintessentially Star Trek to a string of vaguely scientific words, all on the

02:58surface at least, a glorious nonsense that can be used to jive and jargon your way out of anything.

03:03There are those actors who also get into the fun of it. Robert Picardo, for example, does his

03:07delightfully silly series Technobabble Alfresco on social media. Don't pretend you haven't either.

03:12We've all tried to memorize some of these seemingly interminable lines, from the secondary

03:16Gyrodyne relays and the propulsion field intermatrix to the there's a thermal inversion in the power

03:21coupling. Quick, cross-connect to the transfer coil. Having this unique, distinct and intricate shared

03:26vocabulary is ultimately part and parcel of what makes us and unites us as Trekkies. To an outsider,

03:31it may all sound like impenetrable gibberish, but to us it's the codified lexicon with which we

03:36communicate about our favourite show. Number 7. There it sits. The rather middling to disastrous

03:43first and second seasons of Star Trek Next Generation still managed to provide us with an

03:47episode that was a cut up of the rest, The Measure of a Man. Voted number one courtroom episode by Trek

03:52Culture and my parole officers. In it, we got the Picard speech to end all Picard speeches. Although,

03:57obviously there were quite a few more after. See children? Shakespeare is useful after all.

04:02Way back before Bruce Maddox was hitting up the clubs and being murdered, he was hopping aboard

04:07the Enterprise D looking for an android to disassemble. Fortunately for Data, and much beyond the abilities

04:12of Maddox at the time, Captain Picard was there to back him up. A hearing is called with poor Commander

04:16Riker shoehorned in to represent Maddox. The debate over Data's personhood and freedom, whether he is a

04:22machine just like any other human, or simply just a machine, or if he has a soul like we don't know we

04:27do, are all summarized and put to rest by Picard's closing argument. Your Honor, Starfleet was founded

04:32to seek out new life. Well there it sits, waiting. It doesn't matter what Data is, it matters that he

04:39is. What makes Starfleet Starfleet and Trekkies Trekkies is to embrace his existence. Number six,

04:45we may lose a little weight gentlemen, but we won't lose who we are. Some have found fault with Star Trek

04:50Voyager for not making the most of its Alone on the Other Side of the Galaxy premise. The Void, however,

04:55is one of those episodes in which Starship and crew must truly face the perils of the Delta Quadrant

05:00when they are flung into a practically empty pit of space and forced to survive. We know Voyager's

05:05going to make it, or they'd have had to stop, at least rename the show right there, but it's rarely

05:10the what but the how that makes for a good quote. Janeway's resolute approach, that some principles are

05:15worth dying for, especially those of the Federation, and especially if the alternative means theft and

05:20murder, provides the moral core of the Void. We won't lose who we are, is a powerful way of saying

05:25that for Janeway, the ends will never justify the means. If we contrast this with episodes

05:30of Star Trek Enterprise that aired hardly three years later, but post 9-11, the difference is striking.

05:36Captain Archer's actions in The Expanse were highly divisive at the time and suggested a moral

05:41ambiguity the Void had avoided. Captain Archer would say that I can't try to save humanity without

05:46holding on to what makes me human, but he'd already broken that adage in anomaly and would do so again

05:52in damage. Neither Captain has a monopoly on the truth, however. As Trekkies we must, as F Scott

05:57Fitzgerald would say, hold the two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the

06:02ability to function. Number five. I would like the ship to go. Now. Warp commands are all the rage.

06:08They are one way to leave a legacy, after all. We were teased with newly appointed Captain Seven

06:12of Nine's phrase for going forward and for posterity in The Last Generation, and in The Broken Circle,

06:18Spock gave us his hilarious take on the thing that everyone in the chair has. I would like the ship

06:23to go. Now. Had all the required information, but it was certainly less laconic than what is undoubtedly

06:28the most well-known and best loved Warp catchphrase there has ever been. Captain Picard's Engage.

06:34All of us Trekkies of a certain age have uttered those two syllables a thousand times, probably whilst

06:39playing Captain and maybe even whilst pretending our house was a starship. Throwing in the equally

06:43iconic make it so for good measure. No? Just me, Jack? Oh, okay. Also a fun fact. It was Captain

06:50Pike who first used Engage as time warp for a command in the cage. Star Trek quotes don't always have to

06:56be pithy or cosmos-shatteringly profound. They are often just a lot of fun and a fine sense of that also

07:01makes for a good Trekkie. Nevertheless, a warp command can still be packed full of feeling. Captain Janeway's

07:07set a course for home. Certainly stirred emotion, especially the last time it was said.

07:12Number four. Never tell the same lie twice. You might be wondering why this quote of all quotes

07:17makes it to this list. Well first of all it's Garrick and if he hasn't made you a die-hard Trekkie

07:21then there's little else that will. Second, in any contradiction that we should all be able to cope

07:25with, the opposing morality of Deep Space Nine's crafty tailor is exactly what Star Trek is all about

07:30and it made us all fall fanly in love with the character. What the writers and producers of Star Trek Deep Space

07:35Nine realized brilliantly is that you can't have a paradise without someone looking in. The thing

07:39about the Observer Effect is that it changes the system under observation. This was the role of

07:44Garrick. By challenging the members of Starfleet and the Federation in even their most basic assumptions

07:48there couldn't possibly be another meaning to the boy who cried wolf could there. He disrupted the

07:52entire tale of morality they, or rather we, like to tell ourselves. Never tell the same lie twice.

07:57It doesn't make us Trekkies because we follow it as advice, but because we use it as intended. To

08:02question critically the systems and structures around us. To seek out and embrace different

08:06perspectives on life and to trouble the status quo. Garrick was always telling the truth by pointing

08:10out the lies. Number three, I'd bring an umbrella. This is admittedly a personal inclusion on this list.

08:16It's not what made the writer of this article, the wonderful Jack Atreki, but it certainly helped

08:21solidify his fandom. There's something to be said for the sheer beauty and the pragmatism of Captain

08:25Janeway even before her alternate future self had somewhat formally adopted the approach. When you're the

08:30only Starfleet Captain in thousands of light years, theoretical musings can be a luxury,

08:34but Janeway gives her dose of realism with a heart. In Dragon's Teeth the Vadwar Gedron starts to

08:40philosophize to Janeway over the supposedly uncourageous final hours of his former wife. There is also a

08:45degree of beauty in his rainy day allegory, in fact a reworking of a quote from Yamamoto Sonatomo's

08:52The Hagakure, A Code to the Way of the Samurai. But elegant as it appears Janeway immediately recognizes the

08:58false equivalents. Rain is one thing, plasma bombs are another, she adds. Gedron might feel the

09:03principle is the same, but the Captain is far too smart to ever accept such rigid logic and is already

09:08one step ahead. I'd bring an umbrella. The umbrella becomes then a symbol of what it means to be a

09:12Star Trek fan. Janeway's play on Gedron's extended metaphor reminds us that we can all diffuse a tense

09:18situation with kindness, with words and wit, rather than anger and diatribe. When it rains, that means

09:23bringing an umbrella for everyone, not just for those you agree with. Number two. Well here's one

09:29thing you can be sure of mister. If there's ever a time to bring out the phrase Gene Roddenberry's

09:33vision and to mean it, it's now. Balance of Terror is an episode that in and of itself no doubt made a

09:39good number of us lifelong Trekkies and continues to do so. It gave us our dramatic first look at the

09:44Romulans but it also laid out in only four lines of dialogue what is Star Trek's moral core. The mister

09:50Captain Kirk was addressing or dressing down was Lieutenant Stiles. Once the similarities between

09:54the Romulan and Vulcan peoples had been revealed, Stiles began to direct his misplaced hatred at Spock.

10:00Kirk's response was unequivocal. Leave any bigotry in your quarters. There's no room for

10:04him on the bridge. Do I make myself clear? Gene Roddenberry's vision of a hopeful future, in which

10:08no form of intolerance is tolerated and where, on the contrary, diversity is celebrated, is by far the

10:13most powerful part of Star Trek. As Roddenberry also once said, if we cannot learn to actually enjoy

10:18those small differences, to take positive delight in those small differences between our own kind,

10:23here on this planet, then we do not deserve to go out into space and meet the diversity that is

10:27almost certainly out there. For the best of quotes, what makes us Trekkies is that, even though we

10:31might not have gotten there yet, we try to bring Roddenberry's hope for a better future into as much

10:36of the present as we can. Number one, let's make sure that history never forgets the name Enterprise.

10:42Come on, how could we not? It's the line from the pivotal episode of Star Trek The Next Generation,

10:47still considered one of the all-time best. With yesterday's Enterprise, The Next Generation

10:51forged out its place in the franchise, truly becoming its own entity from that point on.

10:55And in that sense, the contemporary history of Star Trek, much as the name Enterprise itself,

10:59lies in Picard's prophetic line. There's a good reason we were all in tears, most of us,

11:04this presenter included, when the doors to Hangar Bay 12 opened. It's the ships we Trekkies were called

11:09just as fondly as the people that populate them. Why else do we collect with such fervor if not because,

11:14for us, they are imbued with their own character. In a very real way, our favourite starships are

11:18living, breathing things. As Captain Janeway once put it, as illogical as this may sound,

11:22I feel as close to Voyager as I do any other member of my crew.

11:26The name Enterprise is now to be found at the museum, on screen and in the real world,

11:30as much as it is to be handed down as a legacy from and to the next generation. In our own lives,

11:36as fans, we mirror that process in our collections and by welcoming each new series and its stars. For

11:40Trekkies, never forgetting the history of the franchise means forever looking forward to its

11:45future. Thank you very much, everyone. We hope you enjoyed this list. Thank you immeasurably to Jack

11:50Kiley who wrote the article that this is based on. Thank you very much, my friend. Thank you very much

11:54as well to all of you. Please make sure that you are following us on the various socials. We are on

11:58Twitter and Blue Sky and TikTok. That's at TrekCulture on each of those. We are at

12:02TrekCultureYT on Instagram. I am at Sean Ferrick and Jack is at JackKiley74656. You are wonderful.

12:09You are awesome. Make sure that you are looking after yourselves. Try and live by the quotes on

12:13this list and I think you'll do okay. Thanks very much, friends. Look after yourselves. Bye.

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