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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.
00:41They 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,
00:57what 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,
01:07and to make choices that just might lead to new possibilities, knowledge and advancement.
01:13Risk 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.
01:49Only live long and prosper and variation on is given in that episode by Spock and T'Pau.
01:54The first time peace and long life was said on screen was, in fact, not by a Vulcan at all,
01:58but 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?
02:07And 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.
02:19That, transliterated and transcribed, is, naturally,
02:22first heard in Star Trek The Motion Picture.
02:26Number eight, Techno Trekknobabble.
02:28The word's got babble in it, so unless we're talking about a brook, we're off to a bad start.
02:32This is also not one quote, but an entire quote concept.
02:35Okay, now I'm babbling.
02:36I think there's been a phase shift in my bilateral kelelaterals.
02:39I'll try rerouting the primary Heisenfram terminals.
02:42Technobabble, also known as Trekknobabble and Technospeak,
02:45really is one of those hate to love, love to hate type phenomena.
02:48Writers and actors over the years have certainly had a few non-technical words to say about it,
02:53and yet there's something so quintessentially Star Trek to a string of vaguely scientific words,
02:58all, on the surface at least, a glorious nonsense that can be used to jive and jargon your way out
03:02of anything. There are those actors who also get into the fun of it. Robert Picardo, for example,
03:06does his delightfully silly series Technobabble Alfresco on social media.
03:10Don't pretend you haven't either. We've all tried to memorise some of these seemingly
03:14interminable lines, from the secondary Gyrodyne relays and the propulsion field intermatrix,
03:19to the there's a thermal inversion in the power coupling. Quick, cross-connect to the transfer
03:23coil. Having this unique, distinct and intricate shared vocabulary is ultimately part and parcel of
03:29what makes us and unites us as Trekkies. To an outsider it may all sound like impenetrable gibberish,
03:34but to us it's the codified lexicon with which we communicate about our favourite show.
03:38Number 7, There It Sits. The rather middling to disastrous first and second seasons of Star
03:45Trek Next Generation still managed to provide us with an episode that was a cut up of the rest,
03:49The Measure of a Man. Voted number one courtroom episode by Trek Culture and my parole officers,
03:54in it we got the Picard speech to end all Picard speeches. Although obviously there were quite a few
03:59more after. See children, Shakespeare is useful after all. Way back before Bruce Maddox was hitting up the
04:04clubs and being murdered, he was hopping aboard the Enterprise D looking for an android to disassemble.
04:10Fortunately for Data, and much beyond the abilities of Maddox at the time, Captain Picard was there to
04:14back him up. A hearing is called with poor Commander Riker shoehorned in to represent Maddox. The debate
04:19over Data's personhood and freedom, whether he is a machine just like any other human, or simply just a
04:24machine, or if he has a soul like we don't know we do, are all summarised and put to rest
04:29by Picard's
04:30closing argument. Your Honour, Starfleet was founded to seek out new life. Well there it sits, waiting.
04:36It doesn't matter what Data is, it matters that he is. What makes Starfleet Starfleet and Trekkies Trekkies
04:42is to embrace his existence. Number six, we may lose a little weight gentlemen, but we won't lose who we
04:48are.
04:49Some have found fault with Star Trek Voyager for not making the most of its alone on the other side
04:53of the galaxy premise.
04:54The Void however, is one of those episodes in which Starship and crew must truly face the perils of the
04:59Delta 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
05:15are worth dying for, especially those of the Federation, and especially if the alternative
05:19means theft and murder, provides the moral core of the Void. We won't lose who we are, is a powerful
05:25way of saying that for Janeway, the ends will never justify the means. If we contrast this
05:30with episodes of Star Trek Enterprise that aired hardly three years later, but post 9-11, the
05:35difference is striking. Captain Archer's actions in The Expanse were highly divisive at the time,
05:40and suggested a moral ambiguity the Void had avoided. Captain Archer would say that I can't
05:45try to save humanity without holding on to what makes me human, but he'd already broken that adage
05:50in anomaly and would do so again in damage. Neither Captain has a monopoly on the truth however,
05:55as Trekkies we must, as F. Scott Fitzgerald would say, hold the two opposing ideas in the mind at the
06:00same time and still retain the ability to function. Number five, I would like the ship to go now.
06:06Warp commands are all the rage. They are one way to leave a legacy after all. We were teased with
06:11newly appointed Captain Seven of Nine's phrase for going forward and for posterity in The Last
06:16Generation, and in The Broken Circle Spock gave us his hilarious take on the thing that everyone in the
06:21chair has. I would like the ship to go now. Had all the required information, but it was certainly
06:26less laconic than what is undoubtedly the most well-known and best-loved warp catchphrase there
06:31has ever been. Captain Picard's engage. All of us Trekkies of a certain age have uttered those two
06:37syllables a thousand times, probably whilst playing Captain and maybe even whilst pretending our house
06:41was a starship. Throwing in the equally iconic make it so for good measure. No? Just me and Jack?
06:48Oh okay, alright. Also a fun fact, it was Captain Pike who first used engage as time warp for a
06:53command
06:53in the cage. Star Trek quotes don't always have to be pithy or cosmos-shatteringly profound. They
06:58are often just a lot of fun, and a fine sense of that also makes for a good Trekkie. Nevertheless,
07:03a warp command can still be packed full of feeling. Captain Janeway's set a course for home. Certainly
07:09stirred emotion, especially the last time it was said. Number four, never tell the same lie twice.
07:15You might be wondering why this quote, of all quotes, makes it to this list. Well first of all,
07:19it's Garrick, and if he hasn't made you a die-hard Trekkie, then there's little else that will. Second,
07:23in any contradiction that we should all be able to cope with, the opposing morality of Deep Space
07:27Nine's crafty tailor is exactly what Star Trek is all about, and it made us all fall fanly in love
07:32with
07:33the character. What the writers and producers of Star Trek Deep Space Nine realised brilliantly is that
07:36you can't have a paradise without someone looking in. The thing about the observer effect is that it
07:41changes the system under observation. This was the role of Garrick. By challenging the members of
07:45Starfleet and the Federation in even their most basic assumptions, there couldn't possibly be another
07:50meaning to the boy who cried wolf, could there? He disrupted the entire tale of morality they,
07:54or rather we, like to tell ourselves. Never tell the same lie twice. It doesn't make us Trekkies
07:58because we follow it as advice, but because we use it as intended. To question, critically,
08:03the systems and structures around us. To seek out and embrace different perspectives on life,
08:07and to trouble the status quo. Garrick was always telling the truth by pointing out the lies.
08:11Number three, I'd bring an umbrella. This is admittedly a personal inclusion on this list. It's
08:17not what made the writer of this article, the wonderful Jack, a Trekkie, 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
08:30the only Starfleet captain in thousands of light years, theoretical musings can be a luxury, but Janeway
08:35gives her dose of realism with a heart. In Dragon's Teeth, the Vadwar Gedron starts to philosophize
08:41to Janeway over the supposedly uncourageous final hours of his former wife. There is also a degree
08:46of 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
08:58the false equivalence. 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
09:08already one step ahead. I'd bring an umbrella. The umbrella becomes then a symbol of what it means
09:12to be a Star Trek fan. Janeway's play on Gedron's extended metaphor reminds us that we can all diffuse
09:18a tense situation with kindness, with words and wit, rather than anger and diatribe. When it rains,
09:23that means bringing an umbrella for everyone, not just for those you agree with. Number two. Well, here's
09:29one thing 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
09:39made
09:39a good number of us lifelong Trekkies and continues to do so. It gave us our dramatic first look at
09:44the
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 the Romulan
09:55and Vulcan peoples had been revealed, Stiles began to direct his misplaced hatred at Spock. Kirk's
10:00response was unequivocal. Leave any bigotry in your quarters. There's no room for it on the bridge.
10:05Do I make myself clear? Gene Roddenberry's vision of a hopeful future, in which no form of intolerance
10:09is tolerated and where, on the contrary, diversity is celebrated, is by far the most powerful part of
10:14Star Trek. As Roddenberry also once said, if we cannot learn to actually enjoy those small differences,
10:19to take positive delight in those small differences between our own kind, here on this planet,
10:24then we do not deserve to go out into space and meet the diversity that is almost certainly out
10:28there. For the best of quotes, what makes us Trekkies is that, even though we might not have
10:32gotten there yet, we try to bring Roddenberry's hope for a better future into as much of the present as
10:37we can. Number one, let's make sure that history never forgets the name Enterprise. Come on, how could
10:43we not? It's the line from the pivotal episode of Star Trek The Next Generation, still considered one of
10:48the all-time best. With yesterday's Enterprise, The Next Generation forged out its place in the franchise,
10:53truly becoming its own entity from that point on. And in that sense, the contemporary history of
10:57Star Trek, much as the name Enterprise itself, lies in Picard's prophetic line. There's a good reason
11:02we were all in tears, most of us, this presenter included, when the doors to Hangar Bay 12 opened.
11:07It's the ships we Trekkies recall just as fondly as the people that populate them. Why else do we
11:12collect with such fervor if not because, for us, they are imbued with their own character? In a very real
11:16way,
11:17our favourite starships are living, breathing things. As Captain Janeway once put it, as illogical
11:22as this may sound, I feel as close to Voyager as I do any other member of my crew. The
11:26name Enterprise
11:27is now to be found at the museum, on screen and in the real world, as much as it is
11:31to be handed down
11:32as a legacy from and to the next generation. In our own lives, as fans, we mirror that process in
11:37our
11:38collections and by welcoming each new series and its stars. For Trekkies, never forgetting the history of
11:42the franchise means forever looking forward to its future. Thank you very much, everyone.
11:47We hope you enjoyed this list. Thank you immeasurably to Jack Kiley who wrote the article
11:51that this is based on. Thank you very much, my friend. Thank you very much as well to all of
11:55you.
11:55Please make sure that you are following us on the various socials. We are on Twitter and Blue Sky and
11:59TikTok. That's at Trekkulture on each of those. We are at TrekkultureYT on Instagram. I am at Sean
12:04Ferrick and Jack is at JackKiley74656. You are wonderful. You are awesome. Make sure that you are
12:11looking after yourselves. Try and live by the quotes on this list and I think you'll do okay.
12:15Thanks very much, friends. Look after yourselves. Bye.
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