Original artwork, not a still
Misattributed to Kirk
Beam me up, Scotty.
— Star Trek: The Original Series • 1966
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The line everyone knows was never said, which makes it the textbook case of a false memory. It captured something the series did constantly: Kirk in trouble on a planet, Scotty at the transporter controls. It has since come to mean any wish to escape an unpleasant situation, and the misquote itself became shorthand for a catchphrase fans remember wrongly.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for Star Trek: The Original SeriesShow the scene
The phrase is a famous misquotation: across Star Trek: The Original Series, Captain Kirk never says it in those exact words. He gets close, as in "This Side of Paradise" with a plain request to be beamed up, and in "The Gamesters of Triskelion" and "The Savage Curtain" with "Scotty, beam us up". The animated series adds "Beam us up, Scotty". Over the years the half-remembered version took over, and James Doohan, who played chief engineer Scotty, titled his 1996 autobiography Beam Me Up, Scotty.
Sources (2)
- Wikipedia: Beam me up, ScottyLead and Precise quotationsReference checked
- Memory Alpha: Beam me up, ScottyPage bodyReference checked
Context reviewed
