Character James T. Kirk | Actor William Shatner | |
 | ||
First used in Star Trek, though not verbatim | ||
"Beam me up, Scotty" is a catchphrase that made its way into popular culture from the science fiction television series Star Trek. It comes from the command Captain Kirk gives his chief engineer, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, when he needs to be transported back to the Starship Enterprise.
Contents
Though it has become irrevocably associated with the series and movies, the exact phrase was never actually spoken in any Star Trek television episode or film; however Shatner has said a few similar phrases.
Precise quotations
Despite the phrase entering into popular culture, it is a misquotation and has never been said in any of the television series or films. There have, however, been several "near misses" of phrasing. In the Original Series episodes "The Gamesters of Triskelion" and "The Savage Curtain", Kirk said, "Scotty, beam us up"; while in the episode "This Side of Paradise," Kirk simply said, "Beam me up". The animated episodes "The Lorelei Signal" and "The Infinite Vulcan" used the phrasing "Beam us up, Scotty". The original movie series has the wording "Scotty, beam me up" in Star Trek IV and "Beam them out of there, Scotty" in Star Trek Generations. The complete phrase was eventually said by William Shatner in the audio adaptation of his novel Star Trek: The Ashes of Eden.
James Doohan, the actor who played Scotty, later chose this phrase as the title of his autobiography.
Similar misquotations
"Beam me up, Scotty" is similar to the phrases "Just the facts, ma'am" (attributed to Jack Webb's character of Joe Friday on Dragnet), "Elementary, my dear Watson" (attributed to Sherlock Holmes), "Luke, I am your father" (attributed to Darth Vader in Star Wars), "Play it again, Sam" (attributed to Ilsa in Casablanca), "Do you feel lucky, punk?" (attributed to Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry) and "We don't need no stinkin' badges!" (attributed to Gold Hat in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre). All seven lines are among the best known quotations from these works for many viewers, but not one is an actual, direct quotation.