20 Mind-Blowing Facts You Never Knew About Star Trek

By Tom Baker /

18. Nobody Ever Says "Beam Me Up, Scotty"

It's arguably become the best-known catchphrase from the show. Whenever the ship's crew needed extraction from an alien world, they simply got in touch with Scotty, who would €œbeam them up€ using a transporter €“ which as created to avoid the special effects costs if they were to show the ship landing on the planets instead. Which is a natty piece of trivia (as is the fact that the original effect was created using a sheet of kitchen foil and some carefully-placed lights before compositing it over the scene), but what's probably lesser know is nobody ever says €œBeam me up, Scotty€ in the original series. It's one of those weird famous misquotes that has somehow filtered through into popular culture despite being wrong, like €œPlay it again Sam€ or €œSam Worthingon is talented€. There's been similar phrases €“ €œScotty, beam us up€ etc €“ but nobody has said the €œfamous€ phrase in any Star Trek movie or series.