10 False Star Trek Facts You Probably Still Believe

The most famous phrase in all of Star Trek (with the exception of Live Long and Prosper), it also has the honour of being the most well-known sentence that has never been spoken in the franchise at all.

The command is simple - this would have been Kirk calling for Chief Engineer Scott to bring them up to the ship. While variations on the sentence were certainly uttered, this particular phrase has never been spoken.

It has actually become something of a loving tribute to Star Trek and to the Original Series in particular, called out by fans countless times over the years. There are slightly negative connotations associated with it also. An Oxford reference page referred to Beam Me Up Scotty as a mixture of PCP and Cocaine, with users being referred to as Beamers whose consciousness were somewhat blasted off into space for a short time.

This aside, the phrase has become forever linked with James Doohan, who of course played the infamous engineer. It actually led to a misquote in his obituary, which stated that he was the man who would answer the call to Beam Me Up, Scotty. Doohan himself used the phrase as a title for his 1996 autobiography.

The phrase has been dated as entering the lexicon roughly ten years after the show's pilot, so for almost fifty years it has been as well known as any other Star Trek phrase and in some cases, perhaps even more so.