This Captain Kirk speech says more about what Star Trek stands for than any other line in the original series.
Certain lines of dialogue become so famous they almost stop belonging to the movies and TV shows that produced them. “May the Force be with you.” “I’ll be back.” “You're gonna need a bigger boat.” You don't need to know the context. The words have long since transcended their original context.
Star Trek: The Original Series has plenty of those. Spock’s wish that everyone to “live long and prosper” is arguably the franchise's signature phrase. He also turned the simple word “fascinating” into a catchphrase simply by raising one eyebrow before saying it. Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) spent three seasons reminding everyone, “I'm a doctor, not a…” and, at least in our collective memory declaring, “He's dead, Jim” while standing over the latest redshirt who wandered a little too far from the landing party.
But if I could only pick one line to represent everything Star Trek stands for, it would be four simple words spoken by Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) halfway through “Return to Tomorrow," the 20th episode of season 2:
On the surface, it doesn't seem like an obvious choice. ” It isn't endlessly quoted by people who have never watched an episode of Star Trek . And unlike “beam me up, Scotty,” it never became part of the broader pop culture vocabulary. But that's exactly why it's the best quote. It doesn't just capture Kirk.
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