Subscribe by Email15 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Star Trek
May 9, 2010 by Geeks are Sexy | View Comments
Did you know that the famous Vulcan salute was invented by Leonard Nimoy and based on a priestly blessing performed by Jewish Kohanim? Hit the jump for a bunch of other interesting facts.
[Via Reddit]
- Vulcans Will Beam to Star Trek Screening
- The Origin of the Vulcan Salute
- The New Star Trek Movie Blows Fans Away [Star Trek Review]
- Can Young Kirk Really Survive the Car Jump In the New Star Trek?
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You complain about “to boldly go” being grammatically incorrect (it’s not; split infinitives are a stylistic choice that have been unfairly vilified), and yet your first sentence underneath “15 things you didn’t know about STAR TREK” is a complete mess:
“…one of the largest impacts… than any other franchise.”
O.K.
Explain to me how to: To Boldly……..?????
An infinitive in the English language is made up of two words, “to” and what is commonly known as a verb. In actuality, the infinitive is the most basic form a verb can take, it is not made up of a verb itself. So to split it is incorrect. You cannot split a conjugation. So “To boldly go” should technically be “To go boldly.” In the English world it is a debated whether or not split infinitives are actually incorrect, because they can be used as a stylistic choice. For instance, had the phrase been “To go boldly,” it is rhythmically uneven and less aesthetically pleasing to the ear, so it has become famous the other way around—which is really credited to the writer’s good skill.
The creators of the poster also used “phenomena,” the plural of “phenomenon,” when the singular would have been the correct form.
You are correct. Split infinitives are fine; it’s just a common stylistic choice to not split them that developed into the mistaken idea of a rule. It’s just like the “rule” that prepositions cannot be placed at the end of sentences, when in fact it is a perfectly appropriate place for them to be placed in.
It is never a good idea to place a preposition at the end of a sentence because it does NOT sound correct. Sure, you can write how you want- that does not make it sound proper. Saying ‘it is a perfectly appropriate place for them to be placed in’ would have sounded just fine had you left out the in at the end. “It is a perfectly appropriate place for them to be placed.” End of sentence. Nothing else is necessary- the English language can be manipuiated however you please- but this does not make it ‘correct.’
(nice tricky preposition at the end of your own sentence)
Unavoidable, considering the subject matter. :)
/<3
It’s so true about the red shirts ^^
Yeah, there is nothing grammatically incorrect about split infinitives. Prove it’s grammatically incorrect, I dare you.
That comment sounded rude, I apologize. I just meant that when people claim it’s grammatically incorrect they normally have no basis for saying so…
wow. I’m a little ashamed that I knew all of this already…..oh fuck it, I’m a proud Trekker. ^__^
Captain Kirk makes me wet.
@Shaelyn Yeah, me too (I knew all of it *and* I’m a proud Trekker)
There is nothing wrong with using a split infinitive in English, unless you insist on speaking English using the rules of Latin – which is a bit like playing football using the rules of tennis.
As a professional editor/proofreader, I second what Grammar Nazi said.
woo! people sticking up for split infitives, good stuff
Shame on you, Zachary Quinto!
I am amazed by the amount of correct spellings of the word grammar in this thread.
How does anyone really know that the 2009 Star Trek was the most pirated? I suppose revenues are down? So the millions of dollars they claim to have made in just the first week wasn’t enough to cover production costs?! (not sure if that’s a question or a statement of possible fact.
Also, I read somewhere that the whole “first interracial kiss” thing wasn’t exactly accurate, that there were a few interaccial kisses before then. The very first interracial kiss actually took place when Sammy Davis, Jr. and Nancy Sinatra kissed briefly on the variety program “Movin’ With Nancy” in December 1967 (according to the venerable Wikipedia). It was, however, the first interracial black-white kiss on a scripted non-variety television show on US TV (to be precisely accurate). ;)
See, now I had heard that the first interracial kiss was between Harry Belafonte and some white lady.
or was it ricky and lucy? maybe sidney pointier and some white chick in ‘to kill a mockingbird’? can’t say for certain but i’ve heard they all predate the kirk/uhura kiss.
Lucy/Ricky was not considered interracial at the time (nor should it be), and Sidney Poitier’s kiss was in a FILM. Kirk/Uhura was the first interracial kiss ON AMERICAN TELEVISION. The article is correct.
Next.
How? Kirk and Uhura are both human. It was the first MULTIETHNIC kiss.
according to wikipedia, not that it means anything…
A split infinitive is an English-language grammatical construction in which a word or phrase, usually an adverb or adverbial phrase, comes between the marker to and the bare infinitive (uninflected) form of a verb. A famous split infinitive occurs in the opening sequence of the Star Trek television series: to boldly go where no man has gone before. Here, the adverb “boldly” splits the full infinitive “to go.” More rarely, the term compound split infinitive is used to describe situations in which the infinitive is split by more than one word: The population is expected to more than double in the next ten years.
As the split infinitive became more popular in the 19th century, some grammatical authorities sought to introduce a prescriptive rule against it. The construction is still the subject of disagreement among native English speakers as to whether it is grammatically correct or good style: “No other grammatical issue has so divided English speakers since the split infinitive was declared to be a solecism in the 19c: raise the subject of English usage in any conversation today and it is sure to be mentioned.”[1] However, most modern English usage guides have dropped the objection to the split infinitive.[2]
good lord its like being in an english lesson. and i thought that was all behind me. also grammar nazi – what it the correct way to spell grocers? with or without an apostrophe? hmmmn?
Nerds
That line is still grammatically incorrect as presented, because it’s a sentence fragment.
With all respect to Bronzelike, “to boldly go where no man has gone before” is not a sentence fragment, and therefore is not ungrammatical. This is so because it is part of the “five-year mission” explanation:
“Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”
True, the verb “is” after “five-year mission” is implied rather than stated. Nevertheless, because English is fairly flexible rather than hidebound (allowing variant ways of writing which allow considerable room for non-repetitive, imaginative, and even poetic phrasings), such an implied verb is entirely acceptable in good English. This flexibility does not mean that “anything goes” in English, but rather that good English need not be dressed forever and only in a straitjacket, but can be dressed in many appealing, interesting, and even beautiful ways.
It should be “To boldly go where no man has been before”?
The Vulcan salute is the tip of the iceberg of Jewish reference in the Original series. The whole concept of logic dictating action and being the premise of a society comes from the Talmudic tradition of debate where the best logical argument wins. Further, it is considered desirable (if not the pinnacle) to have one’s mind rule his being over one’s passions. Just a thought.
Grammatically correct to say “To go boldly…” (Meatbags)
Why can we not just enjoy the Star Trek phenomenon and shut up about grammar? This is precisely why Star Trek has such a bad stigma attached to it….all you friggin’ nerds nerding it up with your need to pick everything apart. It’s a fantasy world people! Turn off your brain and enjoy it! Please no comments about MY intelligence either. I have an IQ of 162. I just choose not to use it the way you nerds do!
I whole heartly concur. I have a an IQ of 142 and I still turn it off when I am watching. I don’t care on how Klingon is spoken, or why Spock has green blood, I just watch it. (My first sentence is from Star Trek TNG episode “Where silence has lease” when Riker is turning off the auto destruct)
Sorry, couldn’t let this slip in light of the following sentence “I whole heartly concur. I have a an IQ of 142″ When bragging about your IQ take care to use the proper spelling. I assume you mean “I wholeheartedly concur”?
Actually, the first interracial kiss(es) on television happened every week in the 50s on America”s most popular sitcom, I Love Lucy, between Desi Arnaz (Cuban) and Lucille Ball (White).
No, Cuban is a nationality, not a race. Desi Arnaz was most likely descended from the white Spaniards who colonized Cuba, making him white, too.
Evan, it would have been better if you did not post a
comment. Then we would only think that you are an idiot.
But you just had to comment, so now we are aware of the
Awful Truth … What A Bloody Shame.
I feel so bad for your parents.
How about an ice cold glass of STFU ???
You know…Spock was modeled after LAPD police chief William H. Parker
I just like the pic of the lassie at the top of the page!
Nah, who gives a stuff about the grammar, Star Trek is just ace. End of. I’m a bit dissapointed in Quinto and the glue, as he’s a pretty ‘Spock’ looking Spock. If that makes any sense.
Can I also say, i’m impressed with the lack of spelling mistakes in your replies. Bad spelling really grips my sphincter. :D
Live long peoples
Skull
Made in Scotland
fae girders!
That is awesome, I also found this great experiment video about a diet coke and mentos explosion in a microwave on youtube that was really entertaining. It is pretty near death as far as diet coke and mentos goes. It is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVPZSK77yTw. Take a peek, its worth it.
As demonstrated by the following, the objection to split infinitives comes from ignorant teachers slavishly obeying a blinkered pedantry that is willfully, stupidly blind to the fact that English is not Latin. Yes, in Latin the infinitive form is always one word, e.g., “amare,” meaning “to love,” “videre,” meaning “to see”; but in English the infinitive form is always TWO WORDS! In other words, in English the infinitive is ALWAYS AND ALREADY SPLIT INTO TWO WORDS, and good writers write good or even great English by splitting it further when inspiration strikes. “To boldly go where no man has gone before” is a thrilling example of a GREAT split infinitive. For those who object, they would be left with the limp, unnatural, awkward, and lifeless phrasings “Boldly to go where no man has gone before,” or “To go boldly where no man has gone before.” Do the anti-splitters really think either of these is an improvement? Break and split your chains, o ye anti-splitters! Free yourselves from an imposed and killing servitude to a dark and unworthy pedantry, and walk into the bright sunshine of sparklingly well-wrought English!
************************************
The following was composed and compiled by Richard Nordquist of About.com, and can be found at http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/splitinfinitive.htm
Definition:
A construction in which one or more words come between the infinitive marker to and the verb (as in “to boldly go where no man has gone before”).
Examples and Observations:
* “I don’t care if he is made to go quickly, or to quickly go–but go he must!”
(George Bernard Shaw)
* “The only rationale for condemning the [split infinitive] construction is based on a false analogy with Latin. The thinking is that because the Latin infinitive is a single word, the equivalent English construction should be treated as if it were a single unit. But English is not Latin, and distinguished writers have split infinitives without giving it a thought. Noteworthy splitters include John Donne, Daniel Defoe, George Eliot, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, William Wordsworth, and Willa Cather. Still, those who dislike the construction can usually avoid it without difficulty.”
(The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, 2000)
* “It seemed that he had caught [the fish] himself, years ago, when he was quite a lad; not by any art or skill, but by that unaccountable luck that appears to always wait upon a boy when he plays the wag from school.”
(Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat, 1889)
* “Split infinitives have been the cause of much controversy among teachers and grammarians, but the notion that they are ungrammatical is simply a myth: in his famous book Modern English Usage, Henry Fowler listed them among ‘superstitions’!”
(AskOxford.com)
* “I was wise enough to never grow up while fooling most people into believing I had.”
(Margaret Mead)
* “Would you convey my compliments to the purist who reads your proofs and tell him or her that I write in a sort of patois which is something like the way a Swiss waiter talks, and that when I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it will stay split.”
(Raymond Chandler)
ok, that’s awesome
That whole “the network didn’t want a woman as second in command” thing was a bullshit story told by Roddenberry for years. The fact is, they didn’t want Barrett, because she couldn’t really act, and everyone knew she was sleeping with the then-married-to-someone-else Roddenberry. That’s why he brought her back in in a bad wig as Nurse Chapel later in the first season.
Having been on both sides of the split infinitive, i.e., the student and the teacher, the learner and the learned, I can tell you this: the main function of a split infinitive and other such racy grammatical fare is to draw unsuspecting and bored students, particularly high school students squirming uncomfortably in their seats as they wait for the clock’s hands to finally lumber to 3:05pm and the calendar to sleepily ooze into mid-June’s summer recess–into a discussion, even an argument–about grammar!!–where the facts to be learned become secondary to the liveliness of the debate about aesthetics vs. structure. This result, to the teacher, means the lesson has been internalized by the student and that we done larned ‘em good.
other interesting information: they changed it from “where no man has gone before” to “where no one has gone before” in the next generation. how’s that for an attempt at gender equality?
it seems like the Queens Language (English) has boldly gone into outer space !!
and since our American “friends” don’t speak English…
PLEASE
let them boldly GO !!
they live in a world, but not as we know it !
Stotty, since you are already UP there….
P.B.M.U.
Majell barret played “Number one” in the pilot “The Cage” later reworked into the Menagerie the ONLY two parter in the original series.
The issue was that gene wanted a woman in a command role. when showed to test audiences…the WOMEN in the audience, Not the men, replied furious…. “Who does she think she is ordering men around?” the women didn’t like it… so they changed it.
Gene could not find anyone to make the show except for Desilu studios….
Desi Arnez and Lucille Ball paid to have Star Trek on the air. And they were a scandalous at the time inter-racial couple. ((Lucille Ball would be the first woman shown pregnant on TV))
The original sponsors of Star Trek at CBS were asked if Mr. Spock could smoke a Space Cigarette. Gene said no. In the future no one smokes.
“To boldly go” is technically incorrect, according to rules of English; but there is no reason for it to be so.
As others have pointed out, Latin verbs cannot be split, nor can Greek verbs. The original logic behind the prohibition against split infinitives was, “Well, if the Greeks and Romans didn’t, then by God, neither will we!”
Sorta silly.
Also, as Bill Bryson has pointed out, “the man” is the nominative case, but you wouldn’t say, “the good man” is a split nominative.
I’ve learned to relax, anal-compulsive grammar Nazi that I am.
i’ve never been interested in star trek. this website improve star trek’s image for me though.
and the comments made me laugh.
thanks everyone.
Actually, there’s nothing grammatically wrong with split infinitives. The first objections to split infinitives started in the late 18th century, and nowadays, they’re seen as grammatically correct. ~the more you know~