Like most misquotes it was a combination of seperate quotes into something that was never said in that form. "Beam me up." "Scotty, three to beam up." "Four to beam up, Mr. Scott."
Sorcerer Supreme
Well, in addition, Montgomery Scott was rarely in charge of the transporter, as he was the head engineer. The actual transporter chief on the original series was a fellow by the name of Mr. Kyle. Most of the times someone needed to be beamed up, it was usually just something like "three to beam up".
Scotty was the one who occasionally beamed up the crew in the animated series and the films (where stuff like "Beam me up, Mr. Scott" were actually said) partially because the crew was whittled down to the primary characters in both versions. The animated series and films were likely seen by more non-fans in their original TV and theatrical runs than the original TV series.
edited 25th Dec '11 3:30:25 PM by DocStrange
Stomping on your fingers as you're clinging on to the abyss
I think one thing that might have help perpetuate the quote is "The Doomsday Machine" where a lot of the drama in the climax involved not being able to beam Kirk over before the Constellation was to self-destruct inside the machine. So a lot of Kirk's dialogue was "Scotty! Now would be a VERY good time to beam me over!"
Pika is the bombchu!
Technically I believe the first use was in unauthorized bumper stickers and buttons sold at conventions back in the Seventies, but don't quote me on that.
mudshark: I don't expect Nate to make sense, really.
Short Hair
FWIW, the first time I heard this phrase, it was on a bumper sticker: "Beam me up, Scotty, there's no intelligent life on this planet" (according to Wikipedia, it's down here not on this planet). Once that got established, the first part spun off to indicate general frustration with life, not just fellow Earthlings. So it's not supposed to be a direct quote.
Under World. It rocks!
Not a cat
Kirk does say, "Scotty.... beam me up", in The Voyage Home, though.
If I had a nickel for every film where Emma Stone falls off a balcony... I'd only have two nickels, but weird that there's two of them.
Whew, massine necro. Pay a bit more attention to the timestamps in the future, please.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
If that quote was never uttered in any form of Star Trek Fiction, then where did the misquote come from?
How did fans of this series(Trekkers?) allow this mishap to escape without correction?
Yep, I'm still here.