Star Trek Provides One Of The ‘HollyWords’ of 2009

Each year the Glo Global Language Monitor releases their list of the most influence "HollyWords", or words from Hollywood that most influenced the English Language in the past year. Topping this list this year was "Pandora" from Avatar, but there is also a contribution from Star Trek on the list this year, with "Her" coming in at #8, see below for details and explanation.

 

Star Trek’s ‘Her’ – #8 Hollyword of 2009

The Global Language Monitor (languagemonitor.com) uses "a proprietary algorithm to track the frequency of words and phrases in the global print and electronic media." This algorithm is used to create their annual Top Hollywords list. Here is their list of the new Hollywood words with the largest impact on the English language:

1. Pandora (Avatar) – There are 1,000 words in Na’vi language specifically constructed for Avatar, but the name of the alien planet is originally from classical Greek meaning ‘all blessings or gifts’. The Pandora’s Box myth has the first mortal woman opening a box that holds all the ills of the world, which inadvertently escape. A later version has all the blessings of the world escape except for hope, which remains.

2. Hurt Locker (The Hurt Locker) – In GI vernacular, explosions send you into the ‘hurt locker’, synonymous with ‘a world of hurt’.

3. Barley Pop (Crazy Heart) – Bad Blake’s reference to beer; similar to ‘oat soda’ and the like.

4. Vampire (Twilight) – The living dead are enjoying an unprecedented revival in the 21st Century. Undoubtedly, PhD fodder for sociologists of the future.

5. Squeakquel – Any movie that gets millions of kids (and parents) to use a neologism with two qq’s in it, should be noted in an influential word list.

6. December 21, 2012 (2012) – According to some, the end of the world so marked by the Mayan Calendar; actually it is simply the first day of the 14th b’ak’tun in the Long Count calendar of the Maya.

7. Vichy (Inglorious Basterds) – Shosanna Dreyfus’ suggestion to Frederick on where to find ‘girlfriends’. Yet another generation is introduced to the seemier side of the Free France narrative.

8. Her (Star Trek) – “These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life-forms and new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone before.” Several hundred years from now, though ‘man’ is replaced by ‘no one’ in the mission statement, starships apparently proudly maintain their female gender status, ‘Her’.

9. ‘Their’s but to do or die’ (The Blind Side) – Sean Tuohy teaches Charge of the Light Brigade to Michael. When was the last time you recall the words of Alfred, Lord Tennyson being recited in a football movie — or anywhere else for that matter?

10. Prawns (District 9) – Politically incorrect name for Space Aliens in District 9, since they seem to resemble crayfish, crawfish, or crawdads.


There she is

Star Trek’s evolving mission statement

The Language Monitor notes the ‘her’ in the Star Trek mission statement for the USS Enterprise. Although both the addition of ‘her’ and ‘no one’ are differences from the original Star Trek mission statement from 1966, neither are new to the franchise. The same gender-neutral ‘no one’ instead of ‘no man’ was used by Star Trek: The Next Generation starting in 1987. And using ‘Her’ instead of the gender-neutral ‘Its’ was used in the closing credits for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, spoken by Spock. Kirk also referred to the Enterprise as ‘Her’ in his closing epilogue in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. And of course the various Enterprises have been referred using the feminine throughout Trek history, which is based on naval tradition.

Here are the various versions of the mission statement through the years, with bold to note how their differ from the original TOS version.

Original Star Trek (1966) [spoken by Kirk]

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. 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.

Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan (1982) [spoken by Spock]

Space: the final frontier. These are the continuing voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life forms and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before.

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) [spoken by Picard]

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone before..

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) [Spoken by Kirk]

This is the final cruise of the starship Enterprise under my command. This ship and her history will shortly become the care of another crew. To them and their posterity will we commit our future. They will continue the voyages we have begun and journey to all the undiscovered countries, boldly going where no man, where no one, has gone before.

Star Trek Enterprise (pilot – 2001) [Spoken by Zefram Cochrane]

On this site, a powerful engine will be built. An engine that will some day help us to travel a hundred times faster than we can today. Imagine it. Thousands of inhabited planets, at our fingertips. And we’ll be able to explore those strange new worlds and seek out new life, and new civilizations. This engine will let us go boldly, where no man has gone before.

Star Trek Enterprise (finale – 2005) [Spoken by Picard, Kirk & Archer]

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before.

Star Trek (2009) [spoken by Spock Prime]

Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Her ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life-forms and new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone before.


The original Star Trek mission statement

 

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It’s crazy there are so many iterations of the mission statement, but it all boils down to the same meaning we can agree on.

Greets from Germany…
in German, a ship is always female…
so it is DIE Enterprise…
and since the Enterprise is – in my opinion – equal in star quality to Mr Shatner and Mr Nimoy she deserves a “feminine” attribute

She is our lady and we LOVE her!

I still hate that they changed “no man” to “no one”. It’s totally insane and preposterous, an improvement for the worse based on… based on what? False political correctness? Feminist fascist ideology? (Does anyone know?) The original “man” in “no man” did not stand for “male person”, but for “human”, as in “mankind”, meaning specifically that the Enterprise would travel to worlds where no human has gone before—i.e. a new experience for *us* here on planet Earth. The new substitute “no one” actually implies that the Enterprise now travels to worlds where no person (human *and* alien beings) has gone before. The words themselves have lost all original meaning and intention. (It made a little sense in TNG S01E06, but that’s about it.)

But I do like “her” voyages. :)

Well, you can of course say that starting with TNG they realized that there were also aliens on the Enterprise, which could in theory account for the “no one”. ;) But that’s a bit far-fetched, isn’t it?

Is it just me or does the hair stand up on the back of your neck when you hear Spock read those words.

My favorite pet peeve in all Trekdom. And it is a big peeve. “No man” is superior in every way to “no one”. Case closed. Politically correct pabulum. No one is not “bold”. “Continuing” voyages is superfluous. Spock’s replacement of “five year” with “ongoing” is fine, because it needs to explain the end of the five year mission. But “new life forms” is clumsy. “To seek out new life and new civilizations” has a better rhythym without that extra “forms” syllable.

Just as Daniel Craig couldn’t say “Bond. James Bond” until the end of Casino Royale, JJ needed to put Trek’s mission statement at the end of last year’s Trek. But I would also hope that JJ puts the statement back at the beginning of the sequel where it belongs. Boldly. Picture Trek 09, as the shuttlecraft dissolves into the spinning emblem, but instead of hearing Giachinno’s new theme, you hear Courage’s fanfare followed by Pine intoning the intro. Chills.

I totally agree with no. 4. “where no man has gone before” sounds so much more poetic than “where no one has gone before.”

4

Go Schultzie!

“Several hundred years from now, though ‘man’ is replaced by ‘no one’ in the mission statement, starships apparently proudly maintain their female gender status, ‘Her’.”

That’s good news, because the Enterprise is certainly looking to be the only female character in Star Trek that matters. Of course, the next movie could change all that if the writers just allow Uhura to do her job instead having everyone else who do it, especially officers who are NOT communications officers.

– Uhura: Hello! My name is Uhura. I study alien languages including morphology, phonology and syntax. I’m a top student in my class where I have on multiple occasions demonstrated exceptional oral sensitivity AND I have an unparalleled ability to identify sonic anomolies in subspace transmissions. Also, my hearing is incredible.
– Captain: You’re in luck! Even though none of what you told me will be of any use to anyone on this ship, feel free to take the “what’s happening” station and tell us the obvious. Mr. Chekov will be handling the communications related durties
– Chekov: Aye!
– Uhura: But I can do better than-
– Captain: Better than Chekov? Don’t count on it. The moment you have trouble at your station, he’ll come running and pushing you aside yelling “I can do that!” constantly and actually get the job done. Look, I know you want a more important role and that you have a lot of skills, but you know what I think you want more? Quality time with Spock! Believe me, no one will raise a fuss about you leaving your station even in a time of crises because all your station does is tell us what we already know. So go sit down and monitor Spock’s frequencies, cause god only knows how that would be of any use.

Yes, Star Trek 2009. Boldly going backwards by giving women positions that are completely pointless.

Also, I like the “No one” better than “No man” because it’s talking about the Enterprise’s mission, a mission that is not devoted solely to humans. Everyone, including the non-human crew on the ship are on that mission too, and who is to say they’ve been there before? When you say “No one”, you include everyone, humans and aliens. And when you take in the idea that everyone on this ship are going to venture into the unknown that none of them have experienced before, that adds a much broader perspective to the monologue.

I would have “her” no other way.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…

It was not the voice over that bothered me it was how the enterprise or is it better if i call it the JJPrise,looked.

The design was just all over the place. Ugly looking, make it look like a hotrod he told ilm. Perhaps the wrong choice of words.

Anthony, I skipped through a lot of the article, but the shot of the neu-Enterprise is the best I’ve seen yet, yet I don’t think it’s from the movie. What’s your source( apart from http://diamondskyproductions.com/spotlight.php)? It’s the first time I’ve seen the new ship from an angle that I can appreciate, and can say “that’s VERY Star Trek” about.

#13I have that shot blown up to just show the saucer section as my wallpaper on my computer. Anthony posted that a few months back.

You treat her like a lady, and she’ll always bring you home…

what a surprise, Jeyl finds yet another excuse to spout his hatefull bile about the new Star Trek movie

i suggest suicide since you are so worked up over this movie

16

Nice quote. I’ve always loved that line. McCoy had a way with words.

“She is a beautiful lady, and we love her…”

No reflection on trekmovie.com, but what a stupid list.

To quote Hikaru Sulu: “Why do people have to call inanimate objects she? Like, ‘she’s a fast ship’?”

=P

After picking up the new E at Toys R Us (priced to clear!), I have to say I really like it a lot better. With something to pick up and hold at various viewing angles, it really comes across as a much more attractive design than I originally thought.

I thought i saw that image of the JJ-Prise 1701 on the cover of cinefex magazine am i wrong?

I agree, I don’t like that they changed the ‘no man” to ‘no one” I don’t know why some feminist women think saying that means only males, not humans. And to say “where no human has gone before” sounds awkward.

I agree too that this new Enterprise is not as good looking as the original.

To make a point about what the actual article is telling us. Of all the words to pick as a “hollyword” from the movie, they pic a pronoun. Really? not Red Matter or something?

#14 That image of the Enterprise is an expanded version of the scene when the Enterprise emerges from Titan’s atmosphere.

24, It sure was.

“Risk….is our business. THAT’S why we’re aboard her!”

– James Kirk

#7 – and Pine actually does it pretty well, too. It’s too bad we only hear him speak the monologue in the ST:09 gag reel, but there’s always the next film!

Of course, we never really got to hear Archer say the monologue either, even though he has done so. I think it was in an audio clip featured on one of the official Star Trek websites; I have a recording of Bakula’s version on my iPod. It went like this:

“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Her continuing mission: to explore strange, new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no human has gone before.”

Here’s the link. A fan made a YouTube video incorporating the clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpwv1ZipTL4

18 – wow. That’s really an insensitive thing to say, especially given recent events.

This thread made me think about how the original voiceover came to be. I refer you to the book “Inside Star Trek” by Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman. If you have it, check out pages 143 – 149 for this interesting story.

I also have to plug “The Making of Star Trek,” one of the finest books ever written on this or any other behind the scenes paperbacks. It was written by Stephen F. Whitfield and the man himself, Gene Roddenberry. Great stories on every page.

The original making of book by Whitfield is great and sadly long out of print.
I was fun reading about how all those old school optical effects like the transporter beaming were done.

I wonder if Pocket Books will consider re-publishing the “Making Of Star Trek”. I’ve never got the chance to read it.

To #22, I was going to mention that.

@6:
Yes, it does. Freakin’ spooky.

Whenever I recite the opening for TOS I always feel weird saying “its” instead of “her”. However I much prefer “no man” over “no one”. By changing it they make it seem as if it was bad before. It’ wasn’t, it’s not like they really meant MEN, or males.

in spock prime’s….why the comma rather than the colon? any reason?

The way the article puts it, it’s as if we have starships already :)

Where no Prawn has gone before…
Where no Vichy has gone before…

Nah, I like, “Where no man has gone before.” And man does mean huMAN. Although, I can see the point that “no one” is showing respect to the aliens onboard. As the great Zapp Brannigan once said:

“I don’t care if your skin’s red, or tan, or Chinese…”

“…you’re all going to have to learn to die together.”

@4: “…Feminine fascist ideology…”

What.

#10
I couldn’t agree more. I loved the film, but there were a couple of moments that had me rolling my eyes, Chekov’s moments were one of them.

@11: I don’t agree with Jeyl on much, but this is spot-on. Couldn’t have said it better myself.

10

What do you expect the writers of Transformers?

Star Trek is a fun movie but it has a very weak script. There are too WTF moments and plot coincidences that it does not flow naturally.

I love the film but if you think about the plot then a lot of makes no sense.

#44: “There are too WTF moments and plot coincidences that it does not flow naturally. I love the film but if you think about the plot then a lot of makes no sense.”

So you love a film that has all sorts of problems and you think it works best if you just don’t think about it? To quote sfdebris,

“If a story depends on you not thinking at all about what’s happening in order to work, the story has failed. The minute you decide otherwise that thinking is bad, you are only encouraging them to treat you like an idiot. Unless you’re watching a comedy or a brainless action piece, you shouldn’t stop ‘thinking’ just because the movie started. Drama, mystery, suspense (Jeyl: All the best Star Trek had that)? It should have your mind going all the time. And when it does something that leaves you wondering why the hell people are doing what they’re doing, or why the hell this thing is happening, or worst of all, why the film makers did something so obviously stupid, they’ve failed, and it’s your job as an audience to call them on that. When you get served crap and thank them for it, you will continue to get crap. Not just in Trek, but in all entertainment.”

Now, would you say it’s fair that Bob and Alex got at least ‘some’ form of criticism for the work they did on Transformers that didn’t involve “More robots!” or “Devestator in the next movie!”? I can think of hundreds of reviews that pointed out problems in that movie that not only return for the sequel, but are flat out multiplied. You think Jazz had some head shaking moments? How about two more versions of him with more screen time and the stupid racially insensitive level cranked all the way up to 11? With that kind of track record, do they sound like the type of writers who will look at the flaws of Star Trek 09 and try to do better the next time around? I don’t think so, because no matter what anyone says about the flaws of that movie, the two things they will cling to is your “I love the film” comment and that the film was an overall success, because that basically tells them that flaws don’t matter and neither does your intelligence. Why? Because you’ve already said that you ‘love the film’ despite saying “If you think about the plot, then a lot of it makes no sense”.

“Well this is a new ship, but she’s got the right name. Now you remember that, you hear?”
“I will, sir.”
“You treat her like a lady, and she’ll always bring you home…”

– Admiral McCoy, to Data, referring to the Enterprise

Should have said, “..where mankind has not gone (journeyed?) before…” because, if you’re seeking out new civilizations then, well, some *one* has been there before, a la Columbus discovering America.

Actually there is a Archer Version, but it’s not in ENT.
you can find it here.
http://bbs.flyine.net/thread-85789-1-1.html
i’ve upload Archer version audio

Never thought about as much as reading these threads, but I guess I’m with the lot that finds “man” to be more poetic than “one.”

At the same time, I do not so quickly dismiss the “political correctness” of changing the phrase. Star Trek has always been a vehicle for political messages, and gender equality is certainly a valid one. I do not think there was anything WRONG with the first iteration of the mission statement. However, regardless of the necessity of changing the phrase, by changing it they drew attention to the inclusiveness of Star Trek and the message that exploration is an adventure for both men and women. That’s a message I can support!

That youtube Enterprise opening is a thousand times better than what Berman & Braga did…

“sigh”

Voyager and Enterprise…. The Star Treks full of unfulfilled possibilities and missed opportunities…