Scotty gets beamed up

James Doohan, who played Captain Montgomery Scott on Star Trek, died today. And did you know that the famous phrase "Beam me up, Scotty" was never uttered in Star Trek? I remember when the phrase first became popular in the 1980s and thinking, "They never said that in Star Trek!" The two times that came the closest to using that phrase was in an episode of The Animated Adventures, when Captain Kirk said, "Beam us up, Scotty," and in the movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home when Admiral Kirk said, "Scotty, beam me up." (But actually, when Star Trek IV was released in 1986, "Beam me up, Scotty" was already a well-known catchphrase, so you really can't count it. They were probably just cashing in on the phrase's popularity.)

Also, Doohan dies on the 36th anniversary of the first manned Moon landing. And of course, that Moon landing fueled the world's interest in space travel, which in turn helped cause the just-cancelled Star Trek TV series to become very popular in rerun syndication in the years following.