Tag: voyager

“There’s coffee in that nebula!”

From: Star Trek: Voyager

Genre: Television

Who said it?: Captain Janeway

The story behind the quote: This week’s quote comes from the 1995 sci-fi series, Star Trek: Voyager. The third series to come out of Star Trek‘s revival, which started with Star Trek: The Next Generation, this series follows the adventures of the starship USS Voyager. The series follows the USS Voyager and its crew, led by Captain Janeway (portrayed by Kate Mulgrew). After getting transported all the way to the Delta Quadrant, she must lead her crew on the arduous mission to get all the way back home to the Alpha Quadrant.

This week’s quote comes from The Cloud, which is the sixth episode of the first season of the show. In order to save on power, the USS Voyager has stopped using their replicators to create food, leading to one of their new crew members, Neelix, to cook food derived from whatever edible materials they can scrouge up. However, as Neelix is a resident of the Delta Quadrant, he doesn’t exactly know how to cook for beings from the Alpha Quadrant. Now desperate for more common niceties like coffee, Captain Janeway learns that they are passing a nebula that may help restore some of their energy reserves and even power up their replicators for replicating food. This is when she gives the order to change course to the nebula and delivers the quote.

Geek wisdom: People, when desperate, will start to do strange things in order to get what they want. While that can be a driving force for good, it can also lead people to do silly, unnecessary and even dangerous things. You do have to measure whether or not the risk is worth the reward or is it better to just to not do anything as it’s not worth the trouble.

“I’m a doctor. Not a…”

From: Star Trek

Genre: Movies

Who said it?: Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy… but most doctors in Star Trek

The story behind the quote: This week’s quote comes from Star Trek. Oddly enough, it comes from most of the Star Trek television shows. The quote is generally mostly associated to the first Enterprise doctor, Dr. Leonard “Bones’ McCoy. However, the same quote has been uttered by several other doctors, including Chief Medical Officer Dr. Julian Bashir of Deep Space Nine and The Doctor, a holographic program on the USS Voyager.

The quote is still generally connected to Dr. Bones McCoy (who was played by DeForrest Kelley) from the original Star Trek series. It was his gruff means of expressing frustration when he was given tasks other than his role as Chief Medical Officer on the USS Enterprise.

This line has become a sort of catch phrase and, to pay homage to it, numerous doctors from within the Star Trek series has said some manner of the quote…

Geek wisdom: Although Bones and the other doctors in Star Trek have usually used this quote to express displeasure on taking on a different role, that doesn’t mean that they don’t do it. They may do so begrudgingly but they still do what is asked.

You should do the same. Never pigeonhole yourself in a specific role because you can do so much more.