What Star Trek Mannerism or Phrase Do You Often Use
I worked hard at imitating the Leonard Nimoy Spock's raised eyebrow for quite a while. I don't regret the time spent practicing that in front of a mirror. I never mastered a fully raised eyebrow, but I can do a slight eyebrow raise.
Whenever someone is being greedy or acting a fool, I say, "hoo-man," in a bad Ferengi accent.
Jean-Luc Picard's "make it so" is a go to phrase for me.
My first sip of coffee for the day is always my Janeway moment.
When someone says something far fetched, I say "really." I think I'm channeling Benjamin Sisko. No one else sees it that way.
I say "p'takh" a bit too often. Not to anyone who understands Klingon. Not yet, anyway.
Any Star Trek mannerism or phrase you've incorporated into your life?
i'm reading a murder mystery series of books from Louise Penny called the Inspector Gamache series. Here's a related quote:
“There are four things that lead to wisdom. You ready for them?' Gamache held up his hand as a fist and raised a finger with each point. "I don't know. I need help. I'm sorry. I was wrong'.”
When we're gaming together but he gets distracted by his phone, I'll call my husband back to the game with, "Play dom-jot, hew-mon!" but I never stab him if he's cheating.
Oh my gosh, yes. "Oh my" is great. I'm laughing at the thought of using "fascinating" as shorthand for, "Whatever, I long since stop listening, but I'm too polite to ask you to stop talking."
I deal with anxiety. One of the best ways to manage and even help make it better is to embrace the anxious situation head on and dive in, welcome the challenge. No one does that better than Klingons.
One time the company I worked at, they were expanding life insurance benefits for all employees, and I sent out a meme with Worf and the words "TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE" on an internal fun forum. It was highly upvoted, lol.
Sometimes, my wife and I will make a comment to each other that makes perfect sense between the two of us, but to outside observers sounds like absolute gibberish. When one of us realizes this, we'll follow it up with, "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra." Then folks get really confused.
I tend to do the Spock eyebrow raise quite a bit without thinking about it, to the point that people I know will ask if it's on purpose.
I also will use "fascinating" and I tend to insert logical or illogical into sentences.
Worf's "It is not funny, but I get it" is something I throw in as well.
If I'm in "Star Trek Mode" I'll use various Klingon phrases, along with the Vulcan salute as greeting. My wife and I will at times text in Klingon. There's other stuff as well, but not as common!
I similarly do the Spock eyebrow a lot without realising it.
I also used to do the Data head tilt, again without realising I was copying Data, until someone pointed it out to me. They didn't actually know it was a Star Trek thing but as soon as they pointed it out I realised I was subconsciously copying one of my favourite characters.
That's great! I didn't realize how common my eyebrow raise was until someone asked if I was copying Spock. My wife is still convinced I practice and do it on purpose though.
He's actually practicing saying nuqneH. nuqneH means "what do you want" literally but is a form of greeting in klingon while Qapla' means goodbye, good luck, or bon voyage.
When I drive and the missus is in the passenger seat and I have to break harder than usual because an idiot in front of me, I sometimes yell "Brace for impact!"
Nice! That reminds me of, "resistance is futile." I am seldom in a situation to use it, though. Which is probably a good thing. Last time I regularly used it was when my cats were kittens and I needed to clean their faces. Now that they are grown, yeah, their resistance isn't futile when it comes to cleaning their faces.
Hey, someone's got to be there for the Star Trek fans when the situation needs a non-Star Trek response. IDIC. Thank you for expanding the definition of "what is a Star Trek fan." 🖖
With my old colleagues I was able to share some Shaka moments whenever our walls fell. And today I was worried about the structural integrity of our whiteboard.
I used to LARP.
At the game I played, I became leader of one of the five Baronies of our in-game nation.
We would have barony meetings on the regular...
...at which I used to have to struggle not to give the order to "make it so."
It's just... so perfect a turn of phrase it's hard not to use. But memeing in-game is bad.
I don’t know why this is, but I have always been able to raise my right eyebrow independently… but not my left one. It’s kinda funny, because one of my son’s friends just randomly asked me if I could do that earlier this evening. I did so, and he made like it was this really big deal.
There are some things I've done in my life, some choices I've made, maybe even some bridges I've burned where when the dust settles and I'm thinking about it I have said out loud: