WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.459 34 words. I mean, that is literally all it took 00:00:03.459 --> 00:00:06.139 to spark a post -Sputnik political campaign, 00:00:06.679 --> 00:00:09.539 ignite this massive global grammar controversy, 00:00:10.039 --> 00:00:13.019 and eventually anchor a multi -billion dollar 00:00:13.019 --> 00:00:15.419 sci -fi empire. It really is wild when you think 00:00:15.419 --> 00:00:18.179 about it. It is. So if you are joining us today, 00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:21.219 just get ready because today's deep dive is an 00:00:21.219 --> 00:00:23.980 absolute mind bender. We are putting a microscope 00:00:23.980 --> 00:00:26.320 on a single sentence that you probably know by 00:00:26.320 --> 00:00:28.620 heart, even if you even if you have never watched 00:00:28.620 --> 00:00:30.519 a single frame of science fiction in your life. 00:00:30.600 --> 00:00:32.520 Right. Which is exactly why this source material 00:00:32.520 --> 00:00:35.380 is so compelling. We are looking at a remarkably 00:00:35.380 --> 00:00:37.840 detailed Wikipedia article dedicated entirely 00:00:37.840 --> 00:00:40.899 to the phrase where no man has gone before. Yeah. 00:00:40.899 --> 00:00:43.140 And I know it seems almost absurd to dedicate 00:00:43.140 --> 00:00:45.509 this much historical documentation to it. to 00:00:45.509 --> 00:00:48.189 a television intro, basically. But we're actually 00:00:48.189 --> 00:00:50.770 tracking a linguistic relay race, one that spans 00:00:50.770 --> 00:00:53.750 centuries, crosses oceans, and reveals a lot 00:00:53.750 --> 00:00:56.170 about how human beings process the terrifying 00:00:56.170 --> 00:00:58.869 concept of the unknown. OK, let's unpack this. 00:00:59.009 --> 00:01:01.869 Because to understand the journey, you kind of 00:01:01.869 --> 00:01:04.030 have to start with the final product. Imagine 00:01:04.030 --> 00:01:06.390 you are turning on your television in the fall 00:01:06.390 --> 00:01:10.569 of 1966. The classic era. Exactly. You hear that 00:01:10.569 --> 00:01:14.150 swelling, ethereal music, and then William Shatner, 00:01:14.269 --> 00:01:16.950 playing Captain James T. Cook, delivers the monologue 00:01:16.950 --> 00:01:19.170 that is now just permanently etched into the 00:01:19.170 --> 00:01:22.950 cultural bedrock. Space. The final frontier. 00:01:23.480 --> 00:01:26.019 These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. 00:01:26.280 --> 00:01:29.659 It's five -year mission to explore strange new 00:01:29.659 --> 00:01:32.959 worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, 00:01:33.420 --> 00:01:36.819 to boldly go where no man has gone before. It 00:01:36.819 --> 00:01:38.579 just carries such a sense of authority, doesn't 00:01:38.579 --> 00:01:40.700 it? Oh, absolutely. When you hear that cadence, 00:01:40.780 --> 00:01:42.359 it sounds inevitable. It sounds as though it 00:01:42.359 --> 00:01:45.000 was basically handed down on stone tablets specifically 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:48.079 for this show. Yeah. But the reality of its creation 00:01:48.079 --> 00:01:50.859 shatters that illusion entirely. Yeah, completely. 00:01:50.980 --> 00:01:52.909 That perfectly polished introduction began. in 00:01:52.909 --> 00:01:54.769 every single episode of the original series, 00:01:54.890 --> 00:01:57.129 with just two glaring exceptions. The pilots. 00:01:57.250 --> 00:01:59.189 The pilots, right. It was absent from The Cage, 00:01:59.329 --> 00:02:01.150 which was filmed before William Shatner was even 00:02:01.150 --> 00:02:04.469 cast. And it was missing from the second pilot, 00:02:04.790 --> 00:02:07.930 an episode that, ironically enough, happened 00:02:07.930 --> 00:02:11.949 to be titled Where No Man Has Gone Before. Right. 00:02:12.169 --> 00:02:14.169 The source notes that the phrase was actually 00:02:14.169 --> 00:02:16.550 introduced to the show by a writer named Samuel 00:02:16.550 --> 00:02:19.330 Peoples, but he just sort of tossed it out as 00:02:19.330 --> 00:02:22.439 an episode title. Yeah. Just a title. It wasn't 00:02:22.439 --> 00:02:25.360 the guiding mantra of the whole show yet. They 00:02:25.360 --> 00:02:27.419 were practically flying by the seat of their 00:02:27.419 --> 00:02:29.639 pants back then. They had already filmed several 00:02:29.639 --> 00:02:32.879 episodes. The series debut was looming and they 00:02:32.879 --> 00:02:34.520 still didn't have an opening narration. They 00:02:34.520 --> 00:02:36.800 were scrambling. Completely scrambling. It wasn't 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:39.819 until August of 1966 that I actually sat down 00:02:39.819 --> 00:02:43.000 to write it. What's fascinating here is how collaborative 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:47.199 and frankly how iterative iconic art truly is. 00:02:47.319 --> 00:02:50.330 Oh, for sure. We love the myth of the lone genius 00:02:50.330 --> 00:02:52.830 staring out a window, suddenly struck by a lightning 00:02:52.830 --> 00:02:55.870 bolt of inspiration, but the historical documentation 00:02:55.870 --> 00:02:57.870 proves it was actually a stress -out committee. 00:02:58.030 --> 00:03:01.930 A bunch of guys in a room. Exactly. Series creator 00:03:01.930 --> 00:03:04.430 Gene Roddenberry, along with producers John D 00:03:04.430 --> 00:03:07.250 .F. Black and Bob Justman, they were just hashing 00:03:07.250 --> 00:03:09.750 this out together in a room, desperately trying 00:03:09.750 --> 00:03:12.349 to find the right tone to explain the premise 00:03:12.349 --> 00:03:14.689 of the show in under 30 seconds. And the early 00:03:14.689 --> 00:03:17.800 drafts they produced are... I mean, they are 00:03:17.800 --> 00:03:20.080 almost uncomfortable to read. They are rough. 00:03:20.379 --> 00:03:23.180 So rough. The source text gives us one of the 00:03:23.180 --> 00:03:25.099 earliest attempts. Listen to how clunky this 00:03:25.099 --> 00:03:28.479 is. This is the adventure of the United Spaceship 00:03:28.479 --> 00:03:32.090 Enterprise. Assigned a five -year galaxy patrol, 00:03:32.590 --> 00:03:35.310 the bold crew of the giant starship explores 00:03:35.310 --> 00:03:37.909 the excitement of strange new worlds, uncharted 00:03:37.909 --> 00:03:41.210 civilizations, and exotic people. I can't assign 00:03:41.210 --> 00:03:44.090 a five -year galaxy patrol. Nine years. It completely 00:03:44.090 --> 00:03:46.669 lacks poetry. It feels entirely bureaucratic, 00:03:46.770 --> 00:03:49.250 like reading a 1960s inner office memo or something. 00:03:49.310 --> 00:03:51.810 It really does. It is like hearing an awkward 00:03:51.810 --> 00:03:54.129 acoustic demo of what you know is eventually 00:03:54.129 --> 00:03:56.830 going to become this massive stadium rock anthem. 00:03:56.990 --> 00:03:58.729 That's a great way to put it. You can hear the 00:03:58.729 --> 00:04:00.520 faint - outline of the melody, like the spirit 00:04:00.520 --> 00:04:03.020 is there, but it desperately lacks the hook. 00:04:03.780 --> 00:04:06.639 Galaxy Patrol sounds like mall security in space. 00:04:06.719 --> 00:04:09.039 Mall security, yeah. They had to chisel away 00:04:09.039 --> 00:04:12.020 all that dry expository rock to find the diamond 00:04:12.020 --> 00:04:14.979 underneath. They had to take Galaxy Patrol and 00:04:14.979 --> 00:04:17.839 elevate it to voyages. They had to transform 00:04:17.839 --> 00:04:21.680 uncharted civilizations into a declarative active 00:04:21.680 --> 00:04:25.040 command, you know, to boldly go. But the wildest 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:27.480 part of this entire timeline is that the Star 00:04:27.480 --> 00:04:29.699 Trek committee didn't actually invent that final 00:04:29.699 --> 00:04:32.689 hook. It's blew my mind. If you trace the DNA 00:04:32.689 --> 00:04:35.449 of those specific words backward, you don't find 00:04:35.449 --> 00:04:37.470 a room full of stressed television producers. 00:04:37.990 --> 00:04:40.930 You find the United States government. Yes. This 00:04:40.930 --> 00:04:42.790 is the historical breadcrumb that completely 00:04:42.790 --> 00:04:45.750 shocked me. According to the source, a blogger 00:04:45.750 --> 00:04:48.250 and space historian named Duane A. Day managed 00:04:48.250 --> 00:04:51.110 to trace the exact quotation back to a White 00:04:51.110 --> 00:04:54.870 House booklet from 1958. 1958. Yeah, it was called 00:04:54.870 --> 00:04:56.930 Introduction to Outer Space. So put yourself 00:04:56.930 --> 00:05:00.029 in the mindset of an American in 1958. Right. 00:05:00.310 --> 00:05:02.930 The Soviet Union had just launched Sputnik. The 00:05:02.930 --> 00:05:05.110 sky suddenly felt like a threat. U .S. government 00:05:05.110 --> 00:05:07.170 was scrambling to garner public support for a 00:05:07.170 --> 00:05:09.670 massive, unprecedented national space program. 00:05:09.730 --> 00:05:11.910 They have to sell it. They did. They published 00:05:11.910 --> 00:05:14.329 this booklet to calm the public and sell them 00:05:14.329 --> 00:05:18.689 on the idea of space exploration. Page 1 explicitly 00:05:18.689 --> 00:05:21.949 states that the compelling urge of man to explore 00:05:21.949 --> 00:05:25.269 leads men to try to go where no one has gone 00:05:25.269 --> 00:05:28.439 before. It argues that since the Earth has been 00:05:28.439 --> 00:05:31.319 mapped, outer space is just the natural next 00:05:31.319 --> 00:05:33.939 objective. So a cynical person might look at 00:05:33.939 --> 00:05:36.480 that timeline and say, oh, Gene Roddenberry just 00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:39.600 plagiarized a piece of Eisenhower -era government 00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:42.079 propaganda. Sure. But I actually push back on 00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:44.839 that idea. To me, this looks more like linguistic 00:05:44.839 --> 00:05:46.959 convergent evolution. Oh, interesting. You know, 00:05:47.160 --> 00:05:50.470 like when completely different species evolve 00:05:50.470 --> 00:05:52.750 the exact same trait because they face the exact 00:05:52.750 --> 00:05:55.149 same environmental pressure. When humans face 00:05:55.149 --> 00:05:58.069 the terrifying, incomprehensible void of the 00:05:58.069 --> 00:06:00.790 unknown, we just naturally reach for these exact, 00:06:01.129 --> 00:06:03.649 defiant words to comfort ourselves. Well, the 00:06:03.649 --> 00:06:05.509 historical record actually supports your theories 00:06:05.509 --> 00:06:07.889 of convergent evolution because the trail goes 00:06:07.889 --> 00:06:10.569 back much further than a 1950s pamphlet. Wait, 00:06:10.610 --> 00:06:12.860 really? Oh, yeah. Government writers often borrow 00:06:12.860 --> 00:06:14.959 the romantic language of ancient exploration 00:06:14.959 --> 00:06:17.800 to make terrifying new frontiers feel like a 00:06:17.800 --> 00:06:21.240 natural, safe human progression. If you look 00:06:21.240 --> 00:06:24.680 back to 1927, the weird fiction author H .P. 00:06:24.800 --> 00:06:27.779 Lovecraft published a novella called The Dream 00:06:27.779 --> 00:06:31.639 Quest of Unknown Kadath. Okay. In it, his protagonist 00:06:31.639 --> 00:06:34.500 resolves to go with bold entreaty, whither no 00:06:34.500 --> 00:06:37.680 man had gone before, daring icy deserts to find 00:06:37.680 --> 00:06:40.379 an unknown starry castle. Are you kidding me? 00:06:40.519 --> 00:06:43.399 Whither no man had gone before? It is the exact 00:06:43.399 --> 00:06:45.959 same. The exact same. And Lovecraft isn't writing 00:06:45.959 --> 00:06:47.920 about the space race, obviously. He's writing 00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:51.439 about cosmic, mind -bending fantasy horror. But 00:06:51.439 --> 00:06:53.899 the vocabulary of the unknown just, it remains 00:06:53.899 --> 00:06:56.259 identical. It does. And we can keep walking backward, 00:06:56.500 --> 00:06:58.759 too. Consider Captain James Cook following an 00:06:58.759 --> 00:07:00.699 early maritime expedition to Newfoundland in 00:07:00.699 --> 00:07:03.379 the 18th century. 1700s now. Right. He declared 00:07:03.379 --> 00:07:05.600 his intention to go not... Only farther than 00:07:05.600 --> 00:07:07.459 any man has been before me, but as far as I think 00:07:07.459 --> 00:07:09.939 it is possible for a man to go. Space has always 00:07:09.939 --> 00:07:12.100 been treated by writers as an ocean, because 00:07:12.100 --> 00:07:14.360 for centuries, the ocean was literally the only 00:07:14.360 --> 00:07:17.540 framework humanity had for a vast, lethal frontier. 00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:19.319 Wait, wait. I just put something together from 00:07:19.319 --> 00:07:21.720 the source notes. There is a massive historical 00:07:21.720 --> 00:07:24.000 echo happening here with the ship names, isn't 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:26.560 there? Oh, yes. It's a completely closed loop 00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:29.920 of fiction and reality. OK, laid out. So Captain 00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:32.839 Cook's most famous maritime vessel was the Endeavour. 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:37.579 Centuries later, NASA took that exact name and 00:07:37.579 --> 00:07:40.060 gave it to the last produced space shuttle. Right. 00:07:40.279 --> 00:07:42.579 Now run it the other direction. The fictional 00:07:42.579 --> 00:07:45.319 Starship Enterprise from a 1960s television show 00:07:45.319 --> 00:07:49.500 was so beloved that a massive fan write -in campaign 00:07:49.500 --> 00:07:52.560 convinced NASA to name their very first space 00:07:52.560 --> 00:07:55.560 shuttle test, Graft Enterprise. That is so cool. 00:07:55.740 --> 00:07:58.199 The history of real maritime exploration and 00:07:58.199 --> 00:08:00.600 fictional space exploration are just leading 00:08:00.600 --> 00:08:02.639 into each other constantly, right down to the 00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:04.980 pain on the holes. That is unbelievable. And 00:08:04.980 --> 00:08:07.300 if we look for the absolute oldest root of this 00:08:07.300 --> 00:08:09.000 phrase that the source actually identifies, we 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:12.839 land in the year 1572. Over 400 years ago. Yeah. 00:08:13.019 --> 00:08:16.120 A Portuguese poet named Luis de Camorres wrote 00:08:16.120 --> 00:08:19.139 an epic poem called The Lusiads, celebrating 00:08:19.139 --> 00:08:21.519 Vasco de Gama's discovery of the sea route to 00:08:21.519 --> 00:08:24.879 India. He used the phrase, por mares nunca de 00:08:24.879 --> 00:08:28.160 antes navegados, which translates to, by seas 00:08:28.160 --> 00:08:30.899 never sailed before. So you have a 16th century 00:08:30.899 --> 00:08:34.039 ocean voyage, an 18th century Newfoundland expedition, 00:08:34.299 --> 00:08:38.159 a 1920s horror novella, a 1950s government pamphlet, 00:08:38.179 --> 00:08:41.480 and finally, a 1960s television screen. It's 00:08:41.480 --> 00:08:43.820 crazy. It is the exact same sentiment refining 00:08:43.820 --> 00:08:46.200 itself across centuries of human curiosity. But 00:08:46.200 --> 00:08:48.320 see, humanity has basically been passing this 00:08:48.320 --> 00:08:51.919 phrase like a baton for 400 years. What happens 00:08:51.919 --> 00:08:54.139 when the culture holding the baton fundamentally 00:08:54.139 --> 00:08:56.559 changes? That's their real issue. Right, because 00:08:56.559 --> 00:08:58.860 a 16th century explorer's vocabulary doesn't 00:08:58.860 --> 00:09:01.720 exactly map on to the late 20th century. Having 00:09:01.720 --> 00:09:03.580 established these maritime roots, we have to 00:09:03.580 --> 00:09:06.120 look at how changing cultural values forced this 00:09:06.120 --> 00:09:08.840 ancient language to finally adapt. The evolution 00:09:08.840 --> 00:09:11.080 of the phrase within the Star Trek universe acts 00:09:11.080 --> 00:09:13.779 as a perfect mirror for our own societal shifts. 00:09:15.419 --> 00:09:19.159 The next generation debuted in 1987. The cultural 00:09:19.159 --> 00:09:21.820 landscape had changed. The creators made very 00:09:21.820 --> 00:09:24.500 deliberate adjustments to the monologue. Patrick 00:09:24.500 --> 00:09:27.200 Stewart, playing Captain Jean -Luc Picard, delivers 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:30.200 the new version. The restrictive five -year mission 00:09:30.200 --> 00:09:32.519 becomes a much more ambitious continuing mission. 00:09:32.519 --> 00:09:34.840 Nice upgrade. Right. But the most significant 00:09:34.840 --> 00:09:37.730 change is the final clause. It shifts to the 00:09:37.730 --> 00:09:41.230 gender and species neutral to boldly go where 00:09:41.230 --> 00:09:44.250 no one has gone before. Where no one. It is such 00:09:44.250 --> 00:09:47.669 a subtle shift, just a few letters, but it completely 00:09:47.669 --> 00:09:50.090 rewrites the inclusivity of the mission. And 00:09:50.090 --> 00:09:52.029 that wasn't the only time the actors and writers 00:09:52.029 --> 00:09:54.629 felt the need to tweak the ancient formula. Not 00:09:54.629 --> 00:09:57.190 at all. Leonard Amoy, playing Spock, delivered 00:09:57.190 --> 00:09:59.730 a variation at the end of the 1982 film Star 00:09:59.730 --> 00:10:02.259 Trek II. the wrath of Khan. He changes it to 00:10:02.259 --> 00:10:04.480 the crew's ongoing mission. And crucially, he 00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:06.379 states they're seeking out not just new life, 00:10:06.799 --> 00:10:09.259 but new life forms. Which is really the only 00:10:09.259 --> 00:10:11.539 logical phrasing for a universe populated by 00:10:11.539 --> 00:10:14.740 countless alien species. Mance simply doesn't 00:10:14.740 --> 00:10:16.919 cover the reality of their environment anymore. 00:10:17.320 --> 00:10:19.700 The franchise even addressed this growing linguistic 00:10:19.700 --> 00:10:22.659 friction directly on screen. In the film, Star 00:10:22.659 --> 00:10:25.600 Trek 6, the undiscovered country, Captain Kirk 00:10:25.600 --> 00:10:28.600 is recording his final log. He starts to say 00:10:28.600 --> 00:10:31.480 the classic line, boldly going where no man, 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:34.100 but he audibly catches himself mid -sentence 00:10:34.100 --> 00:10:36.519 and corrects it to where no one has gone before. 00:10:36.919 --> 00:10:38.820 And the source notes that Kirk's hesitation wasn't 00:10:38.820 --> 00:10:41.539 random. It was actually prompted by aliens in 00:10:41.539 --> 00:10:43.840 the film who had criticized the crew earlier 00:10:43.840 --> 00:10:46.120 for their human centrism. Here's where it gets 00:10:46.120 --> 00:10:48.220 really interesting. Think about what is happening 00:10:48.220 --> 00:10:51.279 there. Does updating a classic historically weighted 00:10:51.279 --> 00:10:53.779 quote to be more inclusive dilute its iconic 00:10:53.779 --> 00:10:57.429 power? Or is updating it the absolute only way 00:10:57.429 --> 00:10:59.769 to ensure the phrase actually survives into the 00:10:59.769 --> 00:11:01.490 future? That is a great point. Because if Kirk 00:11:01.490 --> 00:11:04.029 just stubbornly kept saying, wear no man, it 00:11:04.029 --> 00:11:05.950 would eventually stop sounding like a bold mission 00:11:05.950 --> 00:11:07.970 statement and start sounding like a dusty relic, 00:11:08.029 --> 00:11:10.129 you know? This raises an important question about 00:11:10.129 --> 00:11:13.210 how fictional universes handle real world social 00:11:13.210 --> 00:11:16.110 progress. What the writers did brilliantly was 00:11:16.110 --> 00:11:19.370 weave this real world linguistic evolution directly 00:11:19.370 --> 00:11:21.789 into the canon of the story. Yeah, they made 00:11:21.789 --> 00:11:25.330 it part of the lore. Exactly. By having fictional 00:11:25.330 --> 00:11:28.629 aliens call out Kirk's human centrism, they justified 00:11:28.629 --> 00:11:30.769 the grammatical shift from within the narrative 00:11:30.769 --> 00:11:33.389 itself. They realized they needed to build an 00:11:33.389 --> 00:11:36.850 in -universe origin story for the phrase to anchor 00:11:36.850 --> 00:11:39.730 it to their own future history rather than our 00:11:39.730 --> 00:11:42.330 1960s television history. Oh right, they did 00:11:42.330 --> 00:11:45.320 that in the prequel series, Star Trek. Enterprise. 00:11:45.960 --> 00:11:48.460 Exactly. In the pilot episode, which is set in 00:11:48.460 --> 00:11:51.580 the year 2119, the audience hears a recorded 00:11:51.580 --> 00:11:54.559 speech by Dr. Zefram Cochran. In the lore of 00:11:54.559 --> 00:11:56.860 the show, he is the inventor of the warp drive. 00:11:57.120 --> 00:11:59.600 The guy who made it all happen. Right. He is 00:11:59.600 --> 00:12:01.580 dedicating the facility that will design the 00:12:01.580 --> 00:12:04.139 first warp five engine, the engine that makes 00:12:04.139 --> 00:12:07.320 deep interstellar exploration possible. In his 00:12:07.320 --> 00:12:09.460 speech, he literally says, this engine will let 00:12:09.460 --> 00:12:12.289 us go boldly where no man has gone before. This 00:12:12.289 --> 00:12:14.389 occurs 32 years before the launch of the first 00:12:14.389 --> 00:12:16.710 vessel powered by that engine. They took a phrase 00:12:16.710 --> 00:12:18.629 that was stitched together by stressed out writers 00:12:18.629 --> 00:12:22.230 in 1966 and retroactively made it the founding 00:12:22.230 --> 00:12:25.529 historical document of their fictional 22nd century. 00:12:25.769 --> 00:12:29.389 It is brilliant. It is an incredible piece of 00:12:29.389 --> 00:12:32.070 retroactive world building. And they brought 00:12:32.070 --> 00:12:34.769 all of those threads together in the series finale 00:12:34.769 --> 00:12:37.110 of that prequel. The Enterprise series finale 00:12:37.110 --> 00:12:40.799 is a linguistic synthesis. They blended the voices 00:12:40.799 --> 00:12:43.279 of three different captains into one seamless 00:12:43.279 --> 00:12:45.740 monologue. Oh, I remember this. You hear Patrick 00:12:45.740 --> 00:12:49.039 Stewart say the first two sentences, then William 00:12:49.039 --> 00:12:51.980 Shatner takes the third and fourth. Finally, 00:12:52.320 --> 00:12:54.980 Scott Bacala, as Captain Archer, delivers the 00:12:54.980 --> 00:12:58.019 final unifying sentence. It carries incredible 00:12:58.019 --> 00:12:59.740 emotional weight for the audience because it 00:12:59.740 --> 00:13:02.080 represents the passing of the baton in audio 00:13:02.080 --> 00:13:04.279 form. It really does. But you know, a phrase 00:13:04.279 --> 00:13:06.679 hasn't truly conquered global culture until it 00:13:06.679 --> 00:13:09.360 is relentlessly mocked and parodied. Oh, absolutely. 00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:11.840 Once something is taken that seriously, it inevitably 00:13:11.840 --> 00:13:14.519 becomes a target. We have to talk about the grammar 00:13:14.519 --> 00:13:17.059 crimes and the cultural clones because the society 00:13:17.059 --> 00:13:20.019 altering phrase very quickly became a meme. The 00:13:20.019 --> 00:13:21.960 formal linguistic term for this phenomenon is 00:13:21.960 --> 00:13:25.940 a snow clone. A snow clone? Yeah. A snow clone 00:13:25.940 --> 00:13:29.080 is a rhetorical device, a type of phrasal template 00:13:29.080 --> 00:13:31.600 where you take a highly recognizable quote and 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:34.120 replace just one or two words while maintaining 00:13:34.120 --> 00:13:37.120 the overall recognizable structure. Where no 00:13:37.120 --> 00:13:40.320 man has gone before is arguably one of the most 00:13:40.320 --> 00:13:42.460 pervasive snow clones in modern English. The 00:13:42.460 --> 00:13:44.980 examples listed in the source material are fantastic. 00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:48.240 You have a 2002 episode of the animated show 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:51.279 Futurama titled Where No Fan Has Gone Before. 00:13:51.909 --> 00:13:54.649 Classic. Right. There is a level in the Teenage 00:13:54.649 --> 00:13:57.129 Mutant Ninja Turtles video game called Starbase 00:13:57.129 --> 00:13:59.929 where no turtle has gone before. My personal 00:13:59.929 --> 00:14:01.909 favorite example of deflating the grandeur of 00:14:01.909 --> 00:14:04.929 the quote is found on the retail box of a 1987 00:14:04.929 --> 00:14:08.309 computer game called Space Quest The Sarian Encounter. 00:14:08.450 --> 00:14:10.990 Oh my gosh. The box copy describes the hero's 00:14:10.990 --> 00:14:13.590 thrilling mission as scrubbing dirty decks and 00:14:13.590 --> 00:14:15.690 replacing light bulbs before ending with the 00:14:15.690 --> 00:14:18.750 capitalized promise to boldly go where no man 00:14:18.750 --> 00:14:21.620 has swept the floor. That is hilarious. perfectly 00:14:21.620 --> 00:14:23.340 punctures the self -importance of the original. 00:14:23.480 --> 00:14:25.500 Even corporate marketing departments weaponized 00:14:25.500 --> 00:14:28.059 it. Of course they did. In 1992, Apple had a 00:14:28.059 --> 00:14:30.460 project porting their Mac OS 7 operating system 00:14:30.460 --> 00:14:33.679 to Intel processors. Their internal slogan was, 00:14:34.379 --> 00:14:37.240 the OS that boldly goes where everyone else has 00:14:37.240 --> 00:14:41.919 been. Wow. Shots fired. Literally. And sometimes 00:14:41.919 --> 00:14:44.240 the snow clone is used as a subtle character 00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:47.500 insult. In the sci -fi show Babylon 5, The character 00:14:47.500 --> 00:14:49.639 Susan Ivanova uses a variation of the phrase 00:14:49.639 --> 00:14:52.460 to imply another character is promiscuous, warning 00:14:52.460 --> 00:14:54.379 the captain he is about to go where everyone 00:14:54.379 --> 00:14:57.659 has gone before. Ouch. But the phrase's reach 00:14:57.659 --> 00:14:59.960 isn't limited to punch lines in fiction and marketing. 00:15:00.379 --> 00:15:03.320 It permeates actual space exploration in wonderful 00:15:03.320 --> 00:15:06.179 ways. Like the espresso machine. Yes. In May 00:15:06.179 --> 00:15:09.320 of 2015, Italian astronaut Samantha Christopheretti 00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:12.590 became the very first barista in space. She brewed 00:15:12.590 --> 00:15:14.970 espresso on the International Space Station wearing 00:15:14.970 --> 00:15:18.070 a Star Trek uniform and tweeted the phrase, to 00:15:18.070 --> 00:15:20.669 boldly brew. Which is just the coolest use of 00:15:20.669 --> 00:15:23.149 a snow clone ever. But we absolutely cannot talk 00:15:23.149 --> 00:15:25.309 about boldly going without addressing the meltdown 00:15:25.309 --> 00:15:27.350 this phrase caused among the grammar police in 00:15:27.350 --> 00:15:30.230 the late 20th century. Oh boy, the grammar police. 00:15:30.289 --> 00:15:32.009 We have to talk about the controversial split 00:15:32.009 --> 00:15:35.190 infinitive. The split infinitive caused a genuine 00:15:35.190 --> 00:15:37.590 societal panic among prescriptive grammarians. 00:15:37.950 --> 00:15:41.929 For context, in strict traditional English grammar, 00:15:42.389 --> 00:15:45.389 an infinitive is the basic form of a verb, usually 00:15:45.389 --> 00:15:49.110 preceded by the word, like, to go. Right. A split 00:15:49.110 --> 00:15:51.309 infinitive occurs when you shove an adverb, like, 00:15:51.759 --> 00:15:53.500 boldly right into the middle of it, separating 00:15:53.500 --> 00:15:56.740 the two and the verb, to boldly go. And people 00:15:56.740 --> 00:16:00.399 hated this. Oh, for decades, Victorian error 00:16:00.399 --> 00:16:03.580 rules dictated that this was a massive, unforgivable 00:16:03.580 --> 00:16:06.059 error, largely because you can't split an infinitive 00:16:06.059 --> 00:16:07.759 in Latin, so they decided you just shouldn't 00:16:07.759 --> 00:16:09.620 do it in English. And academics did not let it 00:16:09.620 --> 00:16:12.259 go. The humorist Douglas Adams, who wrote The 00:16:12.259 --> 00:16:14.799 Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, specifically 00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:17.779 lampooned this obsession. He wrote about a long 00:16:17.779 --> 00:16:20.419 -lost heroic age where bold adventurers dared 00:16:20.419 --> 00:16:23.820 to boldly split infinitives that no man had split 00:16:23.820 --> 00:16:26.190 before. Even the scientific community weighed 00:16:26.190 --> 00:16:28.610 in on the grammar. The physicist Lawrence M. 00:16:28.710 --> 00:16:31.009 Krause wrote a famous book in 1995 called The 00:16:31.009 --> 00:16:33.669 Physics of Star Trek. He begins a chapter listing 00:16:33.669 --> 00:16:37.009 the show's worst errors by quoting a colleague 00:16:37.009 --> 00:16:39.549 who argued that the franchise's greatest mistake 00:16:39.549 --> 00:16:43.009 wasn't a physics error at all, but rather... 00:16:42.830 --> 00:16:45.809 their insistence to split an infinitive every 00:16:45.809 --> 00:16:48.610 damn time. See, I am going to aggressively push 00:16:48.610 --> 00:16:50.830 back on the grammar nerds here. I actually believe 00:16:50.830 --> 00:16:52.789 this grammar mistake is the engine that makes 00:16:52.789 --> 00:16:56.590 the whole quote work. Really? How so? Think about 00:16:56.590 --> 00:16:59.429 it. If you fix the sentence to please a Victorian 00:16:59.429 --> 00:17:02.429 grammarian, you say, to go boldly where no man 00:17:02.429 --> 00:17:05.390 has gone before. OK, yeah. The adverb boldly 00:17:05.390 --> 00:17:07.549 is just sitting passively in the passenger seat. 00:17:07.609 --> 00:17:10.210 It sounds like a polite suggestion, but to boldly 00:17:10.210 --> 00:17:13.450 go. You are physically wedging action into the 00:17:13.450 --> 00:17:16.250 middle of the verb. You are forcing a wedge into 00:17:16.250 --> 00:17:18.769 the English language itself. That is a fascinating 00:17:18.769 --> 00:17:21.289 way to look at it. Right. It is an auditory rule 00:17:21.289 --> 00:17:23.410 break. You are breaking a grammatical boundary 00:17:23.410 --> 00:17:25.519 to describe the act of of breaking a physical 00:17:25.519 --> 00:17:28.400 boundary. It is perfect. If we connect this to 00:17:28.400 --> 00:17:31.259 the bigger picture, you are hitting on a fundamental 00:17:31.259 --> 00:17:33.680 truth about how human communication functions. 00:17:34.339 --> 00:17:37.259 Language is a limiting tool. It is not a rigid 00:17:37.259 --> 00:17:40.079 mathematical equation. The rhythm, the emotional 00:17:40.079 --> 00:17:42.980 resonance, and the punchiness of to boldly go 00:17:42.980 --> 00:17:46.400 simply work better on the human ear. And history 00:17:46.400 --> 00:17:48.740 proved the television writers right and the grammarians 00:17:48.740 --> 00:17:51.779 wrong. Consider NASA, the actual pinnacle of 00:17:51.779 --> 00:17:55.259 real world space exploration. When they published 00:17:55.259 --> 00:17:57.660 a massive historical retrospective of their project 00:17:57.660 --> 00:18:00.440 Apollo lunar missions in 1989, they had to choose 00:18:00.440 --> 00:18:02.700 a title. Oh, they didn't. They did. They titled 00:18:02.700 --> 00:18:06.400 the official history where no man has gone before, 00:18:06.599 --> 00:18:09.079 a history of Apollo lunar exploration missions. 00:18:09.140 --> 00:18:11.599 Wow. When the very institution responsible for 00:18:11.599 --> 00:18:13.359 putting human beings on the surface of the moon 00:18:13.359 --> 00:18:15.880 adopts your split infinitive, the debate is over. 00:18:16.200 --> 00:18:18.660 It proves that emotional resonance will always 00:18:18.660 --> 00:18:21.339 beat strict grammatical correctness. So what 00:18:21.339 --> 00:18:23.759 does this all mean? We started by pulling out 00:18:23.759 --> 00:18:26.980 a single thread, 34 words from a 1960s television 00:18:26.980 --> 00:18:29.859 intro, and we watched that thread unravel backward 00:18:29.859 --> 00:18:32.099 and forward across time. It really is a journey. 00:18:32.269 --> 00:18:35.710 We bounced from a 16th century Portuguese epic 00:18:35.710 --> 00:18:38.950 poem about the ocean to a post -Sputnik White 00:18:38.950 --> 00:18:41.849 House pamphlet meant to calm a panicked nation 00:18:41.849 --> 00:18:44.630 through the typewriters of stressed out TV producers 00:18:44.630 --> 00:18:47.430 all the way to an espresso machine floating on 00:18:47.430 --> 00:18:50.049 the International Space Station. It means that 00:18:50.049 --> 00:18:52.890 the culture you consume is endlessly layered. 00:18:53.109 --> 00:18:55.259 Yeah. The next time you hear a corporate mission 00:18:55.259 --> 00:18:58.559 statement or a seemingly original inspiring quote, 00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:01.319 I want you to look for the hidden seams. Look 00:19:01.319 --> 00:19:04.140 for the messy early drafts. Look for the stolen 00:19:04.140 --> 00:19:07.259 bits of ancient poetry. Look for the historical 00:19:07.259 --> 00:19:09.579 echoes that are hiding right there in plain sight. 00:19:09.980 --> 00:19:12.019 They are everywhere once you start looking. They 00:19:12.019 --> 00:19:14.920 really are. Nothing exists in a vacuum. Everything 00:19:14.920 --> 00:19:17.740 we say is part of continuing centuries long mission 00:19:17.740 --> 00:19:20.279 of communication. I love that. And this journey 00:19:20.279 --> 00:19:23.039 leaves you with profound concept to mull over. 00:19:23.180 --> 00:19:26.460 For centuries, this specific phrase has been 00:19:26.460 --> 00:19:29.460 inextricably tied to physical geography. First, 00:19:29.700 --> 00:19:32.000 it was a vocabulary of crossing uncharted oceans, 00:19:32.380 --> 00:19:34.240 then it became the language of mapping new continents. 00:19:34.799 --> 00:19:36.839 Finally, it was the anthem for launching into 00:19:36.839 --> 00:19:39.680 outer space. But as our physical frontiers on 00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:42.680 this planet shrink, and as space travel slowly 00:19:42.680 --> 00:19:45.119 transitions from a terrifying mystery into a 00:19:45.119 --> 00:19:47.880 calculated engineering routine, where will humanity 00:19:47.880 --> 00:19:51.339 boldly go next? Will the defining phrase of the 00:19:51.339 --> 00:19:53.960 21st century end up describing an inward journey 00:19:53.960 --> 00:19:56.319 into the uncharted territories of the human mind? 00:19:56.809 --> 00:19:59.569 or perhaps an outward journey into the strange 00:19:59.569 --> 00:20:02.450 new worlds of artificial intelligence and expansive 00:20:02.450 --> 00:20:05.109 digital realities? That is a brilliant question, 00:20:05.190 --> 00:20:07.390 and it proves exactly why you can never look 00:20:07.390 --> 00:20:09.650 at a simple piece of pop culture trivia the same 00:20:09.650 --> 00:20:11.970 way again. There's an entire universe of human 00:20:11.970 --> 00:20:14.329 history hiding inside the things you think you 00:20:14.329 --> 00:20:16.410 know by heart. Keep looking for those hidden 00:20:16.410 --> 00:20:18.910 seams. We will catch you on the next Deep Dive.