# Star Trek and Moby Dick (Yes more Star Trek Questions) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 20, 2000, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-and-moby-dick-yes-more-star-trek-questions/42043 "2000-11-20T23:48:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-and-moby-dick-yes-more-star-trek-questions/42043/21 "2000-11-21T20:23:27Z")
In the original Khan episode, Ricardo Montalban as Khan quoted _Paradise Lost_. ---
**Author:** ![LazarusLong42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@LazarusLong42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LazarusLong42)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-and-moby-dick-yes-more-star-trek-questions/42043/22 "2000-11-21T20:51:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ishmintingas \* > \*\*In the original Khan episode, Ricardo Montalban as Khan quoted _Paradise Lost_. \*\* Yes, but did he quote “Fantasy Island”? “De plane, de plane!!!” LL ---
**Author:** ![jmullaney](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@jmullaney](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmullaney)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-and-moby-dick-yes-more-star-trek-questions/42043/23 "2000-11-21T21:33:34Z")
The last movie with the old cast quoted Peter Pan: “Second star to the left, and ahead till morning.” Star Trek 4 had Scottie saying “There be whales here.” I’m sure that is in Moby Dick somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![sdimbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sdimbert/32/20204_2.png) [@sdimbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sdimbert)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-and-moby-dick-yes-more-star-trek-questions/42043/24 "2000-11-21T21:40:45Z")
**jmullaney** : > [@](#): > > \*\*The last movie with the old cast quoted Peter Pan: > “Second star to the left, and ahead till morning.” > \*\* Actually, that’s, “Second star on the left, and straigh on 'till morning.” _::looking pensively at the KR glasses before putting them back on with relish::_ ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-and-moby-dick-yes-more-star-trek-questions/42043/25 "2000-11-21T23:05:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LazarusLong42 \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by ishmintingas \* > > \*\*In the original Khan episode, Ricardo Montalban as Khan quoted _Paradise Lost_. \*\* > > Yes, but did he quote “Fantasy Island”? > > \*\* Nope. He quoted his old Chrysler commercial. “Look what they’ve done to my Starship!” ---
**Author:** ![GKittridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e274bd/32.png) [@GKittridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GKittridge)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-and-moby-dick-yes-more-star-trek-questions/42043/26 "2000-11-21T23:42:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sdimbert \* > \*\ ***jmullaney** : > > > [@](#): > > > > \*\*The last movie with the old cast quoted Peter Pan: > > “Second star to the left, and ahead till morning.” > > \*\* > > Actually, that’s, “Second star on the left, and straigh on 'till morning.” > > \*\* _Actually_, if you’ll read Barrie, the line is “Second to the right, and straight on till morning.” It is _always_ misquoted as "Second star to the left . . . ", and I’d really like to find out why. ---
**Author:** ![jmullaney](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@jmullaney](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmullaney)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-and-moby-dick-yes-more-star-trek-questions/42043/27 "2000-11-21T23:44:52Z")
Star Trek movies with quotes from Melville _don’t suck!_ ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-and-moby-dick-yes-more-star-trek-questions/42043/28 "2000-11-21T23:52:16Z")
I think it’s just the notion that a few Melville and Shakespeare quotes constitute literacy. hmmm… You BF isn’t so strange, my GF wants to watch all the ST movies in a single day! Yikes. I suggested just the even numbered ones but she insists on all of them. We’re trying to work out the schedule so another couple can come over for dinner while one of the non-sucky ones is on. ---
**Author:** ![jmullaney](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@jmullaney](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmullaney)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2000, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-and-moby-dick-yes-more-star-trek-questions/42043/29 "2000-11-21T23:56:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by GKittridge \* > if you’ll read Barrie, the line is “Second to the right, and straight on till morning.” It is _always_ misquoted as "Second star to the left . . . ", and I’d really like to find out why. Barrie is the Peter Pan author? That would be odd – so Star Trek definitely says left? Did you read the whole book because there may be directions on how to get into versus out of never-never-land. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-and-moby-dick-yes-more-star-trek-questions/42043/30 "2000-11-22T00:16:55Z")
Wasn’t there a Moby Dick reference in the original series? I’m not sure but I think it was the one where they were trying to destroy a planet-killer that looked like a giant horn? ---
**Author:** ![jmullaney](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@jmullaney](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmullaney)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-and-moby-dick-yes-more-star-trek-questions/42043/31 "2000-11-22T00:32:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by javaman \* > I’m not sure but I think it was the one where they were trying to destroy a planet-killer that looked like a giant > horn? I think that is the doomsday machine episode mentioned earlier. I found a link of [the timeline of the Star Trek universe](http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/st-tng/trivia/timeline/trek7-1.html) (quite by accident while looking for something else) which says they were built to fight the borg. Which I didn’t know so I guess I’m not a geek after all! Er, except I know that now too. Oh 'eck! ---
**Author:** ![GKittridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e274bd/32.png) [@GKittridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GKittridge)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-and-moby-dick-yes-more-star-trek-questions/42043/32 "2000-11-22T02:45:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jmullaney \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by GKittridge \* > > if you’ll read Barrie, the line is “Second to the right, and straight on till morning.” It is _always_ misquoted as "Second star to the left . . . ", and I’d really like to find out why. > > Barrie is the Peter Pan author? That would be odd – so Star Trek definitely says left? Did you read the whole book because there may be directions on how to get into versus out of never-never-land. \*\* This site – [http://www.hoboes.com/html/FireBlade/Peter/chapter4.html](http://www.hoboes.com/html/FireBlade/Peter/chapter4.html) – is Chapter 4, after the Darling children learn to fly and are on their way to Neverland. But it wasn’t just ST that quotes it wrong. I heard in quoted like that on _The Six Million Dollar Man_ – yes, I was a TV science fiction geek – and _Jeopardy_, of all places. ---
**Author:** ![LazarusLong42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@LazarusLong42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LazarusLong42)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-and-moby-dick-yes-more-star-trek-questions/42043/33 "2000-11-22T03:46:55Z")
The script I have indicates that the line is “Second star to the right, and straight on 'till morning,” as in the Barrie original. Now I feel as though I’ll have to check the tape. LL ---
**Author:** ![DRY](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@DRY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DRY)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-and-moby-dick-yes-more-star-trek-questions/42043/34 "2000-11-22T07:58:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LazarusLong42 \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > _Originally posted by DRY \* > > Again, true. In the original series, Kirk expounds at length about how old sea captains would ask for “a tall ship, and a star to steer her by”. (Can’t remember the episode offhand.)_\* > > That would have been in ST V, in which Kirk quotes: > > “And all I ask is a tall ship > And a star to steer her by.” > \*\* No, I’m certain I heard it in the original series as well. Kirk was waxing poetic, to either Spock, or more likely McCoy. He follows the above lines with how you could feel the wind at your back, or some such. I want to say that this was in the episode “The Ultimate Computer”, after M-5 makes him feel obsolete (“Regards to Captain Dunsel”). It also could have been in “The Naked Time” when Kirk is getting emotional under the influence of the virus. Regardless, it WAS in the original series. I’m certain of it. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scupper \* > \*\*Undiscovered Country Shakespeare: > > “Cry Havoc! And Let Slip Dogs of War” > “…To Be or Not To Be?” > etc. \*\* Also: “Once more onto the breach, dear friends” “the game is afoot” “I am constant as the Northern Star” “Prick us, do we not bleed? Tickle us, do we not laugh? Wrong us, shall we not revenge?” (Chang omits “Poison us, do we not die” which should be right before “wrong us”) As has been previously discussed, Shakespeare is also quoted when the Klingons dine with the Enterprise crew. Also, when the Klingons are about to transport to their ship: “We have heard the chimes at midnight” is right out of Shakespeare. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jmullaney \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by javaman \* > > I’m not sure but I think it was the one where they were trying to destroy a planet-killer that looked like a giant > > horn? > > I think that is the doomsday machine episode mentioned earlier. \*\* This is correct: the planet killer episode is “The Doomsday Machine” episode mentioned earlier. William Windon makes a great, emotionally unbalanced Ahab, by the way: “There IS no third planet!” “Don’t you think I know that? There was, but not any more! They called me, they begged me for help! Four hundred of them! But I couldn’t! I simply couldn’t!” However, I will say that the thing looked more like a giant turd than a giant horn. At least to me. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Zero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@Saint\_Zero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Zero)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-and-moby-dick-yes-more-star-trek-questions/42043/35 "2000-11-22T14:11:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Padeye \* > \*\*You BF isn’t so strange, my GF wants to watch all the ST movies in a single day! Yikes. I suggested just the even numbered ones but she insists on all of them. We’re trying to work out the schedule so another couple can come over for dinner while one of the non-sucky ones is on. \*\* We’re working on a Star Trek Marathon here in Jackson, just like the one you’re suggesting. 🙂 Going to try for 1-9. ---
**Author:** ![LateComer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b5ac83/32.png) [@LateComer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LateComer)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2000, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-and-moby-dick-yes-more-star-trek-questions/42043/36 "2000-11-22T14:50:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ishmintingas \* > \*\*In the original Khan episode, Ricardo Montalban as Khan quoted _Paradise Lost_. \*\* “It is better to rule in hell than to serve in Heaven.” I believe that this is the quote. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-and-moby-dick-yes-more-star-trek-questions/42043.md?page=1)