Cross-circuiting to B, Captain.
[Star Trek (September 8, 1966)]
I had no problem suspending disbelief with the vast majority of the sets in the original Star Trek television series, but I was never quite able to swallow the goofy cardboard sliders in the transporter room. But then, when your parents bought a new refrigerator, you could make an authentic reproduction of the transporter console right in your own backyard.
When something went wrong with the transporter, the operator would adeptly slide one or more little red cubes up and down, occasionally pressing a button or two. One episode featured Bones’ molecules lost in the ether, nearly the victim of a transporter malfunction, until Spock coolly invoked the transporter’s extra-special “cross-circuit to B” feature. Whatever that meant, it retrieved the good doctor in one piece. At the end of the episode (the “witty banter” segment), Bones credits his successful transport to good luck – Spock counters “I believe it was my cross-circuiting to B.” Ha ha! Use whenever you are questioned in the middle of doing something, especially something technical.
“Hey, aren’t we supposed to turn left here?”
“Cross-circuiting to B, Captain.”
– Neal Manson (April 20, 1997)
Tags: tv