"Fight me, Jimmy!" - did he say it or not?

[KobayashiMaru]

Upon review of "Shore Leave" on Netflix instant viewing, I was looking for the scene that was seared into my memory of Finnegan saying "Fight me, Jimmy! Fight me, Jimmy!". Even Mike Myers worked this into a Wayne's World skit. But he said no such thing at any point in the episode. Those on Netflix are supposed to be the remastered, unedited episodes.

Are they edited, or is it a "Play it again, Sam"?

 

[Christopher]

I find no such phrase in the closed-captioning transcript of the episode:

http://www.voyager.cz/tos/epizody/18shoreleavetrans.htm

The closest thing is "Lay one on me. That's what you always wanted, isn't it?"

 

[WendellM]

I was looking for the scene that was seared into my memory of Finnegan saying "Fight me, Jimmy! Fight me, Jimmy!". ... Those on Netflix are supposed to be the remastered, unedited episodes.

Are they edited, or is it a "Play it again, Sam"?

Checking the un-remastered DVD and online transcripts shows that that line doesn't appear. There is, however, "Come on, come on. It's me, Finnegan. (laughs) All right, Jimmy boy. (laughs) Go ahead, lay one on me because that's what you always wanted, isn't it? (laughs) Come on, come on."

So, I'd say that what you saw was unedited and, yeah, it's sort of like "Play it again, Sam" - a shortened version that expresses the essential idea.

 

[KobayashiMaru]

So, I'd say that what you saw was unedited and, yeah, it's sort of like "Play it again, Sam" - a shortened version that expresses the essential idea.

And a collective re-imagining.

Thanks for your research.

 

[darkshadow0001]

Upon review of "Shore Leave" on Netflix instant viewing, I was looking for the scene that was seared into my memory of Finnegan saying "Fight me, Jimmy! Fight me, Jimmy!". Even Mike Myers worked this into a Wayne's World skit. But he said no such thing at any point in the episode. Those on Netflix are supposed to be the remastered, unedited episodes.

Are they edited, or is it a "Play it again, Sam"?

I think I recalled that line when I watched it on Netflix. I don't remember if the character said it twice, but I think I did hear the "alien" say "Fight me, Jimmy!"

 

[WendellM]

I think I recalled that line when I watched it on Netflix. I don't remember if the character said it twice, but I think I did hear the "alien" say "Fight me, Jimmy!"

I don't disbelieve you (or, for that matter, the OP). Memory is indeed a weird thing. I've found the net to be a great source of quotes for tons of films, and I rely on it a lot. But when I want/need to be "absolutely" sure, I go to the DVD (if I own it). In such cases, I find that what I remembered is completely (i.e. word-for word) accurate about 50%-75% of the time, the online version is completely accurate maybe 75%-100% of the time, and the DVD is (obviously) completely accurate 100% of the time.

With no blame or singling-out toward anyone, it's stunning to see some little errors/mis-rememberings slip by undetected (they sure do for me). It's caused me to have a different understanding of human memory (and, deeper, how all we humans interface with what we perceive/mis-perceive and remember/mis-remember as "reality").

Of course, with all this weirdness going on, who can be really, absolutely sure? That seems a good question...


/Sorry - got way off course there.

 

[johcomp]

"It's life, Jim, but not as we know it!"

"Beam me up, Scotty"

 

[Hober Mallow]

"It's life, Jim, but not as we know it!"

"Beam me up, Scotty"

"Damn it, Jim!"

 

[darkshadow0001]

Upon review of "Shore Leave" on Netflix instant viewing, I was looking for the scene that was seared into my memory of Finnegan saying "Fight me, Jimmy! Fight me, Jimmy!". Even Mike Myers worked this into a Wayne's World skit. But he said no such thing at any point in the episode. Those on Netflix are supposed to be the remastered, unedited episodes.

Are they edited, or is it a "Play it again, Sam"?

I don't think Finnegan said that. I re-watched the segments he was in, and I had originally thought he said "Fight me, Jimmy!" but I think he actually says things like "Find me! I'm over here, Jimmy!" if you go back and rewatch those scenes you may find you'll agree with me

 

[Praetor]

I remember thinking he said 'Fight me, Jimmy...' too. darkshadow0001, I bet you're right.

 

[WendellM]

I had originally thought he said "Fight me, Jimmy!" but I think he actually says things like "Find me! I'm over here, Jimmy!" if you go back and rewatch those scenes you may find you'll agree with me

An interesting possibility. Finnegan's lines along those... lines: "Here I am! (laughs) Run! Jim! (laughs) Find me! Can't you see me? (laughs) Come and get me! (laughs) Here I am! Come on! You never could find your head with both hands! Like it used to be, Jimmy! Remember? (laughs)"

 

[Gary7]

There are some episodes across the series when lines are unintelligible or are easy to be mistaken (like "fight me" instead of "find me"), depending on what the person watching is thinking of. If you're thinking of the fight between them, your ears end up hearing "fight" instead of "find".

Speaking of misinterpreting lines, I couldn't for the life of me ever figure out what Mr. Atoz said to Mr. Spock when he was about to touch the Atavachron controls. It wasn't until I saw a transcript website recently that I finally got it "right."

Transcript:
SPOCK: Interesting nomenclature. How does it work? May I
ATOZ: Oh, no, sir, no. I must ask you not to touch the controlling mechanism.

To me it sounded weird, like this:
SPOCK: Interesting nomenclature. How does it work?
ATOZ: May I donno sinno. I must ask you not to touch the controlling mechanism.

Spock asks a question, "How does it work?", and so I expect him to wait for Mr. Atoz's reply. The "May I" starts immediately, and sounds like Mr. Atoz to me, speaking in a deeper voice for just a moment, because he might have had his neck turned off to the side. We don't see this because the camera isn't on them at that moment. There's also an electronic noise in background coincident with the phrasing, adding to the confusion. I know... what the hell is "donno sinno"? I figured that either Ian Wolfe fumbled his line and the editors didn't catch it, or he was uttering some alien phrase.

Or... is everyone looking at me as if I'm from Mars and no one else had any trouble with that dialog?

 

[Gary7]

Incidentally, I find the Chakoteya website a better resource for transcripts, because at least the speakers are identified for the lines (unlike on Voyager.cz).

 

[WendellM]

Incidentally, I find the Chakoteya website a better resource for transcripts, because at least the speakers are identified for the lines (unlike on Voyager.cz).

Good point, and I agree - those are usually more accurate, too (and they include TAS!). I've downloaded those for easy local searching, along with the Czech ones (which have some errors and sometimes shortcuts taken for closed-captioning). That way I can cross-check the two to see if there are any discrepancies. If so, I go to my DVDs (which I also go to if there's any question about exactly what was said, as in this thread).

It'd be great to have a really accurate, searchable text set of all TOS(/TAS) dialogue, but the above ad-hoc mix usually gets the job done, or at least it narrows things down in the case of text discrepancy so that the slow process of going through DVDs and listening - which is presumably the absolute arbiter - is worth it.

The current (pre-remastering) DVD subtitles seem really accurate, and they've sometimes surprised me with what they revealed/have right vs. what other sources have, but there are still rare errors/mis-transcriptions even in them. Ah, the things we do for Trek... like medieval monks checking and cross-checking various versions of scripture - but it matters, dammit!

 

[Trevacious]

But it's so very easy to imagine him saying it and have a good laugh over it.