“To boldly go” is the famous split-infinitive phrase from Star Trek’s opening narration, first spoken by William Shatner as Captain Kirk in 1966: “to boldly go where no man has gone before.” It encapsulates the show’s ethos of exploration, risk-taking, and optimism about venturing into the unknown, and was later updated in The Next Generation to “where no one has gone before” for inclusivity. Beyond its sci-fi roots, the phrase has entered everyday language as shorthand for courage and curiosity, while also becoming a celebrated example of how Star Trek popularized a once-criticized grammatical construction, turning it into a cultural beacon of adventure.
