Origin

"He's dead, Jim," is a popular catch phrase from the original Star Trek television series (infused into modern culture by its countless reruns) that is used as a pronouncement that something is no longer alive or working. Not only in a physiological way, but also in an mechanical, electrical, physical, or temporal sense not related to a biological system. As such, it has expanded from using the personal pronoun "he's" to the general non gender pronoun "it's" that might also could humorously describe some unspecified alien life form at the same time (and hence a joke), though Dr. McCoy was careful to assign gender when he said the phrase. It represents something that needs a formal pronouncement that only a kindly, yet firm and incorruptible country doctor could offer, as others stand around clueless, wondering what has happened or what needs to be done next. That, and the fact the viewer has no way of telling by themselves and need to be told outright. Most often seen with a comma after the "It's dead" it truly represents the slow delivery and dramatic pause, as he looks up, given by the actor DeForest Kelley, with a very serious tone of voice.

As an example of its increasingly widespread usage,

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/the-enable-capsulecrm-is-missing

http://futurelawyer.typepad.com/futurelawyer/2014/01/its-dead-jim.html

http://evilspeculator.com/?p=6244

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/be98e588-6bfd-4f68-9139-dd34b816dca2/its-dead-jim-boot-fails-without-errors?forum=w7itprogeneral

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