Let's discuss this thing. The Motion Picture. It's descriptive, it's functional. It isn't anything more than that, but it doesn't really need to be. The Wrath of Khan. It's a little arch, and director Nicholas Meyer didn't like it being imposed on him. One might argue it's got a cache for fans but (prior to the dawn of geek culture) it might not mean anything to the general public who hadn't gorged themselves on TOS reruns. "Who's this Khan guy, and why does he want revenge?" kind of thing. The movie provides the answers, but the title itself probably means nothing unless you already know who Khan is. The Search For Spock. Again, simple, does its job. The movie is an excuse to reverse Spock's death, and the title ably conveys that intention. As Shatner once joked, they were hardly going to call the movie 'The Search For Spock' and then have Kirk tell the audience at the end "Sorry folks, we didn't find him!" The Voyage Home. A bit of an odd one this. Again it's basic and does the job of siphoning the plot down to three words (they're going home, duh). I'm not sure about the marketing strategy outside the States though. The title 'The Voyage Home' was emphasized on all the posters above identification of it being a Star Trek movie, but let's be honest... it is a Star Trek movie, right? I don't know that calling it 'The Voyage Home' does much to account for the movie's mass cross-market appeal. But then, I'm not a marketing guy... The Final Frontier. A bit shit this one, isn't it? It doesn't do anything to describe the plot of the movie (what else to call it though, "Star Trek Finds God"?). But even worse: it's a little bland, a little trite, a little lazy, to just use the franchise's most famous catchphrase as a film title. That's like having a Batman movie simply titled 'The Dark Knight', or a Superman movie that can't come up with anything better than 'Man Of Steel'... oh wait... The Undiscovered Country. A nice evocative title that works on various levels: it's a Shakespeare quote, so it relates to General Chang and his love for quoting the Bard. This also nicely dove-tails with TOS, which had a thing for using Shakespeare quotes as episode titles itself (so, as the last TOS movie, it feels... approrpriate). The 'undiscovered country' could also herald the pending elevation of TNG to the front row of the TNG movie franchise, which was pretty much accepted as a certianty at that point, but they were still unproven ground. Or I could just be starting to waffle on a bit. Generations. It works. I'm no fan of TNG's tendency for one word titles, but this one conveys both that this is the first 'Next Generation' feature, and also that it crosses the 'generations' both literally and figuratively. So I like it. First Contact. Again it's functional, it describes one of the tenements of the plot. Not sure about it in other ways though. I do kind of wish they'd come up with something else, they had already used 'First Contact' as the title of a television episode after all... I understand the producers intended to call it 'Resurrection', but if anything that's even worse. Insurrection. Another one word title, this one I don't like. I know, I know, I'm beating the Pinata again with my stick, but it's a title which promises so much (Insurrection! Revolution!! Yeah!!!), but the movie delivers nothing. Picard's insurrection is a bit of a wet blanket. Nemesis. The worst of the lot? It's a misuse of the word 'nemesis' too, which is meant to be a continual threat or opposing force. It isn't strictly just an alternative word for 'enemy', although that is the context in which it is used here. The Romulans are a 'nemesis', but that isn't strictly their function in this script. Maybe it should have been? Star Trek. Well, I can't fault it. It's a good title. For relaunching the franchise you can't get better than to go back to brass tacks, and this does the job for sure. The fan in me does kind of wish for a subtltle though... Star Trek Into Darkness. The lack of a colon (heavily hyped in the PR for the movie) is disturbing, but it's a good title that does evoke something of the themes of the movie: the darkness within, an enemy within the state. I didn't like it when I first heard it, but it's grown on me.
The Motion Picture: Pretentious The Wrath of Khan: Cheesy The Search for Spock: Spoiler The Voyage Home: Makes it sound like a road trip The Final Frontier: Sounds... final. The Undiscovered Country: Very pretentious Generations: Functional First Contact: Descriptive Insurrection: Name is better than the film Nemesis: Sinister Star Trek: Beginning again Star Trek Into Darkness: *sinister music*
Titles are hard. Subtitles are worse. It's easy to bash them. Can anyone suggest better ones that non-Trekkies would be attracted to?
I can't agree that TUC is more pretentious than TMP. The former could never have inspired anything on the level of the New Yorker cartoon "Star Trek: The Ashtray." I presume you'd also consider pretentious such episode titles as "All Our Yesterdays," "The Conscience of the King," "By Any Other Name," and "Spock's Brain."
This is a very good question to be asking. What title(s) could have been used that would draw in more.....I wouldn't say non-Trek fans.....but would draw in more people who would not normally go see a Trek film? For me, I would have stayed away from the one word titles (Generations, Insurrection, Nemesis) and given the title a little more flourish.
It's also the name of one of the novels, which can cause confusion in discussions if it's not made clear from the get-go whether it's the movie or the book being discussed (I'm referring to the Diane Carey novel, not the movie novelization). In my experience, the general public isn't usually that much into Shakespeare. I've read a decent number of plays, and seen some of them performed live. But this title has me wondering, "Exactly which country did they discover?" Where/what is the "darkness" they trekked into? And why would they use a title whose acronym can confuse people if, at first glance, they don't happen to notice the small-case letter "i" in it?
I personally think Star Trek Into Darkness is the best title of the bunch, because it's about the theme and tone of the film, and you don't need to know anything about the characters to grok it.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture Considering this was a movie from the late 1970s and they weren't really thinking about a sequel, this fits. Alternate ideas: Star Trek: Man's Dark Cloud Star Trek: Return to the Creator Star Trek: The New Race Star Trek: Unity Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan To me, this title fits the best out of any Trek film. This whole movie felt like a well done action comic book brought to life. The title is larger than life, and I feel the movie delivered. I wouldn't change it. And I'm glad the studio changed it from "The Undiscovered Country," which is kind of a stretch to me. Some alternate title ideas: Star Trek: The Genesis Effect Star Trek: Genesis Rising Star Trek: From Hell's Heart Star Trek: The Best of Times... Star Trek III: The Search for Spock I did not like this title at all. It gives too much away about getting Spock back. I don't think my ideas are any better though. But here you go anyway: Star Trek: The One Star Trek: Sacrifices and Miracles Star Trek: In the Wrong Hands Star Trek: The Fall of Genesis Star Trek: Planet Forbidden Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home This one has grown on me over the years. Alternates: Star Trek: The Answer Star Trek: Out of Time Star Trek: Time Warp Star Trek: Colorful Metaphors Star Trek V: The Final Frontier I agree with the person who said it sounds "final." But I understand where they were going with it. Alternates: Star Trek: Heaven and Hell Star Trek: One Man's Dream Star Trek: The Face of God Star Trek: The Ascent Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country I like it. Alternates: Star Trek: The Iron Curtain Star Trek: To the Brink Star Trek: Genocide Star Trek: The Edge of War Star Trek: Generations It's okay. I wish they kept going with the numbers, or just dropped them from earlier films in home video/DVD releases at some point. I'm sure that would have cause fans to go ballistic though. Anwyay, here are some alternates: Star Trek: Immortality Star Trek: Quest for Eternity Star Trek: Predator of Time Star Trek: Oh Shit! Star Trek: First Contact I loved this film and the title works for me. Alternates: Star Trek: To Save the Future Star Trek: The End of Humanity Star Trek: Resistance is Futile Star Trek: Drawing the Line Star Trek: Insurrection I didn't like this title because to me it's an awkward word for a title. How about: Star Trek: Fountain of Youth Star Trek: Never Die Star Trek: The Hidden Truth Star Trek: Revelations Star Trek: Nemesis This one is hard because I didn't care for the bad guy, nor the actor who portrayed him. I thought "Nemesis" was a bit strong. Alts: Star Trek: From Now On (last line from the song"Blue Skies") Star Trek: In the Mirror Star Trek: Dark Side of the Moon Star Trek If any Trek film title is pretentious, it's this one. This film is apparently so much the heart of "Trek" that it doesn't even need a subtitle? Nope. Alternates: Star Trek: The Road Not Taken Star Trek: A New Beginning Star Trek: The Ultimate Reset Star Trek Into Darkness Not a fan of the lack of a colon. I know, that's nitpicking. And I do get what they're trying to do. Star Trek: Destiny Star Trek: Wrath Reborn Star Trek: Blood of Evil
My thoughts on the movie titles can best be summed up in this fashion: I love them! It means they are attached to more STAR TREK product, which I am all about. Keep the titles coming. Keep the movies coming, with them. I want it all ...
See? And I don't think almost any of those are suitable/workable (no offense). As I said above, titles are hard.
Anything post The Undiscovered Country is fairly terrible. I love 'The' titles as they gave the movies an old B-movie / serial feel. The latter ones are trying to be edgy and cool but they just don't fit Star Trek, IMO.
Star Trek IV: The One with the Whales. C'mon, everyone knows that's the real title. Nobody but hardcore Trekkies even remembers that it's called "The Voyage Home." Most people couldn't come up with that title if their lives depended on it.
In STAR TREK 4, when Sulu approaches the helicopter pilot and starts taking an interest in his Huey Helicopter exploits ... it really does seem like Sulu's just hitting on the guy!
I always liked the way the titles of ST II through IV can function as chapter titles in a serial. The first part of the trilogy depicts the wrath of Khan, the second chronicles the search for Spock, and the third wraps it up with the voyage home. I think the idea was that the search for God was the final frontier, the ultimate quest. Although come to think of it, this would've been a better title for TMP, because that movie was all about the search for transcendence, for a new, uncharted frontier. V'Ger was seeking a higher level of existence, Spock was searching for meaning... it would've been a good fit. Plus, as it is the series' catchphrase, it would've been more suited for the first movie than the fifth. This one bugs me, because it fits TWOK, the movie it was originally intended for, much better than it fits TUC. In the context of Hamlet's soliloquy, "the undiscovered country" is death. It's a reference to the fear of death and the uncertainty about what lays beyond it, and that fits the story of TWOK quite well. But in order to recycle it for TUC, they had to do a handwave about how "the undiscovered country" is really the future, and that's a cheat, because that's not what it actually means. Yeah, it worked pretty well, particularly since it also reflected the film's themes of family and mortality, the passing of the generations. And it was a damn sight better than Star Trek: The Next Generation: Insert Subtitle Here. It evoked TNG without awkwardness. Ah, but Shinzon does see Picard as his nemesis, the shadow that's been looming over him his entire life, holding him back. Or, to look at it another way: Nemesis was the Greek goddess of divine retribution, and Shinzon delivered retribution unto the Romulans for their abuses. I believe every story deserves its own title, so I don't care for generic movie titles like this. It's just so awkward. I think sooner or later there will be an official subtitle added to it for clarity, in the way that two previous works originally titled Star Trek -- the 1966 series and its 1973 animated revival -- have been retitled The Original Series and The Animated Series. Actually The God Thing was a separate movie proposal by Roddenberry. Alan Dean Foster's Phase II pilot outline was called "In Thy Image." Which would've been a good name for TMP. In fact, decades ago, when I was trying to think of what would be a better title for TMP, I thought of calling it In Our Image or something like that, years before I discovered that it had been based on a story of nearly the same title!
None taken. I was just having some fun, dude. I was actually waiting for the inevitable "your titles suck" post. Surprised it took so long!
Interesting! Yes, I hadn't actually thought about it that way... yes, you're right Christopher, from Shinzon's point-of-view, Picard is indeed a nemesis. To be honest, I am quite fond of calling it Star Trek: The Future Begins for clarity reasons, which was derived from the tag-line on a couple of the movie posters, and I think it kind of sums up the movie nicely... but I have had some people online argue against the use of that title.