5 worst episode titles

[Christopher]

"And The Children Shall Lead" sounds too psychodelic to my modern ears, too.

A reference to the Bible is "psychedelic"??

 

[CommanderRaytas]

No, I was just joking. Relax.

 

[Cakes488]

I'd have to say Naked Time made the least sense.....

 

[Christopher]

I'd have to say Naked Time made the least sense.....

^Why? As I said above, "The Naked Time" means the time when the crew's innermost selves were stripped bare, exposed for all to see. It makes perfect sense as a metaphor.

 

[Amaris]

Hopefully this is from every episode, that being said:

"The Cage"
"The Menagerie"
"Court Martial"
"The Way to Eden"
"The Omega Glory"

J.

 

[ToddPence]

>"Operation: Annihilate" is an apt title.

But remember - it's not "Operation: Annihilate." It's "Operation-Annihilate!" The use of the dash instead of the colon and the exclamation point make the cheese factor.

 

[Sky]

Frankly, "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" is nicely poetic, and vastly preferable to the one word titles that became de rigeur on later Treks.

Yeah, exactly. I like the episode title more than the actual episode.

Spock's Brain is probably the dullest episode title.

 

[Sovay]

Wrong word order. It's "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", from the nursery rhyme that answers that question with "Sugar and spice and everything nice." So there's a wicked irony to the title, given that the "little girls" here are made of rather more disquieting ingredients.

I don't think I referenced the nursery rhyme, actually. I simply said it creeps me out, and it does.

The Immunity Syndrome- Seemed a bit of an oxymoron

No, it isn't. "Syndrome" means a group of symptoms that indicate an abnormal condition. That abnormal condition can involve the immune system as much as anything else. AIDS is an immunity syndrome -- an acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, to be precise, a set of symptoms resulting from immune-system failure. Arthritis is an autoimmune disorder where the body's immune system attacks its own tissues.

Again, I said it seemed like one, not that it was one. I made a point not to say it was one The wording still doesn't sit well though.

Is there in Truth no Beauty?- I read it as "Is there no truth in beauty?" every damn time.

When what it's actually asking is the reverse, "Is there no beauty in truth?" Out of context, it could be taken to mean "Is there truly no such thing as beauty?", which is what I used to think it meant. But the full quote from George Herbert is, "Who says that fictions only and false hair / Become a verse? Is there in truth no beauty?" I.e. "Can't the truth be just as beautiful as an illusion?"

I understand exactly what the title means, but I still misread it whenever I look at it.


"Worst episode titles" is a subjective question, it is opinion. It does not require an objective answer.

 

[Seven of Five]

I love Operation-Annihilate! It's a great title for the last ep of the first season, cheese and all.

I agree with the mention of The Paradise Syndrome, This Side of Paradise and The Immunity Syndrome - why? So confusing. And my 'favourite' - Is There In Truth No Beauty. And it was also a bit of a smelly episode, too.

 

[ToddPence]

You have to admit that the titles were improved over time:

1. Charlie's Law --> Charlie X
2. The Unreal McCoy --> The Man Trap
3. The Last Gunfight --> Spectre of the Gun

Wish I knew more of the working titles.

Actually, in each one of those cases, I think the title they went with was a downgrade from the original.

 

[Captrek]

You have to admit that the titles were improved over time:

1. Charlie's Law --> Charlie X
2. The Unreal McCoy --> The Man Trap
3. The Last Gunfight --> Spectre of the Gun

Wish I knew more of the working titles.

“The Galileo Seven... Make That Six... Uh, Five...” ➔ “The Galileo Seven”

“Laugh It Up, Fuzzballs!” ➔ “The Trouble With Tribbles”

“Qualcomm Stadium” ➔ “Arena”

“Spock’s Beard” ➔ “Mirror, Mirror”

 

[ClayinCA]

Besides, anything to do with cats is automatically fine art.

Christopher, I always suspected from your writing (and your fondness for Spock) that you were a person of rare distinction and great taste. This statement confirms it beyond the shadow of a doubt.

 

[Cakes488]

I'd have to say Naked Time made the least sense.....

^Why? As I said above, "The Naked Time" means the time when the crew's innermost selves were stripped bare, exposed for all to see. It makes perfect sense as a metaphor.

I know... and it does make sense....I read your insight before posting that....but I still went with that title making the least sense because I don't think any Trek title is bad...so in the spirit of "having" to pick one...I went with that....

Plus...growing up I didn't get the metaphor...so that's why I was forced to go w/ Naked Time.

 

[Gorn Captain]

>"Operation: Annihilate" is an apt title.

But remember - it's not "Operation: Annihilate." It's "Operation-Annihilate!" The use of the dash instead of the colon and the exclamation point make the cheese factor.

Agreed. It's reminiscent of Hollywood marketing crap where the movie has been finished and they are test marketing stupid titles.

 

[khaaan!!!]

Frankly, "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" is nicely poetic, and vastly preferable to the one word titles that became de rigeur on later Treks.

I agree. Almost every TOS title is poetry compared to a series like Voyager. The Swarm, The Gift, Drone, Gravity, The Disease, Think Tank, The Chute, The Thaw. I have not seen half these episodes but I think Voyager has a one good title with “Death Wish”, I think that is the episode when Rick Berman comes out of a subinterbiophysicalsplittimeanomaly to bore me so much I wish I were I dead.
The only title that comes close to being that bad and uninspired from the TOS is Spock’s Brain. Makes me think of an apt title for Voyager as a whole : Neelix’s A$$
But to answer the question: I dislike Spock’s Brain, The Ultimate Computer, The Empath, The Tholian Web, and Mudd’s Woman. Hmmmm I wonder what those are about?

 

[Captrek]

Worst title: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

They should have called it Star Trek V: The Undiscovered Country and let us forget that The Final Frontier ever existed.

 

[A beaker full of death]

Is there in Truth no Beauty?- I read it as "Is there no truth in beauty?" every damn time.

Like good Star Trek, and all good art, it works better if one brings education to it. This is a riff on Keats.

I wrote a whole damn essay on "Who Mourns for Adonais?" at some point on this board - which interestingly also has a Keats connection.

I'd have to say Naked Time made the least sense.....

Only if you missed the point of the entire episode.

 

[scotpens]

I actually think some of the worst titles were the third-season ones that quoted or paraphrased from literary sources. They just came across as pretentious . Like "And the Children Shall Lead," "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," "Is There In Truth No Beauty?", and "Spock's Brain" (just kidding).

Return to Tomorrow -- would we all like that

That title made it sound like a time-travel story, instead of Kirk, Spock and some babe having their bodies taken over by non-corporeal lifeforms.

Obsession -- no real mystery to what the episode was going to be about.

On the contrary, the title is too vague. A character could be obsessed with anything -- destroying a vampire cloud, killing a giant white whale, or catching a road runner.

Or it could be a sixty-minute commercial for a Calvin Klein perfume.

Naked Time -- Time needs to have clothing?

The time when people's inner selves are stripped bare.

Yes, the metaphorical meaning of "naked" is pretty clear, I think.

Maybe the ep should have been called "The Time of Nakedness," or "Remember the Time When We Were All Naked"?

You have to admit that the titles were improved over time:

1. Charlie's Law --> Charlie X
2. The Unreal McCoy --> The Man Trap
3. The Last Gunfight --> Spectre of the Gun

Wish I knew more of the working titles.

“The Galileo Seven... Make That Six... Uh, Five...” ➔ “The Galileo Seven”

“Laugh It Up, Fuzzballs!” ➔ “The Trouble With Tribbles”

“Qualcomm Stadium” ➔ “Arena”

“Spock’s Beard” ➔ “Mirror, Mirror”

"The Amazing, Incredible Salt Vampire" ➔ "The Man Trap"

"Captain Kirk, Space Queen" ➔ "Turnabout Intruder"

"The One With the Indians" ➔ "The Paradise Syndrome"

"Yvonne Craig's Killer Body is the Only Reason to Watch This Piece of Crap" ➔ "Whom Gods Destroy"

 

[ToddPence]

Worst title: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

They should have called it Star Trek V: The Undiscovered Country and let us forget that The Final Frontier ever existed.

I think you've got that backwards.

 

[plynch]

I hate the generic ones:

Return to Tomorrow -- huh?

Alternative Factor: Why not just title it, "Generic Title"?