"The Enemy Within" is the title of a book by RFK about his crusade against the "mob," from the early '60s. Saw it in a used bookstore. Certainly many viewers in 1966 would have been familiar with that title when the Trek episode of the same name aired. But I never knew that title was a specific allusion/quotation.
It's older than that, and has been used as a title on multiple other occasions. IMDb lists a
film of that title which was made in
1918. It was also the name of a 1962 play. It's a phrase that's been part of the language for a long time. So in fact it isn't a specific allusion. It's just that both the Trek episode, the RFK book, and numerous other works have used the same familiar phrase as a title.
As a general rule in life, if you see one recent thing using the same title, phrase, concept, etc. as some other recent thing, it's far, far more likely that they're both borrowing from something older than it is that one is directly inspired by the other.
Anybody know the sources of other TOS titles? Many are pretty erudite-sounding (e.g. "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky"), and I have assumed they are quotations, but remain ignorant of the sources.
"For the World is Hollow..." is a quotation from the episode itself, the last words spoken by the old man before he dies. It sounds like a line of poetry, but it isn't.
What references do you know of? Play on, MacDuff . . .
The second edition of the
Star Trek Concordance includes title attributions, though some of them are guesses that stretch logic.
"The Man Trap" is named for an actual device, a trap used to catch human intruders (as opposed to a bear trap, a rabbit trap, etc.). As such, it's also a common idiom in English and has probably been used in various titles.
"Balance of Terror" is a phrase from John Kenneth Galbraith referring to the nuclear stalemate of the Cold War. It's probably meant as a variation on the phrase "balance of power."
"What Are Little Girls Made Of?" Sugar and spice and everything nice, according to the old poem by Robert Southey.
"Dagger of the Mind": From
Macbeth. Macbeth sees a dagger before him and asks if it's real or a vision.
"This Side of Paradise" is famously the name of an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, but it's originally a line from the poem
Tiare Tahiti by Rupert Brooke.
"Errand of Mercy" is a standard English phrase for a humanitarian mission or similar benevolent undertaking.
"The City on the Edge of Forever" is not a quotation, just one of Harlan Ellison's many lyrical titles (his works also include "The Beast Who Shouted Love at the Heart of the World," "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream," and "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman").
"Friday's Child" is from a famous
nursery rhyme. The version quoted on Wikipedia says "Friday's child is loving and giving," but D.C. Fontana was probably referencing the version that says "Friday's child is full of woe."
"Who Mourns for Adonais?" is from Percy Shelley's poem "
Adonais," an elegy on the death of John Keats.
"The Doomsday Machine" is another Cold War phrase, referring to a theoretical last-ditch weapon that would destroy both sides; see
Dr. Strangelove for another fictional treatment of the concept.
"Wolf in the Fold" is from Lord Byron's
Destruction of Sennachrib, though it may be a preexisting phrase referring to a wolf in a fold (flock) of sheep.
"The Changeling" refers to the myth of a faerie child substituted for a human child.
"The Apple" is the one from the Garden of Eden, though the Bible didn't actually specify the type of fruit and its identification as an apple is a much later folk coinage.
"Mirror, Mirror" is from
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
"Bread and Circuses" is a phrase from Ancient Rome. In his
Satires, Juvenal observed that the Roman people were only concerned about bread and circuses -- i.e. as long as they got food and entertainment, they didn't care much about anything else.
"That which we call a rose,
By Any Other Name, would smell as sweet," according to
Romeo and Juliet.
The third season has plenty of titles that sound poetic but are original. Here are the few that are allusions:
"Elaan of Troyius" is a play on Helen of Troy.
"And the Children Shall Lead" is a variation on the Biblical verse "And a little child shall lead them" (Isaiah 11:6).
George Herbert wrote, "Who says that fictions only and false hair / Become a verse?
Is There in Truth No Beauty?"
"Whom Gods Destroy" is from a Latin saying used by Euripides and others, "Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad."
"And
All Our Yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death," Macbeth soliloquized.
"Turnabout Intruder" is the lamest one -- it's a reference to a 1931 novel and 1940 film called
Turnabout, in which a husband and wife switch bodies.
Moving on to the animated series:
"Beyond the Farthest Star" is the title of a
novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
"One of Our Planets is Missing" is an offbeat pun on "One of our planes is missing," a common phrase from WWII to refer euphemistically to downed aircraft, popularized in a film called
One of Our Aircraft is Missing.
"The Lorelei Signal" is a reference to Lorelei, the Germanic mythological equivalent of the Sirens of Greek myth.
Beauty is in "The Eye of the Beholder," goes the saying.
"BEM" is a common term in science fiction vernacular for a "Bug-Eyed Monster."
"
How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth it is to have a thankless child," said King Lear.
