Episode Titles
- Thread starter Upper pylon 3
- Start date
Yes I know. Not sure why I forgot that one.
"The French Mistake."
On reading that title, incestuous amplification has become my biggest concern for DSC. "The Vulcan Hello" is very Trek-centric and, so, not at all universal. DSC does not need to be Trek for Trekkies or Trekkers. Grammatically, the title is unequivocally a reference to something Vulcan. That suggests the possibly that the beating heart of the episode has to do with something Vulcan. Vulcans are important, I get it, but I think that, if DSC turns out to be a show primarily about Vulcans, then that could easily repeat the mistake of navel-gazing that plagued the post-TNG Berman-era ST shows. I'm hoping that doesn't happen.
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I guess they don't want us to forget its Star Trek. It might slip by us what with there only being starships, and Starfleet, and arrowhead badges, and Klingons, and Sarek, and Mudd, and "Star Trek" being in the series name.
Oh. Yeah, could be.
I don't mind the idea of Trek going into a slightly wackier direction for titles. The last thing we need is for them to continue cycling through the dictionary for single-word titles, and then adding a "the" whenever they want to reuse one.
Hell, I say they go full "Defiance" and name every episode after a pop song.
Hell, I say they go full "Defiance" and name every episode after a pop song.
Using song titles as episode titles is pretty common. I've also see album titles and even band names.
They should get Michael Giacchino (who scored the Kelvin universe movies) to do all the episode names. They'd be amazing.
god i hate tv shows that don't show the title on screen like Stargate Universe. No Episode Title Card after 15 plus seasons of Stargate.
My thoughts exactly.
(He also could compose a new title theme while he is at it 
)I agree with BillJ and expected a more spectacular title for the first Star Trek episode after more than ten years. (Especially after "Desperate Hours" - the title of the first novel.) But I also expected something more engaging than "Star Trek Discovery" for the first new series after such a long time. So "The Vulcan Hello" regrettably fits.
If it was called The Tzenkethi Salutation I might agree with you, but Vulcans are a part of pop culture way beyond the narrow Trekkie circles.
It's certainly the least cryptic and pretentious of the pilot titles so far, and friendlier sounding to non-Trekkies out there
Thus far in my TV watching career (Yeah, given how much time I spent in my teens and 20's absorbing TV, I kinda had to tell people it was a unpaid second job) I've yet to come across a show where the names of its episodes had any impact on either (a) the quality of the episode, or (b) the quality of the show.
I, like the next fan, enjoy a clever title here and there and may ruminate on it to try and wrinkle out a plot point or two, but if All Good Things had instead been called This Is The End or Data's Badger Hair I somehow doubt it would have changed my thoughts about the episode.
Further to that, other than overly analytical, semi-to-complete obsessive fans, I'd bet that a huge proportion of normal TV watchers pay little-to-no attention to episode titles, especially given most shows these days don't advertise them up on screen any more. We may refer to (and Acronym-ise) For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky, but mostly regular viewers (and frankly, given it's title length) would probably refer to it as The One Where McCoy Marries The Meteor Maid.
(As an aside, general show stupidity and comic-trashiness aside, Friends episode titles were a very clever idea)
So, the fact that the creators have titled the Pilot as The Vulcan Hello really only impacts the likes of us and really doesn't implicitly or explicitly imply anything about the show other than an attempt at humour - which given the promo reels so far, I'll take as a win.
But, I appreciate that every piece of minutiae is worthy of endless dissection in this 'verse, and some creators really did put rather a lot of thought into their episode titles (Farscape showrunner David Kemper would buy a bottle of champagne for anyone on staff that came up with an episode title better than him - got to wonder how much he actually gave away!), but other than possibly tee-ing up a tasty potential plot point, I'm really not bothered what they call them. And given I'm attempting to go into this show spoiler/plot free, I'll not be seeking out what the other 14 episodes are called
My favourite show of recent years, Black Sails, just gave each episode a sequential Roman Numeral for an episode title.
Hugo - XVI, The One With The Urca Gold
I, like the next fan, enjoy a clever title here and there and may ruminate on it to try and wrinkle out a plot point or two, but if All Good Things had instead been called This Is The End or Data's Badger Hair I somehow doubt it would have changed my thoughts about the episode.
Further to that, other than overly analytical, semi-to-complete obsessive fans, I'd bet that a huge proportion of normal TV watchers pay little-to-no attention to episode titles, especially given most shows these days don't advertise them up on screen any more. We may refer to (and Acronym-ise) For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky, but mostly regular viewers (and frankly, given it's title length) would probably refer to it as The One Where McCoy Marries The Meteor Maid.
(As an aside, general show stupidity and comic-trashiness aside, Friends episode titles were a very clever idea)
So, the fact that the creators have titled the Pilot as The Vulcan Hello really only impacts the likes of us and really doesn't implicitly or explicitly imply anything about the show other than an attempt at humour - which given the promo reels so far, I'll take as a win.
But, I appreciate that every piece of minutiae is worthy of endless dissection in this 'verse, and some creators really did put rather a lot of thought into their episode titles (Farscape showrunner David Kemper would buy a bottle of champagne for anyone on staff that came up with an episode title better than him - got to wonder how much he actually gave away!), but other than possibly tee-ing up a tasty potential plot point, I'm really not bothered what they call them. And given I'm attempting to go into this show spoiler/plot free, I'll not be seeking out what the other 14 episodes are called
My favourite show of recent years, Black Sails, just gave each episode a sequential Roman Numeral for an episode title.
Hugo - XVI, The One With The Urca Gold
Exactly so. I don't see the problem with the title “The Vulcan Hello”. At least it doesn't sound as pretentious as a lot of the Star Trek titles of the past. It certainly sounds more interesting to me than something like “Desperate Hours”, which isn't a bad title, but just not as evocative.If it was called The Tzenkethi Salutation I might agree with you, but Vulcans are a part of pop culture way beyond the narrow Trekkie circles.
It's certainly the least cryptic and pretentious of the pilot titles so far, and friendlier sounding to non-Trekkies out there
And it has the potential to be a clever title, depending on what exactly it references in the episode. As I said earlier, my guess is that it has something to do with Michael Burnham's childhood, because it sounds like a human child confronted with Vulcan culture would call the Vulcan salute. Maybe as a child she struggles to understand it and later as an adult Sarek brings it up in their holo-conversations.
Or maybe I'm overthinking it and it will end up meaning nothing.
http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/epsd-DSC1-1.php The Vulcan Hello
Not the worst title...but kind of reminds me of Uncle Leo from Seinfeld. HELLO!
Not the worst title...but kind of reminds me of Uncle Leo from Seinfeld. HELLO!
That reminds me of the time when Enterprise first premiered and people were actually wondering if it was a true Star Trek series because Star Trek wasn't in the title. Good times.
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