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Interesting quirk: we're three for three on episode titles being spoken in dialogue.

Quinton O'Connor

Quinton O'Connor

Commodore
Commodore
They aren't always spoken in the episode from which they hail, but they're spoken. In "The Vulcan Hello", Burnham pleads with Georgiou for the chance to give the Klingons "a Vulcan Hello". In "Context is for Kings", Lorca references the premiere's climactic combat engagement specifically as the "Battle at the Binary Stars" and only moments later tells Burnham that, you guessed it, "context is for kings".

Three instances isn't quite a pattern, but it sets the precedent for one. Could this be the first Trek series where the titles are constantly in our faces in the scripts? If so, are you prepared for someone telling someone else that "the butcher's knife cares not for the lamb's cry"? Can anyone feasibly be prepared for it?

For future October consideration: The fifth and sixth episodes are titled "Choose Your Pain" and "Lethe", respectively.
 
It's a pattern I've seen before, shows taking their episode titles from dialogue within the episode. For instance, Dark Matter did this in its second and third seasons. It's not quite the same as a title drop, where the title comes first and it's contrived to be used in the episode -- I think it's more that they write the script first and then pick a good line from it to serve as the episode title.

Still, as you say, the phrase "Battle at the Binary Stars" wasn't actually used in that episode, so I don't think that's necessarily meant to be a consistent pattern here. It's probably going to be the case in episode 4, but it won't necessarily be in every episode.

While we're on the subject, I wish they'd come up with a better name for the battle than "Battle at the Binary Stars." At least a third of all star systems are binary or multiple, so calling something "the binary stars" does not even begin to narrow down a specific location. It's like calling something "the Battle of the Hill." Also, a two-star system is conventionally called a binary star rather than binary stars.
 
Christopher said:
While we're on the subject, I wish they'd come up with a better name for the battle than "Battle at the Binary Stars." At least a third of all star systems are binary or multiple, so calling something "the binary stars" does not even begin to narrow down a specific location. It's like calling something "the Battle of the Hill." Also, a two-star system is conventionally called a binary star rather than binary stars.
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Heh, I completely agree. It's been nagging at me something fierce. Still, after seeing the producers and various other production personnel consistently refer to a certain seventh-season Game of Thrones incident as "The Loot Train Battle", I've gotten a bit better about handling badly-named events. Sometimes, down is up.
 
I'm just floored by the fact that we're actually having episode titles which are COMPLETE SENTENCES. Have we ever had that since, I dunno, "For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky"? :D
 
For what it's worth, I'm liking the titles of the eps so far (even if they don't actually appear on screen). I always found the more flowery TOS titles more memorable than the dull one-word titles that were so common on the latter-day shows: "Cathexis," "Divergence," "Descent," etc.
 
dinzy said:
Either way it is shit. "The Binary Stars" is not a proper place.
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On the other hand, the "Battle of the Bulge" from WWII wasn't named for a real place -- the "Bulge" in question was just a protrusion in the German front lines as shown on maps in news coverage. It was a nickname for what the Allies called the Ardennes Counteroffensive and the Axis called Operation Watch on the Rhine. "Battle of the Binary Stars" has a similar alliterative quality, so maybe it's a nickname that caught on in the same way, because "Battle of FGC-7234-A" or whatever was less euphonious.
 
dinzy said:
Either way it is shit. "The Binary Stars" is not a proper place.
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How do you know? It may be in that locality. If there was a battle in our lunar orbit at this time, it might well be called "the battle of the moon". Honestly it's like people are bringing out electron microscopes to find new things to hate about DSC.
 
I figure it took place in a binary system, like the one Janeway flew her ship through in Scientific Method.
 
Greg Cox said:
. . . I always found the more flowery TOS titles more memorable than the dull one-word titles that were so common on the latter-day shows: "Cathexis," "Divergence," "Descent," etc.
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Flowery episode titles seem to have been a 1960s thing. Check out some of the episode titles from Naked City and Route 66 (both created by Stirling Silliphant).
 
There was a bit of debate on whether the proper name of the battle site would be a giveaway for a plot point, and for that reason was withheld. By plot logic, the place ought to be named Boreth, after all - but Burnham narrates that there are no planets there yet, so Mother Nature is in a bit of a hurry to get her act together by "Rightful Heir" (after which the Klingons can rewrite history as they wish).

But yeah, battles are named for the least likely things sometimes. The War of Jenkins' Ear, the Battle of the Kegs, the Battle of the Barges, the Grass Fight, the Cod Wars... But Starfleet seems to frown on glorifying fights with names, and might opt for the deliberately nondescript in this case as well.

Timo Saloniemi
 
There's no way a conflict was named The War for Jenkins' Ear.

Nevermind, wow, I looked it up and there really is.

We're such a weird species.
 
Quinton O'Connor said:
They aren't always spoken in the episode from which they hail, but they're spoken. In "The Vulcan Hello", Burnham pleads with Georgiou for the chance to give the Klingons "a Vulcan Hello". In "Context is for Kings", Lorca references the premiere's climactic combat engagement specifically as the "Battle at the Binary Stars" and only moments later tells Burnham that, you guessed it, "context is for kings".

Three instances isn't quite a pattern, but it sets the precedent for one. Could this be the first Trek series where the titles are constantly in our faces in the scripts? If so, are you prepared for someone telling someone else that "the butcher's knife cares not for the lamb's cry"? Can anyone feasibly be prepared for it?

For future October consideration: The fifth and sixth episodes are titled "Choose Your Pain" and "Lethe", respectively.
Click to expand...
oh man, my favorite line of dialogue from DS9 was when Captain Sisko went all "inter arma enim silent leges" on Admiral Ross' ass

seriously tho, good catch
 
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