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Origin of the Trilogy of Terror?

Art Vandelay

Art Vandelay

Captain
Captain
Darkling. Rise. Favorite Son. The so-called Trilogy of Terror from Voyager's third season.

Though personally, I always found Rise to be a fun episode. And I'm certain that there are advocates for the other two episodes as well, and rightly so. But that's neither here nor there.

I've been trying to find out the origin of that moniker. Who coined the phrase and decided that it's these three episodes?

Any hints would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
Lord Garth said:
Didn't Jammer call it the Trilogy of Terror during his Season Review of the third season?
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I checked, and he didn't. Thanks anyway!
Greg Cox said:
I confess: For me, Trilogy of Terror will always be classic 1970s tv-movie, adapting three stories by Richard Matheson (one of the original Star Trek screenwriters).

Karen Black versus the killer Zuni doll! :)
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Ahh, 70s TV horror. I'm really looking forward to getting the new 4K of the original Don't Be Afraid of the Dark with Miri's Kim Darby next week.
 
Yeah, I distinctly remember this being a thing as well. I thought it was called “Dark Trilogy”, not “Trilogy of Terror”, but when I look it up now it only brings up one post on the TrekBBS, which is my own from almost 20 years ago. :lol:

However, the moniker “Trilogy of Terror” has been mentioned a handful of times on the board before, going back to the 2010s. So some people definitely called it that. Outside of the board it’s been mentioned in this blogpost, and Memory Alpha is quoting the unauthorized Voyager guide “Beyond the Final Frontier” as saying that fans dubbed the three episodes “Trilogy of Terror”. I wonder if the TrekBBS search is just not going back far enough, because I feel there should definitely be more results for the term going back even earlier.

As I said in my post in 2008, I personally never considered “Rise” to be bad at all, in fact, it’s probably my favorite episode focussing on the relationship between Neelix and Tuvok.
 
Michael said:
Yeah, I distinctly remember this being a thing as well. I thought it was called “Dark Trilogy”, not “Trilogy of Terror”, but when I look it up now it only brings up one post on the TrekBBS, which is my own from almost 20 years ago. :lol:

However, the moniker “Trilogy of Terror” has been mentioned a handful of times on the board before, going back to the 2010s. So some people definitely called it that. Outside of the board it’s been mentioned in this blogpost, and Memory Alpha is quoting the unauthorized Voyager guide “Beyond the Final Frontier” as saying that fans dubbed the three episodes “Trilogy of Terror”. I wonder if the TrekBBS search is just not going back far enough, because I feel there should definitely be more results for the term going back even earlier.

As I said in my post in 2008, I personally never considered “Rise” to be bad at all, in fact, it’s probably my favorite episode focussing on the relationship between Neelix and Tuvok.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I appreciate Rise as well, even though in concept it's quite close to DS9's The Ascent that aired three months prior. Both episodes show the bickering duo coming to terms with their differences to reach a certain elevation and contact their home base.
 
First time I ever saw the term used. Though given my disdain for "Favorite Son", it seems fitting.
 
It seems that all my leads can eventually be traced back to the 2003 book "Beyond the Final Frontier". I've contacted one of the authors and will share any information I might receive.

Right now it looks like this one sentence from said book found its way to Memory Alpha, from there to the Delta Flyers podcast - and now it is accepted as common knowledge not by all, but by some fans. The truth is still out there.

As for now, thanks for more or less confirming that the ToT is not doctrine but rather a runaway tidbit. My listeners will appreciate this as well.
 
Was "Rise" supposed to be scary? I haven't seen it in a while, but I remember it as a typical Tuvok-and-Neelix duo episode.
 
^ No. The moniker was meant tongue-in-cheek, referring to how terrible those three episodes supposedly were. “Darkling” has some, well, dark elements, but none of the episodes are really scary in any way.
 
I don't remember any of them in the slightest. Maybe "eminently forgettable trilogy" might be better. Then again, the only ST series that didn't have a share of eminently forgettable episodes was TOS, and that only because it was in strip-syndication as the only game in town for so many years, with short story adaptations by Blish & Lawrence of every single episode.
 
Lord Garth said:
Didn't Jammer call it the Trilogy of Terror during his Season Review of the third season?
Click to expand...
I thought I remembered Jammer’s site having a graphic that said “trilogy of terror” in the fifth season? Looking at his review list quick, I would assume it was when “The Disease,” “Course: Oblivion,” and “The Fight” came out. But that was 30 years ago and the domain name has long since changed so I doubt there’s a snapshot of his old homepage from the 90s on the Internet Archive.
 
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