The Best and Worst Episode Titles

[Greg Cox]

LOL. The use of Shakespeare in TOS titles was actually pretty rare and, IMHO, the Bard was always used well both thematically and in titles. "Dagger of the Mind" is a standout. I believe there are only five examples of titles quoting from Shakespeare in TOS: "Dagger," "The Conscience of the King," "By Any Other Name," "Wink of an Eye" and "All Our Yesterdays." You can probably make an argument for "Elaan." Maybe I missed one or two. In any case, I wouldn't call five or six out of 78 titles "overworked" or "cliched."

I wouldn't count "Elaan." Sure, the episode echoes "The Taming of the Shrew," but the title evokes Helen of Troy, whom Shakespeare never really wrote about. (As opposed to Marlowe.)

 

[Phaser Two]

I wouldn't count "Elaan." Sure, the episode echoes "The Taming of the Shrew," but the title evokes Helen of Troy, whom Shakespeare never really wrote about. (As opposed to Marlowe.)

Exactly. That's why I wouldn't be the one making that argument.

 

[Vger23]

Best Titles:
"Where No Man Has Gone Before "
"Dagger of the Mind"
"City on the Edge of Forever"
"Balance of Terror"
"All Our Yesterday's"
"Devil in the Dark"

Worst Titles:
"Space Seed"
"Operation: Annihilate!"
"Spock's Brain"
"Requiem For Methuselah"

 

[Phaser Two]

Best Titles:
"Where No Man Has Gone Before "
"Dagger of the Mind"
"City on the Edge of Forever"
"Balance of Terror"
"All Our Yesterday's"
"Devil in the Dark"

Worst Titles:
"Space Seed"
"Operation: Annihilate!"
"Spock's Brain"
"Requiem For Methuselah"

Those are all good choices except I like RFM. I feel like more people would like SB, or recognize it for the wildly entertaining and interesting episode that it is, if it had a different title.

Space Seed is terrible given how many great titles TOS had. Surely something like "Seed of the Past" would have been better and more in keeping with TOS title themes.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Those are all good choices except I like ROM.

Do you mean RFM?

 

[Vger23]

Those are all good choices except I like ROM. I feel like more people would like SB, or recognize it for the wildly entertaining and interesting episode that it is, if it had a different title.

Space Seed is terrible given how many great titles TOS had. Surely something like "Seed of the Past" would have been better and more in keeping with TOS title themes.

In fairness...only reason for not appreciating RFM is that 6-year-old Vger23 could neither say it nor comprehend what it was supposed to mean!

 

[Phaser Two]

Do you mean RFM?

I did. What the heck is ROM, anyway?

 

[Phaser Two]

In fairness...only reason for not appreciating RFM is that 6-year-old Vger23 could neither say it nor comprehend what it was supposed to mean!

Hilarious! I am about your age, then, and I didn't get what the title meant either! But I grew out of it . . .

 

[Vger23]

Hilarious! I am about your age, then, and I didn't get what the title meant either! But I grew out of it . . .

Well...no I can't claim the honor of being a first-run fan. I started watching at a very young age (probably 2 or 3) in the late 70's. My parents used to sit me in front of the reruns while they cooked dinner so they could have a moment of peace. I was mesmerized (quite literally) by the colors and spectacular visuals.

I've never stopped watching TOS since then! That was 39 or 40 years ago....

 

[Phaser Two]

Well...no I can't claim the honor of being a first-run fan. I started watching at a very young age (probably 2 or 3) in the late 70's. My parents used to sit me in front of the reruns while they cooked dinner so they could have a moment of peace. I was mesmerized (quite literally) by the colors and spectacular visuals.

I've never stopped watching TOS since then! That was 39 or 40 years ago....

That's me as well, just a couple years earlier. And I found the reruns in syndication and showed my parents, but I don't remember how. I think something from late S3 might have been my very first ep.

 

[Marsden]

I did. What the heck is ROM, anyway?

He's a Spaceknight!

 

[Anthony Dawson]

LOL. The use of Shakespeare in TOS titles was actually pretty rare and, IMHO, the Bard was always used well both thematically and in titles. "Dagger of the Mind" is a standout. I believe there are only five examples of titles quoting from Shakespeare in TOS: "Dagger," "The Conscience of the King," "By Any Other Name," "Wink of an Eye" and "All Our Yesterdays." You can probably make an argument for "Elaan." Maybe I missed one or two. In any case, I wouldn't call five or six out of 78 titles "overworked" or "cliched."

Completely agree Phaser Two. I was thinking about their use as titles in TV generally. Trek was fairly restrained.

 

[Anthony Dawson]

Those are all good choices except I like RFM. I feel like more people would like SB, or recognize it for the wildly entertaining and interesting episode that it is, if it had a different title.

Space Seed is terrible given how many great titles TOS had. Surely something like "Seed of the Past" would have been better and more in keeping with TOS title themes.

I always thought something like "Behold The Mighty". That would apply to Khan but also invoke the poem Ozymandias with its theme of the last remnants of a great empire.
It would also probably be something Khan would say about himself.

 

[Phaser Two]

Completely agree Phaser Two. I was thinking about their use as titles in TV generally. Trek was fairly restrained.

Gotcha. I particularly like that the five titles (if I'm right about the number, and since no less esteemed a personage than Greg Cox appears not to have contested that, I assume I am) are not blindingly obvious or routine Shakespearean quotes, with the probable exception of "By Any Other Name." The phrase "dagger of the mind" is somewhat buried in Macbeth's "is this a dagger that I see before me" speech in much the same way as "all our yesterdays" is an uncommonly quoted (IMO) segment of what I might variously call the "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" soliloquy, the "Out, Out brief candle!" solioquy, the "tale told by an idiot" soliloquy, or the "sound and fury" soliloquy. That was a pretty packed speech. I'm not even sure Shakespeare originated "wink of an eye" in (I believe - can't check right now to be sure) A Winter's Tale, and even if he did it certainly entered common parlance after that such that the writers may not have even had it in mind in naming the episode. Finally, while "The Consicence of the King" may seem on the nose given the subject matter of the episode, I don't think it's a particularly oft-quoted element of Hamlet either, at least not compared to all the other material in that somewhat loaded play.

I always thought something like "Behold The Mighty". That would apply to Khan but also invoke the poem Ozymandias with its theme of the last remnants of a great empire.
It would also probably be something Khan would say about himself.

That's great! I love that! Or "Ye Mighty and Despair," or maybe "Might(y) and Despair" or "Look Ye Mighty." Perhaps "Ye" was too archaic for a TOS title. But some variant like you suggested would have put Space Seed (oof; the title gets worse every time I type it thanks to the thoughts prompted by this thread) up there with "Who Mourns" in quoting Shelley. Such an improvement. Nice call.

 

[Marsden]

For Space Seed: 80 Frozen Napoleons

 

[Phaser Two]

"Sneaking Admiration For This One"

 

[Greg Cox]

If we count TAS, we have one more Shakespearean title: "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth."

From King Lear.

And, I confess, I didn't realize "Wink of an Eye" had Shakespearean roots. I thought it was just a common expression.

 

[Phaser Two]

Greg, it may well be that the writers didn't know either. But I love the ep and like to lump it in with the Shakespeare titles. And since they liked Shakespearean naming conventions and had a lot of Shakespearean themes in S3 (Elaan, the quoting from The Tempest in Truth/Beauty, Flint having a First Folio in Requiem), I prefer to believe it came from A Winter's Tale.

Good call on "How Sharper." That is a memorable quote from King Lear.

 

[Maurice]

Of course, knowing the definitions of the word Archon might give one some insight into why that name was chosen. Writers often pick names which are metaphors for some element in the story.

 

[johnnybear]

Requiem for Methuselah is a good title for the episode! Methuselah being the longest lived of the Hebrew scribes could easily have been one of Flint's aliases and his oncoming death for being away from the earth would be very soon at that point!
JB