The Best and Worst Episode Titles

[Ssosmcin]

I like "This Side of Paradise" a lot. Also "Day of the Dove" (because I didn't get is as a kid but I do now) and "Plato's Stepchildren."

Titles I don't like as much: "The Apple," "Space Seed" are too vague and "The Man Trap" and "The Naked Time" sound like a pair of porn flicks.

 

[Phaser Two]

"The Man Trap" and "The Naked Time" sound like a pair of porn flicks.

You are not wrong. I have actually never understood what "The Naked Time" means (and if someone wants to explain it to me, I'd be happy to hear it).

Moreover, I am pretty sure that the M-113 creature was perfectly willing to trap and kill females as well as males for their salt - witness its aborted attack on Uhura, for instance.

 

[Nerys Myk]

You are not wrong. I have actually never understood what "The Naked Time" means (and if someone wants to explain it to me, I'd be happy to hear it).

Their emotions were stripped bare and exposed for all to see.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Worst: "Return of the Archons" because it wasn't really much about the Archons at all.

The Enterprise landing party are "Archons". Archons being the people from the USS Archon.

 

[Phaser Two]

Their emotions were stripped bare and exposed for all to see.

Mhm. So the title could also be "The Time They Were Naked?"

 

[Henoch]

Mhm. So the title could also be "The Time They Were Naked?"

Sulu was the only one getting naked.

 

[Phaser Two]

As far as we know.

Ridiculous title. One of the worst of the 79, surely. And yes, "The Naked NOW!!!!!!!" (emphasis supplied) was even worse.

 

[Henoch]

"The Menagerie" sounds like an elegant, well-loved museum display, while "The Cage" sounds like a dirty, steel barred hell hole. It amazes me how one word can change the viewers expectation for the episode. Maybe the title didn't help GR sell the show in some small way.

 

[Ssosmcin]

"The Menagerie" sounds like an elegant, well-loved museum display, while "The Cage" sounds like a dirty, steel barred hell hole. It amazes me how one word can change the viewers expectation for the episode. Maybe the title didn't help GR sell the show in some small way.

Actually, the first pilot was titled “The Menagerie” but was renamed “The Cage” (based on an earlier unused title I believe) to differentiate it from the two parter.

Since the title wasn’t used on screen, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Network guys just called it “Star Trek.”

 

[Harvey]

Actually, the first pilot was titled “The Menagerie” but was renamed “The Cage” (based on an earlier unused title I believe) to differentiate it from the two parter.

It was called "The Cage" for most of development and pre-production. Once it started filming, it was re-titled "The Menagerie," and that stuck until they needed a way to differentiate the two-parter and the pilot.

 

[mb22]

This has been brought up on this forum before, but has anyone seen any reference to the tile of the (finished) first pilot as "The Cage", prior to Gerrold's World of Star Trek? I think The Making of Star Trek notes the title change and refers to it as "The Menagerie". When did Roddenberry start showing it at his speaking engagements?

 

[Harvey]

This has been brought up on this forum before, but has anyone seen any reference to the tile of the (finished) first pilot as "The Cage", prior to Gerrold's World of Star Trek? I think The Making of Star Trek notes the title change and refers to it as "The Menagerie". When did Roddenberry start showing it at his speaking engagements?

I'd love to know more about this. I've found a few listings for Roddenberry's speaking engagements via ProQuest starting around 1975, but nothing indicating if he brought the pilot film with him for them. Some listings mention the blooper reel, though.

 

[Commishsleer]

The Enterprise landing party are "Archons". Archons being the people from the USS Archon.

The Archons were essentially irrelevant to the episode.
They were supposedly the reason the Enterprise was there but Kirk didn't seem that concerned about them.
It was not like on other planets where Kirk had to fix some problem created by the firstcomers.
If the episode were called Red Hour then the Archons need not have been mentioned at all.

I was waiting for some great reveal about the Archons but got nothing.

 

[Henoch]

The Archons were essentially irrelevant to the episode.
They were supposedly the reason the Enterprise was there but Kirk didn't seem that concerned about them.
It was not like on other planets where Kirk had to fix some problem created by the firstcomers.
If the episode were called Red Hour then the Archons need not have been mentioned at all.

I was waiting for some great reveal about the Archons but got nothing.

Captain's Log. Stardate 3156.2. While orbiting planet Beta Three trying to find some trace of the starship Archon that disappeared here a hundred years ago,...
​

Kirk's not too concerned about the crew of the Archon, because they would all be dead of old age. He's investigating what happened to the ship at this point. Shortly, he learns exactly what happened to the Archon:

SCOTT: Captain, we're under attack. There are heat beams of some kind coming up from the planet surface.
KIRK [OC]: Status report.
SCOTT: Our shields are holding, but they're taking all our power.
SCOTT [OC]: If we try to warp out or move on impulse, we'll lose our shields and burn up like a cinder.
KIRK: Orbit condition.
SCOTT: Checking. We're going down, Captain. Unless we can get those beams off us so we can use our engines, we're due to hit atmosphere in less than twelve hours.
KIRK: Keep your shield up. Do everything you can to maintain orbit. We'll try and locate the source of the beam and stop it here.
​

Now his number one mission is to stop the attack with heat beams on his ship. Since the powerful Enterprise is losing the battle, the Archon being 100 years older technology (similar to ENT?), succumbed to the heat beams and fell into the planet. Both starships entered orbit in peace, and the Landru machine's first action is to destroy the ships to prevent any interference with his rule. As for the Archon issue, Kirk repeatedly told Landru that he was the Archons, essentially back for revenge. I guess that was the best reveal on the Archon theme we get? Thankfully, Kirk talks Landru into suicide to first save his ship, and secondarily, to free the world from the 6000 year computer rule.

I agree, the title is so-so, but the episode had its good moments like Kirk's first computer kill.

 

[johnnybear]

The Archons were essentially irrelevant to the episode.
They were supposedly the reason the Enterprise was there but Kirk didn't seem that concerned about them.
It was not like on other planets where Kirk had to fix some problem created by the firstcomers.
If the episode were called Red Hour then the Archons need not have been mentioned at all.

I was waiting for some great reveal about the Archons but got nothing.

The USS Archon had disappeared a century before so only their descendants would live amongst the people down on Beta III! The emphasis of what happened to the crew being that they were either killed or absorbed into the community ruled by Landru!
JB

 

[Phaser Two]

The Archons were essentially irrelevant to the episode.
They were supposedly the reason the Enterprise was there but Kirk didn't seem that concerned about them.
It was not like on other planets where Kirk had to fix some problem created by the firstcomers.
If the episode were called Red Hour then the Archons need not have been mentioned at all.

I was waiting for some great reveal about the Archons but got nothing.

I hear ya. The title works for me, though. But I am a huuuuuuuuge fan of ROA. It's one of my top ten, and (like WOE, FC, and WIF) also one of my top ten that doesn't usually jibe with those of other fans. Which makes me like it - and those others - even more.

The episode actually fascinates me exactly because of what you mentioned. They're there because of the disappearance of the Archon, but because it was 100 years earlier they don't really expect to find any of the crew, I don't believe. Maybe they expect to find wreckage of the ship. They don't quite say so but I gather that at this point the Federation, armed with better ships and technology and expanding faster and farther than a century ago, would like to find out what happened to its lost vessel, and perhaps evaluate whether there's some sort of threat to the UFP as a whole.

When they do find out what happened, they are existentially attacked almost simultaneously, and then it becomes a revenge plot as well as a self-defense exercise, which is frankly awesome since it doesn't involve hurting any living things. (They even throw in a line about the Lawgivers needing new work to make this clear, as does the postscript with Lindstrom.) So - - the Archons are back, and this time they mean business. I think of the title from CompuLandru's perspective. An alternate version could have been "Oh, S---, It's These Guys Again?"

 

[Anthony Dawson]

Worst Title (and episode): Spock's Brain
Best Title: probably Dagger of the Mind because it's a Shakespearean quote that's relevant to the story

 

[Henoch]

because it's a Shakespearean quote that's relevant to the story

Can thou overuse Shakespeare quotes in thee titles? (or is it Can thee overuse Shakespeare quotes in thou titles?)

 

[Anthony Dawson]

Can thou overuse Shakespeare quotes in thee titles? (or is it Can thee overuse Shakespeare quotes in thou titles?)

Thou certainly canst. Forsooth may it addeth an element of class, but tis an overwork-ed cliche

 

[Phaser Two]

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."