To 'The' or Not to 'The'

[Photon]

Is it proper in navy terms to say:
The Defiant
The Enterprise
The Voyager
The NX
The Prometheus

or is it used interchangeably such as "Sisko to Defiant" or "Katherine, lets take Voyager to the next Class M planet and hide there for a millennium"

Never understood should the the be used some/all of the time in front of a ship's name

 

[JustKate]

:: perks up at the sight of a grammar/syntax-oriented thread ::

It is odd - I have thought so myself - but then again, the use of articles (a, an and the) is often odd in English.

Normal usage for ships names and for many other proper nouns, at least in my world, is to precede it with the article the: The Defiant, the Enterprise, the USS Lexington, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Outpost Cafe.

However, there are times when it's OK to drop the article, and I for one don't think I can articulate when it's OK and when it's not. All I can say is that just as most of the time I would say (and I do have to say this very thing from time to time) "I'm going to call the USDA" but sometimes I might say "I need to call USDA," well, most of the time it's "the Defiant" but sometimes it's just "Defiant."

I visit a grammar website from time to time, and this is the sort of thing that can drive someone trying to learn English as a second or third language absolutely batty.

P.S. Love your thread title!

 

[Tosk]

Funny thing is, "The Enterprise" sounds fine, "The Voyager" does not. What up with that?

"It's the Enterprise!"
"It's the Defiant!"
"It's Voyager!"

 

[Timo]

Curiously enough, I don't think Star Trek has ever used the form "the USS Name" or "the SS Name"... All other permutations seem to have been tried out, but "USS" seems to be interchangeable with "the".

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Photon]

Funny thing is, "The Enterprise" sounds fine, "The Voyager" does not. What up with that?

"It's the Enterprise!"
"It's the Defiant!"
"It's Voyager!"

I Know, one might think it would be a vowel to begin the ships name but alas, its not.

The Voyager would sound weird

 

[Ziz]

I always looked at it as a matter of context. If someone is referring to some ship other than their own, using "the" is appropriate.

WORF: Report!
CONN OFFICER: Main power is off-line. We've lost shields and our weapons have gone.
WORF: Perhaps today is a good day to die. Prepare for ramming speed!
CONN OFFICER: Sir, there's another starship coming in. ...It's the Enterprise!

If it's someone contacting their own ship, drop "the" and just go straight to the ship name.

"Sisko to Defiant"
"Kirk to Enterprise"
"Riker to Enterprise"
"Tuvok to Voyager"

 

[Rarewolf]

The Voyager would sound weird

Aliens might refer to it's crew as The Voyager Crew.

I always looked at it as a matter of context. If someone is referring to some ship other than their own, using "the" is appropriate.

If it's someone contacting their own ship, drop "the" and just go straight to the ship name.

"Sisko to Defiant"
"Kirk to Enterprise"
"Riker to Enterprise"
"Tuvok to Voyager"

"We've got to get them back to the Enterprise"

 

[C.E. Evans]

Funny thing is, "The Enterprise" sounds fine, "The Voyager" does not. What up with that?

"It's the Enterprise!"
"It's the Defiant!"
"It's Voyager!"

It's what you've been conditioned to hear her addressed as on the show, so naturally it sounds odd if she was addressed like the other ships. Had the producers and writers insisted on calling the ship "the Voyager" from day one, it wound have sounded fine to you too.


I always call her the Voyager myself...

 

[UssGlenn]

Tom Paris did call it The voyager in an early episode, the one with the black hole with the crack in the event horizon. Sounded strange then too. I think it's because unlike Enterprise and Defiant, Voyager can be used to describe a person. He is a voyager vs. He is a defiant or He is an enterprise.

 

[Piper]

The one that gets me is when Archer and co insist on missing out "The" when talking about the Enterprise. "We're on Enterprise" just doesn't sound right.

 

[Too Much Fun]

I noticed they kept referring to "Defiant" rather than "The Defiant" in "In A Mirror, Darkly" as well. I thought it was kinda cool...just because it was different.

 

[I am not Spock]

Enterprise sounds cooler when you say 'the'. 'The Enterprise'.

Voyager sounds better without.

One thing that I had trouble getting used to in Ent was Archer always calling it 'Enterprise', not 'the Enterprise'.

 

[Myasishchev]

Funny thing is, "The Enterprise" sounds fine, "The Voyager" does not. What up with that?

"It's the Enterprise!"
"It's the Defiant!"
"It's Voyager!"

I Know, one might think it would be a vowel to begin the ships name but alas, its not.

The Voyager would sound weird

I dunno. Once you say it a couple of times, it isn't so bad.

 

[Starbreaker]

Funny thing is, "The Enterprise" sounds fine, "The Voyager" does not. What up with that?

"It's the Enterprise!"
"It's the Defiant!"
"It's Voyager!"

I was thinking the same thing. The first two were constantly mentioned onscreen, but I doubt anyone ever said "the Voyager".

 

[C.E. Evans]

Funny thing is, "The Enterprise" sounds fine, "The Voyager" does not. What up with that?

"It's the Enterprise!"
"It's the Defiant!"
"It's Voyager!"

I was thinking the same thing. The first two were constantly mentioned onscreen, but I doubt anyone ever said "the Voyager".

Paris did in "Parallax". When he saw the mirror image of the ship, he actually said, "It's the Voyager!"

But the reference to NX-01 as "Enterprise" rather than "the Enterprise" is a nod to how NASA personnel referred to the space shuttles, IMO (simply as Enterprise, Columbia, etc.)...

 

[StarryEyed]

What gets me is "the" Earth. It's used regularly and sounds ridiculous to me. I mean, we don't talk about the Mars or the Jupiter.

In one DS9 episode, Kira actually referred to "the Earth" which just made me cringe. She never even referred to her own homeworld as "the Bajor."

 

[Thestral]

Using "the" seems more natural with, say, Enterprise and Defiant, but I've started to drop the "the" almost always and just use the name. Partly because, well, it's the ship's proper name, and I don't refer to people as "the Janice" or "the Roger."

 

[Jono]

Just was watching the Firefly episode "Bushwacked" and the Alliance commander refers to the ship as "the Serenity", to which Inara corrects him that its just "Serenity"...made me think of this thread.

 

[The]

I'm personally partial to "the"....

 

[Timo]

I'm not bothered by "the Earth". After all, Earth is not the name of the place, its just a description. The planet named Terra is the Earth, the Soil, the Ground for us.

Plus, it's a special planet for any Fed, more than a mere planet, more than a homeworld. It's a concept: "the Earth", the capital, the center.

For good examples here on (the) Earth, we already have "the Hague", which sort of incorporates both of the above aspects for justifying the article... And "the Bronx", which incorporates the former but not the latter.

Timo Saloniemi