Let's discuss this thing.
The Motion Picture. It's descriptive, it's functional. It isn't anything more than that, but it doesn't really need to be.
The Wrath of Khan. It's a little arch, and director Nicholas Meyer didn't like it being imposed on him. One might argue it's got a cache for fans but (prior to the dawn of geek culture) it might not mean anything to the general public who hadn't gorged themselves on TOS reruns. "Who's this Khan guy, and why does he want revenge?" kind of thing. The movie provides the answers, but the title itself probably means nothing unless you already know who Khan is.
The Search For Spock. Again, simple, does its job. The movie is an excuse to reverse Spock's death, and the title ably conveys that intention. As Shatner once joked, they were hardly going to call the movie 'The Search For Spock' and then have Kirk tell the audience at the end "Sorry folks, we didn't find him!"
The Voyage Home. A bit of an odd one this. Again it's basic and does the job of siphoning the plot down to three words (they're going home, duh). I'm not sure about the marketing strategy outside the States though. The title 'The Voyage Home' was emphasized on all the posters above identification of it being a Star Trek movie, but let's be honest... it is a Star Trek movie, right? I don't know that calling it 'The Voyage Home' does much to account for the movie's mass cross-market appeal. But then, I'm not a marketing guy...
The Final Frontier. A bit shit this one, isn't it? It doesn't do anything to describe the plot of the movie (what else to call it though, "Star Trek Finds God"?). But even worse: it's a little bland, a little trite, a little lazy, to just use the franchise's most famous catchphrase as a film title. That's like having a Batman movie simply titled 'The Dark Knight', or a Superman movie that can't come up with anything better than 'Man Of Steel'... oh wait...
The Undiscovered Country. A nice evocative title that works on various levels: it's a Shakespeare quote, so it relates to General Chang and his love for quoting the Bard. This also nicely dove-tails with TOS, which had a thing for using Shakespeare quotes as episode titles itself (so, as the last TOS movie, it feels... approrpriate). The 'undiscovered country' could also herald the pending elevation of TNG to the front row of the TNG movie franchise, which was pretty much accepted as a certianty at that point, but they were still unproven ground. Or I could just be starting to waffle on a bit.
Generations. It works. I'm no fan of TNG's tendency for one word titles, but this one conveys both that this is the first 'Next Generation' feature, and also that it crosses the 'generations' both literally and figuratively. So I like it.
First Contact. Again it's functional, it describes one of the tenements of the plot. Not sure about it in other ways though. I do kind of wish they'd come up with something else, they had already used 'First Contact' as the title of a television episode after all... I understand the producers intended to call it 'Resurrection', but if anything that's even worse.
Insurrection. Another one word title, this one I don't like. I know, I know, I'm beating the Pinata again with my stick, but it's a title which promises so much (Insurrection! Revolution!! Yeah!!!), but the movie delivers nothing. Picard's insurrection is a bit of a wet blanket.
Nemesis. The worst of the lot? It's a misuse of the word 'nemesis' too, which is meant to be a continual threat or opposing force. It isn't strictly just an alternative word for 'enemy', although that is the context in which it is used here. The Romulans are a 'nemesis', but that isn't strictly their function in this script. Maybe it should have been?
Star Trek. Well, I can't fault it. It's a good title.
For relaunching the franchise you can't get better than to go back to brass tacks, and this does the job for sure. The fan in me does kind of wish for a subtltle though...
Star Trek Into Darkness. The lack of a colon (heavily hyped in the PR for the movie) is disturbing, but it's a good title that does evoke something of the themes of the movie: the darkness within, an enemy within the state. I didn't like it when I first heard it, but it's grown on me.
The Motion Picture. It's descriptive, it's functional. It isn't anything more than that, but it doesn't really need to be.
The Wrath of Khan. It's a little arch, and director Nicholas Meyer didn't like it being imposed on him. One might argue it's got a cache for fans but (prior to the dawn of geek culture) it might not mean anything to the general public who hadn't gorged themselves on TOS reruns. "Who's this Khan guy, and why does he want revenge?" kind of thing. The movie provides the answers, but the title itself probably means nothing unless you already know who Khan is.
The Search For Spock. Again, simple, does its job. The movie is an excuse to reverse Spock's death, and the title ably conveys that intention. As Shatner once joked, they were hardly going to call the movie 'The Search For Spock' and then have Kirk tell the audience at the end "Sorry folks, we didn't find him!"
The Voyage Home. A bit of an odd one this. Again it's basic and does the job of siphoning the plot down to three words (they're going home, duh). I'm not sure about the marketing strategy outside the States though. The title 'The Voyage Home' was emphasized on all the posters above identification of it being a Star Trek movie, but let's be honest... it is a Star Trek movie, right? I don't know that calling it 'The Voyage Home' does much to account for the movie's mass cross-market appeal. But then, I'm not a marketing guy...
The Final Frontier. A bit shit this one, isn't it? It doesn't do anything to describe the plot of the movie (what else to call it though, "Star Trek Finds God"?). But even worse: it's a little bland, a little trite, a little lazy, to just use the franchise's most famous catchphrase as a film title. That's like having a Batman movie simply titled 'The Dark Knight', or a Superman movie that can't come up with anything better than 'Man Of Steel'... oh wait...
The Undiscovered Country. A nice evocative title that works on various levels: it's a Shakespeare quote, so it relates to General Chang and his love for quoting the Bard. This also nicely dove-tails with TOS, which had a thing for using Shakespeare quotes as episode titles itself (so, as the last TOS movie, it feels... approrpriate). The 'undiscovered country' could also herald the pending elevation of TNG to the front row of the TNG movie franchise, which was pretty much accepted as a certianty at that point, but they were still unproven ground. Or I could just be starting to waffle on a bit.
Generations. It works. I'm no fan of TNG's tendency for one word titles, but this one conveys both that this is the first 'Next Generation' feature, and also that it crosses the 'generations' both literally and figuratively. So I like it.
First Contact. Again it's functional, it describes one of the tenements of the plot. Not sure about it in other ways though. I do kind of wish they'd come up with something else, they had already used 'First Contact' as the title of a television episode after all... I understand the producers intended to call it 'Resurrection', but if anything that's even worse.
Insurrection. Another one word title, this one I don't like. I know, I know, I'm beating the Pinata again with my stick, but it's a title which promises so much (Insurrection! Revolution!! Yeah!!!), but the movie delivers nothing. Picard's insurrection is a bit of a wet blanket.
Nemesis. The worst of the lot? It's a misuse of the word 'nemesis' too, which is meant to be a continual threat or opposing force. It isn't strictly just an alternative word for 'enemy', although that is the context in which it is used here. The Romulans are a 'nemesis', but that isn't strictly their function in this script. Maybe it should have been?
Star Trek. Well, I can't fault it. It's a good title.
For relaunching the franchise you can't get better than to go back to brass tacks, and this does the job for sure. The fan in me does kind of wish for a subtltle though...Star Trek Into Darkness. The lack of a colon (heavily hyped in the PR for the movie) is disturbing, but it's a good title that does evoke something of the themes of the movie: the darkness within, an enemy within the state. I didn't like it when I first heard it, but it's grown on me.
