What The?

[Withers]

This is probably a really, really, frivalous topic for a thread but its not like there's a finite number of them to go around so I thought I'd throw this out and see if anybody else noticed this.

The Enterprise.
The Excelsior
The Defiant
The *List of Ships from Commander Shelby's odd speech in BoBW*

A vast majority of all ships mentioned on screen more than once or twice have the word the in front of them. NX-01 became an exception to this but I think it was done on purpose- to distinguish it from the Enterprise.

Voyager is always referred to as just Voyager with the only exception I can think of coming from Tom Paris in I think Parallax where he says "It's the Voyager" and it just sounded... weird and out of place.

Maybe it's by virtue of starting with the letter "V," or maybe it's just that Voyager doesn't lend it self to 'the' in terms of saying that but whatever the case they never called it The Voyager regularly... did anybody else notice that?

-Withers-​

 

[kathrynjaneway]

Yeah I noticed that too. I've always wondered why it was just Voyager...But I have to say, it really sounds better without the The.

There's a Behind the Scenes clip or some Voyager Special on Youtube where Robert Duncan McNeil also says "The Voyager". But other than that and the episode you mentioned, I don't remember anyone else ever saying The Voyager.

 

[Withers]

See, here's my thing- I don't know if it sounds weird because it sounds weird or if it only sounds weird because they never said it. If they said "The Voyager" as often as all the other ships maybe it would sound perfectly normal?

-Withers-​

 

[kathrynjaneway]

That might be true, but right now I can't imagine The Voyager to ever sound normal to me! It has always been and will always be Voyager to me

 

[exodus]

I just figured she said it that way because they were proper names.

I think if Voyager was a part of a convoy of Intripid class ships or other Starfleet vessels, it's would be labeled as "the" Voyager to distinguish it from other Intripid class ships around it. Seeing how Voyager stood alone, "the" wasn't needed.

 

[Withers]

Oh, you mean the Shelby thing? I just saw that episode and her "speech" just seemed like a more appropriate time for silence. The emphasis on the before the name of every ship she mentioned didn't make the vibe any better. It was like...someone chatting through a funeral service, ya know? Just me personally- it didn't bother me or anything, just something I noticed.

That might be true, but right now I can't imagine The Voyager to ever sound normal to me! It has always been and will always be Voyager to me

You should try it out loud a few times anyway. Just say it. It actually becomes less awkward after a few rounds. But I'm with ya- I'll always call it Voyager too.

-Withers-​

 

[scout]

Hmm...i'm going with sounds weird and that is why they never used "The Voyager". Ewww I feel dirty just thinking about it.

 

[exodus]

Oh, you mean the Shelby thing? I just saw that episode and her "speech" just seemed like a more appropriate time for silence. The emphasis on the before the name of every ship she mentioned didn't make the vibe any better. It was like...someone chatting through a funeral service, ya know? Just me personally- it didn't bother me or anything, just something I noticed.

You on the right track with a funeral service.

What she was doing was similar to what happans at a mass burial and they read off all the names of those that died. Instead of reading off each name of those that served on those ship, reading off the ships names was to convey the loss of all on them. So in a way, she was giving a mass eulogy. "The" was to convey a sense of past tense.


For example: Watch "Titanic". While the ship is in service it's called just "Titanic".
After it sunk, it's refered to as "The" Titanic.

 

[Withers]

You on the right track with a funeral service.

What she was doing was similar to what happans at a mass burial and they read off all the names of those that died. Instead of reading off each name of those that served on those ship, reading off the ships names was to convey the loss of all on them.

I mean whatever- potato/po-ta-to. Had I been on the bridge I would have been like "Quiet Shelby! We know what ships were in there, gawd" but you would have been okay with it. Just a difference of, you know, whatever.

-Withers-​

 

[exodus]

You on the right track with a funeral service.

What she was doing was similar to what happans at a mass burial and they read off all the names of those that died. Instead of reading off each name of those that served on those ship, reading off the ships names was to convey the loss of all on them.

I mean whatever- potato/po-ta-to. Had I been on the bridge I would have been like "Quiet Shelby! We know what ships were in there, gawd" but you would have been okay with it. Just a difference of, you know, whatever.

-Withers-​

Yes, they on the Enterprise did and it would be correct to silence her.

We in TV land didn't.
So her dialog was needed.

 

[Withers]

We in TV land didn't.
So her dialog was needed.

We gathered that a bunch of ships were destroyed and that the crew of the Enterprise was mournful over the fact by just looking at the crew and then the view screen so I fail to see how unless you want to chalk this up to one more instance of TNG bashing the audience over the head with a "message" that could just as easily have been subtle (or in this case- silent.)

-Withers-​

 

[exodus]

We in TV land didn't.
So her dialog was needed.

We gathered that a bunch of ships were destroyed and that the crew of the Enterprise was mournful over the fact by just looking at the crew and then the view screen so I fail to see how unless you want to chalk this up to one more instance of TNG bashing the audience over the head with a "message" that could just as easily have been subtle (or in this case- silent.)

-Withers-​

....or you could be just nitpicking an issue that isn't important to any one but you.

 

[Withers]

....or you could be just nitpicking an issue that isn't important to any one but you

It's the only thing you've posted about in this thread (which has absolutely nothing to do with that) and since the off-handed one liner about it in the OP seemed to bother you so much I thought I'd give it the amount of attention you requested.

-Withers-​

 

[Guy Gardener]

Our Voyager is "A" Voyager, but THE Voyager is V'Ger. If kathryn thinks her ship is more spectacular than V'Ger, who had a width of 20 something AU, killed millions if not billions of people and finally apotheoisized, then she has the ego of a presenting baboon.

 

[Silvercrest]

"Voyager" is one of the few names that could be mistaken for an actual object or person. Saying "The Voyager" makes it sound like you're talking about a crusty old sailor or someone. That's not usually a problem with "Enterprise", "Intrepid", "Defiant", "Exeter", etc., many of which aren't even nouns at all.

I suspect that's why it sounds wrong to many of us.

 

[Withers]

Actually, the two other ships with the most on screen mentions could easily be "mistaken" in that way. The Enterprise... to remove hostilities between the Romulan and Klingon Empires isn't going well or The Defiant... Maquis don't seem to be relenting. See what I mean?

I still think it sounds like crap to say "The Voyager," but I'm not convinced that if I'd heard it called that for seven years it wouldn't be perfectly 'normal.'

-Withers-​

 

[Udat]

kathrynjaneway coooooool avatar.....

 

[mr.peany]

See, on ENT, I cringed every time they referred to 'Enterprise' WITHOUT 'the' in front of it. Ewww, just horrible.

 

[kathrynjaneway]

kathrynjaneway coooooool avatar.....

Hehe thanks!
I agree with everything you guys said...it probably wouldn't bother me at all if they'd said The Voyager for seven years, but as they haven't it DOES bother me

 

[Michael]

This comes quite often around here, but I'm never really able to comment, because in the German dubbed version* it's always "die Voyager" and never just "Voyager". It sounds really odd without the article in front of it.

* Yeah, I know, the true Trekkie enjoys Star Trek in its original English. Sue me. But Voyager is actually the only Trek series I don't own on DVD. So I only remember the German versions from television.