Episode titles...

[Dj]

Star Trek episodes have almost always had interesting names... look at it. 'Who Mourns for Adonais?' 'Operation: Annihilate!' 'A Piece of the Action' 'The Trouble with Tribbles'
'11001001' 'Skin of Evil' 'Menage a Troi' 'I, Borg'
'If Wishes Were Horses' 'Little Green Men' 'Looking for Par'Mach in All the Wrong Places' 'Doctor Bashir, I presume?'(DS9's were great! Hehe).
Voyager had some... 'The Q and the Grey' 'The Killing Game' 'Bride of Chaotica!' 'Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy'
So far Enterprise's episode names have seemed rather droll to me... (Slight spoilers... just episode names) 'Unexpected'(could you be more original!?) 'Dear Doctor' 'Fusion' 'Civilization'

Where's all the witty titles? These ones thus far bore me... one would be more likely to watch 'Little Green Men' than 'Unexpected' I think...

[Christina]

True, but so far, all those episodes (I've only seen to Dear Doctor) have really had double meanings.
For example,Dear Doctor is the opening of the letter he is replying to, but could also refer to Cutler's feelings?

Personally, I found some of DS9's titles obtruse and pretentious.
But I loved Little Green Men.

[Elric3960]

I think it was because they had literary writers in TOS that caused the titles to have a literary flair to them.

Part of the trick of being a successful writer is to inspire the reader to turn the pages.  This is called The Narrative Hook.

I'm inclined to feel that this concept is as old-hat as the print medium itself.

Mainstream TV shows generally don't assign titles to their individual shows, just air dates.  I think that titles on individual installments are currently limited to SF & Fantasy TV shows.  I don't know if that's a compliment or an insult to our collective intelligence as viewers.

Opinions, anyone?

[Christina]

I think 'Friends' have episode titles - 'The One When xxx' and such-like, to help with the morning after viewing conversations around the photocopier.

But I believe that by giving an episode a title, you make it into an individual entity with it's own identity. That way it can be referred to in its own right, rather than 'that one partway in where.....' - oh, kinda like Friends!

[Elric3960]

^^Point taken.  I don't watch "Friends" so I wasn't aware of that.  Are you sure that you're not referring to "Production Notes that differentiate the individual installments?"

"Seinfeld" had a larger audience share, I think, but referring to distinctive scenes and circumstances were standard conversation fare with anyone that I've known who watched the show.

"Frazier" titles individual scenes in its episodes, but they're meant to emphasize the importance of the individual blackouts and how they interconnect to each other to create a sophisticated story-telling format, which is why I enjoy this show when I can see it.

 

[Christina]

Copied from www.radiotime.beeb.com (search on Friends)

Episode  The One with Rachel's Sister
Episode  The One with the Fake Monica

They really do give them titles for the fans to talk about and help them remember what happened.

Search on Frasier gives - Episode  Juvenilia
Episode  The Proposal

no sign of Seinfeld, can't be being shown at the moment.

Anyway, what were we saying? Oh yes.

Episode titles . I suppose it is up to the producers what sort of ethos they want to create by naming the shows (or not).

And that will also depend on the target audience.

Looking at DS9 titles, you could argue that they were aiming for the blokes with working braincells in double figures, (Inter Arma Enim etc!)  

[Elric3960]

^^^Then explain why they titled the pilot "Emissary" when TNG already had an ep called "The Emissary" and the ep where we were led to believe Morn was dead was called "Who Mourns For Morn?"

I guess there are exceptions to every rule and there's no accounting for unoriginality or bad puns.

[Christina]

Who mourns for Adonis? Who mourns for Morn?

Neither were actually dead during the episode.....

Okay, so my quip about DS9 really relates to season 7 more than any other.
And after so many hundred episode titles, it is almost inevitable that duplications or near duplications can slip in.
Unless you have a seriously nerdy trekkie on the staff to stop it!

[Elric3960]

^^In all fairness they did have "Dramatis Personae" in the first season, obviously referring to the fact that the Command crew, with the exception of Odo, were "acting."

I think that they tended to pick up VOY's habit of giving one-word titles or added "The" to them to create the illusion that they weren't, like TNG occasionally did after its second season.

[Christina]

hmm yes, Voyager did rather try to stick to one word titles, when it wasn't punning with Q and the Grey (Blue and the Grey) or Tinker Tenor (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) or even Live Fast and Prosper (live long....)

and the use of Profits instead of Prophets (and giving a DS9 style reference to the Ferengi while they were at it)

[Elric3960]

^^^It also provided a long-overdue sequel to that TNG episode where they were trying to obtain a (temporary) wormhole that ended up sending them into the Delta Quadrant in the first place, as well as give Ethan Phillips an opportunity to play a Ferengi again.  I think that he's found his comedic/dramatic niche in Trek by portraying some of those "misogynistic-but-likable creatures."

[Peter_Pevensie]

My favorite DS9 "tongue-in-cheek" title was The Magnificent Ferengi.  I love this episode!

Of course, I also loved Voyager's Threshold, proving once again that there's no accounting for taste.

[UltimateTrekker]

As for Who Mours for.... that's not a copy, but an in joke.

Just like DS9 had Profit and Loss, and then Profit and Lace

[Elric3960]

Thanks, UT, but if you'll note in my conversation with Christina, we both "got it" but I dismissed it as unoriginal and a bad pun.

[UltimateTrekker]

I kinda thought it was nice...