89: What’s in a Name, Part I

Primitive Culture: A Star Trek History and Culture Podcast

Episode Titles in The Original Series.

“What’s in a name?” Juliet demands of Romeo. “That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet.” In 1968, the Star Trek episode “By Any Other Name” took more than just its title from Shakespeare—it used Juliet’s words as a jumping-off point to consider what makes us human. But it was also characteristic of the Original Series scriptwriters to lean on such rich literary source material when it came time to name this particular episode. In fact, throughout Trek’s 50-plus-year history, the names given to individual episodes have often revealed a lot about their content—sometimes providing additional context to what is depicted on screen.

In this episode of Primitive Culture, the first in a series looking at episode titles throughout Star Trek, host Duncan Barrett is joined by Tony Black to consider some of the more interesting among Trek’s original 80 installments as we ponder the difference between a cage and a menagerie, work out exactly who does mourn for Adonais, and try to remember just what little girls are supposed to be made of.

Chapters Intro (00:00:00) Season One (00:21:40) Season Two (01:00:25) Season Three (01:30:25) Host Duncan Barrett Guest Tony Black Production Tony Black (Editor) Duncan Barrett (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Tony Black (Associate Producer) Clara Cook (Associate Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Amy Nelson (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager)