• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Just rewatched the SNL skit "Get A Life!": what are the episode numbers supposed to be? And does this question make me a nerd parodied in the skit?

Skipper

Skipper

Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
I just re-watched the very famous "Get A Life" skit and one thing I noticed is how TOS episodes are referred to in dialogue: , "Errand of Mercy" is episode 51, "This side of paradise" as episode 25 and "The Enemy Within." is episode 37.

What are these numbers supposed to represent? The production number? The airdate number? Some secret code known only to Trekkies? And back then, how would an episode actually be referred to, just by its title? And in fanzines and such?
 
The skit writers probably just made the up the numbers.

That's the one thing that sketch got wrong, btw. In my experience, most fans refer to the episodes by title, not number. But I guess the number thing played into the joke about Trekkies being obsessed with minutiae.
 
I think it's become more common for fans to use the season and episode number on-line in recent years, apparently ones who watched a show on streaming where the episodes are presented in a nice ordered list.

It frustrates me. "What did this line mean in S02E14?" How should I know? They have titles that give you a clue about which one is which! Sometimes they're even on the screen!

Maybe my theory is wrong, and it's because new fans think it's a shibboleth/proper practice to use the number because of stuff like the "Get a Life!" sketch. Goes to show you, you wait long enough, anything you get wrong will become right as reality changes around us.
 
Greg Cox said:
The skit writers probably just made the up the numbers.

That's the one thing that sketch got wrong, btw. In my experience, most fans refer to the episodes by title, not number. But I guess the number thing played into the joke about Trekkies being obsessed with minutiae.
Click to expand...

Not only that, but I suspect that mentioning the episode titles by name would have invited some sort of copyright infringement claim. Perhaps not one with basis, mind you, but one that NBC would have preferred to avoid.
 
Greg Cox said:
That's the one thing that sketch got wrong, btw. In my experience, most fans refer to the episodes by title, not number. But I guess the number thing played into the joke about Trekkies being obsessed with minutiae.
Click to expand...

Galaxy Quest also screwed this up, though it's forgivable there because they needed to set up Jason starting the fake fight with Alexander by communicating in code.
 
Phaser Two said:
Not only that, but I suspect that mentioning the episode titles by name would have invited some sort of copyright infringement claim. Perhaps not one with basis, mind you, but one that NBC would have preferred to avoid.
Click to expand...

Nah. I think it's just that the "Trekkies" in the sketch seem more anal-retentive (and Shatner can seem more baffled) if they're shown rattling off the episodes by number.

Mentioning works by their titles has never been legally risky.

By coincidence, I was just advising a young novelist the other day that, while she could certainly mention song titles in her book, she should avoid quoting the actual lyrics:

"It's one thing to write that your characters are singing along to 'American Pie' when it comes on the radio; it's another thing to actually to include the lyrics in the text."

In general, titles alone cannot be copyrighted, which is why you can have multiple books, movies, and even tv episodes using the same title.
 
Last edited:
Greg Cox said:
Nah. I think it's just that the "Trekkies" in the sketch seem more anal-retentive (and Shatner can seem more baffled) if they're shown rattling off the episodes by number.

Mentioning works by their titles has never been legally risky.

By coincidence, I was just advising a young novelist the other day that, while she could certainly mention song titles in her book, she should avoid quoting the actual lyrics:

"It's one thing to write that your characters are singing along to 'American Pie' when it comes on the radio; it's another thing to actually to include the lyrics in the text."

In general, titles alone cannot be copyrighted, which is why you can have multiple books, movies, and even tv episodes using the same title.
Click to expand...

You're right; I should have been speaking about trademark, not copyright. If it's clear that the use of the episode title is "misleading the public" about its origin, then there's usually some legal confusion about it, and it's why you don't see specific ep titles mentioned too often, particularly on other TV shows. You're absolutely right that book titles don't have the same issues.
 
Phaser Two said:
You're right; I should have been speaking about trademark, not copyright. If it's clear that the use of the episode title is "misleading the public" about its origin, then there's usually some legal confusion about it, and it's why you don't see specific ep titles mentioned too often, particularly on other TV shows. You're absolutely right that book titles don't have the same issues.
Click to expand...

I recently realized that I'd used the same title, "Endangered Species," on two different stories, written and published twenty-five years apart.

Once for a BATMAN story, then later for a PLANET OF THE APES story. :)
 
I seem to remember, when I was a kid in the 1980s and 90s, people would refer to the "original 79 episodes" of TOS, not "the three seasons" of TOS. The reason I remember it is that in every retrospective they would ever do about Star Trek, the piece would always mention how significant reaching 79 episodes was for getting the show into syndication.

I feel like the "season #-episode#" categorizing for television didn't really become prevalent across media until the internet and they started selling the DVDs sets which were divided by season. Also, once people started talking about media online in reviews and forums, just using either episode title or episode# sometimes isn't descriptive enough. If you say something happened in episode 50, well is that season 2 or 3? If you want to discuss "Balance of Terror," just using the episode title is fine for just discussing that episode. But if it's a discussion about season 1 as a whole, the casual fan who doesn't know you're referring to a season 1 episode might not know how it fits into any theme you want to claim that's prevalent across the season's episodes.
 
By they way if anyone wants to watch the skit...
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
Phaser Two said:
Oh! As Emily Litella, also of that SNL era, would say, "never mind!" :) I am sort of surprised they used the episode titles. Maybe they weren't worried about it because it was the same network.
Click to expand...
Nah NBC didn't own the show, the network didn't matter.

There's really no harm in mention the title of an episode, titles are reused commonly. "The Enemy Within" has been used in TV and movies pretty often, so this is a non-consideration. If they can say "Star Trek" - which is a copyrighted name of an IP - then episode titles are fair game.
 
Citiprime said:
I seem to remember, when I was a kid in the 1980s and 90s, people would refer to the "original 79 episodes" of TOS, not "the three seasons" of TOS. The reason I remember it is that in every retrospective they would ever do about Star Trek, the piece would always mention how significant reaching 79 episodes was for getting the show into syndication.

I feel like the "season #-episode#" categorizing for television didn't really become prevalent across media until the internet and they started selling the DVDs sets which were divided by season. Also, once people started talking about media online in reviews and forums, just using either episode title or episode# sometimes isn't descriptive enough. If you say something happened in episode 50, well is that season 2 or 3? If you want to discuss "Balance of Terror," just using the episode title is fine for just discussing that episode. But if it's a discussion about season 1 as a whole, the casual fan who doesn't know you're referring to a season 1 episode might not know how it fits into any theme you want to claim that's prevalent across the season's episodes.
Click to expand...
It is usually said that TOS's great success came with the reruns in syndication. And there I actually think there was no concept of "season". I read that some stations aired one episode a day, mixing episodes from all the seasons!
 
William Shatner’s Notorious ‘SNL’ Skit Disappointed ‘Star Trek’ Creator Gene Roddenberry’s Family
www.hollywoodreporter.com

William Shatner’s Notorious ‘SNL’ Skit Disappointed ‘Star Trek’ Creator Gene Roddenberry’s Family

It's been nearly 35 years since the James T. Kirk actor told fans to "get a life" in a segment mocking Trekkies.
www.hollywoodreporter.com www.hollywoodreporter.com

trekmovie.com

William Shatner Defends 1986 “Get A Life” SNL Skit After Criticism From Rod Roddenberry

35 years later, and people are still talking about this sketch.
trekmovie.com trekmovie.com
 
Cap'n Claus said:
Nah NBC didn't own the show, the network didn't matter.

There's really no harm in mention the title of an episode, titles are reused commonly. "The Enemy Within" has been used in TV and movies pretty often, so this is a non-consideration. If they can say "Star Trek" - which is a copyrighted name of an IP - then episode titles are fair game.
Click to expand...

It's just about exposure to legal risk; I'm still surprised that the skit used the actual titles. I suspect that having aired the originals, NBC thought it was fine. Also, society, even corporate society, was a bit less litigious back then - although Roddenberry was something of a legal aficionado (e.g., writing the ridiculous lyrics to the main theme). There's a distinction, too, between reusing titles and referring to a specific installment of a piece of IP by its name. In fact, as Greg pointed out above, the former can actually be more problematic.
 
Tosk said:
Even if there was some weird rule against name-checking an episode it wouldn't matter anyway as SNL is parody or satire, they use real world trademarks all the time including names, logos, uniforms, slogans, etc.
Click to expand...

Enh, it's not really quite that simple. Real-world military uniforms, for example, are almost always altered in movies and TV to be inaccurate in some respect.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top