Similar Star Trek episode titles

Oliver Brown

2023-04-23 — This upcoming video may not be available to view yet.

All articles in the series Star Trek episode titles:

With nearly 700 episodes, there were bound to be some that are similar to each other. But which are most similar? And what do we mean by similar?

Summary

Before I go into the more technical analysis, I shall begin with some headlines.

Not technically part of this analysis but there are two Star Trek movies that share a title with an episode (if you ignore the “Star Trek” part of the title):

Title	Series	Episode	Title
First Contact	TNG	4x15	Star Trek: First Contact
Nemesis	VOY	4x04	Star Trek Nemesis

There are three pairs of titles that differ by only one character. Two of them are just a final “s” as part of a plural:

Title	Series	Episode	Title	Series	Episode
The Survivor	TAS	1x06	The Survivors	TNG	3x03
Facets	DS9	3x25	Faces	VOY	1x14
Demon	VOY	4x24	Demons	ENT	4x20

There are three pairs of titles that differ only by a leading “the”:

Title	Series	Episode	Title	Series	Episode
The Eye of the Beholder	TAS	1x15	Eye of the Beholder	TNG	7x18
The Emissary	TNG	2x20	Emissary	DS9	1x01
The Muse	DS9	4x21	Muse	VOY	6x22

One of the more significant lines in Star Trek has both its variations appear as titles:

Title	Series	Episode	Title	Series	Episode
Where No Man Has Gone Before	TOS	1x01	Where No One Has Gone Before	TNG	1x06

There is also a TNG episode that is specifically a sequel of sorts to an earlier episode with a similar title:

Title	Series	Episode	Title	Series	Episode
The Naked Time	TOS	1x06	The Naked Now	TNG	1x03

A pair of episodes with weirdly similar titles, but in a way that isn’t easy to define:

Title	Series	Episode	Title	Series	Episode
Beyond the Farthest Star	TAS	1x01	Far Beyond the Stars	DS9	6x13

There is an interesting prefix that appears three times in TNG, and only in TNG:

Title	Series	Episode
A Matter of Honor	TNG	2x08
A Matter of Perspective	TNG	3x14
A Matter of Time	TNG	5x09

Four incidents worthy of naming:

Title	Series	Episode
The Terratin Incident	TAS	1x11
The Counter-Clock Incident	TAS	2x06
The Enterprise Incident	TOS	3x04
The Andorian Incident	ENT	1x07

Technical details

Below I present the top 10 pairs of similar episodes, with four different measures of similarity:

Levenshtein distance - Informally, the number of single character edits needed to change one title into another.
Prefix - The number of characters at the start of the titles that are in common (ignoring case).
Suffix - The number of characters at the end of the titles that are in common (ignoring case).
Contains - If one title is contained entirely within another (possibly at the start or end), then the length of the contained title (0 otherwise).

Additionally each one is presented with an absolute version, and another normalized to the length of the longest title.

Most similar titles

Levenshtein (absolute)

Title	Series	Episode	Distance	Title	Series	Episode
The Survivor	TAS	1x06	1	The Survivors	TNG	3x03
Facets	DS9	3x25	1	Faces	VOY	1x14
Demon	VOY	4x24	1	Demons	ENT	4x20
The Cage	TOS	0x01	2	The Game	TNG	5x06
The Cage	TOS	0x01	2	The Chase	TNG	6x20
Wink of an Eye	TOS	3x13	2	Blink of an Eye	VOY	6x12
The Loss	TNG	4x10	2	The Host	TNG	4x23
The Chase	TNG	6x20	2	The Chute	VOY	3x03
Masks	TNG	7x17	2	Oasis	ENT	1x20
Genesis	TNG	7x19	2	Nemesis	VOY	4x04

Levenshtein (normalized)

Title	Series	Episode	Similarity	Title	Series	Episode
The Survivor	TAS	1x06	92.3%	The Survivors	TNG	3x03
Where No Man Has Gone Before	TOS	1x01	89.3%	Where No One Has Gone Before	TNG	1x06
Wink of an Eye	TOS	3x13	86.7%	Blink of an Eye	VOY	6x12
Facets	DS9	3x25	83.3%	Faces	VOY	1x14
Demon	VOY	4x24	83.3%	Demons	ENT	4x20
The Eye of the Beholder	TAS	1x15	82.6%	Eye of the Beholder	TNG	7x18
Inquisition	DS9	6x18	81.8%	Acquisition	ENT	1x19
Profit and Loss	DS9	2x17	80.0%	Profit and Lace	DS9	6x23
The Cage	TOS	0x01	77.8%	The Chase	TNG	6x20
The Chase	TNG	6x20	77.8%	The Chute	VOY	3x03

Prefix (absolute)

Title	Series	Episode	Similarity	Title	Series	Episode
Who Mourns for Adonais?	TOS	1x04	15	Who Mourns for Morn?	DS9	6x12
The Alternative Factor	TOS	1x20	12	The Alternate	DS9	2x12
The Survivor	TAS	1x06	12	The Survivors	TNG	3x03
Once Upon a Planet	TAS	1x09	12	Once Upon a Time	VOY	5x05
A Matter of Honor	TNG	2x08	12	A Matter of Perspective	TNG	3x14
A Matter of Honor	TNG	2x08	12	A Matter of Time	TNG	5x09
A Matter of Perspective	TNG	3x14	12	A Matter of Time	TNG	5x09
Profit and Loss	DS9	2x17	12	Profit and Lace	DS9	6x23
Eye of the Beholder	TNG	7x18	11	Eye of the Needle	VOY	1x07
The Naked Time	TOS	1x06	10	The Naked Now	TNG	1x03

Prefix (normalized)

Title	Series	Episode	Similarity	Title	Series	Episode
The Survivor	TAS	1x06	92.3%	The Survivors	TNG	3x03
Demon	VOY	4x24	83.3%	Demons	ENT	4x20
Profit and Loss	DS9	2x17	80.0%	Profit and Lace	DS9	6x23
Remember Me	TNG	4x05	72.7%	Remember	VOY	3x06
The Naked Time	TOS	1x06	71.4%	The Naked Now	TNG	1x03
A Matter of Honor	TNG	2x08	70.6%	A Matter of Time	TNG	5x09
Starship Mine	TNG	6x18	69.2%	Starship Down	DS9	4x07
Once Upon a Planet	TAS	1x09	66.7%	Once Upon a Time	VOY	5x05
The Child	TNG	2x01	66.7%	The Chase	TNG	6x20
The Child	TNG	2x01	66.7%	The Chute	VOY	3x03

Suffix (absolute)

Title	Series	Episode	Similarity	Title	Series	Episode
The Eye of the Beholder	TAS	1x15	19	Eye of the Beholder	TNG	7x18
In the Hands of the Prophets	DS9	1x20	17	Tears of the Prophets	DS9	6x26
Where No Man Has Gone Before	TOS	1x01	16	Where No One Has Gone Before	TNG	1x06
Wink of an Eye	TOS	3x13	13	Blink of an Eye	VOY	6x12
Ship in a Bottle	TNG	6x12	12	Message in a Bottle	VOY	4x14
The Ensigns of Command	TNG	3x02	11	Chain of Command	TNG	6x10
Rules of Acquisition	DS9	2x07	11	Acquisition	ENT	1x19
The Terratin Incident	TAS	1x11	10	The Andorian Incident	ENT	1x07
Conspiracy	TNG	1x25	10	The Voyager Conspiracy	VOY	6x09
Once More Unto the Breach	DS9	7x07	10	The Breach	ENT	2x21

Suffix (normalized)

Title	Series	Episode	Similarity	Title	Series	Episode
Wink of an Eye	TOS	3x13	86.7%	Blink of an Eye	VOY	6x12
The Eye of the Beholder	TAS	1x15	82.6%	Eye of the Beholder	TNG	7x18
Inquisition	DS9	6x18	81.8%	Acquisition	ENT	1x19
Emergence	TNG	7x23	70.0%	Divergence	ENT	4x16
Code of Honor	TNG	1x04	69.2%	Day of Honor	VOY	4x03
Obsession	TOS	2x18	66.7%	Accession	DS9	4x17
Angel One	TNG	1x15	66.7%	Babel One	ENT	4x12
The Emissary	TNG	2x20	66.7%	Emissary	DS9	1x01
Friday’s Child	TOS	1x03	64.3%	Galaxy’s Child	TNG	4x16
Heart of Glory	TNG	1x20	64.3%	Blaze of Glory	DS9	5x23

Contains (absolute)

Title	Series	Episode	Similarity	Title	Series	Episode
The Eye of the Beholder	TAS	1x15	19	Eye of the Beholder	TNG	7x18
The Survivor	TAS	1x06	12	The Survivors	TNG	3x03
Rules of Acquisition	DS9	2x07	11	Acquisition	ENT	1x19
Conspiracy	TNG	1x25	10	The Voyager Conspiracy	VOY	6x09
Once More Unto the Breach	DS9	7x07	10	The Breach	ENT	2x21
The Enemy Within	TOS	1x04	9	The Enemy	TNG	3x07
And the Children Shall Lead	TOS	2x05	9	The Child	TNG	2x01
The Cloud Minders	TOS	3x19	9	The Cloud	VOY	1x06
The Enemy	TNG	3x07	9	Face of the Enemy	TNG	6x14
The Siege	DS9	2x03	9	The Siege of AR-558	DS9	7x08

Contains (normalized)

Title	Series	Episode	Similarity	Title	Series	Episode
The Survivor	TAS	1x06	92.3%	The Survivors	TNG	3x03
Demon	VOY	4x24	83.3%	Demons	ENT	4x20
The Eye of the Beholder	TAS	1x15	82.6%	Eye of the Beholder	TNG	7x18
Remember Me	TNG	4x05	72.7%	Remember	VOY	3x06
The Emissary	TNG	2x20	66.7%	Emissary	DS9	1x01
The Ship	DS9	5x02	66.7%	The Shipment	ENT	3x07
Paradise	DS9	2x14	61.5%	Paradise Lost	DS9	4x12
One	VOY	4x25	60.0%	Drone	VOY	5x02
The Enemy Within	TOS	1x04	56.2%	The Enemy	TNG	3x07
Shattered Mirror	DS9	4x20	56.2%	Shattered	VOY	7x11

Most similar titles without leading “the”