After investigating Star Trek episode titles with interesting characters, lets look at ones with interesting words.

Numbers

I already included this as a side note in the previous post, but many episodes have numbers as words, with each series having at least one.

Title	Series	Episode
The Galileo Seven	TOS	1x13
One of Our Planets Is Missing	TAS	1x03
Angel One	TNG	1x15
One Little Ship	DS9	6x14
One	VOY	4x25
Thirty Days	VOY	5x09
One Small Step	VOY	6x08
The Haunting of Deck Twelve	VOY	6x25
Friendship One	VOY	7x21
Shuttlepod One	ENT	1x16
Two Days and Two Nights	ENT	1x25
First Flight	ENT	2x24
Babel One	ENT	4x12

Ordinals

Title	Series	Episode
First Contact	TNG	4x15
The Nth Degree	TNG	4x19
The First Duty	TNG	5x19
Second Chances	TNG	6x24
Second Sight	DS9	2x09
Second Skin	DS9	3x05
The Seventh	ENT	2x07
First Flight	ENT	2x24

Non-English words

This is probably the collection that caused me the most difficulty in deciding what should be included.

I settled on:

• Actual words (no 11:59 or E²)
• Real word languages
• Not proper nouns (especially names of characters)

Considering all that, there are in fact only two non-English languages used in the titles of Star Trek episodes:

French

Title	Series	Episode
The Menagerie	TOS	1x15
Ménage à Troi	TNG	3x24
Vis à Vis	VOY	4x20

Latin

Title	Series	Episode
Sub Rosa	TNG	7x14
Dramatis Personae	DS9	1x18
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges	DS9	7x16
Non Sequitur	VOY	2x05
Terra Nova	ENT	1x06
Vox Sola	ENT	1x22
Terra Prime	ENT	4x21

Honorable mentions

One Klingon word, and one Vulcan word that is only probably a proper noun.

Title	Series	Episode
Looking for par’Mach in All the Wrong Places	DS9	5x03
Kir’Shara	ENT	4x09

Character names

Who has the privilege of being named in an episode title? Again, there are surprising edge cases so I’ve split it up into several groups.

• Q appears in the most titles.
• Two titles mention two characters: Datalore and Ménage à Troi (which I assumed, in the spirit of the episode, is a reference to both Deanna Troi and Lwaxana Troi).

Direct character references

Definite direct references to characters in Star Trek.

Title	Series	Episode	Character
Mudd’s Women	TOS	1x03	Harry Mudd
Charlie X	TOS	1x07	Charles Evans
Miri	TOS	1x11	Miri
I, Mudd	TOS	2x12	Harry Mudd
Elaan of Troyius	TOS	2x02	Elaan
Spock’s Brain	TOS	3x06	Spock
Plato’s Stepchildren	TOS	3x12	Plato
Mudd’s Passion	TAS	1x10	Harry Mudd
Bem	TAS	2x02	Bem
Hide and Q	TNG	1x11	Q
Elementary, Dear Data	TNG	2x03	Data
The Outrageous Okona	TNG	2x04	Thadiun Okona
Q Who?	TNG	2x16	Q
Deja Q	TNG	3x13	Q
Sarek	TNG	3x23	Sarek
Ménage à Troi	TNG	3x24	Deanna Troi
Ménage à Troi	TNG	3x24	Lwaxana Troi
Data’s Day	TNG	4x11	Data
Darmok	TNG	5x02	Darmok
Ensign Ro	TNG	5x03	Ro Laren
True Q	TNG	6x06	Q
A Fistful of Datas	TNG	6x08	Data
Aquiel	TNG	6x13	Aquiel Uhnari
Dax	DS9	1x08	Dax
Melora	DS9	2x06	Melora Pazlar
The House of Quark	DS9	3x03	Quark
Shakaar	DS9	3x24	Shakaar Edon
Our Man Bashir	DS9	4x10	Julian Bashir
Sons of Mogh	DS9	4x15	Mogh
Caretaker	VOY	1x01	The Caretaker
Jetrel	VOY	1x15	Ma’Bor Jetrel
Tuvix	VOY	2x24	Tuvix
The Q and the Grey	VOY	3x11	Q
One	VOY	4x25	One
Alice	VOY	6x05	Alice
Rajiin	ENT	3x04	Rajiin

Other characters

References to people, either fictional or real that were not actually characters in Star Trek.

Title	Series	Episode	Character
The Galileo Seven	TOS	1x13	Galileo Galilei
The Mark of Gideon	TOS	3x17	Gideon
Requiem for Methuselah	TOS	3x21	Methuselah
The Icarus Factor	TNG	2x14	Icarus
Daedalus	ENT	4x10	Daedalus

Indirect

Indirect references to characters that are awkward in some way.

Title	Series	Episode	Character
Datalore	TNG	1x14	Data
Datalore	TNG	1x14	Lore
Qpid	TNG	4x20	Q
Q-Less	DS9	1x07	Q
Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy	VOY	6x04	The Doctor

Accidental

Character names that are not intended to be references to Star Trek characters. Mainly The Doctor from Voyager, but also Q2 which was the script name for the member of the Q Continuum in the TNG episode Deja Q.

Title	Series	Episode	Character
We’ll Always Have Paris	TNG	1x24	Thomas Paris
Doctor Bashir, I Presume	DS9	5x16	The Doctor
Q2	VOY	7x19	Q2
Dear Doctor	ENT	1x13	The Doctor
Doctor’s Orders	ENT	3x16	The Doctor

One

There is one special character name that is clearly not intended to be a reference, but comes up a lot - One from Voyager.

Title	Series	Episode	Character
One of Our Planets Is Missing	TAS	1x03	One
Where No One Has Gone Before	TNG	1x06	One
Angel One	TNG	1x15	One
One Little Ship	DS9	6x14	One
One Small Step	VOY	6x08	One
Friendship One	VOY	7x21	One
Shuttlepod One	ENT	1x16	One
Babel One	ENT	4x12	One

Q

And finally, the letter Q appears a few times while clearly not being a reference to Q.

Title	Series	Episode	Character
The Squire of Gothos	TOS	1x18	Q
Requiem for Methuselah	TOS	3x21	Q
Time Squared	TNG	2x13	Q
Quality of Life	TNG	6x09	Q
Aquiel	TNG	6x13	Q
Rules of Acquisition	DS9	2x07	Q
The Maquis	DS9	2x19	Q
The House of Quark	DS9	3x03	Q
Equilibrium	DS9	3x04	Q
The Quickening	DS9	4x24	Q
Inquisition	DS9	6x18	Q
Non Sequitur	VOY	2x05	Q
Equinox	VOY	5x26	Q
Q2	VOY	7x19	Q
Acquisition	ENT	1x19	Q

Just the character

One bonus list considering all the above - titles that are just a character name.

Title	Series	Episode	Character
Miri	TOS	1x11	Miri
Bem	TAS	2x02	Bem
Sarek	TNG	3x23	Sarek
Darmok	TNG	5x02	Darmok
Aquiel	TNG	6x13	Aquiel
Dax	DS9	1x08	Dax
Melora	DS9	2x06	Melora Pazlar
Shakaar	DS9	3x24	Shakaar Edon
Caretaker	VOY	1x01	The Caretaker
Jetrel	VOY	1x15	Jetrel
Tuvix	VOY	2x24	Tuvix
One	VOY	4x25	One
Alice	VOY	6x05	Alice
Q2	VOY	7x19	Q
Rajiin	ENT	3x04	Rajiin
Daedalus	ENT	4x10	Daedalus

While doing other more systematic investigations of Star Trek episode titles, I made notes of interesting things I spotted.

Here are some collections of episode titles with interesting characters.

Q puns

Most episodes featuring Q had a pun in the title:

Title	Series	Episode
Hide and Q	TNG	1x11
Q Who?	TNG	2x16
Deja Q	TNG	3x13
Qpid	TNG	4x20
True Q	TNG	6x06
Q-Less	DS9	1x07
The Q and the Grey	VOY	3x11
Q2	VOY	7x19

See the ones that did not

Title	Series	Episode
Encounter at Farpoint	TNG	1x01
Tapestry	TNG	6x15
All Good Things…	TNG	7x25
Death Wish	VOY	2x18

Interestingly, Q has so far made a further appearance in Lower Decks and nine in Star Trek Picard, and none of them had puns in the title.

Digits

Title	Series	Episode
11001001	TNG	1x16
The Siege of AR-558	DS9	7x08
The 37’s	VOY	2x01
11:59	VOY	5x23
Q2	VOY	7x19
E²	ENT	4x05
Cold Station 12	ENT	3x21

See titles containing numbers as words

Numbers

Title	Series	Episode
The Galileo Seven	TOS	1x13
One of Our Planets Is Missing	TAS	1x03
Angel One	TNG	1x15
First Contact	TNG	4x15
The Nth Degree	TNG	4x19
The First Duty	TNG	5x19
Second Chances	TNG	6x24
Second Sight	DS9	2x09
Second Skin	DS9	3x05
One Little Ship	DS9	6x14
One	VOY	4x25
Thirty Days	VOY	5x09
One Small Step	VOY	6x08
The Haunting of Deck Twelve	VOY	6x25
Friendship One	VOY	7x21
Shuttlepod One	ENT	1x16
Two Days and Two Nights	ENT	1x25
The Seventh	ENT	2x07
First Flight	ENT	2x24
Babel One	ENT	4x12

Punctuation and other interesting characters

Containing '

There are so many titles with apostrophes I decided to break it down by use:

Possessive

Title	Series	Episode
Mudd’s Women	TOS	1x03
Friday’s Child	TOS	1x03
Spock’s Brain	TOS	3x06
Plato’s Stepchildren	TOS	3x12
Mudd’s Passion	TAS	1x10
How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth	TAS	2x05
Yesterday’s Enterprise	TNG	3x15
Captain’s Holiday	TNG	3x19
Data’s Day	TNG	4x11
Devil’s Due	TNG	4x13
Galaxy’s Child	TNG	4x16
The Mind’s Eye	TNG	4x24
Time’s Arrow	TNG	5x26
Journey’s End	TNG	7x20
In Purgatory’s Shadow	DS9	5x14
By Inferno’s Light	DS9	5x15
Time’s Orphan	DS9	6x24
The Emperor’s New Cloak	DS9	7x12
Future’s End	VOY	3x08
Dragon’s Teeth	VOY	6x07
Child’s Play	VOY	6x19
Doctor’s Orders	ENT	3x16

Part of an alien word

Title	Series	Episode
The Jem’Hadar	DS9	2x26
Looking for par’Mach in All the Wrong Places	DS9	5x03
Shadows of P’Jem	ENT	1x15
Kir’Shara	ENT	4x09

Contraction

Title	Series	Episode
We’ll Always Have Paris	TNG	1x24
It’s Only a Paper Moon	DS9	7x10

Clarifying a plural

Title	Series	Episode
The 37’s	VOY	2x01

See the full list in order

Title	Series	Episode
Mudd’s Women	TOS	1x03
Friday’s Child	TOS	1x03
Spock’s Brain	TOS	3x06
Plato’s Stepchildren	TOS	3x12
Mudd’s Passion	TAS	1x10
How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth	TAS	2x05
We’ll Always Have Paris	TNG	1x24
Yesterday’s Enterprise	TNG	3x15
Captain’s Holiday	TNG	3x19
Data’s Day	TNG	4x11
Devil’s Due	TNG	4x13
Galaxy’s Child	TNG	4x16
The Mind’s Eye	TNG	4x24
Time’s Arrow	TNG	5x26
Journey’s End	TNG	7x20
The Jem’Hadar	DS9	2x26
Looking for par’Mach in All the Wrong Places	DS9	5x03
In Purgatory’s Shadow	DS9	5x14
By Inferno’s Light	DS9	5x15
Time’s Orphan	DS9	6x24
It’s Only a Paper Moon	DS9	7x10
The Emperor’s New Cloak	DS9	7x12
The 37’s	VOY	2x01
Future’s End	VOY	3x08
Dragon’s Teeth	VOY	6x07
Child’s Play	VOY	6x19
Shadows of P’Jem	ENT	1x15
Doctor’s Orders	ENT	3x16
Kir’Shara	ENT	4x09

Containing -

Several episode titles contain a hyphen. One episode contains two. The producers and/or writers probably intended an em dash or similar but were likely limited to hyphens for technical reasons.

Title	Series	Episode
Operation -‌- Annihilate!	TOS	1x29
The Magicks of Megas-Tu	TAS	1x08
The Counter-Clock Incident	TAS	2x06
Q-Less	DS9	1x07
Trials and Tribble-ations	DS9	5x06
The Siege of AR-558	DS9	7x08
Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang	DS9	7x15

Containing ,

Several episode titles contain commas. One had the option to include two with an Oxford comma.

Title	Series	Episode
Mirror, Mirror	TOS	2x10
I, Mudd	TOS	2x12
More Tribbles, More Troubles	TAS	1x05
Elementary, Dear Data	TNG	2x03
I, Borg	TNG	5x23
Doctor Bashir, I Presume	DS9	5x16
Treachery, Faith and the Great River	DS9	7x06
Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang	DS9	7x15
Author, Author	VOY	7x20
In a Mirror, Darkly	ENT	4x18

Containing ?

Title	Series	Episode
What Are Little Girls Made Of?	TOS	1x09
Who Mourns for Adonais?	TOS	1x04
Is There in Truth No Beauty?	TOS	3x07
Q Who?	TNG	2x16
Who Watches the Watchers?	TNG	3x04
Who Mourns for Morn?	DS9	6x12

Containing …

Title	Series	Episode
All Good Things…	TNG	7x25
Let He Who Is Without Sin…	DS9	5x07
When It Rains…	DS9	7x21
These Are the Voyages…	ENT	4x22

Containing :

Title	Series	Episode
Assignment: Earth	TOS	2x26
Course: Oblivion	VOY	5x18
11:59	VOY	5x23

Containing !

Title	Series	Episode
Operation -‌- Annihilate!	TOS	1x29
Bride of Chaotica!	VOY	5x12

Containing à (and é)

There are a pair of episodes with accented characters (which have recently been joined by Võx from Picard).

Title	Series	Episode
Ménage à Troi	TNG	3x24
Vis à Vis	VOY	4x20

Containing ²

Title	Series	Episode
E²	ENT	3x21

Star Trek Picard season three has just completed. It was not perfect but was probably the best live action Star Trek since Enterprise.

In honor of this, here is a quick analysis of the episode titles.

I’m not including Picard in the main analysis for consistency for now. There is also a small chance there may be more episodes (or possibly something else #StarTrekLegacy).

Title length

Picard does not challenge for overall shortest or longest title.

Shortest

Title	Length	Episode
Võx	3 letters	3x09

Like other series, it has several single word titles:

Title	Length	Episode
Remembrance	11 letters	1x01
Nepenthe	8 letters	1x07
Penance	7 letters	2x02
Assimilation	12 letters	2x03
Watcher	7 letters	2x04
Monsters	8 letters	2x07
Mercy	5 letters	2x08
Farewell	8 letters	2x10
Disengage	9 letters	3x02
Imposters	9 letters	3x05
Dominion	8 letters	3x07
Surrender	9 letters	3x08
Võx	3 letters	3x09

Longest

Title	Length	Episode
The End is the Beginning	24 letters	1x03

Title	Length	Episode
The End is the Beginning	5 words	1x03
Fly me to the Moon	5 words	2x05

Single word titles

The overall single word title stats are very similar to Enterprise.

Series	Enterprise	Picard
Total	42	13
Percentage	44.68 %	44.83 %
Shortest	2	3
Longest	12	12
Average	7.79	8

See comparison with other series'

Series	TOS	TAS	TNG	DS9	VOY	ENT	PIC
Total	5	3	50	42	77	42	13
Percentage	6.33 %	13.64 %	29.76 %	24.71 %	48.13 %	44.68 %	44.83 %
Shortest	4	3	4	3	2	2	3
Longest	13	10	16	12	14	12	12
Average	7.6	7.33	7.92	8.1	7.81	7.79	8

When split by season there is a lot variation though. I expect this to be true of most Star Trek series after Enterprise - the seasons are generally shorter and the serial nature means there are more likely to be patterns within seasons that don’t hold between them.

Season	1	2	3
Total	2	6	5
Percentage	22.22 %	60.00 %	50.00 %
Shortest	8	5	3
Longest	11	12	9
Average	9.5	7.83	7.6

Ionic episodes

Two new “ion” titles (but no “ions”):

Title	Length	Episode
Assimilation	12 letters	2x03
Dominion	8 letters	3x07

Image copyright © Paramount Global and used under fair use.

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”

Levenshtein (absolute)

Title	Series	Episode	Distance	Title	Series	Episode
The Eye of the Beholder	TAS	1x15	0	Eye of the Beholder	TNG	7x18
The Emissary	TNG	2x20	0	Emissary	DS9	1x01
The Muse	DS9	4x21	0	Muse	VOY	6x22
The Survivor	TAS	1x06	1	The Survivors	TNG	3x03
Haven	TNG	1x05	1	The Raven	VOY	4x06
Facets	DS9	3x25	1	Faces	VOY	1x14
Demon	VOY	4x24	1	Demons	ENT	4x20
Night	VOY	5x01	1	The Fight	VOY	5x19
The Cage	TOS	0x01	2	The Game	TNG	5x06
The Cage	TOS	0x01	2	The Chase	TNG	6x20

Levenshtein (normalized)

Title	Series	Episode	Similarity	Title	Series	Episode
The Eye of the Beholder	TAS	1x15	100.0%	Eye of the Beholder	TNG	7x18
The Emissary	TNG	2x20	100.0%	Emissary	DS9	1x01
The Muse	DS9	4x21	100.0%	Muse	VOY	6x22
Where No Man Has Gone Before	TOS	1x01	89.3%	Where No One Has Gone Before	TNG	1x06
The Survivor	TAS	1x06	88.9%	The Survivors	TNG	3x03
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
Inquisition	DS9	6x18	81.8%	Acquisition	ENT	1x19
Haven	TNG	1x05	80.0%	The Raven	VOY	4x06

Prefix (absolute)

Title	Series	Episode	Similarity	Title	Series	Episode
The Eye of the Beholder	TAS	1x15	19	Eye of the Beholder	TNG	7x18
Who Mourns for Adonais?	TOS	1x04	15	Who Mourns for Morn?	DS9	6x12
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
The Eye of the Beholder	TAS	1x15	11	Eye of the Needle	VOY	1x07
Eye of the Beholder	TNG	7x18	11	Eye of the Needle	VOY	1x07
Return to Tomorrow	TOS	2x22	10	Return to Grace	DS9	4x14

Prefix (normalized)

Title	Series	Episode	Similarity	Title	Series	Episode
The Eye of the Beholder	TAS	1x15	100.0%	Eye of the Beholder	TNG	7x18
The Emissary	TNG	2x20	100.0%	Emissary	DS9	1x01
The Muse	DS9	4x21	100.0%	Muse	VOY	6x22
The Survivor	TAS	1x06	88.9%	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 Hunted	TNG	3x11	71.4%	Hunters	VOY	4x15
A Matter of Honor	TNG	2x08	70.6%	A Matter of Time	TNG	5x09
Starship Mine	TNG	6x18	69.2%	Starship Down	DS9	4x07

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
Friday’s Child	TOS	1x03	9	Galaxy’s Child	TNG	4x16

Suffix (normalized)

Title	Series	Episode	Similarity	Title	Series	Episode
The Eye of the Beholder	TAS	1x15	100.0%	Eye of the Beholder	TNG	7x18
The Emissary	TNG	2x20	100.0%	Emissary	DS9	1x01
The Muse	DS9	4x21	100.0%	Muse	VOY	6x22
Wink of an Eye	TOS	3x13	86.7%	Blink of an Eye	VOY	6x12
Inquisition	DS9	6x18	81.8%	Acquisition	ENT	1x19
Haven	TNG	1x05	80.0%	The Raven	VOY	4x06
Night	VOY	5x01	80.0%	The Fight	VOY	5x19
Descent	TNG	6x26	71.4%	The Ascent	DS9	5x09
Emergence	TNG	7x23	70.0%	Divergence	ENT	4x16
Code of Honor	TNG	1x04	69.2%	Day of Honor	VOY	4x03

Contains (absolute)

Title	Series	Episode	Similarity	Title	Series	Episode
The Eye of the Beholder	TAS	1x15	19	Eye of the Beholder	TNG	7x18
Rules of Acquisition	DS9	2x07	11	Acquisition	ENT	1x19
Assignment: Earth	TOS	2x26	10	The Assignment	DS9	5x05
Conspiracy	TNG	1x25	10	The Voyager Conspiracy	VOY	6x09
Shattered Mirror	DS9	4x20	9	Shattered	VOY	7x11
This Side of Paradise	TOS	1x25	8	Paradise	DS9	2x14
The Paradise Syndrome	TOS	2x03	8	Paradise	DS9	2x14
The Survivor	TAS	1x06	8	The Survivors	TNG	3x03
The Emissary	TNG	2x20	8	Emissary	DS9	1x01
Remember Me	TNG	4x05	8	Remember	VOY	3x06

Contains (normalized)

Title	Series	Episode	Similarity	Title	Series	Episode
The Eye of the Beholder	TAS	1x15	100.0%	Eye of the Beholder	TNG	7x18
The Emissary	TNG	2x20	100.0%	Emissary	DS9	1x01
The Muse	DS9	4x21	100.0%	Muse	VOY	6x22
The Survivor	TAS	1x06	88.9%	The Survivors	TNG	3x03
Demon	VOY	4x24	83.3%	Demons	ENT	4x20
Remember Me	TNG	4x05	72.7%	Remember	VOY	3x06
Paradise	DS9	2x14	61.5%	Paradise Lost	DS9	4x12
One	VOY	4x25	60.0%	Drone	VOY	5x02
Assignment: Earth	TOS	2x26	58.8%	The Assignment	DS9	5x05
The Game	TNG	5x06	57.1%	Endgame	VOY	7x25

My earlier post included a list of all single-word episode titles. That list is long enough that it could be analyzed in isolation and still produce some interesting results. Firstly, here is a summary:

Series	TOS	TAS	TNG	DS9	VOY	ENT
Total	5	3	49	42	77	42
Percentage	6.33 %	13.64 %	29.17 %	24.71 %	48.13 %	44.68 %
Shortest	4	3	4	3	2	2
Longest	13	10	16	12	14	12
Average	7.6	7.33	7.96	8.1	7.81	7.79

Single-word titles by Series

It seems the number of single-word episode titles started low and increased over time, peaking with Voyager (although Enterprise was very close behind by percentage of total episodes).

The Original Series

The original Star Trek is the only series to have a season with no single-word titles at all (and it has two if you follow the convention that the original pilot, “The Cage” is part of its own “Season 0”).

Many titles from the original series were intentionally unusual, in the hope it would generate interest from people browsing TV listings (as explained more by Bruce Bennett). This generally led to longer titles and is part of the reason there are so few with just one word.

Season	0	1	2	3
Total	0	4	1	0
Percentage	0.00 %	12.50 %	3.70 %	0.00 %
Shortest	-	4	9	-
Longest	-	13	9	-
Average	-	7.25	9	-

See all

Title	Length	Episode
Miri	4 letters	1x11
Arena	5 letters	1x19
Catspaw	7 letters	1x01
Metamorphosis	13 letters	1x02
Obsession	9 letters	2x18

The Animated Series

The animated series followed a similar naming style to the original, although in this case even the single world titles are pretty odd.

Season	1	2
Total	1	2
Percentage	6.25 %	33.33 %
Shortest	10	3
Longest	10	9
Average	10	6

See all

Title	Length	Episode
Yesteryear	10 letters	1x02
Bem	3 letters	2x02
Albatross	9 letters	2x04

The Next Generation

TNG was clearly a transition point in the history of Star Trek. It was obviously more modern and naturally led into the later series with most of the new production staff staying with Star Trek.

It was also still led by Gene Roddenberry early on, along with some of the original writers. This meant that although there were a plenty of long and unusual titles, the preference for simpler ones was becoming established.

Looking at the list of titles we can see TNG has the first that might stretch the definition of “single word”, and that maybe 11001001 is not even be a word. By my established definition though, it counts.

Season	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Total	7	2	4	7	6	10	13
Percentage	28.00 %	9.09 %	15.38 %	28.00 %	25.00 %	43.48 %	56.52 %
Shortest	5	7	5	4	6	6	5
Longest	10	9	16	10	11	10	11
Average	7.57	8	10	6.57	8.33	7.7	8.31

See all

Title	Length	Episode
Haven	5 letters	1x05
Justice	7 letters	1x09
Battle	6 letters	1x10
Datalore	8 letters	1x14
11001001	8 letters	1x16
Symbiosis	9 letters	1x22
Conspiracy	10 letters	1x25
Contagion	9 letters	2x11
Manhunt	7 letters	2x19
Evolution	9 letters	3x01
Allegiance	10 letters	3x18
Sarek	5 letters	3x23
Transfigurations	16 letters	3x25
Family	6 letters	4x02
Brothers	8 letters	4x03
Legacy	6 letters	4x06
Reunion	7 letters	4x07
Clues	5 letters	4x14
Qpid	4 letters	4x20
Redemption	10 letters	4x26
Darmok	6 letters	5x02
Disaster	8 letters	5x05
Unification	11 letters	5x07
Violations	10 letters	5x12
Conundrum	9 letters	5x14
Ethics	6 letters	5x16
Relics	6 letters	6x04
Schisms	7 letters	6x05
Rascals	7 letters	6x07
Aquiel	6 letters	6x13
Tapestry	8 letters	6x15
Birthright	10 letters	6x16
Lessons	7 letters	6x19
Suspicions	10 letters	6x22
Timescape	9 letters	6x25
Descent	7 letters	6x26
Liaisons	8 letters	7x02
Interface	9 letters	7x03
Gambit	6 letters	7x04
Phantasms	9 letters	7x06
Attached	8 letters	7x08
Inheritance	11 letters	7x10
Parallels	9 letters	7x11
Homeward	8 letters	7x13
Masks	5 letters	7x17
Genesis	7 letters	7x19
Firstborn	9 letters	7x21
Bloodlines	10 letters	7x22
Emergence	9 letters	7x23

Deep Space Nine

DS9 followed a similar pattern to TNG. Many single-word titles, but plenty of longer ones too.

It also has another title that is questionable as a single word (that is yet another Q pun) in Q-Less.

Season	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Total	9	9	9	5	1	4	5
Percentage	42.86 %	37.50 %	37.50 %	20.00 %	3.85 %	15.38 %	20.00 %
Shortest	3	6	6	8	7	5	7
Longest	11	11	11	12	7	12	10
Average	6.56	8.33	8.33	9.4	7	8.75	8.4

See all

Title	Length	Episode
Emissary	8 letters	1x01
Babel	5 letters	1x05
Q-Less	6 letters	1x07
Dax	3 letters	1x08
Vortex	6 letters	1x12
Storyteller	11 letters	1x14
Progress	8 letters	1x15
Forsaken	8 letters	1x17
Duet	4 letters	1x19
Cardassians	11 letters	2x05
Melora	6 letters	2x06
Sanctuary	9 letters	2x10
Rivals	6 letters	2x11
Whispers	8 letters	2x13
Paradise	8 letters	2x14
Shadowplay	10 letters	2x15
Crossover	9 letters	2x23
Tribunal	8 letters	2x25
Equilibrium	11 letters	3x04
Meridian	8 letters	3x08
Defiant	7 letters	3x09
Fascination	11 letters	3x10
Destiny	7 letters	3x15
Visionary	9 letters	3x17
Explorers	9 letters	3x22
Shakaar	7 letters	3x24
Facets	6 letters	3x25
Indiscretion	12 letters	4x05
Rejoined	8 letters	4x06
Homefront	9 letters	4x11
Crossfire	9 letters	4x13
Accession	9 letters	4x17
Rapture	7 letters	5x10
Resurrection	12 letters	6x08
Waltz	5 letters	6x11
Inquisition	11 letters	6x18
Valiant	7 letters	6x22
Afterimage	10 letters	7x03
Chrysalis	9 letters	7x05
Covenant	8 letters	7x09
Chimera	7 letters	7x14
Penumbra	8 letters	7x17

Voyager

By the time Voyager was written, the preference for single-word titles is well established, peaking in season 2 in which 20 out of 26 have only one word, and includes two separate runs of seven consecutive episodes with single-word titles.

There is another Q pun with Q2 and a bit of controversy with 11:59.

Season	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Total	7	20	10	8	11	9	12
Percentage	46.67 %	76.92 %	41.67 %	34.78 %	44.00 %	36.00 %	54.55 %
Shortest	5	4	4	3	5	4	2
Longest	10	14	9	13	12	10	12
Average	7.29	8.8	7.1	7.25	7.36	7.22	8.25

See all

Title	Length	Episode
Caretaker	9 letters	1x01
Parallax	8 letters	1x03
Phage	5 letters	1x05
Emanations	10 letters	1x09
Cathexis	8 letters	1x13
Faces	5 letters	1x14
Jetrel	6 letters	1x15
Initiations	11 letters	2x02
Projections	11 letters	2x03
Elogium	7 letters	2x04
Twisted	7 letters	2x06
Parturition	11 letters	2x07
Tattoo	6 letters	2x09
Maneuvers	9 letters	2x11
Resistance	10 letters	2x12
Prototype	9 letters	2x13
Alliances	9 letters	2x14
Threshold	9 letters	2x15
Meld	4 letters	2x16
Dreadnought	11 letters	2x17
Lifesigns	9 letters	2x19
Investigations	14 letters	2x20
Deadlock	8 letters	2x21
Innocence	9 letters	2x22
Tuvix	5 letters	2x24
Resolutions	11 letters	2x25
Basics	6 letters	2x26
Flashback	9 letters	3x02
Remember	8 letters	3x06
Warlord	7 letters	3x10
Macrocosm	9 letters	3x12
Coda	4 letters	3x15
Unity	5 letters	3x17
Darkling	8 letters	3x18
Rise	4 letters	3x19
Displaced	9 letters	3x24
Scorpion	8 letters	3x26
Nemesis	7 letters	4x04
Revulsion	9 letters	4x05
Hunters	7 letters	4x15
Prey	4 letters	4x16
Retrospect	10 letters	4x17
Unforgettable	13 letters	4x22
Demon	5 letters	4x24
One	3 letters	4x25
Night	5 letters	5x01
Drone	5 letters	5x02
Timeless	8 letters	5x06
Counterpoint	12 letters	5x10
Gravity	7 letters	5x13
Bliss	5 letters	5x14
Juggernaut	10 letters	5x21
11:59	5 letters	5x23
Relativity	10 letters	5x24
Warhead	7 letters	5x25
Equinox	7 letters	5x26
Alice	5 letters	6x05
Riddles	7 letters	6x06
Pathfinder	10 letters	6x10
Virtuoso	8 letters	6x13
Memorial	8 letters	6x14
Tsunkatse	9 letters	6x15
Collective	10 letters	6x16
Muse	4 letters	6x22
Fury	4 letters	6x23
Imperfection	12 letters	7x02
Drive	5 letters	7x03
Repression	10 letters	7x04
Nightingale	11 letters	7x08
Shattered	9 letters	7x11
Lineage	7 letters	7x12
Repentance	10 letters	7x13
Prophecy	8 letters	7x14
Workforce	9 letters	7x16
Q2	2 letters	7x19
Homestead	9 letters	7x23
Endgame	7 letters	7x25

Enterprise

Enterprise titles continue the trend set in Voyager, despite dipping slightly.

If you wanted to be picky you might question the single-word status of Kir’Shara since not only does it contain an apsotrophe, but also a capital letter in the middle.

Season	1	2	3	4
Total	7	11	13	11
Percentage	28.00 %	44.00 %	54.17 %	55.00 %
Shortest	5	4	2	4
Longest	12	12	10	10
Average	8.71	8	7.38	7.45

See all

Title	Length	Episode
Unexpected	10 letters	1x05
Civilization	12 letters	1x09
Fusion	6 letters	1x17
Acquisition	11 letters	1x19
Oasis	5 letters	1x20
Detained	8 letters	1x21
Shockwave	9 letters	1x26
Minefield	9 letters	2x03
Marauders	9 letters	2x06
Singularity	11 letters	2x09
Dawn	4 letters	2x13
Stigma	6 letters	2x14
Canamar	7 letters	2x17
Judgment	8 letters	2x19
Horizon	7 letters	2x20
Cogenitor	9 letters	2x22
Regeneration	12 letters	2x23
Bounty	6 letters	2x25
Anomaly	7 letters	3x02
Extinction	10 letters	3x03
Rajiin	6 letters	3x04
Impulse	7 letters	3x05
Exile	5 letters	3x06
Twilight	8 letters	3x08
Similitude	10 letters	3x10
Stratagem	9 letters	3x14
Harbinger	9 letters	3x15
Hatchery	8 letters	3x17
Damage	6 letters	3x19
E²	2 letters	3x21
Countdown	9 letters	3x23
Home	4 letters	4x03
Borderland	10 letters	4x04
Forge	5 letters	4x07
Awakening	9 letters	4x08
Kir’Shara	9 letters	4x09
Daedalus	8 letters	4x10
United	6 letters	4x13
Affliction	10 letters	4x15
Divergence	10 letters	4x16
Bound	5 letters	4x17
Demons	6 letters	4x20

What about “the”

My anlysis has so far treated a leading “the” as a word. Repeating this while ignoring “the” may produce interesting results, and at the very least will increase the count in Voyager season 2.

Ions

Finally, while browsing the list one interesting pattern stood out. There are 8 episode titles ending in “ions”, including the longest Transfigurations, and a further 22 ending in “ion”.

Sadly, there are none from the animated series.

See all "ions" episodes

Title	Length	Series	Episode
Transfigurations	16 letters	TNG	3x25
Violations	10 letters	TNG	5x12
Suspicions	10 letters	TNG	6x22
Emanations	10 letters	VOY	1x09
Initiations	11 letters	VOY	2x02
Projections	11 letters	VOY	2x03
Investigations	14 letters	VOY	2x20
Resolutions	11 letters	VOY	2x25

See all "ion" episodes

Title	Length	Series	Episode
Obsession	9 letters	TOS	2x18
Contagion	9 letters	TNG	2x11
Evolution	9 letters	TNG	3x01
Reunion	7 letters	TNG	4x07
Redemption	10 letters	TNG	4x26
Unification	11 letters	TNG	5x07
Fascination	11 letters	DS9	3x10
Indiscretion	12 letters	DS9	4x05
Accession	9 letters	DS9	4x17
Resurrection	12 letters	DS9	6x08
Inquisition	11 letters	DS9	6x18
Parturition	11 letters	VOY	2x07
Scorpion	8 letters	VOY	3x26
Revulsion	9 letters	VOY	4x05
Imperfection	12 letters	VOY	7x02
Repression	10 letters	VOY	7x04
Civilization	12 letters	ENT	1x09
Fusion	6 letters	ENT	1x17
Acquisition	11 letters	ENT	1x19
Regeneration	12 letters	ENT	2x23
Extinction	10 letters	ENT	3x03
Affliction	10 letters	ENT	4x15

Existing work

Firstly, after doing this much work, I have discovered someone already has done a similar investigation: How long is a Star Trek title? by Bruce Bennett, so check that out. One thing it does have that I don’t, is charts.

Improving workflow

The analysis so far has been done using a Google Docs spreadsheet. I then manually wrote the Markdown for the blog posts, which involved some tedious and error prone tables.

I was originally not going to include the giant list of every single-word episode title, since creating that table did not look like fun.

But… I also started working a little program to do more sophisticated processing, and realised I could also make the program generate the Markdown for me.

The program is a .NET 7 console application writen in C#, and writing it was probably quicker than the manipulation I had to do with the spreadsheet in the first place. It was definitely quicker than producing the Markdown tables in the first post manually.

The end result is I can generate tables of all sorts of random episode lists with different properties of varying levels of interest with very little effort.

After starting my previous post with this question but not answering it, I’ll get straight to the point. There is a tie for first place, with two episode titles that are two characters long:

Shortest episode titles

Title	Length	Series	Episode
Q2	2 letters	Voyager	7x19
E²	2 letters	Enterprise	3x21

The shortest title per series is:

Title	Length	Series	Episode
Miri	4 letters	The Original Series	1x11
Bem	3 letters	The Animated Series	2x02
Qpid	4 letters	The Next Generation	4x20
Dax	3 letters	Deep Space Nine	1x08
Q2	2 letters	Voyager	7x19
E²	2 letters	Enterprise	3x21

Every series has several single word episode titles.

See them all

Title	Length	Series	Episode
Miri	4 letters	TOS	1x11
Arena	5 letters	TOS	1x19
Catspaw	7 letters	TOS	1x01
Metamorphosis	13 letters	TOS	1x02
Obsession	9 letters	TOS	2x18
Yesteryear	10 letters	TAS	1x02
Bem	3 letters	TAS	2x02
Albatross	9 letters	TAS	2x04
Haven	5 letters	TNG	1x05
Justice	7 letters	TNG	1x09
Battle	6 letters	TNG	1x10
Datalore	8 letters	TNG	1x14
11001001	8 letters	TNG	1x16
Symbiosis	9 letters	TNG	1x22
Conspiracy	10 letters	TNG	1x25
Contagion	9 letters	TNG	2x11
Manhunt	7 letters	TNG	2x19
Evolution	9 letters	TNG	3x01
Allegiance	10 letters	TNG	3x18
Sarek	5 letters	TNG	3x23
Transfigurations	16 letters	TNG	3x25
Family	6 letters	TNG	4x02
Brothers	8 letters	TNG	4x03
Legacy	6 letters	TNG	4x06
Reunion	7 letters	TNG	4x07
Clues	5 letters	TNG	4x14
Qpid	4 letters	TNG	4x20
Redemption	10 letters	TNG	4x26
Darmok	6 letters	TNG	5x02
Disaster	8 letters	TNG	5x05
Unification	11 letters	TNG	5x07
Violations	10 letters	TNG	5x12
Conundrum	9 letters	TNG	5x14
Ethics	6 letters	TNG	5x16
Relics	6 letters	TNG	6x04
Schisms	7 letters	TNG	6x05
Rascals	7 letters	TNG	6x07
Aquiel	6 letters	TNG	6x13
Tapestry	8 letters	TNG	6x15
Birthright	10 letters	TNG	6x16
Lessons	7 letters	TNG	6x19
Suspicions	10 letters	TNG	6x22
Timescape	9 letters	TNG	6x25
Descent	7 letters	TNG	6x26
Liaisons	8 letters	TNG	7x02
Interface	9 letters	TNG	7x03
Gambit	6 letters	TNG	7x04
Phantasms	9 letters	TNG	7x06
Attached	8 letters	TNG	7x08
Inheritance	11 letters	TNG	7x10
Parallels	9 letters	TNG	7x11
Homeward	8 letters	TNG	7x13
Masks	5 letters	TNG	7x17
Genesis	7 letters	TNG	7x19
Firstborn	9 letters	TNG	7x21
Bloodlines	10 letters	TNG	7x22
Emergence	9 letters	TNG	7x23
Emissary	8 letters	DS9	1x01
Babel	5 letters	DS9	1x05
Q-Less	6 letters	DS9	1x07
Dax	3 letters	DS9	1x08
Vortex	6 letters	DS9	1x12
Storyteller	11 letters	DS9	1x14
Progress	8 letters	DS9	1x15
Forsaken	8 letters	DS9	1x17
Duet	4 letters	DS9	1x19
Cardassians	11 letters	DS9	2x05
Melora	6 letters	DS9	2x06
Sanctuary	9 letters	DS9	2x10
Rivals	6 letters	DS9	2x11
Whispers	8 letters	DS9	2x13
Paradise	8 letters	DS9	2x14
Shadowplay	10 letters	DS9	2x15
Crossover	9 letters	DS9	2x23
Tribunal	8 letters	DS9	2x25
Equilibrium	11 letters	DS9	3x04
Meridian	8 letters	DS9	3x08
Defiant	7 letters	DS9	3x09
Fascination	11 letters	DS9	3x10
Destiny	7 letters	DS9	3x15
Visionary	9 letters	DS9	3x17
Explorers	9 letters	DS9	3x22
Shakaar	7 letters	DS9	3x24
Facets	6 letters	DS9	3x25
Indiscretion	12 letters	DS9	4x05
Rejoined	8 letters	DS9	4x06
Homefront	9 letters	DS9	4x11
Crossfire	9 letters	DS9	4x13
Accession	9 letters	DS9	4x17
Rapture	7 letters	DS9	5x10
Resurrection	12 letters	DS9	6x08
Waltz	5 letters	DS9	6x11
Inquisition	11 letters	DS9	6x18
Valiant	7 letters	DS9	6x22
Afterimage	10 letters	DS9	7x03
Chrysalis	9 letters	DS9	7x05
Covenant	8 letters	DS9	7x09
Chimera	7 letters	DS9	7x14
Penumbra	8 letters	DS9	7x17
Caretaker	9 letters	VOY	1x01
Parallax	8 letters	VOY	1x03
Phage	5 letters	VOY	1x05
Emanations	10 letters	VOY	1x09
Cathexis	8 letters	VOY	1x13
Faces	5 letters	VOY	1x14
Jetrel	6 letters	VOY	1x15
Initiations	11 letters	VOY	2x02
Projections	11 letters	VOY	2x03
Elogium	7 letters	VOY	2x04
Twisted	7 letters	VOY	2x06
Parturition	11 letters	VOY	2x07
Tattoo	6 letters	VOY	2x09
Maneuvers	9 letters	VOY	2x11
Resistance	10 letters	VOY	2x12
Prototype	9 letters	VOY	2x13
Alliances	9 letters	VOY	2x14
Threshold	9 letters	VOY	2x15
Meld	4 letters	VOY	2x16
Dreadnought	11 letters	VOY	2x17
Lifesigns	9 letters	VOY	2x19
Investigations	14 letters	VOY	2x20
Deadlock	8 letters	VOY	2x21
Innocence	9 letters	VOY	2x22
Tuvix	5 letters	VOY	2x24
Resolutions	11 letters	VOY	2x25
Basics	6 letters	VOY	2x26
Flashback	9 letters	VOY	3x02
Remember	8 letters	VOY	3x06
Warlord	7 letters	VOY	3x10
Macrocosm	9 letters	VOY	3x12
Coda	4 letters	VOY	3x15
Unity	5 letters	VOY	3x17
Darkling	8 letters	VOY	3x18
Rise	4 letters	VOY	3x19
Displaced	9 letters	VOY	3x24
Scorpion	8 letters	VOY	3x26
Nemesis	7 letters	VOY	4x04
Revulsion	9 letters	VOY	4x05
Hunters	7 letters	VOY	4x15
Prey	4 letters	VOY	4x16
Retrospect	10 letters	VOY	4x17
Unforgettable	13 letters	VOY	4x22
Demon	5 letters	VOY	4x24
One	3 letters	VOY	4x25
Night	5 letters	VOY	5x01
Drone	5 letters	VOY	5x02
Timeless	8 letters	VOY	5x06
Counterpoint	12 letters	VOY	5x10
Gravity	7 letters	VOY	5x13
Bliss	5 letters	VOY	5x14
Juggernaut	10 letters	VOY	5x21
11:59	5 letters	VOY	5x23
Relativity	10 letters	VOY	5x24
Warhead	7 letters	VOY	5x25
Equinox	7 letters	VOY	5x26
Alice	5 letters	VOY	6x05
Riddles	7 letters	VOY	6x06
Pathfinder	10 letters	VOY	6x10
Virtuoso	8 letters	VOY	6x13
Memorial	8 letters	VOY	6x14
Tsunkatse	9 letters	VOY	6x15
Collective	10 letters	VOY	6x16
Muse	4 letters	VOY	6x22
Fury	4 letters	VOY	6x23
Imperfection	12 letters	VOY	7x02
Drive	5 letters	VOY	7x03
Repression	10 letters	VOY	7x04
Nightingale	11 letters	VOY	7x08
Shattered	9 letters	VOY	7x11
Lineage	7 letters	VOY	7x12
Repentance	10 letters	VOY	7x13
Prophecy	8 letters	VOY	7x14
Workforce	9 letters	VOY	7x16
Q2	2 letters	VOY	7x19
Homestead	9 letters	VOY	7x23
Endgame	7 letters	VOY	7x25
Unexpected	10 letters	ENT	1x05
Civilization	12 letters	ENT	1x09
Fusion	6 letters	ENT	1x17
Acquisition	11 letters	ENT	1x19
Oasis	5 letters	ENT	1x20
Detained	8 letters	ENT	1x21
Shockwave	9 letters	ENT	1x26
Minefield	9 letters	ENT	2x03
Marauders	9 letters	ENT	2x06
Singularity	11 letters	ENT	2x09
Dawn	4 letters	ENT	2x13
Stigma	6 letters	ENT	2x14
Canamar	7 letters	ENT	2x17
Judgment	8 letters	ENT	2x19
Horizon	7 letters	ENT	2x20
Cogenitor	9 letters	ENT	2x22
Regeneration	12 letters	ENT	2x23
Bounty	6 letters	ENT	2x25
Anomaly	7 letters	ENT	3x02
Extinction	10 letters	ENT	3x03
Rajiin	6 letters	ENT	3x04
Impulse	7 letters	ENT	3x05
Exile	5 letters	ENT	3x06
Twilight	8 letters	ENT	3x08
Similitude	10 letters	ENT	3x10
Stratagem	9 letters	ENT	3x14
Harbinger	9 letters	ENT	3x15
Hatchery	8 letters	ENT	3x17
Damage	6 letters	ENT	3x19
E²	2 letters	ENT	3x21
Countdown	9 letters	ENT	3x23
Home	4 letters	ENT	4x03
Borderland	10 letters	ENT	4x04
Forge	5 letters	ENT	4x07
Awakening	9 letters	ENT	4x08
Kir’Shara	9 letters	ENT	4x09
Daedalus	8 letters	ENT	4x10
United	6 letters	ENT	4x13
Affliction	10 letters	ENT	4x15
Divergence	10 letters	ENT	4x16
Bound	5 letters	ENT	4x17
Demons	6 letters	ENT	4x20

Longest episode titles

Unlike with the shortest episode title, I had a good idea what the longest one was. At least, I had two candidates, but without sitting down and counting, picking one would have been a guess. I can confirm they are the longest two, and I present them both since they are such outliers compared to the rest.

Title	Length	Series	Episode
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky	50 letters	The Original Series	3x10
Looking for par’Mach in All the Wrong Places	44 letters	Deep Space Nine	5x03

And the longest per series:

Title	Length	Series	Episode
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky	50 letters	The Original Series	3x10
How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth	34 letters	The Animated Series	2x05
Where No One Has Gone Before	28 letters	The Next Generation	1x06
Looking for par’Mach in All the Wrong Places	44 letters	Deep Space Nine	5x03
The Haunting of Deck Twelve	27 letters	Voyager	6x25
Two Days and Two Nights	23 letters	Enterprise	1x25

This brings us our first controversial result. I decided that ellipses should be treated as a single letter (if only for a sense of typographical superiority). In this case, treating it as three letters would produce a different result:

Title	Length	Series	Episode
These Are the Voyages…	24 letters	Enterprise	4x22

The titles so far have been longest by letter-count. Longest by word-count can also be determined. This gives identical results, except Voyager and the Animated Series now have ties:

Title	Length	Series	Episode
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky	11 words	The Original Series	3x10
One of Our Planets is Missing	6 words	The Animated Series	1x03
How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth	6 words	The Animated Series	2x05
Where No One Has Gone Before	6 words	The Next Generation	1x06
Looking for par’Mach in All the Wrong Places	8 words	Deep Space Nine	5x03
The Q and the Grey	5 words	Voyager	3x11
Someone to Watch Over Me	5 words	Voyager	6x25
The Haunting of Deck Twelve	5 words	Voyager	5x22
Two Days and Two Nights	5 words	Enterprise	1x25

I recently found myself idly wondering what the shortest Star Trek episode title was. The first to come to mind was the Original Series episode “Arena” (the one which Captain Kirk fights a humanoid lizard in one of the most striking examples of 1960 “makeup”).

I guessed there were probably shorter ones, but was rather disappointed I didn’t know the answer for sure. So I decided to find out.

While investigating, I also started wondering other things, like: what is the longest episode title? Which series has the shortest or longest titles on average? How many episodes begin with “the”?

I have decided to gather the answers to these questions and more together into a series of blog posts.

Some ground rules

I quickly realised even for “shortest episode title” there were some decisions I would have to make about what would count.

What counts as a letter?

Any character is a letter. So including (but not necessarily limited to):

• The letters A-Z (regardless of case or accents).
• The digits 0-9.
• Any punctuation symbol.
• A space.
• An ellipsis (so three dots … is a single character).

What counts as a word?

Spaces separate words, nothing else does. 37's is one word, as is 11001001.

Which series/episodes are included?

I decided to include all episodes from The Original Series (including “The Cage”), The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise. This is for the simple practical reason that no more episodes are being produced for these (with the recent annocunement that season 5 of Discovery will be its last, I may redo this including Discovery in the near future).

What about two-part episodes?

For two part episodes (that don’t have completely different titles), I’m just using the “base name”.

About those two-part episodes

The first two-part episode of Star Trek was called “The Menagerie”. In the episode title sequence it is styled as "THE MENAGERIE" PART I and "THE MENAGERIE" PART II, with the part information clearly outside the quotation marks used to identify the title. This suggests the title is in fact “The Menagerie”.

“The Menagerie” (as far as I am aware) was never produced as a single feature length episode. Many other two-part episodes were either broadcast originally as a single episode, or later made available as one (often with additional footage included). This means an episode could potentially have three different names (one for each part individually and one for the whole) and using the “base name” seems most sensible in this case.

It should also be noted, there is little consistency in how the two-part episode titles are handled. Some of them give the first part the “base name” and add “Part II” after whereas others include the part information in both titles. Whether the part information is inside the quotes varies, and even whether the word “part” is included.

So overall, I feel justified in in using the “base name”, just as a way of establishing some kind of order. Although I can already tell I’m going to have to write a detailed blog post covering all of this (especially if I get to including Discovery, since that messes everything up by having an episode titled as if it is the third part of a three-part episode, the first two parts of which are from another series).

Image copyright © Paramount Global and used under fair use.