Hello again!
I'm thinking about titles. I don't know if anyone else has noticed this or even cares, but STAR TREK re-uses titles. As a writer, this really bugs me.
Take FIRST CONTACT for instance. Instead of thinking up a new title, they re-used the title of a fourth-season episode called "First Contact."
I can't believe that one of the titles seriously considered for the next TREK flick was "The Enemy Within." That's just sheer laziness.
The problem is most prevalent in the novels, where you'll find the titles SAREK, REUNION, METAMORPHOSIS, CROSSOVER, and RULES OF ENGAGEMENT (also titles of television episodes). Can't these writers come up with their own titles?
Why are STAR TREK titles nowadays so boring? The original series and even the animated series had gripping, poetic titles like "The City on the Edge of Forever," "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky," and "Beyond the Farthest Star."
Taking a cue from BABYLON 5, which has wonderful episode titles, DEEP SPACE NINE has given us some great episode titles recently.
Titles are very important to stories because the title is the first thing you see.
Did everyone get a chance to see the X-FILES movie? While I was disappointed that we didn't exactly find out what happened to Mulder's sister (perhaps all that advance info was disinformation on Chris Carter's part, huh?), I enjoyed the film immensely.
The successful box-office opening of THE X-FILES: FIGHT THE FUTURE, along with the successful openings of DEEP IMPACT and THE TRUMAN SHOW proves that intelligent, character-driven science fiction films can be a big draw, moreso than special-effects movies like STARSHIP TROOPERS, INDEPENDENCE DAY, and GODZILLA.
There's nothing wrong with a good roller coaster ride but we science fiction fans need smarter fare.