Mythbusting

[scarfman]

When cult screen franchise geeks are parodied by the general media, as in for instance the classic Shatner "get a life" sketch on Saturday Night, we're portrayed identifying individual episodes by number ("What was the combination of your safe in episode twenty-three?"). But in real life (and in media authored by us) we use the actual episode titles, even (especially!) in cases like BVS or M*A*S*H when they don't appear onscreen and you must have consulted reference books or websites just to know what the titles are.

Except, of course, for Star Wars, where the episode numbers are the titles.

Comments

[angryricecooker.livejournal.com]

I always assumed this was a function of watching the shows on DVD, where they are refered to by title.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

As a veteran of 1970s Trek fandom, I can say unequivocally that this isn't the case. I never heard "episode numbers" until that SNL sketch, actually. I don't rember actually seeing a list of "episode numbers" or "production numbers" until the Inter-Tubes came around -- if memory serves, even Bjo Trimble's ground-breaking geek classic, The Star Trek Concordance, didn't really number the episodes.

Memory may not serve, however.

[angryricecooker.livejournal.com]

Now that I think of it, even as a relative newcomer with only a passing connection to Star Trek Fandom, I know the titles of a bunch of Star Trek episodes, even though I've never watched Star Trek on DVD.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

It's funny -- I tend to refer to the Star Wars prequels as "Episodes I, II, and III", but the original trilogy is always "Star Wars, Empire, Jedi".

Does anyone you know really refer to the original Star Wars as either "Episode IV" or "A New Hope"? In my crowd, it's always, "Star Wars. You know, the REAL one", or, occasionally, "You know, 'Episode IV'", with finger-quotes.

Heroes has the Chapter Number As Title thing, though I'm not sure it's been around long enough to garner serious fangeekishness. On the other claw, it's lasted longer than Firefly...

[dave-iii.livejournal.com]

In my experience, When Fangeeks Collide it's usually in a battle of knowledge. Whoever can show the best display of trivial retention wins. You can't prove you know something if the other doesn't have an adequate frame of reference to verify, and a lot of geek culture predates DVDs and even VCRs. "Episode #23" means next to nothing, especially when a lot of shows were shown out of production order and/or there WAS no set order (series-long story arcs have only become reasonably common in recent years), but "The Mystery Of The Locked Safe" can ONLY refer to "the episode with the safe".

"Laughing Alien Ghost": What show am I talking about?

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

_Scooby Doo_, and one of the original episodes, as well as one of the best. :-)

(Hey, I saw these first run.)

[dave-iii.livejournal.com]

Bingo! You get a Scooby Snack! ^_^

[(Anonymous)]

Another exception is Japanese animation (anime). The episodes of series-form anime may have individual titles, or they may not ; they are, however almost invariably numbered. Reference to individual episodes is therefore almost always by number, since (a) titles, when present, tend to be in Japanese, and often both complex and not very descriptive, thus producing confusion between original and translated versions of the title, and the inquiry "which one was that again?", and (b) the action in series is typically very sequential (with exceptions such as Kimagure Orange Road — I imagine almost everyone thinks of "the KOR New Year's episode" rather than "Episode 40" or First Dream of the New Year! Jingoro the Giant Monster Strikes Back!, translation and punctuation courtesy AnimEigo). Since the episode number usually appears on a title card at the beginning, it's easy to keep track of.

Thus, though I speak of The Naked Time or Wolf in the Fold, you'll find me referring to Tenchi Muyo "Episode 4" rather than Hoshi Furusato ni Mihoshi Furu, and Giant Robo "Episode 7" rather than Dai-dan'en ~ Chiriyukuwa, Utsukushiki Maboroshi no Yoru. The exceptions are principally related non-serial stories, things like the Crusher Joe or Urusei Yatsura OVAs, which (a) are not numbered at all, and (b) follow no natural sequence.

--publius--