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===''Deep Space Nine''=== |
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| − | The title is taken from ''The Tempest'', Act II, Scene I. It actually goes "''What’s past is prologue.''" |
+ | The title is taken from ''The Tempest'', Act II, Scene I. It actually goes "''What’s past is prologue.''" As prologue is something that comes before the body, the intention is that the past (specifically that of [[Kira Nerys]]) is the prologue for the series, as this was only its second episode. |
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Revision as of 23:38, 9 April 2006
The three witches on Pyris VII
In the classic Star Trek episode "Catspaw", the crew of the USS Enterprise beams down to the surface of the planet Pyris VII. Once on the ground, they investigate and are confronted by three witches who chant:
- "Winds shall rise
and fog descend
So leave here all
or meet your end."
At this point, the logical Commander Spock (Leonard Nimoy) replies, "Very bad poetry, Captain." Thus, we have not only a reference to William Shakespeare's Macbeth, but also a rather wry comment on the immortal bard's rhyming ability.
William Shakespeare and the Star Trek franchise have always been linked together in an almost symbiotic bond. Characters in the series quote the bard, episodes are titled after his works, and stories are adapted to fit the outer space locales. Captain Jean-Luc Picard (played by the noted Shakespearean actor Patrick Stewart) has a worn copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare handy. Alien species such as the Klingons quote Hamlet in both English and Klingon. If Shakespeare is the foundation for modern theatre, it is only fitting that he becomes the basis for drama in the future.
Effect on the Franchise
With all the gratuitous use of Shakespeare language and imagery in the series (including its four spin-offs, a successful franchise of feature films and a short-lived animated series), is there an underlying reason to the use of the Bard's works? Does the combination of classic literature and pop-culture sci-fi result in something greater than the sum of its parts? According to Stephen M. Buhler, the use of Shakespeare in the Star Trek universe, specifically the film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, serves to define which characters are the villains. (Buhler 18) In general, he says the contemporary popular film use of characters who have the ability to quote Shakespeare is used as a device to establish moral ambiguity and to symbolize personal viciousness. (Buhler 18) Here he relies on the many quotes of the villain of the film, General Chang (Christopher Plummer) and the chameleon shapeshifter Marta (supermodel Iman). (Buhler 22)
However, not every Shakespeare-spewing character is evil and Mary Buhl Dutta argues that, instead, the use of Shakespeare in the original Star Trek series served as endorsement for the male-centric, Americanized ideal of a typical Shakespeare hero.. (Dutta 38) Within the progress of the series, the lead character of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) "becomes" Macbeth, Hamlet, Ferdinand, and Petruchio. Always the hero, he has the ability to defeat the villain, even when his Shakespearean counterpart could not. For example, Dutta points out that in the episode "Catspaw", Kirk is essentially Macbeth (Dutta 40), yet here he has the ability to resist the evil pressure of the Lady Macbeth figure of Sylvia, unlike the original Macbeth.
Marc Houlahan furthers this theory by arguing that the use of Shakespeare in Star Trek is not only an endorsement but rather a continuation of America's attempts to Americanize Shakespeare. (Houlahan 29) As the financing of BBC's official versions of Shakespeare, by four major American corporations (Time-Life, Exxon, Metropolitan Life Insurance and the Morgan Guarantee Trust Company) and the creation of the Folger's Shakespeare Library (located between the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress in Washington DC) serve to show America's attempt to claim Shakespeare as their own, so does Star Trek's use of the Bard's materials. (Houlahan 29) Thus he uses again the film Star Trek VI to illustrate the assumption the Captain Kirk and the system of government that he works for, the United Federation of Planets, is a representation of the United States of America. Thus, Kirk's use of Shakespeare, as well as General Chang's serve as an attempt to mainstream Shakespeare for a primarily American audience. (Houlahan 30)
Going in a totally different direction, Emily Hegarty argues that the use of Shakespeare in Star Trek: The Next Generation serves as a symbol of high culture. (Hegarty 55) She writes, "It [the series] uses Shakespearean allusion to underwrite repressive and elitist ideological gestures within its populist format." (Hegarty 55) She uses the example of a Next Generation episode "The Perfect Mate", in which Captain Picard uses Shakespeare sonnets to express desire, confirming the ideology that Shakespeare is the quintessential symbol of love poetry in our culture. (Hegarty 56)
With all the use of Shakespeare in Star Trek, one might would think that the symbolism would be lost and eventually become stale and, in fact, it arguably has. Fewer references to Shakespeare are found in the last three series spin-offs, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise. However, within the framework of the original series, The Next Generation and the (at least early) films, Shakespeare has become an integral part of the universe that the show inhabits. It uses Shakespeare as a springboard to discuss new ideas and to maintain a connection with the future and the past.
Specific References in Star Trek
The Original Series
The Karidian Company of Players perform Hamlet
The title is a reference to Macbeth, Act II, Scene i.
The title is a reference to Hamlet, Act II, Scene ii. There is more in this episode as the main plot concerns a traveling troupe of Shakespearean actors.
- "the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king."
The title comes from Macbeth, Act V, Scene v. It refers to the inhabitants of Serpeidon, who intended to escape from the future by living in the past.
The title is an adaptation from Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene ii. Kirk makes additional reference while talking with a woman as he holds out a rose-like flower and says, "As the Earth poet Shakespeare wrote, 'That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.'" It is actually a commonly found corruption of "What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other word would smell as sweet."
Marta partially quotes Sonnet 18 to Garth of Izar and claims authorship. Garth is not fooled by Marta's attempt. Marta drops a beat and uses a modern translation of a line, "and summer's lease hath all too soon" instead of the original, "too short a date." Though her interpretation is correct, the missing beat causes the iambic pentameter of the sonnet to break. This disruption may be a reflection on her chaotic personality.
- Sonnet 18.1-4
Here the plot is lifted straight from The Taming of the Shrew with Kirk playing the part of Petruchio.
- "Catspaw"
The plot of this episode borrows parts of Macbeth.
The Animated Series
The title is taken from a passage in King Lear, Act I scene IV: "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is / To have a thankless child!"
The Next Generation
A brief 2 Henry VI quotation by Picard: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" (IV.ii.74).
The android Data recreates Shylock's court monologue from Merchant of Venice, asking, "When you prick me do I not ... leak?"
- "Hide and Q"
Q mistakenly quotes As You Like It, saying "All the galaxy is a stage." Picard calls him on it. Later Picard quotes Hamlet: "What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god!" (II.ii.304-308).
As the episode opens, Data is performing a scene from Henry V in the holodeck, with Data playing the character of "Henry". Patrick Stewart insisted that he should appear in this scene as one of the holographic Shakespearean characters. He plays "Williams" (the one with the wooden staff).
- "Sins of the Father"
The title is taken from Merchant of Venice.
Picard recites a string of quotes from a Shakespeare’s sonnets and Othello as part of his façade.
- Sonnet 147.1-2
- Sonnet 141.1-4
- Sonnet 18.1-2
- Othello. V.ii.13–16.
- It is interesting to note that Shakespeare's sonnets as a collective represent a ménage à trois that Shakespeare was believed to have been apart of (the young man, the dark lady, and the rival poet). Whether or not this information about the sonnets inspired the title of the episode, "Ménage à Troi," is unknown.
The title is taken from Hamlet (I.v.112).
Trapped in the past (San Francisco in the 1880s), Captain Picard explains their seemingly odd behavior by explaining that they are practicing a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. They later rehearse Act II Scene i with Riker as Oberon, Data as Puck and Dr. Crusher as the First Fairy.
The title is take from Polonius' advice in Hamlet, Scene I, Act III: "This above all: to thine own self be true, / And it must follow, as the night the day, / Thou canst not then be false to any man."
Data as Prospero
The episode opens with Data performing the final scene in the The Tempest as Prospero. Also, much of the plot is taken from The Tempest as well as character names. (An interesting note is that this is one of the series' final episodes and the use of the play is seen as an homage, since it is widely believed that The Tempest is Shakespeare's own farewell to the theater.)
Deep Space Nine
The title is taken from The Tempest, Act II, Scene I. It actually goes "What’s past is prologue." As prologue is something that comes before the body, the intention is that the past (specifically that of Kira Nerys) is the prologue for the series, as this was only its second episode.
The title is taken from Twelfth Night.
The title is taken from Henry V, Act III, Scene I. "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more." (The title is also spelt "Once More Into the Breach" in re-run listings.)
The title is taken from Julius Caesar. The quote is "...and Caesar’s ghost, roaming about in search of revenge, with hate at his side still hot from hell, will in these boundaries with a ruler’s voice cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war, so that this terrible action will smell above the earth, with rotting corpses, begging to be buried."
The title is from Julius Caesar's The Gallic Wars.
Tain: "How could this happen?"
Garak: "The fault, dear Tain, is not in our stars but in ourselves. Something I learned from Dr. Bashir."
(Paraphrased from Julius Caesar I.ii)
Voyager
The title is taken from Hamlet, Act III, Scene I. "To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub; / For in that sleep of death what dreams may come / When we have shuffled off this mortal coil..."
Feature Films
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
The only Shakespeare reference here is Dr. McCoy, who again quotes Hamlet: "Angels and ministers of grace, defend us!" (I.iv.3).
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Firstly, the title is from Hamlet, Act III, Scene I: "But that the dread of something after death, / The undiscovered country from whose bourn / No traveller returns....".
One character, General Chang (Christopher Plummer), constantly quotes Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet (II.ii.184), 2 Henry IV (III.ii.212), Richard II (III.ii.155-56), Henry V (III.i..1; III.i.32), Julius Caesar (III.ii.168; III.i.60; III.i.274), The Tempest (III.i..148), Merchant of Venice (III.i.56-63), and Hamlet (V.ii.10-11; I.iii.78; V.i..163; III.i.58-60; III.i.57).
The character of Martia (Iman), a shapeshifter, quotes from Hamlet when she says, "I thought I would assume a pleasing shape" (II.ii.612).
Shakespeare in Klingon
The Klingon Hamlet
In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Chancellor Gorkon says, ""You have never experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon." This attempt at humor inspired the Klingon Language Institute, a fan group dedicated to the Klingon language, to initiate the Klingon Shakespeare Restoration Project, in which several members attempted to translate works by William Shakespeare into Klingon.
These efforts resulted in The Klingon Hamlet, which was completed by Nick Nicholas and Andrew Strader and published in a hardback limited edition by Pocket Books. The full title is The Tragedy of Khamlet, Son of the Emperor of Qo'nos. Two excerpts are presented here with permission.
Sonnet #18
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
qaDelmeH bov tuj pem vIlo'choHQo'. SoH 'IH 'ej belmoH law', 'oH belmoH puS. jar vagh tIpuq DIHo'bogh Sang SuS ro'. 'ej ratlhtaHmeH bov tuj leSpoH luvuS. rut tujqu' bochtaHvIS chal mIn Dun qu'. rut DotlhDaj SuD wov HurghmoHmeH, HuvHa'. 'ej reH Hoch 'IHvo' Sab Hoch 'IH, net tu'. 'u' He choHmo', San jochmo' joq quvHa'. 'ach not wovHa'choH jubbogh bovlIj tuj, 'ej not ghomHa'choH Hochvetlh 'IH Daghajbogh, 'ej "QIbwIjDaq bIleng" not mIy Hegh nuj, bovmey DaDontaHvIS, DojwI' nIHajbogh! tlhuHlaH 'ej legh, wej 'e' lumevchugh nuv, vaj yIntaH bomvam, 'ej DuyInmoH quv.
- Translated by Nick Nicholas, KLI, 1994.
"To be, or not to be..."
Khamlet: taH pagh taHbe'. DaH mu'tlheghvam vIqelnIS. quv'a', yabDaq San vaQ cha, pu' je SIQDI'? pagh, Seng bIQ'a'Hey SuvmeH nuHmey SuqDI', 'ej, Suvmo', rInmoHDI'? Hegh. Qong --- Qong neH --- 'ej QongDI', tIq 'oy', wa'SanID Daw''e' je cho'nISbogh porghDaj rInmoHlaH net Har.
- Translated by Nick Nicholas & Andrew Strader, KLI, 1995.
Bibliography
Original Essay
This article incorporates the text of an essay by Sean Hall, created for Dr. Michael Delahoyde of Washington State University in Spring 2002. The essay is included here under permission of Dr. Delahoyde. The original essay may be found at Shakespeare and Star Trek. (N.B. Richard Payne is credited with adding the reference in "The Die is Cast".)
Attribution for subsequent authors can be found in the page history.
Works Cited
- Buhler, Stephen. "'Who Calls Me Villain?': Blank Verse and the Black Hat". Extrapolation, Spring 1995.
- Dutta, Mary Buhl. "'Very bad poetry, Captain': Shakespeare in Star Trek". Extrapolation, Spring 1995.
- Hegarty, Emily. "Some Suspect of Ill: Shakespeare's Sonnets and 'The Perfect Mate'". Extrapolation, Spring 1995.
- Houlahan, Mark. "Cosmic Hamlets?: Contesting Shakespeare in Federation Space". Extrapolation, Spring 1995.