William Shakespeare
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.
William Shakespeare was a playwright and poet in England, Earth in the 16th century. His works are counted among the best representations of Human literature. They include 154 sonnets and 38 plays, such as Hamlet, Macbeth, The Tempest, Henry V, Julius Caesar, Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Merchant of Venice.
In 2153, Shakespeare's works were among the examples of Earth literature provided to the Vissians. Vissian Captain Drennik later quoted from Hamlet and expressed admiration for Macbeth. (ENT: "Cogenitor")
In the year 2155 in the mirror universe, Phlox commented to T'Pol that Shakespeare's work was similar in both their universe and the primary universe. (ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II")
In 2266, the USS Enterprise hosted the Karidian Company of Players, a traveling Shakespearean acting troupe. While on board they put on a performance of Hamlet. (TOS: "The Conscience of the King")
Klingons often noted that Shakespeare could only truly be experienced in "the original Klingon". By 2293, General Chang was a noted quoter of Shakespeare's work, particularly Hamlet. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)
Captain Picard displayed a volume of Shakespeare's complete works in his Ready Room aboard the USS Enterprise-D in 2364. (TNG: "Hide and Q")
According to Captain Picard, there is no way to better way to learn about the Human condition than to embrace Shakespeare. In order to do so, Data studied Henry V on the holodeck. (TNG: "The Defector")
In 2366, in order to rescue Lwaxana Troi from DaiMon Tog, Picard recites a string of quotes from Shakespeare's sonnets and Othello. (TNG: "Ménage à Troi")
When the senior officers of the Enterprise time traveled from 2368 to 19th century San Francisco they obtained a room at a local boarding house. Unable to pay the fees required them, Picard and his crew diverted the attention of the proprietress by convincing her that she should play a part in their touring production of Shakespeare's plays, specifically A Mid-Summer Night's Dream. (TNG: "Time's Arrow, Part II")
As part of his exploration of Humanity in 2370, Lieutenant Commander Data used holodeck reenactments of the plays of Shakespeare to examine the Human condition, playing the part of Prospero in The Tempest, and Henry V in the eponymous play. (TNG: "Emergence")
Julian Bashir introduced Deep Space 9's Cardassian tailor, Elim Garak to Shakespeare in the 2370s. While the Battle of the Omarion Nebula was raging and the Romulan-Cardassian fleet was being destroyed, Garak paraphrased a portion of Julius Caesar to Enabran Tain: "I'm afraid the fault, dear Tain, is not in our stars but in ourselves." (DS9: "The Die is Cast")
Contents |
[edit] List of works
| Selected works of William Shakespeare |
|---|
| As You Like It • Hamlet • Henry IV, Part I • Henry IV, Part II • Henry V • Henry VI, Part II • Julius Caesar • King Lear • Macbeth • The Merchant of Venice • A Midsummer Night's Dream • Othello • Richard II • Romeo and Juliet • The Tempest • sonnets |
[edit] Appendices
[edit] Background
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. The following is a list of examples taken from the various series'.
[edit] The Original Series
- "Dagger of the Mind"
- The title is a reference to Macbeth (II.i.38-39): "Or art thou but / A dagger of the mind, a false creation, / Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?"
- "The Conscience of the King"
- The title is a reference to Hamlet, Act II, Scene II: "the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king."
- "All Our Yesterdays"
- The title comes from Macbeth, Act V, Scene V. It refers to the inhabitants of Sarpeidon, who intended to escape from the future by living in the past.
- "By Any Other Name"
- The title is 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'."
- "Wink of an Eye"
- Although the phrase itself has passed into the modern vernacular and may not have been intentionally taken from Shakespeare, it originates in The Winter's Tale (V.ii.112-133): "every wink of an eye some new grace will be born: our absence makes us unthrifty to our knowledge." A Voyager episode would later be called "Blink of an Eye", a commonly used variant.
- "Whom Gods Destroy"
- Marta partially quotes Sonnet 18.1-4 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 the chaotic situations of the episode.
- "Elaan of Troyius"
- Here the plot is lifted straight from The Taming of the Shrew with Kirk playing the part of Petruchio. Also, Captain Kirk's difficulty escaping Elaan's charms to fight a threatening Klingon warship echoes Antony and Cleopatra.
- "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 from Macbeth:
- "Winds shall rise
and fog descend
So leave here all
or meet your end."
At this point, the logical Commander Spock replies, "Very bad poetry, Captain."
- "Is There in Truth No Beauty?"
- Kollos, in Spock's body, references The Tempest when Kollos sees Miranda Jones for the first time through humanoid eyes: "O brave new world, That has such creatures in't." Miranda replies with the play's next line, " 'Tis new to thee." Additionally, the character Miranda Jones would seem to be named after Prospero's daughter Miranda from the play.
- "Plato's Stepchildren"
- Kirk recites part of Sonnet 57 while being manipulated by the Platonians.
- "Requiem for Methuselah"
- The plot of this episode borrows parts of The Tempest.
[edit] The Animated Series
- "How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth"
- 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!"
[edit] 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).
[edit] The Next Generation
- "Encounter at Farpoint"
- Picard briefly references the line from Henry VI, Part II "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" (IV.ii.74).
- "The Naked Now"
- Data recreates Shylock's court monologue from The Merchant of Venice, asking, "When you prick me do I not... leak?" The original line, in which a Jewish character tries to convince a group of Christians that Jews too are people, goes, "If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?" (III.i.60-63).
- "Hide and Q"
- Q misquotes As You Like It, saying "All the galaxy is a stage." Picard calls him on it. Later Picard states that he does view mankind as "one day becoming that" which Hamlet asserts of it in irony: "Oh I know Hamlet. And what he might say with irony, I say with conviction: What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god!" (II.ii.304-308).
Later in the episode, declining Riker's offer to endow him with humanity, Data again references Hamlet, quoting "This above all: to thine own self be true," from Polonius' speech to Laertes in Act 1, Scene 3.
- "The Measure Of A Man"
- While searching through Data's belongings, Bruce Maddox finds a book of Shakespeare's works, a gift from Captain Picard. Inside is a quote from Sonnet 29: "When in disgrace with fortune in men's eyes, / I all alone beweep my outcast state."
- "The Most Toys"
- Believing that Data is dead, Picard reads aloud from the android's copy of Shakespeare's works, quoting from Hamlet: "As was a man, take him for all in all, / I shall not look upon his like again" (I ii 187-188).
- "Ménage à Troi"
- Picard recites a string of quotes from Shakespeare's sonnets and Othello as part of his facade.
- 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 a part 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 Mind's Eye"
- This title may have been taken from Hamlet (I.i.112) "A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye." The phrase is also referenced later in Hamlet (I.ii.186). The phrase also appears in Plato's Republic.
- "Time's Arrow, Part II"
- 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 Crusher as the First Fairy.
- "Tapestry"
- When Picard awakens in Q's 'afterlife,' Q quotes briefly from Hamlet's famous 'To Be Or Not To Be,' speech with the words "Now that you've shuffled off the mortal coil," from Act 3 Scene 1.
- "Thine Own Self"
- The title is taken 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."
- "Emergence"
- 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.
[edit] Deep Space Nine
- "Past 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.
- "Blood Oath"
- Peter Allan Fields based Kor (as seen in DS9) on Falstaff. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion)
- "Heart of Stone"
- The title is taken from Twelfth Night (III.iv.201), in which Olivia pleads with a man who is actually Viola in disguise: "I have said too much unto a heart of stone." In the episode, Odo is similarly trapped with a Founder pretending to be Kira and betrays his love for her only to learn he has been talking to an impostor all along.
- "The Die is Cast"
- The title is from Julius Caesar's The Gallic Wars, the following lines were paraphrased from Julius Caesar I.ii.
- Tain: "How could this happen?"
- Elim Garak: "The fault, dear Tain, is not in our stars but in ourselves. Something I learned from Dr. Bashir."
- "Statistical Probabilities"
- While watching Damar's speech, Jack quotes Shakespeare twice: first a line from Henry IV, Part II: "Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown." then a line from Macbeth: "Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! Damar does murder sleep."
- "Once More Unto the Breach"
- The title is taken from Henry V, Act III, Scene I. "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more." (The title is also spelled "Once More Into the Breach" in re-run listings.)
- "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges"
- Dr. Bashir uses the phrase "never say die" at one point, which catches Senator Cretak by surprise. When she asks what it means, Luther Sloan, who claims etymology is one of his hobbies, politely interrupts to explain that the line originates from Merchant of Venice and has passed into the vernacular as "an exhortation never to give up".
- "The Dogs of War"
- 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."
[edit] Voyager
- "Mortal Coil"
- 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..."
[edit] Apocrypha
Several Star Trek comics have bore titles taken from Shakespeare:
[edit] Related link
- The Klingon Hamlet, Shakespeare in the original Klingon
[edit] External links
- William Shakespeare at Wikipedia
- William Shakespeare at Wikiquote
- Shakespeare and Star Trek, an essay by Sean Hall, created for Dr. Michael Delahoyde of Washington State University in spring of 2002.
