# Star Trek title origin: "For the World is Hollow. . . **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 6, 2005, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-title-origin-for-the-world-is-hollow/325061 "2005-10-06T16:09:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-title-origin-for-the-world-is-hollow/325061/1 "2005-10-06T16:09:05Z")
and I have touched the sky." Is that from some well-known author, or just made for the ep title. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-title-origin-for-the-world-is-hollow/325061/2 "2005-10-06T17:02:11Z")
Well I am really reaching back, but I seem to recall that the old person they encounter who the rest of the civilization regards as a kook says the line. So I guess I assumed it was created for the show. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-title-origin-for-the-world-is-hollow/325061/3 "2005-10-06T17:43:59Z")
Not the origin but maybe of interest. [http://www.poetsforum.com/poems/p\_hollow.html](http://www.poetsforum.com/poems/p_hollow.html) Believe it or not, it seems to be original to Star Trek. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-title-origin-for-the-world-is-hollow/325061/4 "2005-10-06T18:16:41Z")
My former roommate and I used to call that episode “For my head is hollow, and I have touched myself.” Just sayin’. ---
**Author:** ![priapus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@priapus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/priapus)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-title-origin-for-the-world-is-hollow/325061/5 "2005-10-06T21:14:23Z")
sounds like Harlen Ellison ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-title-origin-for-the-world-is-hollow/325061/6 "2005-10-06T22:28:45Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Well I am really reaching back, but I seem to recall that the old person they encounter who the rest of the civilization regards as a kook says the line. So I guess I assumed it was created for the show. That’s exactly it. I have most of TOS on tape (sadly, I have _Spock’s Brain_ but not _The Enterprise Incident_) and saw this ep only a few weeks ago while I was ill in bed. The old geezer (we don’t really get any info about what the rest of the civ think of him) dares to pipe up the truth to Kirk & co., knowing he is sentencing himself to death but old enough not to care (\*), and the phrase “…for the world is hollow, and I have touched the sky” is the last thing he gets out. It is _vaguely_ reminiscent of Harry Harrison’s _Captive Universe_, but as Harry’s book wasn’t published until TOS was history, any plagiarism can’t be laid at Roddenberry’s door. (\* They already know; and the geezer knows that they have come from outside the world. It was just something he wanted to get off his chest before he died.) ---
**Author:** ![jkdarrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jkdarrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jkdarrow)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-title-origin-for-the-world-is-hollow/325061/7 "2017-02-25T02:02:51Z")
the trope is from letters of Emily Dickinson: “knowing the world is hollow. . .” ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-title-origin-for-the-world-is-hollow/325061/8 "2017-02-25T06:12:53Z")
I’d be surprised if the ST:TOS writer was aware of it, but ever since I first saw the [Flammarion Engraving](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flammarion_engraving)a few decades ago, I’ve connected the two in my mind. > [@](#): > > The engraving depicts a man, clothed in a long robe and carrying a staff, who kneels down and passes his head, shoulders, and right arm through a gap between the star-studded sky and the earth, discovering a marvellous realm of circling clouds, fires and suns beyond the heavens. One of the elements of the cosmic machinery bears a strong resemblance to traditional pictorial representations of the “wheel in the middle of a wheel” described in the visions of the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel. The caption that accompanies the engraving in Flammarion’s book reads: > > A missionary of the Middle Ages tells that he had found the point where the sky and the Earth touch… ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-title-origin-for-the-world-is-hollow/325061/9 "2017-02-25T06:39:12Z")
Crappy ep…our heroes suddenly cant fight worth shit\* and worse of all, it just looks bad. Typical third season ep. \*Yes I know McCoy has space-cancer. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-title-origin-for-the-world-is-hollow/325061/10 "2017-02-25T14:50:05Z")
I am like 90% it is actually said in the episode. Episode titles were more poetic in TOS especially compared to TNG where nearly every title was, “The (Noun)” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-title-origin-for-the-world-is-hollow/325061/11 "2017-02-25T15:55:43Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > I have _Spock’s Brain_ but not _The Enterprise Incident_… Better you should buy “Turnabout Intruder” instead. At least then you can watch Shatner chew up the scenery. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-title-origin-for-the-world-is-hollow/325061/12 "2017-02-25T16:11:07Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Better you should buy “Turnabout Intruder” instead. At least then you can watch Shatner chew up the scenery. 🆒 In my days as a Trekkie, before home video, I watched the local indy channel showing of ST (there was only one in those days) without fail, for years. I saw every episode at least three times, some many more. I saw “Turnabout Intruder” once, and only remember scattered bits from it. Still have never seen it in remembered entirety. FWIW, I consciously avoided saying I remembered only snatches of it. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-title-origin-for-the-world-is-hollow/325061/13 "2017-02-25T16:14:34Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > In my days as a Trekkie, before home video, I watched the local indy channel showing of ST (there was only one in those days) without fail, for years. I saw every episode at least three times, some many more. > > I saw “Turnabout Intruder” once, and only remember scattered bits from it. Still have never seen it in remembered entirety. > FWIW, I consciously avoided saying I remembered only snatches of it. Instead of a whiney dimwit who’s a slave to her hormones, it features a viscious psychopath who’s a slave to her hormones. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2017, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-title-origin-for-the-world-is-hollow/325061/14 "2017-03-01T07:10:09Z")
Yes, it’s said in the episode. But the question is whether it is also a reference to something else. It’s just so poetic that people question whether the Trek writers could have actually come up with it themselves. I know that the first “poetic” titles I thought of beyond this was “Who Mourns for Adonais,” and it is definitely a quote. [“Who mourns for Adonais?” is the 413th line of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s pastoral poem, “Adonaïs: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats, Author of Endymion, Hyperion, etc.”](http://www.tor.com/2009/09/08/star-trek-re-watch-who-mourns-for-adonais/)