captain trips meaning

‘The Stand’: Where Does the Term ‘Captain Trips’ Come From?

CBS All Access limited series based on Stephen King’s novel premiered Thursday

The first episode of CBS All Access’ limited series based on Stephen King’s novel “The Stand” premiered Thursday, and it couldn’t have come at a more apt time. The series follows a group of survivors after a superflu knocks out 99% of the world’s population, and it hits close to home as we face the very real, though not as fatal, coronavirus pandemic.

But the superflu in “The Stand” is known by a more casual, less scientific name: “Captain Trips.” If you’re wondering where that term came from and what it means, you’ve come to the right place.

The meaning and origin behind the phrase “Captain Trips” is never directly explained in King’s book. (It should be noted that the original version of “The Stand” was published in 1978, but King released a longer, updated version in 1990 that restored sections that had been cut from the original novel. The 1990 edition is the reference point for the series’ story).

“Captain Trips” does, however, appear in the book as a colloquial phrase used by young people to identify the virus. The virus was initially created by a military biological weapons lab under the codename “Project Blue,” and is also referred to in a more scientific context as “Blue virus,” “848-AB,” “A-prime” and “A6.” Other colloquialisms used to identify the respiratory illness in the book include “the rales,” “choking sickness,” “tube neck” and simply, “the superflu.”

King has never directly spelled out the origin of “Captain Trips.” It also wasn’t explained in his original 1969 short story “Night Surf” that spawned the book, nor in the 1978 version of “The Stand” novel, in the 1994 television miniseries or in the “Captain Trips” comic book. The phrase is mentioned in the first episode of the CBS All Access limited series, but not explained.

According to some online sci-fi fan forums , the best explanation of where the phrase comes from is that it originated with the late Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia, who was nicknamed “Captain Trips” because he was known for spiking people’s drinks with hallucinogenic drugs like LSD. The nickname has also been used to describe Alfred Matthew Hubbard, a pioneer of LSD in the 1950s who was dubbed “ The Original Captain Trips.”

Without an explanation from King himself, the most likely answer is that young people in the book began referring to the disease as “Captain Trips” because its symptoms can make a person delirious, resembling a drug-induced hangover. Another theory laid out in an archived Stephen King Reddit thread surmised, “I always thought it was because of the army = weaponised [sic] flu connection, captain trips and drops a jar of plague.”

Perhaps “The Stand” will eventually solve the “Captain Trips” mystery for us — keep watching to find out.

Episode 1 of “The Stand” is now streaming on CBS All Access.

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‘The Stand': Where Does the Term ‘Captain Trips’ Come From?

The first episode of CBS All Access’ limited series based on Stephen King’s novel “The Stand” premiered Thursday, and it couldn’t have come at a more apt time. The series follows a group of survivors after a superflu knocks out 99% of the world’s population, and it hits close to home as we face the very real, though not as fatal, coronavirus pandemic.

But the superflu in “The Stand” is known by a more casual, less scientific name: “Captain Trips.” If you’re wondering where that term came from and what it means, you’ve come to the right place.

The meaning and origin behind the phrase “Captain Trips” is never directly explained in King’s book. (It should be noted that the original version of “The Stand” was published in 1978, but King released a longer, updated version in 1990 that restored sections that had been cut from the original novel. The 1990 edition is the reference point for the series’ story).

Also Read: 'The Stand' Trailer: It's Alexander Skarsgard vs Whoopi Goldberg in CBS All Access Limited Series (Video)

“Captain Trips” does, however, appear in the book as a colloquial phrase used by young people to identify the virus. The virus was initially created by a military biological weapons lab under the codename “Project Blue,” and is also referred to in a more scientific context as “Blue virus,” “848-AB,” “A-prime” and “A6.” Other colloquialisms used to identify the respiratory illness in the book include “the rales,” “choking sickness,” “tube neck” and simply, “the superflu.”

King has never directly spelled out the origin of “Captain Trips.” It also wasn’t explained in his original 1969 short story “Night Surf” that spawned the book, nor in the 1978 version of “The Stand” novel, in the 1994 television miniseries or in the “Captain Trips” comic book. The phrase is mentioned in the first episode of the CBS All Access limited series, but not explained.

According to some online sci-fi fan forums , the best explanation of where the phrase comes from is that it originated with the late Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia, who was nicknamed “Captain Trips” because he was known for spiking people’s drinks with hallucinogenic drugs like LSD. The nickname has also been used to describe Alfred Matthew Hubbard, a pioneer of LSD in the 1950s who was dubbed “ The Original Captain Trips.”

Also Read: How 'The Stand' Depicts Stephen King's Fictional Pandemic Amid a Real One

Without an explanation from King himself, the most likely answer is that young people in the book began referring to the disease as “Captain Trips” because its symptoms can make a person delirious, resembling a drug-induced hangover. Another theory laid out in an archived Stephen King Reddit thread surmised, “I always thought it was because of the army = weaponised [sic] flu connection, captain trips and drops a jar of plague.”

Perhaps “The Stand” will eventually solve the “Captain Trips” mystery for us — keep watching to find out.

Episode 1 of “The Stand” is now streaming on CBS All Access.

Read original story ‘The Stand': Where Does the Term ‘Captain Trips’ Come From? At TheWrap

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• Apocalyptic
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The Stand is the sixth book published by Stephen King ; it is his fifth novel, and the fourth novel under his own name. The book was the last of King's novels published by Doubleday on October 3, 1978.

The novel is a post-apocalyptic horror/fantasy story that re-works the scenario of King's earlier short story, " Night Surf ." A longer edition of the novel was later released in May 1990; King restored some text originally cut for brevity, added and revised sections, changed the timeframe of the story from 1980 to 1990, and updated several pop culture references accordingly to the time. Incidentally in 1980, when the first paperback publication of The Stand was released by Signet, the date of the story was moved from 1980 to 1985. It stayed 1985 until the release of the longer edition in 1989. The novel has been translated into at least a dozen languages.

• 1.1 Captain Trips
• 1.2 On the Border
• 1.3 The Stand
• 2 Links to Other Works
• 3 Adaptations
• 4 Audiobook

A deadly virus called " Captain Trips ", engineered as an advanced biological weapon by the government , is accidentally released across America and the world, causing 99.4% of the entire world's population to die. The 0.6% who survive struggle to find their bearings and rebuild civilization in the aftermath of the plague. They all dream about two opposing figures: Randall Flagg , the Dark Man, and Mother Abagail , who is receiving visions from God. The survivors split into two factions, one led by Flagg, and one led by Mother Abigail, and prepare for the final stand between good and evil.

Captain Trips [ ]

The novel's first part takes place over nineteen days, with the escape and spread of a human-made biological weapon, a superflu virus known formally as "Project Blue" but most commonly as " Captain Trips " (among other colloquialisms). The epidemic leads directly to the death of an estimated 99.4% of the world's human population.

King outlines the total breakdown and destruction of society through

widespread violence, protest, paranoia, the failure of martial law to contain the outbreak, and eventually the death of virtually the entire population. The human toll is also dealt with, as the few survivors must care for their families and friends, dealing with confusion and grief as their loved ones succumb to the flu.

The expanded edition opens with a prologue titled "The Circle Opens" that offers greater detail into the circumstances surrounding the development of the virus and the security breach that allowed its escape from the secret laboratory compound where it was created.

On the Border [ ]

Intertwining cross-country odysseys are undertaken by a small number of survivors, including:

• Stu's party:
• Nick's party:
• Larry's party:

They are drawn together by both circumstances and their shared dreams of a 108-year-old black woman from Hemingford Home, Nebraska, a place they see as a refuge and a representation of good in the struggle of good versus evil. This woman, Abagail Freemantle (known as "Mother Abagail"), becomes the spiritual leader of this group of survivors, directing them to Boulder, Colorado . Eventually the settlement is referred to as the "Boulder Free Zone", after the call-sign used by Ralph Brentner in his radio transmissions to guide survivors in. There they begin to reestablish a democratic society; much of this section of the book involves the struggles to create an orderly society more or less from scratch. Boulder is found to be hosting the dead bodies of considerably fewer plague victims than other cities due to a mass exodus following a false rumor in the early stages of the plague that the outbreak originated in the Boulder Air Test Center. While many corpses are present there, they number far fewer than any other major city in North America. Those who journey to Boulder set about forming a committee to govern and rebuild the city to be livable, which includes collecting the dead, checking houses and clearing them to live in, turning on utilities and setting up a democratic form of government. 

Meanwhile, another group of survivors includes:

They are drawn to Las Vegas, Nevada by Randall Flagg (also known as "the Dark Man", "the Hardcase", "the Tall Man", and "the Walkin’ Dude".) Although technically an agent of chaos, Flagg attracts people who like order and stability, even if it comes at the cost of fascism. But it is "not just the evil ones like him" who are receptive to Flagg's summons, according to Mother Abagail, "but the weak ones...the lonely ones...and those who have left God out of their hearts."

Like any other despotic ruler, Flagg rewards his followers with rank and creature comforts, while using cruel measures — crucifixion, torture — to punish those who violate his laws.

His group is able to quickly reorganize their society, restore power to Las Vegas, and rebuild the city as many technical professionals have migrated to the city. The book notes that at Las Vegas, Flagg's group is constantly working and has organized a strong but harsh structure while at the Free Zone, some survivors lounge idly and do not work as hard. Flagg's group also has started a schooling system and weapons program with survivor Carl Hough as a helicopter pilot and the Trashcan Man searching the local area for weapons.

The Free Zone's democratic society is not without its problems. Mother Abagail, feeling that she has become prideful and sinned due to her pleasure at being a public figure, disappears into the desert on a journey of spiritual reconciliation. Meanwhile, Harold's bitterness over his unrequited love for Fran and Nadine's secret commitment to Flagg lead the two of them to detonate a dynamite bomb at a meeting of the Free Zone committee in an attempt to assassinate their leadership. The explosion, which kills several people (most notably, Nick Andros), takes place at the same time that Mother Abagail is discovered, severely weakened by her time in the wilderness.

The Stand [ ]

There is no pitched battle, however. Instead, at Mother Abagail's dying behest, Stu, Larry, Ralph and Glen set off on foot towards Las Vegas on an expedition to confront Randall Flagg . Stu breaks his leg en route and drops out. He encourages the others to leave without him, telling them that God will provide for him. Glen's dog, Kojak, stays behind with Stu. Glen, Ralph, and Larry soon encounter Flagg's men, who take them prisoner. When Glen rejects an opportunity to be spared if he kneels and begs Flagg, he is shot by Lloyd Henreid, on Flagg's direct order. Flagg gathers his entire collective to witness the violent execution of the other two (they are to be viciously torn apart in the city's central plaza), but before it can take place, Trashcan Man arrives with a nuclear warhead and a giant glowing hand—"The Hand of God"—detonates the bomb, destroying Flagg's followers and the two remaining prisoners.

the hand of God

Stu, with the aid of Kojak and later Tom Cullen (who finds him while returning from Las Vegas after a brief stint as a spy) survives injury, illness, and a harsh Rocky Mountain winter. The three of them arrive back in Boulder soon after the birth of Fran’s baby. Although the baby falls ill with the superflu, he is able to fight it off. In the end, Stu and Fran decide to return to Maine, and the original edition of the novel ends with the two of them questioning whether the human race can learn from its mistakes. The answer, given in the last line, is ambiguous: "I don’t know."

The expanded edition contains brief coda called "The Circle Closes", which leaves a darker impression and fits in with King’s ongoing "wheel of ka " theme. Randall Flagg, using the alias "Russell Faraday", arrives on a beach and begins recruiting adherents among a preliterate, dark-skinned people.

...the circle closes

Links to Other Works [ ]

The events of the fourth Dark Tower novel, Wizard and Glass , reveal the setting of this novel to be an alternate level of the Dark Tower. The main characters of that novel spend the night on this level after defeating Blaine the Mono, and confront Flagg, who demands that they abandon their quest to reach the Dark Tower. When they refuse, he escapes.

Adaptations [ ]

In 1994 , the novel was adapted by King into a television miniseries .

From September 2008 to January 2012, Marvel Comics adapted the novel into a series of graphic novels .

In January 2011, Warner Bros. announced plans to adapt the novel into a feature film .

In December 2014 it was confirmed that it will be split into four films with The Fault in our Stars director Josh Boone at the helm.

On March 30, 2018, it was reported that CBS All Access was redeveloping the project into a nine-hour limited series with Josh Boone still attached to serve as director. On January 30, 2019, it was announced that CBS All Access had given the production a series order consisting of ten episodes. The series was set to be written by Boone and Ben Cavell both of whom were also expected to serve as executive producers alongside Roy Lee, Jimmy Miller, and Richard P. Rubinstein with Will Weiske and Miri Yoon serving as co-executive producers and Owen King as producer. Production companies involved with the series were slated to consist of Vertigo Entertainment, Mosaic Media Group and CBS Television Studios.

The production began filming in September 2019 in British Columbia, Canada. It wrapped on March 11, 2020, just days before the Covid-19 pandemic shut everything down. The mini-series premiered on December 17, 2020. It aired for eight consecutive weeks (December 17, 2020 – February 11, 2021). The series is streaming on Paramount + in the United States. Amazon Prime is streaming the mini-series to other nations. Both mini-series are available on DVD and Blu-Ray as well.

Audiobook [ ]

Audiobook versions of The Stand have been read by Garrick Hagon and Grover Gardner.

Gallery [ ]

• Stephen King
• 2 Randall Flagg
• 3 Overlook Hotel

14 Things You Didn't Know About The Stand

By erik van rheenen | may 18, 2021, 8:00 am edt.

Even if you’ve read every word of Stephen King ’s post-apocalyptic classic, you may still be able to learn something about one of the horror master’s most popular works.

1. The Stand had roots in an earlier story.

Stephen King first dreamed up the superflu known as “Captain Trips” in the 1969 science fiction short story “Night Surf,” which was published in the University of Maine’s Ubris literary journal. In this early iteration, the virus apparently originates in Southeast Asia.

2. Stephen King wanted to pay tribute to a fantasy master.

King set out to pen The Stand to scratch a 10-year itch to “write a fantasy epic like The Lord of the Rings , only with an American setting.” Wrote King:

“Only instead of a hobbit, my hero was a Texan named Stu Redman, and instead of a Dark Lord, my villain was a ruthless drifter and supernatural madman named Randall Flagg. The land of Mordor ("where the shadows lie, according to Tolkien) was played by Las Vegas.”

3. Chemical weapons tests helped spark Stephen King’s thinking.

King found inspiration in the Dugway sheep incident of March 1968, an episode in which some 6000 sheep dropped dead on ranches near the army’s Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah. The military initially denied any connection , but a later report revealed that the sheep were the victim of a nerve gas test that blew away from the base.

4. Stephen King took cues from an earlier pandemic novel.

In his nonfiction book Danse Macabre , King also cites author George R. Stewart’s novel Earth Abides —about one of humanity’s last survivors after a devastating pandemic destroys most of mankind—as a pivotal inspiration for The Stand .

5. The Stand was also a product of current events.

King also revealed in Danse Macabre that contemporary changes in politics and society helped shape The Stand and inspired him to write a novel in which the America he grew up in collapses:

“Its writing came during a troubled period for the world in general and America in particular; we were suffering from our first gas pains in history, we had just witnessed the sorry end of the Nixon administration and the first presidential resignation in history, we had been resoundingly defeated in Southeast Asia, and we were grappling with a host of domestic problems, from the troubling question of abortion-on-demand to an inflation rate that was beginning to spiral upward in a positively scary way…The America I had grown up in seemed to be crumbling beneath my feet.”

6. Christian radio made a contribution as well.

King revealed a third inspiration for The Stand in Danse Macabre : A single line he heard in a radio broadcast of a sermon when he was living in Colorado. The line “Once in every generation the plague will fall among them” made such an impression on King that he wrote it down and pinned it over his typewriter. Later, when the author was struggling to write a fictionalized account of the Patty Hearst kidnapping (the unpublished The House on Value Street ), he saw the gloomy quote and found the inspiration to start a new project that became The Stand .

7. The Stand was originally even longer than the final product.

Even though King had quite a bit of interesting inspiration, the writing was slow going. After two years of work, King had a 1200-page manuscript that weighed 12 pounds. (He jokes in Danse Macabre that the bulk matched “the same weight as the sort of bowling ball I favor.”)

8. The Stand 's extreme length led to logistical problems.

The 1200-page novel presented a serious problem: King’s publisher, Doubleday, couldn’t print a novel that long. Literally. In addition to whatever qualms the publisher might have had about trying to sell such a hefty book, its printing presses couldn’t create it. As King explained to TIME in 2009, “Doubleday had a physically limiting factor in those days because they used a glue binding instead of a cloth binding, and the way it was explained to me was that they had so much of a thickness they could do before the glue just fell apart.”

9. Stephen King made heavy cuts.

Doubleday didn’t want to break the novel into two volumes, so King’s editor asked him to slash 400 pages (some 150,000 words) to improve both the book’s quality and its commercial prospects. King complied, and an 823-page revision hit bookstores in September 1978. It moved 65,000 copies to make the hardcover bestseller list.

10. The cut pages weren’t lost.

Of course, when your fans are as rabid as King’s, it’s hard for lost pages to stay lost. In 1990 King restored the text he had hacked away to create The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition . King didn’t just slip all the cut pages back into the original manuscript, though—he retyped each one. He told TIME he “had the manuscript on one side of an IBM Selectric typewriter and I had the pages of a book that I had torn out of the binding on the other side.” The restored edition had another quirk: King also updated the setting of the novel to the then-present day and included references to cultural touchstones like Freddy Krueger that had not existed in 1978.

11. Bruce Springsteen gave The Stand its title.

The title of the novel comes from the lyrics to Bruce Springsteen’s sweeping Born to Run closer, “Jungleland.” In the song, Springsteen sings: “Tonight all is silence in the world/As we take our stand/Down in Jungleland.”

12. Stephen King nearly abandoned the project.

In 2000’s part-memoir, part-how-to-guide On Writing , King admits writer’s block nearly killed The Stand when he realized his characters were doomed to make the same mistakes that led to their old society’s woes.

13. The Stand Exists in a larger Stephen King universe.

Like many of King’s novels, The Stand is interwoven with the Dark Tower series. Not only is Flagg a main antagonist in the series, but the heroes of The Dark Tower also visit Topeka in the world of The Stand in the series’ fourth book, Wizard and Glass .

14. The Stand enabled Stephen King to buy a canoe.

While The Stand was the latest in a long line of successes King had enjoyed, his splurges after its publication were relatively modest. In September 1979, one year after The Stand debuted, King opened up to the New York Times about how he was spending the loot by saying , “We have a mortgage like everybody else, but I don’t have to worry about the payments. I feel we’re as safe as anyone can be in this crazy world, but I’m not buying yachts. My only extravagances have been a canoe, a video recorder and hardcover books.”

A version of this story ran in 2015; it has been updated for 2021.

Do you love reading? Are you eager to know incredibly interesting facts about novelists and their works? Then pick up our new book, The Curious Reader : A Literary Miscellany of Novels and Novelists, out May 25!

‘The Stand': Where Does the Term ‘Captain Trips’ Come From?

The first episode of CBS All Access’ limited series based on Stephen King’s novel “The Stand” premiered Thursday, and it couldn’t have come at a more apt time. The series follows a group of survivors after a superflu knocks out 99% of the world’s population, and it hits close to home as we face the very real, though not as fatal, coronavirus pandemic.

But the superflu in “The Stand” is known by a more casual, less scientific name: “Captain Trips.” If you’re wondering where that term came from and what it means, you’ve come to the right place.

The meaning and origin behind the phrase “Captain Trips” is never directly explained in King’s book. (It should be noted that the original version of “The Stand” was published in 1978, but King released a longer, updated version in 1990 that restored sections that had been cut from the original novel. The 1990 edition is the reference point for the series’ story).

Also Read: 'The Stand' Trailer: It's Alexander Skarsgard vs Whoopi Goldberg in CBS All Access Limited Series (Video)

“Captain Trips” does, however, appear in the book as a colloquial phrase used by young people to identify the virus. The virus was initially created by a military biological weapons lab under the codename “Project Blue,” and is also referred to in a more scientific context as “Blue virus,” “848-AB,” “A-prime” and “A6.” Other colloquialisms used to identify the respiratory illness in the book include “the rales,” “choking sickness,” “tube neck” and simply, “the superflu.”

King has never directly spelled out the origin of “Captain Trips.” It also wasn’t explained in his original 1969 short story “Night Surf” that spawned the book, nor in the 1978 version of “The Stand” novel, in the 1994 television miniseries or in the “Captain Trips” comic book. The phrase is mentioned in the first episode of the CBS All Access limited series, but not explained.

According to some online sci-fi fan forums , the best explanation of where the phrase comes from is that it originated with the late Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia, who was nicknamed “Captain Trips” because he was known for spiking people’s drinks with hallucinogenic drugs like LSD. The nickname has also been used to describe Alfred Matthew Hubbard, a pioneer of LSD in the 1950s who was dubbed “ The Original Captain Trips.”

Also Read: How 'The Stand' Depicts Stephen King's Fictional Pandemic Amid a Real One

Without an explanation from King himself, the most likely answer is that young people in the book began referring to the disease as “Captain Trips” because its symptoms can make a person delirious, resembling a drug-induced hangover. Another theory laid out in an archived Stephen King Reddit thread surmised, “I always thought it was because of the army = weaponised [sic] flu connection, captain trips and drops a jar of plague.”

Perhaps “The Stand” will eventually solve the “Captain Trips” mystery for us — keep watching to find out.

Episode 1 of “The Stand” is now streaming on CBS All Access.

Read original story ‘The Stand': Where Does the Term ‘Captain Trips’ Come From? At TheWrap

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• ‘The Stand': Where Does the Term ‘Captain Trips’ Come From?

‘The Stand': Where Does the Term ‘Captain Trips’ Come From?

• Author: Margeaux Sippell
• December 17,2020

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The Stand Cast Explains Captain Trips, the Pandemic That Kills 99% of Humanity

"Captain Trips" was a nickname for early LSD proponent Alfred Hubbard as well as Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead, but it's arguably most famous as the the nickname for the man-made virus that kills almost all of the world's population in Stephen King's magnum opus  The Stand .

In this just -released featurette for the new ten-part CBS All Access adaptation of King's novel, the cast of the new miniseries — including Owen Teague, Whoopi Goldberg, James Marsden, Amber Heard, and Jovan Adepo — explains the impact of this  apocalyptic scenario and what happens to those who manage to survive.

"Civilization as we know it is devastated and ended, for the most part. What happens to humanity when, all of the sudden, a reset button is hit?" 

The Stand premieres on CBS All Access Thursday December 17.

People are talking about The Stand in our forums. Join the conversation .

Andy Hunsaker has a head full of sitcom gags and nerd-genre lore, and can be followed @AndyHunsaker  if you're into that sort of thing.

TOPICS: The Stand (2020) , CBS All Access , Alexander Skarsgard , Amber Heard , Brad William Henke , Greg Kinnear , James Marsden , Jovan Adepo , Katherine McNamara , Odessa Young , Owen Teague , Stephen King , Whoopi Goldberg

• The Stand boss explains the season finale changes from Stephen King's novel
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In The Stand why was the super flu called Captain Trips?

The Stand is my favorite novel. For several years I would reread it every June (the story starts in June) but one thing I never got is why the disease in the story got the nickname Captain Trips. I imagine it was a reference that was too old for me to understand but I just never saw any connection between that term and the disease so why in the story did that become a nickname for it?

The meaning of the nickname is never revealed.

It was/is a nickname for Jerry Garcia, for reasons that are probably easy to guess. I wouldn’t necessarily assume that King used it as a tribute to him (some tribute, naming a deadly disease after someone), but then again, it’s a distinctive name.

I get that King chose the name and what it means in real life but within the context of the story the general public came up with it and it went viral before that was a ubiquitous term. But that’s the disconnect. I don’t get how they came up with it within that world. What about the flu makes someone give it that name? I guess there is no answer.

I’d presumed that “trips” was a variant of “trots” i.e. the runs.

Captain Trips always felt like a catchy, 70s-era kind of name that became applied and widespread before people realized just how bad it was. I admit I can’t come up with a firm philological explanation of the name, but it’s always felt intuitive in my half dozen or so readings of the book

It’s been a long time since I’ve read the book, so correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t the symptoms include delirium or hallucinations?

It was a bad trip.

Have we forgotten our acid roots??

That’s what I’d think.

There was a short story called “Night Surf” in one of King’s collections that came out before The Stand , and it had “Captain Trips” in it. My interpretation at the time, when I first read the short story, was that it was just one of those trend-following but mostly nonsensical things that our culture is so rife with. People do what they see or hear other people doing, especially if it seems trendy, and they don’t need any other reason to participate. Certainly no need for it to make any particular sense.

I only know The Stand from cultural osmosis, but have heard about the Captain Trips disease name. My figuring is that something that invisibly takes over bodies and casually wipes out human culture is the Ultimate Experience.

Even if you live your world will be altered beyond recognition. It did to the human race what too much dirty acid did to some human minds.

It does get its name before it’s even remotely clear it’s going to wipe out human existence, but I can see where that would appeal.

Maybe it’s a cross between “trots” and “grippe”?

I had also assumed it had something to do with diarrhea but I see that isn’t one of the symptoms.

Tuberculosis was once known, because of its lethality across populations in and out of epidemics as ‘The Captain of these Men of Death’.

In the early modern era there were other personifications of infectious disease, which I think makes for a plausible origin story. Wracking my brains to remember them, but its kind of bound up with the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, those beaky plague-doctors and blaming cats.

The Stand: Captain Trips Is STILL the Most Ridiculous Name for a Fictional Virus

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WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Stand Episode 1, "The End," now streaming on CBS All Access .

Talk to any Stephen King fan, and they will acknowledge that the master of horror sometimes has a little trouble with the endings of his novels. There is the infamous and controversial scene with the kids in the sewers from  It  and the somewhat deflating ending in Under the Dome . In contrast to that, naming things has never been deemed a problem. The "shining" and the town of Castle Rock seem both fitting and perfectly acceptable names, which brings us to The Stand .

It is one of King’s most famous and beloved novels, and in 2020, the novel is more relevant and timely than ever, which may pay off for its new miniseries adaptation that debuted this past Thursday. However, one thing King got wrong is the naming of the virus Captain Trips. It may be the most ridiculous name for a fictional virus ever.

RELATED: The Stand Is an Underwhelming Adaptation of Stephen King's Epic

In the real world, viruses have simple, clear names, like the coronavirus. The name for the disease it causes has the simple abbreviation of COVID-19, which stands coronavirus disease, with the 19 tacked on to represent the year it was detected. There are tons of other viruses in the world, and most of them, like Ebola, are just known by their official name. Others, like Malaria, which is also known as Yellow Fever, may have different names that refer to their symptoms, in this case yellowing skin and fever. However, in all these cases, the names are simple and to the point.

This seems to be the case for Captain Trips, at least for its other names. The US government has been responsible for developing the novel’s virus in a military laboratory under the codename "Project Blue," and it is trying to deny and deflect any responsibility and downplay the severity and lethality of the virus. Since there is no official name that is recognized, it makes sense that the media and the population itself would come up with nicknames, like superflu, choking sickness or tube neck.

RELATED: The Stand Showrunner Teases Stephen King's New Coda to the Story

It is even plausible that these multiple names would all be coined in different parts of the country, since the book’s story is set in the last quarter of the last century, when the internet was in its infancy, and local television and newspapers were fairly common then. However, the name Captain Trips seems far fetched. It sounds more like a nickname college kids would use for a drug that gives them a great "trip" than it does for a serious virus.

It has never been publically made clear why Stephen King nicknamed the fictional virus Captain Trips, but there is a chance he named it after the Grateful Dead’s late singer, Jerry Garcia. Aside from being one of the most prolific, successful authors of our time, King is also a musician and big fan music, even writing a short story based around a town full of dead musicians called "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band."

RELATED: The Stand Reveals Randall Flagg's True Role in the Apocalypse

One band he is apparently a fan of is the Grateful Dead, even comparing himself to them at one point. There's also a connection between  The Stand  and the Grateful Dead, which is that frontman Jerry Garcia had the nickname Captain Trips for  allegedly  spiking the drinks of people around him with hallucinogenic drugs.

While that doesn’t have anything to do with an illness, it seems that King could've used the nickname of the singer for his virus. It would have probably been a better idea to keep the name shelved for something else that could've had a clearer connection to the band, if this was his reasoning. If it wasn't, then the virus' name lacks any justification for why it's so ridiculous.

The Stand stars Alexander Skarsgård as Randall Flagg, Whoopi Goldberg as Mother Abigail, James Marsden as Stu Redman, Odessa Young as Frannie Goldsmith, Jovan Adepo as Larry Underwood, Amber Heard as Nadine Cross, Owen Teague as Harold Lauder, Henry Zaga as Nick Andros, Brad William Henke as Tom Cullen, Irene Bedard as Ray Bretner, Nat Wolff as Lloyd Henreid, Eion Bailey as Weizak, Heather Graham as Rita Blakemoor, Katherine McNamara as Julie Lawry, Fiona Dourif as Ratwoman, Natalie Martinez as Dayna Jurgens, Hamish Linklater as Dr. Jim Ellis, Daniel Sunjata as Cobb and Greg Kinnear as Glen Bateman. The Stand releases new episodes Thursdays on CBS All Access.

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"Captain Tripps"

Posted by Brian from Shawnee on August 02, 2006

In Reply to: "Captain Tripps" posted by Regina on August 02, 2006

: I'm looking for the origin of "Captain Tripps". I believe that Steven King got it from somewhere else. In his novel The Stand it was the name of the plague that killed some 98% of the world. But what is that originally from?

"Captain Trips" was the nickname of the late Jerry Garcia, vocalist, guitarist, and leader of the rock band The Grateful Dead. It's a reference to the many acid trips indulged in by Mr. Garcia and the band's legion of faithful followers. Acid in this case refers to mind-altering drugs like LSD.

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Stephen king's night surf: the stand's unofficial prequel explained.

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Apocalyptic epic The Stand is one of Stephen King's best books, but it was actually preceded by a short story about Captain Trips called Night Surf . Close to the end of 2020, King fans will get a well-deserved treat after what's been a highly tumultuous year, both for the entertainment industry and the world at large. That's provided said fans are willing to subscribe to the CBS All Access streaming service, which debuts its 9-hour limited series adaptation of The Stand on December 17.

The new version of The Stand has big shoes to fill, as the original 1994 ABC miniseries is very popular and well-regarded, even despite its lacking CGI effects and broadcast TV content restrictions. This time though, CBS All Access has provided the freedom to adapt King's book in a more faithful way, without sugarcoating the story's more upsetting developments. King himself has also wrote the final episode, penning a new denouement for his sprawling tale of good vs. evil.

Related: The Stand: When The Full Trailer For The CBS Show Could Release

As fun as the new adaptation sounds though, what many fans may not be aware of is that The Stand has a sort of unofficial prequel that provides another dose of the end times. It's called Night Surf , was first published way back in 1969, and eventually made its way into the 1978 King collection Night Shift .

Night Surf takes place in Anson Beach, New Hampshire, and centers on a small group of teen plague survivors. A virus called A6, also referred to as Captain Trips , has decimated the population. These kids believe themselves to be immune to A6, having contracted and recovered from an earlier virus called A2. However, it turns out that belief may just be a pipe dream, as one of them is soon infected with A6. Considering the apocalyptic virus in Night Surf is called Captain Trips, many fans assume its events must take place concurrently to those of The Stand , at least its earlier portions.

In actuality though, Night Surf is more of a Stand prototype, testing out some of the ideas that would go into the latter novel, even though Stephen King might not have realized at the time that Captain Trips would return. Like The Stand , Night Surf is quite a dark story, with the teens at one point roasting a man alive as a kind of human sacrifice in the hopes it'll earn them favor with one deity or another. That said, it doesn't fully work as a prequel or parallel tale, thanks to the fact that A6 seems to be killing people at a slower rate than in The Stand , and the fact that Captain Trips in The Stand wasn't preceded by any other mass outbreaks. Still, Night Surf is very much worth reading.

More: How Stephen King's The Stand Connects To His Book Universe

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Does Captain Trips refer to anything/anyone else

• Thread starter lokiju
• Start date Nov 8, 2006
• OT Discussion Club

• Nov 8, 2006

Just reading through the extended edition of The Stand by Stephen King and got to wondering if the name they gave to the virus "Captain Trips" was in reference to anything whatsoever or just made up for this novel. Anyone know? :beer:  

Platinum Member

Something to with GreatfulDead(TM)? I've got nothing.  

Originally posted by: fitzov Something to with GreatfulDead(TM)? I've got nothing. Click to expand...

Shadowknight

Diamond member.

Grateful dead reference; for the record, in the Wildcards series, there was a drug-addled Ace, Mark Meadows, who was a big hippie and Grateful Dead fan. He went by the Alias of Captain Trips.  

Originally posted by: nakedfrog Google knows Click to expand...

Originally posted by: Shadowknight Grateful dead reference; for the record, in the Wildcards series, there was a drug-addled Ace, Mark Meadows, who was a big hippie and Grateful Dead fan. He went by the Alias of Captain Trips. Click to expand...

Originally posted by: lokiju Originally posted by: nakedfrog Google knows Click to expand...

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