Star Trek Ruminations

Are they really speaking English on Star Trek, or does it just appear that way for the sake of the 20th/21st century audience? We can't necessarily trust our ears, since the Universal Translator may simply be translating for us as the 20th/21st century audience.  But an exchange between Neelix and Tuvok strongly indicates that it truly is English being spoken on Starfleet ships in the 24th century. A Riddle that Solves the Riddle The episode "Riddles" (VOY) starts and ends with two alternate punchlines for the same riddle: NEELIX: Okay, here goes. A lone Ensign finds himself stranded on a class L planetoid with no rations. His only possession, a calendar. When Starfleet finds him twelve months later, he's in perfect health. Why didn't he starve to death? TUVOK: It is a theoretical possibility that such planetoids contain hot water springs, which could sustain the man for several weeks. NEELIX: But not for a whole year. TUVOK: I concur. Logic dictates that the Ensi...

I finally saw the new Star Trek movie tonight. While I take time to collect my thoughts on the new film as a whole let me comment on one little aspect of it - matters of translation. Interestingly the credits mention a Romulan and Vulcan Language Supervisor (or Consultant or some such title). However after my first viewing of the film I have to say I didn't notice any Vulcan being spoken, and I only noticed what was presumably a little Romulan shouting when Kirk and Spock beam over to Nero's ship. Perhaps there were more such moments than I realized. That being said, the basic issues of translation among alien races is acknowledged from the very beginning. From the moment Uhura is introduced to Kirk, it is clear that she is more than just a subspace-ham-radio operator. She is a linguistic expert - move over Hoshi Sato! Unlike her counterpart in the original timeline, who couldn't seem to speak Klingon if her life depended on it, this Uhura is eavesdropping on and translat...

"We must respond personally. The Universal Translator would be recognized." - Pavel Chekov There is no doubt that this scene is mostly played for laughs, and seeing Starfleet officers frantically searching through books and speaking Klingon badly is an entertaining sight. But it's problematic if you think it through. At the same time, Chekov's statement highlights a significant issue for the Universal Translator. First, some of what makes this scene difficult to accept. To start with - and this is really just nitpicking - why does Chekov get the disembodied voice over about the UT? Wouldn't that be Uhura's line? Would a Starfleet vessel really have a library of books about the Klingon language? Would Uhura really speak Klingon so badly? Hoshi Sato was probably spinning in her grave.The Klingon translators at Kirk and McCoy's trial speak better English than she speaks Klingon. (Supposedly Nichelle Nichols objected to the scene because she believed Uhura wo...

Up to this point we have analyzed the inner workings of the Universal Translator—how pattern analysis and neural analysis might allow the device to work. Now, let’s discuss the outer workings of the device—how users would interact with it. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country does a nice job of showing translation at work, with out letting it get in the way of the story. In the process there are some scenes that illustrate the realities of using a translation device. To Subtitle, or Not to Subtitle One interesting scene starts with the Federation president communicating with Azetbur over subspace. We hear the conversation in English. When their conversation ends, Azetbur’s aide unrolls a map on her desk and begins talking to her in Klingon. We see English subtitles. Either she was actually speaking to the President in English, or we were hearing things through the President’s UT. But when the Klingons speak privately, they logically are speaking their own language. After this has ...

No, this isn't a discussion of the more sweeping Klingon forehead problem. This is simply a problem with Duras' forehead in the episode "Judgement" ( ENT ). There is a very strange discrepancy between the flashback sequences where he is on board his ship, and the courtroom scenes. In the flashback sequences his forehead looks normal. The distinctive family ridge that runs around the outside of his forehead is symmetrical. In the courtroom sequences the ridge seems to be incomplete along the right-hand side of his face (our left). Looking at the screen captures from TrekCore you can see that it isn't likely that his hair is just covering the upper part of the ridge; the hair is actually deeper in his skull than the ridge. With no evidence of trauma or scarring it's hard to explain away as a battle injury, but I suppose that's a possibility. The real-world explanation would seem to be that sometime between the filming of the flashback and the courtroom scen...

Each year brings another Strange New Worlds anthology. And for eight years I have looked at them on the shelf, thumbed through them, but never picked one up for myself. This year I finally bought one and was delighted by theses stories written by fans who have little if any work professionally published before. While I am not planning on reviewing every story in the book, I do want to progressively share some of the highlights. Reviews may contain minor spoilers. Tribbles, Tribbles and More Tribbles Tribbles are perhaps the most beloved non-humanoid aliens in the Star Trek universe. The very word has worked its way into mainstream vocabulary right along side so many other trek-isms. Three stories in this volume deal with the prolific furballs. I will comment on two of them. I will leave the third one for you to discover rather than give away the ending of that story. The first tale of Tribbles is "A Bad Day for Koloth," by David DeLee . This story picks up where ...

As I mentioned before, I've been re-watching a lot of Enterprise episodes on the Sci-Fi channel. Recently I saw the episode "Judgment" again. I was pleasantly surprised to realize it was more enjoyable than I remembered, but I was again struck with some of its unrealized potential. Speaking as the Advocate For me, seeing the Klingon court again was great. That may have something to do with my memories of Star Trek VI . That was the first Star Trek movie I saw in a theater (the others coming out before I was old enough to have a clue what was going on). The tri-angular pit, the judge's claw and ball "gavel," prosecution-in-the-round, the chilling verdict: those images were etched into my mind, and I loved seeing them again. I also think using Rura Penthe was a nice way to reverse engineer some continuity. In Star Trek VI Chekov comments that Rura Penthe is "known throughout the galaxy as the alien's graveyard," letting us know what a bad place...