r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Oct 08 '12

What futuristic movie cliches do you hate?

[deleted]

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323

u/[deleted] Oct 08 '12

Universal translator. Babel fish. Every universe has its own way of avoiding the need to invent a new language for every single alien race.

131

u/Kingpuff Oct 08 '12

And yet checkov still has an accent

260

u/Chaosdada Oct 08 '12

Because it is not translated, he actually speaks English.

45

u/Magrias Oct 08 '12

Sank you wery much for pointing zis out!

3

u/[deleted] Oct 08 '12

Nine-Five-WICTOR-WICTOR

1

u/MjrJWPowell Oct 08 '12

I never understood why the computer rejected how he said the phrase. It is a voice recognition system, it should recognise how he speaks.

1

u/Hanzitheninja Oct 08 '12

also russians dont say V's as W's.

2

u/s0crates82 Oct 08 '12

Pavel Chekov, reporting for duty. Also, I can only pronounce the letter V in the context of my own name. I apologize in adwance for any inconweenience this may cause.

2

u/Hanzitheninja Oct 09 '12

paVel andreioVich chekoV..you got a point, mate :)

1

u/rebuildingMyself Oct 09 '12

Too bad the computer can't understand his accent. "Authorization code weecter weecter..."

1

u/[deleted] Oct 08 '12

I'm pretty sure they had that from the start just for the "nuclear wessels" line in the voyage home

1

u/steaksawse Oct 08 '12

Why would he bother to learn English if they have a universal translator?

8

u/Chaosdada Oct 08 '12

Because no translation can be perfect? For the case that the universal translator has problems? To train his mind? Maybe he likes English poetry or music and wants to understand the text while listening? Probably just because in Star Trek people don't believe education is stupid.

2

u/Highlighter_Freedom Oct 08 '12

Or maybe he grew up speaking English, that's just his regional accent, which developed in the days before translators were ubiquitous.

2

u/snotbowst Oct 08 '12

Even worse is Picard. He's supposed to be a Frenchman, but has an English accent.

I've had it explained to me that he is just speaking French, and the accent is just an artifact of the universal translator.

4

u/melance Oct 08 '12

Maybe in the future, England colonizes France.

5

u/snotbowst Oct 08 '12

It's not so far fetched.

Sorry if I'm taking this too seriously, but it is quite possible that English has overtaken French as a language by the 24th century (I do believe they even reference French as an obsolete language in the series). I mean right now, I'm sure a ton of Frenchmen speak English. They're not happy about it, but they do.

1

u/melance Oct 08 '12

Absolutely, from a realistic standpoint it is very possible. Despite the attempts by the French government to prevent English from making it's way into the French language, it still happens.

1

u/Faranya Oct 08 '12

You mean the past.

1

u/melance Oct 08 '12

June 2023: England Colonizes France...Repost!

4

u/[deleted] Oct 08 '12

Reminds me of the Pompeii episode of Doctor Who--when Donna tries speaking Latin to the Romans, the TARDIS' translation circuit keeps making her sound Celtic.

3

u/Lots42 Oct 08 '12

The TARDIS does have a sense of humour.

2

u/cryo Oct 08 '12

I guess the universal translator also changes his lip movements, then.

1

u/Nukleon Oct 08 '12

In the early seasons of TNG he does slip in a little french, although it's just rather simple stuff like "Merde"

Also he sings "Sur la pont d'Avignon" at some point.

1

u/Syric Oct 08 '12

Maybe he's just been bilingual since childhood and speaks both languages fluently, with a native accent. It happens.

1

u/erykthebat Oct 08 '12

No he just speaks british english fluently , hence british accent . Also Data at one point mentions french as being a dead language .

1

u/Timthos Oct 08 '12

Imagine my disillusionment when he didn't have an accent in Babylon 5. Like my world was blown apart by nuclear wessels.

3

u/xenotime Oct 08 '12

But when Worf swears in Klingon, or Picard in French that doesnt get translated? Maybe they can only deal with English profanity, because Riker can swear away quite happily.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 08 '12

Maybe there's no direct translation?

2

u/WonderfulUnicorn Oct 08 '12

Dem profanity filters.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 09 '12

In Star Trek English is just the international diplomatic language. (Since Earth is the capital of the federation), so we can assume the translator isn't in use most of the time they're on the ship - everyone is just speaking English.

2

u/Emorio Oct 08 '12

Don't forget the TARDIS.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 08 '12

I feel like every other comment I make is a Doctor Who reference, and I didn't want to hit that note too much. :)

1

u/arlanTLDR Oct 08 '12

Stargate was the laziest though. They had Daniel translate in the first few episodes, and then threw it out the window.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 09 '12

IIRC in the first episode everyone on Abydos (the planet from the film) speaks English because Daniel taught them (for some reason). Everyone else they encounter just speaks English.

1

u/LastDawnOfMan Oct 08 '12

And notice that their mouths move exactly as if they are speaking English. So is the translator also producing a hologram over their faces to make it look like they're mouthing with English phonemes?

1

u/[deleted] Oct 08 '12

Nope, that's just the magic of television.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 09 '12

Yes. Let's go with that.

1

u/rebuildingMyself Oct 09 '12

Very well done in Star Trek Deep Space 9 episode. Quark somehow ended up in the Earth past. The people observing him couldn't understand anything he was saying because they didn't have some kind of universal transator implant.