It's a Nicholas Meyer movie, the guy loves anachronisms more than Abrams loves lens flares.
Why Can't Uhura Speak Klingon in Star Trek VI; Is She a Diffrent Person After Nomad
- Thread starter Star Trek Apolgist
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I don't see any evidence TOS/TOS movie Uhura was supposed to be a linguist, in addition to being a communications officer, so the ridiculous scene in TUC isn't really contradicted (though I wish it never appeared!). We do see her repairing her communication station in an episode, so it leads me to believe her skills are more technically oriented. In the army you have signal corps soldiers, and then you have linguists. Two separate fields.
It doesn't mean Uhura wasn't fluent in foreign languages. It just means her specialty and profession as communications officer was centered around a technical field. And really up to that point, what need did we have for a linguist with the "universal translator." That device sort of renders linguistics redundant.
We didn't see a communications officer double as a linguist until Hoshi on Enterprise. In fact, it is implied that her efforts were what helped build the universal translator design that Uhura used.
With Nuhura, I suspect they just carried Hoshi's linguistic role over to her for STID.
It doesn't mean Uhura wasn't fluent in foreign languages. It just means her specialty and profession as communications officer was centered around a technical field. And really up to that point, what need did we have for a linguist with the "universal translator." That device sort of renders linguistics redundant.
We didn't see a communications officer double as a linguist until Hoshi on Enterprise. In fact, it is implied that her efforts were what helped build the universal translator design that Uhura used.
With Nuhura, I suspect they just carried Hoshi's linguistic role over to her for STID.
It was implied in the same movie that Kirk knew the language.
Exactly, the Enterprise's computer would be fast enough to translate at verbal speed of the native speaker and display it onscreen. Uhura has enough skill to just read it off since it would have all the necessary pronounciative aid displayed along with it.
And how did the Enterprise have Klingon lexicons on board? I mean who was able to find that and take it to the bridge in time?
The film should have ended with them investigating the mysterious crew member smuggling antique books from the Klingon homeworld on the Federation flagship.
"Interesting collection Ensign...Hue Mann wasn't it?"
And how did the Enterprise have Klingon lexicons on board? I mean who was able to find that and take it to the bridge in time?
The film should have ended with them investigating the mysterious crew member smuggling antique books from the Klingon homeworld on the Federation flagship.
"Interesting collection Ensign...Hue Mann wasn't it?"
The scene definitely was.
From a practical standpoint, yeah, Uhura should have had some proficiency with Klingon, and Romulan for that matter, considering her long career with Starfleet. Even if it wasn't necessary because of the UT, you would think Uhura would be prepared enough to have studied the language to at least get the gist of a conversation.
But, then again, in the real world, how many non-linguist communications sailors knew Russian or Chinese, or how many signal corps soldiers speak Farsi? Very few.
This post pretty much says everything I was going to say on the topic. Thank you for saving me the effort!
Well, the books obviously weren't Klingon books. If no one knows Klingon, then no one could read Klingon books.
And yes, the scene was dumb, and the movie would have been better off without it.
I've always agreed
I get not using the audio of the UC for transmitting since the voice might be off and sound like a cimputer, but I never understood why it couldn't translate what the klingons said to them, and have a written display show them what to say in return. it could even have shown it spelled in phonetic English for them to read
"Don't wait for the translation! Answer me now!"
How does that imply Kirk knows Klingon? For one thing, there's no sign that he understands what Chang is shouting at him. For another, Chang is shouting in plain English!
And while Zorin originally did understand English well enough to get what Stevenson was shouting, that situation was different from this one in so many ways that sticking to such detail isn't worth the hassle.
in ST3, Kirk clearly didn't know the first word of the Klingon lingo, which is why his only hope of tricking Maltz into beaming him aboard was to repeat Kruge's gibberish verbatim, without comprehension. It's not likely he would have learned conversational courtroom Klingon in the meantime...
Timo Saloniemi
And while Zorin originally did understand English well enough to get what Stevenson was shouting, that situation was different from this one in so many ways that sticking to such detail isn't worth the hassle.
in ST3, Kirk clearly didn't know the first word of the Klingon lingo, which is why his only hope of tricking Maltz into beaming him aboard was to repeat Kruge's gibberish verbatim, without comprehension. It's not likely he would have learned conversational courtroom Klingon in the meantime...
Timo Saloniemi
I don't think both of those things can be true at the same time. Unless Kirk doesn't know English either.
True, and that appears to be a contradiction. But I'm merely pointing out: This particular movie has at least one character believe that Kirk knows Klingon, and it's conveyed onscreen in such a way that the audience may infer that he's right. Therefore, the movie implies that Kirk knows the language.
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