Do you speak future?

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Rick Berman And Brannon Braga Are Not Fans Of Contemporary Language In Modern Star Trek Shows

The upcoming puppet episode of 'Strange New Worlds' also got a mention.

trekmovie.com

Regarding the way Star Trek characters talk, I agree, there has to be some kind of balance between speaking formally, like a Shakespeare play and saying things people would believeably say. Various factors come into play:

* the era a show is being made
* which (kinds of) works it uses as inspirations
* the era a show or episode is set (when someone time travels, people from the past ought to speak like they did then, while our heroes don't - increases the "fish out of water" sense for them and us
* who the show is made for (kids, adults, new fans, original fans)
* who is speaking and to whom
* where someone is speaking (a diplomatic meeting, a fun party, a classroom, etc.)

Whenever a familiar to the audience term is brought up, one or more characters will invariably be unfamiliar with it, and misuse it or say it with a bad taste in their mouth. Then, another character will play interpreter and explain to their colleagues what it means, with the air of a scientist studying a sample of alien life or an archaelogical artifact. ("Humans used to call it a ____." "An ancient term for _____, etc.) A little of that goes a long way.

 

[Greg Cox]

Depends on the character as well: Spock is going to speak more formally, McCoy is going to be folksier, Kirk is somewhere in the middle -- and good thing too. Ideally, you don't want all your characters to have the same speech pattern. That way monotony lies.

And, of course, Star Trek characters are never really going to speak some "believable" future dialect, because the shows are intended for contemporary audiences, who shouldn't have to struggle to decipher actual 24th-century English or whatever.

Personally, I prefer it when the dialogue is more colloquial than formal, but that's both a matter of taste and a balancing act. Too colloquial and some slang expressions will inevitably date the show ("In a pig's eye!"); too formal and the dialogue can sound stiff and stilted.

And, of course, some expressions are more durable than others. "Groovy, man!" did not age well. "Goddamnit, you son of a bitch!" is timeless.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Ideally, you don't want all your characters to have the same speech pattern. That way monotony lies.

So you don't have to say "______ replied/laughed/agreed, etc." at the end of every sentence. You know who's talking because you can hear them say it in your mind.

 

[publiusr]

Batman Beyond was future-proof...shway

 

[Alexander Corrino]

As a (former) TNG fic writer I do have to say that TNG has a certain speech pattern for its characters, a way in which they talk, and you have to get it right to make your fic believable and to have your readers say "I could hear this character saying this line" (IMO this is some of the highest praise a fic writer can achieve). It's not always easy to accomplish, especially if you're not a native speaker of the English language. I always enjoyed this challenge although it was sometimes really difficult because Jean-Luc in particular can be tricky to write and in typical Me fashion he was the character I always focused on (I never pick the easy-to-write ones, lol).

All that being said, it really depends on the era of Trek. The more you go back into the past the more colloquial the speech patterns become and the "easier" it gets to write them because you don't have to pay super close attention to the whole "would this character really say this line in such a way" thing (still pay attention of course but your writing choices are not as limited anymore). I noticed this when I wrote a TNG/ENT crossover once. I really had to pay attention to the fact that the ENT characters speak a lot less formally and that this was a major way of distinguishing them from the TNG characters when they interacted.

I've always liked that difference in general tho, it helped to really establish a difference between past and future in the Trek universe.

 

[Christopher]

And, of course, some expressions are more durable than others. "Groovy, man!" did not age well. "Goddamnit, you son of a bitch!" is timeless.

I dunno... it depends on the context. My understanding is that in earlier generations, people didn't curse openly in public or in "polite company" (which usually meant when men and women were together). It was more of a private thing, or reserved for times of strong emotion, not used as casually as people do today.

Also, profanities change over time. Shakespeare's characters were often foul-mouthed, but rarely used cuss words we would recognize today. And using the word "God" in an oath would have been seen as blasphemous, using the Lord's name in vain, which is how we got minced oaths like "Od's bodkins" and "'Sblood."

 

[The Wormhole]

I remember Doctor Who comics published in the 1990s did a story set in the near future (which I think was supposed to be 2010 or so) made their attempt at creating future slang, which just came off as bizarre. IE, everyone referred to each other as "child" for no real apparent reason.

 

[Christopher]

I remember Doctor Who comics published in the 1990s did a story set in the near future (which I think was supposed to be 2010 or so) made their attempt at creating future slang, which just came off as bizarre. IE, everyone referred to each other as "child" for no real apparent reason.

I love the slang/argot in Doctor Who: "Paradise Towers." Somehow it adds poetry to a story that's kind of cheesy.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

My understanding is that in earlier generations, people didn't curse openly in public or in "polite company" (which usually meant when men and women were together). It was more of a private thing, or reserved for times of strong emotion, not used as casually as people do today.

Or in front of children. If kids swore, it would be because they didn't understand that what they were saying was wrong, or they'd do it in front of their friends, not their parents.

It can be an effective shorthand, I suppose. for "I'm really stressed out/something's very wrong" if someone who normally never does it, does. I prefer "bit back a curse", "let loose a string of epithets", "swore loudly", and "(insert made-up term here)" to most profanity. Gets the point across without being vulgar.

 

[Set Harth]

I remember Doctor Who comics published in the 1990s did a story set in the near future (which I think was supposed to be 2010 or so) made their attempt at creating future slang, which just came off as bizarre. IE, everyone referred to each other as "child" for no real apparent reason.

Creating future slang makes me think of The Dark Knight Returns.

 

[fireproof78]

That's now. That's real now.

 

[Christopher]

Or in front of children. If kids swore, it would be because they didn't understand that what they were saying was wrong, or they'd do it in front of their friends, not their parents.

In my experience, both back in my school days and overhearing children playing in the park near my current home, I can safely say that children curse like sailors when their parents or teachers aren't around.

Although I'm an exception. I used to have such a mental block about cursing that I wouldn't even let myself cuss subvocally when I was alone. Now, I curse routinely in private, but I still have a mental block about swearing in other people's earshot (or the online text equivalent). And I think even my private swearing is something of an affectation, since I find that when I get genuinely stressed or exhausted, I find myself saying things like "Oh, dear" and "Oh, my goodness."

 

[F. King Daniel]

There were whole ass threads in 2008 because a clip from the forthcoming Star Trek reboot has Kirk say, "why are you talking to me, man?" and it was like the sky was falling in on Gene's Vision.

 

[publiusr]

Not to be confused with the comic issue where the Air Team almost hits him:

" I'm walking here!"

 

[Maurice]

Of course, if you could time-travel back 50 years and wrote a story then using actual slang from today, people then would find it equally stupid-sounding as the made-up stuff. I mean "My friend showed up with new drip, full of main character energy, saying the party was gonna slap — no cap — but honestly, his rizz was lowkey sus."

 

[Set Harth]

FUTURE MOTHERFUCKER, DO YOU SPEAK IT???

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Actually, the title came from this:

Do You Speak George?

"Do You Speak George?" is the first half of the ninth episode in the tenth season of Arthur. Everyone at school starts making up their own languages. Arthur, Francine, Buster, Muffy, Binky, Fern, Brain and Sue Ellen are on a hay ride. Arthur comments that it is great when they do things as a...

arthur.fandom.com

@Maurice somehow, TOS's way of speaking manages to transcend time - it's not foreign to me, aside from made-up tech terms and alien species. Maybe because I watch a lot of other 50s/60s shows.

 

[Forbin]

I think I recall reading a novel where the characters spoke in 'future slang,' and I got real tired of it very quickly.

 

[Forbin]

Oh - this reminds me of Fireball XL-5! They had ONE bit of future slang to make the characters sound cool. "Tootie." As in, Venus forgets to do something and says "Oh, I'm such a tootie!"

 

[nightwind1]

I think I recall reading a novel where the characters spoke in 'future slang,' and I got real tired of it very quickly.

Clockwork Orange?