So this prequel can ignore the movies? That just invites more "this isn't the prime timeline" posters...
Chapel Character Teaser
- Thread starter JoaquinSlowly
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So this prequel can ignore the movies? That just invites more "this isn't the prime timeline" posters...
Translator software.
Only the impartial computer hears the original Romulanese/Vulcanese, and the dumbo humans never suspect that they are stuck in a feud between cousins.
Hoshi would notice?
Hoshi already heard Romulan when they encountered the Romulan Minefield, in ENT Minefield and did not recognize the similarities between Romulanese and Vulcanese.
She pronounced "Romulan" wrong, and T'Pol corrected her accent.
I didn't say anything about ignoring anything. I asked where in TOS it was established, since that was the claim.
Klingon as a language was not invented irl until the motion picture.
(You know this.)
True, but TOS did reference "Klingonese" in "The Trouble with Troubles."
Ok, that's true but it's splitting hairs. I don't disagree that STVI was stupid, only that it is the same TOS continuity. That said, she might have just forgotten how to speak Klingon after having her brain sucked out and so might know loads of stuff in SNW that she forgets later. "Blooooeeey?"
Not quite the same but similar. The reason why I say she doesn't speak Romulan is that if ANYBODY spoke Romulan they should have noticed that it has weirdly similar linguistic roots to Vulcan long before Balancer of Terror. Nobody seemed briefed on that nugget. Clearly the Romulans conducted treaty negotiations in Federations standard.
Uhura could very well speak Vulcan, Andorian, Tellarate, Orion, or many other languages. It's canon that she doesn't speak Klingon or Romulan.
Oof. Why do the writers hate linguists? Looks to me that the Vulcans knew who the Romulans were and kept it to themselves.
The Translator went Tower of Babel on Discovery and Saru was the only multilingual in the crew.
Why couldn't they turn off the translator in DS9 Babel?
Why couldn't they turn off the translator in DS9 Babel?
The only thing that supports the idea she couldn't natively speak Klingon, was the ridiculous and honestly stupid scene in Star Trek the Undiscovered Country (and played entirely for laughs), where they were all using printed books on the Klingon language to respond to a Klingon hail because "the universal translator would be recognized..." - which are two stupid premises in themselves, given how many times we saw everyone speaking perfect and flawless English back and forth during a view screen communication in either the show itself or the films.
The books especially were stupid inclusion for that scene. I mean you're going to tell me they couldn't just ask the computer to instantly display the phonetic Klingon spelling for the equivalent phrase in English?
So yeah, I have no problem establishing that Federation Communications officers speak some other alien languages natively. Given how the character of Lieutenant Uhura was built up after the series (like the rest of the TOS characters), to the point that they're supposed to be the Pinnacle experts/archetypes, and Prime examples of what all Starfleet Cadets should strive for; the fact they now want to say Uhura was a natural linguist isn't a problem for me. Blame all the books and ancillary materials and stories that really inflate the abilities of all the TOS characters over the past 55 + years.
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It is worth pointing out that speaking other languages is generally a bit pointless in the age of the universal translator unless you're a spy or a diplomat, so I have no problem if she doesn't speak many other modern alien languages fluently. However, she is a command officer (albeit a cadet at this point), a technician, and a cryptographer. Much of her work should be done by the computer but she should absolutely be given codes, alien writings, and computer tasks. A compromise that would not violate canon (no matter how stupid) would be that she can understand a bit of Klingon but not speak it fluently.
I bet if I'd learned Klingon as a cadet I would've totally forgotten it all after decades of relying on a universal translator instead (and only encountering Klingons like 3 times a year at best). I've already forgotten all the French and German I was taught in school and I didn't even need a mindwipe from Nomad to achieve that.
Speaking of hating linguists, do people not realize that language can not be identical even from the same planet?
That was the point of the scene was to avoid the translator and make it sound like a real speaker.
Dumb, but there you are.
Poor Christine is such a background character that she gets her own thread and everyone just talks about Uhura instead 
As long as Chapel's penchant for ice cream makes it into the show, I will be happy.Poor Christine is such a background character that she gets her own thread and everyone just talks about Uhura instead
It was a ridiculous scene that undermined Uhura. Leave it on the trash heap.
As for Chapel, she deserves the same sort of "upgrade" Uhura got in
09. This is not a bad thing.
And neither character will be cutouts from TOS. That's not a bug.
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No, but it can definitely ignore one badly-conceived scene. That won't break the canon.
Who cares? There are always assholes out there who think they own Star Trek and get to dictate that shit.
Or a communications officer assigned to a starship deployed to deep space who knows full well that sometimes the universal translator fails, is inaccurate, is unable to translate idiosyncrasies of a language, or is otherwise not reliable 100% of the time.
It's really just common sense that you would want a linguist on such an assignment.
A lot of a Starfleet officer's job is probably just training for eventualities. I'm sure part of the communications department's job is constantly training in other languages and in deciphering alien languages in order to keep their skills fresh.
I think the concept of a Starfleet linguist is someone who understands how various categories of alien languages are constructed, looking for common elements without being fluent in large numbers of languages that you will never use.
Similarly, a Starfleet doctor or nurse has to use broad brush biochemical and biological commonalities to extrapolate suitable treatments.
Yeah a comms officer is command/services. A linguist is more science albeit they don't have to be all or nothing - Chapel is a researcher working as a nurse so your mileage may vary.
Let 'em kvetch. Why should we care?
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