Do you speak future?

[scotpens]

One thing I've always liked about the classic Forbidden Planet is the dialogue. Other than some throwaway technobabble there's no attempt at "futuristic" speech, just characters speaking intelligently in complete sentences. Dr. Morbius, in particular, has the speech patterns of a highly educated and literate man who carefully chooses his words before they leave his lips. How many of today's actors could deliver those lines without sounding as if they're reading from a prepared speech?

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.

Maybe it was meant to be a riff on the overuse of "man" by beatniks, hipsters and hippies as a conversation-filler.

 

[F. King Daniel]

AKA everyone speechifies under the spotlights while the other characters look on thoughtfully?

Standing in a half-circle, arms by their sides, taking turns to say their lines, not reacting to anything. It was so obvious a couple of times in TNG that it took me way out of the show.

TNG started these, but Voyager really replaced it with endless corridor walk-and-talks. Where are they going? Doesn't matter. They're walking. And talking.

 

[Maurice]

@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.

I cannot fathom what that has to do with what I wrote.

 

[Christopher]

One thing I've always liked about the classic Forbidden Planet is the dialogue. Other than some throwaway technobabble there's no attempt at "futuristic" speech, just characters speaking intelligently in complete sentences. Dr. Morbius, in particular, has the speech patterns of a highly educated and literate man who carefully chooses his words before they leave his lips. How many of today's actors could deliver those lines without sounding as if they're reading from a prepared speech?

Funny -- to me, Walter Pidgeon's Morbius always sounded like he was reading from a prepared speech. I've always found his performance extremely stiff.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I cannot fathom what that has to do with what I wrote.

Unlike today's slang, which you said would be incoherent to people 50 years ago, TOS speech is coherent to me (so the reverse).

 

[Forbin]

In hindsight, I kinda wish I hadn't used "goddamnit" as a example of timeless slang, since I didn't mean to ignite yet another debate on profanity in media.

Let's just pretend I used "Hold your horses, buddy!" as an example of colloquial dialogue that has aged better than "Groovy, man!"

Don't get all gee-hawed.

 

[Forbin]

Clockwork Orange?

No, never read it. Something more recent, but I read so much science fiction, it's impossible to remember what it was.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

No, never read it. Something more recent, but I read so much science fiction, it's impossible to remember what it was.

We forgive you, Daddy-O.

 

[Greg Cox]

No, never read it. Something more recent, but I read so much science fiction, it's impossible to remember what it was.

See also Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban, or much of the work of Jack Womack.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Writers at TNG could get pretty frustrated with that overly formal, "hit our mark and declaim" (as Sirtis put it) style of writing and performance.

We were told by a script editor that, "You don't write the stilted Star Trek language, damn it." Rather obviously tongue-in-cheek.

I'm glad that's done with. It was a mannered attempt to imitate 1960s TV. Into the dumper.

If TNG had taken a few overlapping cues from OBSESSION from TOS, I'd rewatch it more often. As it is I can't even abide TNG's wimpy doorbells.

Plus normally fearsome types like like Mark Rolston seemed to be neutered in comparison while acting on TNG.

 

[Tallguy]

What is an example of the overly contemporary language that nuTrek uses? The only one I could come up with from memory was "You are very charming, and I am completely missing it?" from Spock. Which was, as with most idioms that Spock delivers said with a stiff delivery as if he had learned it by rote. Because that's the point of such dialog.

I can't believe they cited "Give me five" as too contemporary. When was "give me five" contemporary? And I'm not familiar with the scene. I don't recall that ever being part of any character's unironic vernacular. (Maybe it became a thing in later Disco seasons. If so then I apologize.)

I think the complaint is that they talk like a vaguely Joss Whedon cast and don't have the military formality that every show runner including Roddenberry would occasionally insist that they don't have.

TOS sounds like a 1960's show. TNG sounds like a 90's show.

This topic is coming up in several of my hangouts. If you're unfortunate enough to have to hear my opinions on this three times then you have my condolences. Like, for REAL, man!

 

[nightwind1]

In hindsight, I kinda wish I hadn't used "goddamnit" as a example of timeless slang, since I didn't mean to ignite yet another debate on profanity in media.

Let's just pretend I used "Hold your horses, buddy!" as an example of colloquial dialogue that has aged better than "Groovy, man!"

I still use groovy.

Of course, these days I use "shiny" even more.

 

[Tallguy]

I still use groovy.

Shiny.

 

[Greg Cox]

One thing I've always liked about the classic Forbidden Planet is the dialogue. Other than some throwaway technobabble there's no attempt at "futuristic" speech, just characters speaking intelligently in complete sentences. Dr. Morbius, in particular, has the speech patterns of a highly educated and literate man who carefully chooses his words before they leave his lips. How many of today's actors could deliver those lines without sounding as if they're reading from a prepared speech?

Then again, as I recall, the crew itself spoke fairly colloquially among themselves.

Especially the boozy cook!

 

[FredH]

Doesn’t Gary Mitchell tell Elizabeth Dehner to “Dig this!” just before showing off for her?

 

[The Wormhole]

Thank you Doctor Who comics for showing us the way, and for making Frobisher.

Frobisher is cool, I'll agree with that.

 

[scotpens]

Doesn’t Gary Mitchell tell Elizabeth Dehner to “Dig this!” just before showing off for her?

According to the transcript, he said "Hey, watch this, Doc."

However, in describing what we can infer was an encounter with a particularly desirable female, he said "Yeah, she was nova, that one."

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

The writers implied that space-related slang would naturally develop amongst a starfaring society.

 

[FredH]

According to the transcript, he said "Hey, watch this, Doc."

However, in describing what we can infer was an encounter with a particularly desirable female, he said "Yeah, she was nova, that one."

I stand corrected.

 

[The Salt Umpire]

According to the transcript, he said "Hey, watch this, Doc."

However, in describing what we can infer was an encounter with a particularly desirable female, he said "Yeah, she was nova, that one."

Well, if you understand what a nova is, then you can get the general gist. Heck, wasn't Dr Dehner referred to as a walking freezer unit? We get the gist, as it were. I have to use closed captions now and I surely would have noticed "dig this", I think. It would have struck me as anachronistic.