Do you speak future?

[Christopher]

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

I'm pretty sure it was "She was a nova, that one," and the Blish adaptation agrees. (It was in Star Trek 8, by which time the adaptations were pretty verbatim.) It makes more sense that it would be used as a noun than an adjective.

It does sound a little anachronistic to me, though, since the usage of "nova" has shifted over time. It used to be used synonymously with "supernova," and fiction continued that practice far longer than scientists did, but these days I hear "supernova" a lot more often than "nova" (even though classical novae occur far more frequently than supernovae). For that matter, if "supernova" had come to be slang for an especially hot person of one's preferred gender, that would make "she was a nova" rather faint praise in comparison.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

I suppose you could re-interpret it as shortened slang - " 'nova", drop the "super-" over time.

 

[Tallguy]

I'm pretty sure it was "She was a nova, that one," and the Blish adaptation agrees. (It was in Star Trek 8, by which time the adaptations were pretty verbatim.) It makes more sense that it would be used as a noun than an adjective.

It does sound a little anachronistic to me, though, since the usage of "nova" has shifted over time. It used to be used synonymously with "supernova," and fiction continued that practice far longer than scientists did, but these days I hear "supernova" a lot more often than "nova" (even though classical novae occur far more frequently than supernovae). For that matter, if "supernova" had come to be slang for an especially hot person of one's preferred gender, that would make "she was a nova" rather faint praise in comparison.

Is this like "one small step for A man" but Neil is from Ohio so we can't hear it? "One step for-uh man?"

"Nova" is clearly "really something" (or possibly "crazy"). He could have said "She was really zoogbah, that one". Which, I think, is the only time that TOS used made up slang, wasn't it? (NO I'm not counting the Space Hippies.)

I think someone like @Maurice should educate us in what ways did TOS NOT sound like, say, The Dick van Dyke Show". Heck, how slangy was The Munsters or The Addams Family when it wasn't intentionally sending up then-modern slang?

If TNG (and Berman era in general) sounded more stilted than other contemporary shows then it was only because it was trying to sound like TOS.

 

[Christopher]

Is this like "one small step for A man" but Neil is from Ohio so we can't hear it? "One step for-uh man?"

I'm from Ohio myself, and I don't think that has anything to do with it. Gary Lockwood is from Los Angeles.

I just checked the scene courtesy of Paramount+, and it does sound like "She was nova," but it's more like "She was n-ova," not unlike how one might pronounce "She was an ova." So I think it was meant to be "She was a nova," but Lockwood kind of slurred it together.

"Nova" is clearly "really something" (or possibly "crazy"). He could have said "She was really zoogbah, that one". Which, I think, is the only time that TOS used made up slang, wasn't it? (NO I'm not counting the Space Hippies.)

As I said, it was probably meant to be a noun, not an adjective. As in, she was super-hot and intense, like an exploding star. Not slang so much as a metaphor, like "She was a firecracker," only much bigger.

 

[FredH]

I actually kind of liked when Riker’s father told him to “Lower your shields”, i.e. stop keeping a defensive emotional wall between them. That seemed a reasonable expression to come out of common technology, and I’m kind of sorry it was never used again, as far as I can recall.

 

[Tallguy]

Just listened. There's no pause. It's just "She was nova that one."

 

[Christopher]

Just listened. There's no pause. It's just "She was nova that one."

I already addressed that. And the fact that Blish's adaptation used "a nova" suggests that's how it was scripted. Besides, it is elementary that "nova" is a noun. No point in overcomplicating the obvious.