In season 6 episode 18, "Ashes to ashes," Lyndsay Ballard speaks in the Kobali language while addressing Lt Torres. Torres doesn't understand what Ballard says. Why doesn't the universal translator work in this scene?
Kobali language not supported by UT
- Thread starter Fleet Admiral Tuvix
- Start date
Needs of the plot.
There's a theory that the UT only translates when the speaker wants it to. That also explains why words like petaQ and Qapla' aren't translated, even when the other person in the conversation doesn't speak Klingon.
I don't accept the assumption that the UT is constantly active and everyone's speaking their own languages. It's nonsensical to expect a starship crew to rely entirely on technology with no backup in case it fails, and even the most advanced mechanical translation will be imperfect and risk losing nuances of meaning. Logically, everyone in Starfleet would be required to learn English at the Academy and use it aboardship, unless they were of a species whose vocal anatomy didn't permit it. (Or some common language, but there have been many explicit references to the characters speaking English in a form comprehensible to people from the 20th-21st century.)
So I prefer to believe that when we see characters speaking English to each other, they actually are speaking English, unless the situation explicitly requires otherwise (like on a first contact or a clandestine visit to an alien planet). So the UT wouldn't be engaged in those circumstances, and what we're hearing is simply what the character actually said, an English sentence with a soupcon of foreign vocabulary dropped in.
(And yes, we have seen a Discovery episode where the translator breaks down and the crew can't understand each other, but as I said, that's completely ridiculous, so I choose to believe the translator didn't just fail but was instead overactive, so they were all speaking English but the translator was converting it into random languages. It makes more sense in the context of Prodigy where the characters were explicitly forbidden to learn a common language and were thus dependent on the ship's UT.)
So I prefer to believe that when we see characters speaking English to each other, they actually are speaking English, unless the situation explicitly requires otherwise (like on a first contact or a clandestine visit to an alien planet). So the UT wouldn't be engaged in those circumstances, and what we're hearing is simply what the character actually said, an English sentence with a soupcon of foreign vocabulary dropped in.
(And yes, we have seen a Discovery episode where the translator breaks down and the crew can't understand each other, but as I said, that's completely ridiculous, so I choose to believe the translator didn't just fail but was instead overactive, so they were all speaking English but the translator was converting it into random languages. It makes more sense in the context of Prodigy where the characters were explicitly forbidden to learn a common language and were thus dependent on the ship's UT.)
That's strange.
Because when Voyager is stranded on Hanon IV in the episode Basics #1 and #2 and their combadges are taken by the Kazon, the differeny crewmembers from different species can still communicate.
Why?
To find out why, it's necessary to visit The Kes Website and the page:
Voyager's Mysteries-and how to solve them.
I quote the information there:
The universal translator
According to official sources, an universal translator is installed in the computers of all Federation ships. The combadges also have miniature universal translators incorporated. But in that case, how could the different species among the Voyager crew communicate when they were stranded on the Hanon planet in "Basics" and their combadges were taken from them?
The B&B device!
The solution is the B&B device, named after two important persons in the 20th century who did foresee the development of the future. THe B&B device is a very small microchip which is attached to the inner ear and which immediately starts when the ship's computer universal translator is unavailable, for example when the combadges are removed or destroyed. In that way, different species can continue to communicate.
However, that information does not tell us why the Voyager crew couldn't talk to or understand the inhabitants of that planet, why Torres didn't understand Lyndsey Ballard or why humans can communicate with certain species with or without the Universal Translator but not with all species they encounter.
Both parties were in uniform. Perhaps if both parties are in uniform the system obeys the wishes of the speaker; if I were exploring and meeting new species I would likely want a mode that translates everything said by the aliens but this wasn't like that.
Weren't those non-English languages the character's supposed secondary tongues? (The Welsh guy speaking Welsh) In which case it's not so much random as it is confusing their secondary preferred settings with the default.
Particularly in cases where there's no perfect direct English translation for the word they're using that fits as well.
The Amish novels I read frequently drop bits of Pennsylvania Dutch into otherwise English sentences (often with handy glossaries in the book, though I've read enough to recognize most of the words they use - Mamm, Dat, schwester, ferhoodled, etc)
good, because that appears to be exactly what happens in the episode. once Saru turns off the translator everyone who speaks English can communicate again.
So everyone can look horrified?
This would make sense. A person expert at talking through the UT could probably manipulate it so that it doesn't translate certain things. It's no stranger than the fact that the UT "knows" that Rok-Tahk is a child, and gives her a little girl voice when talking to other, rather than a Brikar uber-bass.
No little yellow fish in people's ears?
No, just a great solution to the question why people of different species can talk to each other and understand each other even if their combadges are removed or destroyed. A solution as good as The Shuttle and Torpedo Building Team when it comes to explain certain oddities in Star Trek.
But many other theories presented in this thread about the UT are valuable too.
A plausible explanation, but we also learn that in some cases, the language (or perhaps specific concepts in the language) is simply too alien. In the case of the Kobali, it's hard to tell which one it would be.
Thinking about it, there probably would be a lot of ... interesting disputes if the Kobali were ever to join the Federation.
Or when they would meet the Vhnori (from Emanations) in some dimensional cross-over, for that matter.
Or when they would meet the Vhnori (from Emanations) in some dimensional cross-over, for that matter.
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I think that they would have to refrain from reanimating the corpses they found lying around, without permission. But, many people would be willing to donate their deceased... it would be like giving them a second chance.
If they have a longer lifespan on average than humans, it could buy even the elderly more time...unless there's an age cutoff for transformation.
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