The Final Frontier - Qual se tu?

[TheGodBen]

I just watched this film on DVD for the first time in years, and I'm confused about why "Qual se tu" was subtitled. Sybok says it twice (when he meets Spock and when he meets "god") so I am assuming it is Vulcan for "Is it you", but both times it was subtitled in Vulcan. I'm watching it on the region 2 special edition version, is it like this on other versions as well?

 

[Timo]

Umm, "Qual se tu?" would be plain Italian for "Who art thou?", not Vulcan...

Either Sybok and Spock are in the habit of using Italian phrases for effect - quite possible, considering how cosmopolitan they are. Or then there is a phrase in old Vulcan that closely approximates this classic question as posed by, say, Dante, and gets translated into this phrase by the UT. A bit like an Italian or German guy saying that it's "business as usual": the phrase exists in all languages, but saying it in English carries a special meaning.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tulin]

I always assumed it was Vulcan, too. In fact, I just finished watching TFF about half an hour ago(it sucked MORE than I remembered)and I made mention that it was strange those Vulcan words were subtitled IN VULCAN!!!! If this actually WAS meant to be Italian being spoken(and I have never heard this before), why was it not subtitled in the English equivalent. This makes me think even more that it is simply a Vulcan phrase.

 

[TheGodBen]

If it is in Italian and not Vulcan then it still doesn't explain why the subtitles were in Italian both times. Everything that was said in Klingon was subtitled into English, why wasn't the Italian? Did Will Shatner do it to mess with my head?

 

[iguana_tonante]

Umm, "Qual se tu?" would be plain Italian for "Who art thou?", not Vulcan...

Never heard of that line in TFF, I must watch it in the original language.

That line would be old Italian, medieval perhaps. (modern version would be "Chi sei tu?"). I've made a little research and it could be from Dante's Divina Commedia, said by Dante himself to a damned soul, Buoso di Doviera, traitor of his country. Not sure if it's relevant, but still.

 

[QuasarVM]

What's Vulcan for "Where is good movie?"...

 

[cardinal biggles]

I don't know, what's the Vulcan phrase for "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, next theater down on your right"?

 

[QuasarVM]

I don't know, what's the Vulcan phrase for "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, next theater down on your right"?

Good one!