Things in Trek that make me go "gah"!
- Thread starter Penta
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-The fact that apparently every race in the galaxy is sexually compatible with every other race in the galaxy and can produce children. After a while, it really starts to strain my suspension of disbelief.
-The TNG-era's constant parade of bumpy forehead aliens.
-The fact that almost all of Starfleet's Admirals are apparently older humans, even in the presumably well-integrated 24th Century. Honestly, I don't recall ever seeing ANY race besides humans or Vulcans in the Admiralty.
-The TNG-era's constant parade of bumpy forehead aliens.
-The fact that almost all of Starfleet's Admirals are apparently older humans, even in the presumably well-integrated 24th Century. Honestly, I don't recall ever seeing ANY race besides humans or Vulcans in the Admiralty.
My biggest problem is that there has never been any toilet scenes in Trek.
You say that like it's a bad thing . . .
So far as the admiralty goes: We already note that Starfleet, for reasons variously explained, is ~80% human. A (para)military organization only gets its senior officers from promotions of the mid-grade officers below them...And those only from promotions of lower officers.
If it doesn't get many non-humans in its intake of Academy or OCS or whatever cadets, it has a much slimmer chance of having non-human Admirals years later.
If it doesn't get many non-humans in its intake of Academy or OCS or whatever cadets, it has a much slimmer chance of having non-human Admirals years later.
I don't quite blame the novels, simply because they were working off of what they got on the show. Voyager's stance on holographic life bugs me a LOT, since they basically said 'yep, all holograms are entirely sentient living creatures.' That means that Starfleet, hell, the entire FEDERATION, casually creates and destroys sentient life AND NO ONE EVER ACTUALLY STOPS TO CONSIDER THIS. They hold the Doctor up as the standard when in fact, he is an EXCEPTION. He wasn't designed to be the actual CMO, just a quick replacement or an extra pair of hands. He was forced into that role and forced to grow, simply because there wasn't anyone else qualified. Extreme circumstances that aren't easily replicable don't make for the best of foundations for declaring yourself the leader of a movement to un-oppress the masses of holograms.
Though the Ocampan nine-year life span with a single reproductive phase giving one offspring is a close second in the 'Voyager did this and it really bugs me' category.
English is becoming now the standard language in the World. So, it will be a lingua franca for Earth's population speaking with one another.
But also with the Universal Translators in place, you can have different cultures on one ship or place understanding one another but speaking different languages.
Sounds like the time Gene justified all the Earthlike planets by claiming that statistically there must be many parallel Earths out there... while ignoring that most of them are probably not in this part of the galaxy.
Or when Gene danced around the issue of Stardate discrepancies by invoking relativity, and getting it right by accident.
Me too, but why gagh in particular? Surely it's no more disgusting than some of the other Trek food.
Anyone ever notice how many similarities the Klingons have to the Ferengi? They both sharpen their teeth-- in fact, Worf uses Quark's tooth sharpener. And they have similar diets. Klingons eat worms, Ferengi eat grubs.
Well, that's why there are no bathroom scenes! They'd have to show the gymnastics required for the characters to disrobe.
Bolian Admiral was commandant of the Academy in DS9, there were two Caitian Admirals in TVH in the Council Chamber scenes and an Andorian admiral as well.
Lazy writers?
No, No. I was asking the OP where he got the idea the idea that english was the only language in use on earth? Nothing in canon.
I mentioned fandom as well was influencing my list of things that severely annoy me (and there it seems a popular idea that English/FedStandard has knocked out all other human languages), but language was an admittedly poor choice of example on my part when I intended to protest against the Terran monoculture (and the greater Federation monoculture, and the weird lack of subcultures). You're right that canon is silent on the topic, although I would argue that the UT would seem to lead inevitably to this.
I concede the point so far as language goes - canon is silent. However, I continue to argue that, unless we see the UT having limits so far as how many languages it can handle dynamically (a limit as simple as a memory buffer would be a good way of handling it) and how fast it works (we have no idea if the UT is in the ear, the combadge for TNG, or what, even, and there's no apparent delay for translation), there's no functional reason left to learn languages beyond one's own...And no way for non-Standard languages to really survive, because you'd see a collapse in terms of who speaks a language natively - not kids, as kids would be learning Federation Standard (to use kids on Earth as the example). Exactly as happens to languages IRL. Which is, to me,
in terms of consequences.
I concede the point so far as language goes - canon is silent. However, I continue to argue that, unless we see the UT having limits so far as how many languages it can handle dynamically (a limit as simple as a memory buffer would be a good way of handling it) and how fast it works (we have no idea if the UT is in the ear, the combadge for TNG, or what, even, and there's no apparent delay for translation), there's no functional reason left to learn languages beyond one's own...And no way for non-Standard languages to really survive, because you'd see a collapse in terms of who speaks a language natively - not kids, as kids would be learning Federation Standard (to use kids on Earth as the example). Exactly as happens to languages IRL. Which is, to me,
That may not neccessarily be the case. We don't know how wide-spread UT technology is. It's possible it's mostly just used by Starfleet/UFP officials, interstellar merchants/travelers and immigrants and the bulk of the population doesn't have a UT. Also, why do you think kids on Earth would be learning only Federation Standard (if I understood you correctly)? Why not their own language and Federation Standard as a second language (or if everyone has a UT, not even Federation Standard, the UT would provide them with that)?
Why not their notional local language first and English/FedStandard second? My gut reaction is: The reason that wouldn't be done is the same reason people try so hard to sound like they don't have a noticable accent. Which learning another language first would tend to give you, by the way. It's hard to explain why it happens, why the more local tongue is rejected like that, but it happens commonly enough when there's a lingua franca and a regional language that I'd be very surprised if it didn't happen here. It's an even worse situation for written language, especially languages that use different alphabetical forms from the dominant language (such as Greek or Russian or Hebrew in comparison to English, to name three examples offhand), or don't use alphabets at all (Chinese, anyone?). There you could see the language die out as a living language even quicker.
The UT, to my mind, is a wonderful excuse for the translation convention we all know sci-fi uses...But it comes with elements, I think, of fridge horror for those who think about the implications of such a device on linguistic and cultural diversity if it were really as foolproof and easy to use (and instantaneous...and, oh yes, as concealable) as depicted on Trek. Put simply, unless there's something I've missed so far as the UT having disadvantages for a previously-known language, it's hard not to see how every language on a planet besides the standard one would die out.
I'll admit that a good bit of my concern/dismay comes from the fact that, even though I've never once succeeded at learning much beyond smatters of any tongue that isn't English, I've tried to learn a number of languages. And what that's taught me is that it pretty much goes without saying that how you speak, how you read, shapes a lot of how you think. The UT thus, without perhaps intending to, imposes a single way of thinking along with speaking and reading. And that's...That scares me.
The UT, to my mind, is a wonderful excuse for the translation convention we all know sci-fi uses...But it comes with elements, I think, of fridge horror for those who think about the implications of such a device on linguistic and cultural diversity if it were really as foolproof and easy to use (and instantaneous...and, oh yes, as concealable) as depicted on Trek. Put simply, unless there's something I've missed so far as the UT having disadvantages for a previously-known language, it's hard not to see how every language on a planet besides the standard one would die out.
I'll admit that a good bit of my concern/dismay comes from the fact that, even though I've never once succeeded at learning much beyond smatters of any tongue that isn't English, I've tried to learn a number of languages. And what that's taught me is that it pretty much goes without saying that how you speak, how you read, shapes a lot of how you think. The UT thus, without perhaps intending to, imposes a single way of thinking along with speaking and reading. And that's...That scares me.
Klingons and Trills aren't can't reproduce together, as explained in DS9's Tears of the Prophets.
There was a Bolian in Paradise Lost.
But if the UT is that pervasive you actually have the opposite problem from everyone actually knowing the same language. If everyone has a UT in their pocket, what incentive is there to learn another language? you could end up with a society where virtually everyone speaks a different language but doesn't realize it.
I don't know, I live in Europe and while everyone learns English at school as a second language for stuff like the Internet etc. (plus often one more foreign language as well) no one has absolutely any intention of abandoning their native languages. Heck, the EU has 23 official languages! True, there is some assimilation of minorities but I doubt you can compare nations in a unified Earth with minorities.
As for the UT, depends on the way you think it works. I think it's a sort of extended brain language center with pre-learned languages (as if you learned them the hard way) and it enables you to speak, understand, read and write any language it is programmed to. In a way, I view it the opposite way from you. It actually exposes you to hundreds of different ways of thinking. (Of course, having something like that plugged directly into your brain could be considered scary as well)
^That's actually not a bad idea. I still sort of prefer prostheses to the ear itself (CNS modification is usually considered strange, and sometimes almost taboo, in Trek, especially after the Borg--and Geordi notwithstanding).
But a brain prosthetic is a really cool idea. The problem is that any brain prosthetic that could teach languages could do lots of other things that we never see them do. ("Learn calculus? Screw that noise, I've got a cyberbrain.")
But a brain prosthetic is a really cool idea. The problem is that any brain prosthetic that could teach languages could do lots of other things that we never see them do. ("Learn calculus? Screw that noise, I've got a cyberbrain.")
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