Too much Klingon dialogue with subtitles makes me sleepy

[KennyB]

Also one thing that bugs me is in Star Trek, Klingon females have always been portrayed as just as aggressive and warriorlike as Klingon males, and in Discovery the only Klingon female is very submissive and fawning over a man.

I find her more sneaky and calculating.........

 

[Shawnster]

They speak slow because of the subtitles! If they spoke at a normal conversational pace the text would flash too quickly on the screen for a lot of readers.

My wife has finally decided to watch Trek with me because of the new series. She thinks the subtitles are still flashing too fast.

For her sake! Please start speaking English! Have them speak in Klingon only when non-Klingons are present. Start their scenes in Klingon but after the first sentence or so, switch to English. Put a single subtitle in every scene that says "Speaking in Klingon."

 

[anh165]

My wife has finally decided to watch Trek with me because of the new series. She thinks the subtitles are still flashing too fast.

For her sake! Please start speaking English! Have them speak in Klingon only when non-Klingons are present. Start their scenes in Klingon but after the first sentence or so, switch to English. Put a single subtitle in every scene that says "Speaking in Klingon."

Why stop there, lets not bother with Klingons at all (or anything that doesn't resemble imagery of western man), let's just have a show full of Commander Datas and Seven of nines discussing baseball and be done with it.

The creative intolerance of 'trek fans' never ceases to amaze ....

 

[Kor]

The lengthy Klingon-language scenes were mildly intriguing for the first few minutes, and the quality of the Klingon language is much better than anything that ever appeared in TNG or DS9. But I think it's OK to drop this pretentious trope now in the interests of pacing, performance, and compelling story development.

The Klingon dialog in the TOS movies worked so great because of its brevity. The characters didn't drone on and on in endless philosophical rhetoric at a snail's pace.

I watch subtitled foreign films and TV shows all the time, and I think they are great. But the difference is that those actors are speaking a real-world language that they actually speak in real life, so they are able to express themselves very naturally.

No matter how well-crafted the Klingon language may be, it is not a real-world natural language, so that the cultural integrity of an actual group of people would be compromised if they were forced to stop speaking their own language and speak a language that doesn't belong in the setting (I'm looking at you, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny ).

These are fictional aliens in a fictional setting, and the actors are speaking an artificial language that they normally do not express themselves in. There's no harm in having them speak a real language instead for the benefit of the audience.

Kor

 

[Tesophius]

I think the makers of STD overestimated the number of hard core Trek fans who speak Klingon or even care for the accuracy of the language.

 

[anh165]

The lengthy Klingon-language scenes were mildly intriguing for the first few minutes, and the quality of the Klingon language is much better than anything that ever appeared in TNG or DS9. But I think it's OK to drop this pretentious trope now in the interests of pacing, performance, and compelling story development.

The Klingon dialog in the TOS movies worked so great because of its brevity. The characters didn't drone on and on in endless philosophical rhetoric at a snail's pace.

I watch subtitled foreign films and TV shows all the time, and I think they are great. But the difference is that those actors are speaking a real-world language that they actually speak in real life, so they are able to express themselves very naturally.

No matter how well-crafted the Klingon language may be, it is not a real-world natural language, so that the cultural integrity of an actual group of people would be compromised if they were forced to stop speaking their own language and speak a language that doesn't belong in the setting (I'm looking at you, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny ).

These are fictional aliens in a fictional setting, and the actors are speaking an artificial language that they normally do not express themselves in. There's no harm in having them speak a real language instead for the benefit of the audience.

Kor

In other words, you prefer TOS Klingons.

Brevity .....

 

[seigezunt]

I love that they speak in Klingon. For the first time I'm actually interested in the space bikers.

My one quibble is the lettering for the subtitles is odd. A serif font with capitalized words is a little hard to read, especially center-justified.

 

[Kor]

In other words, you prefer TOS Klingons.

Brevity .....

Indubitably!

Kor

 

[Tesophius]

btw, regular subtitles are weird on cbsaa, they jump around and are really small

 

[seigezunt]

I'm more annoyed that, while they have Klingon subtitles, they don't have an audio track that allows you to hear the whole show in Klingon.

 

[Sir Stewart Wallace]

I don't see how wishing for the Klingons to speak English to improve pacing problems, more emotive acting, etc. means anyone is being intolerant. We don't see the Vulcans speaking Vulcan, Andorians speaking Andorian, or humans speaking anything but English and we chalk it up to the in-universe bullshit Universal Translator. Do the Klingons turn theirs off? Does Starfleet always turn theirs on? All supposition. So while I certainly don't blame anyone for liking the Klingon scenes for the language, I don't think its fair that people who don't are labeled intolerant or not real fans.

That concludes my lecturing.

 

[eschaton]

I don't see how wishing for the Klingons to speak English to improve pacing problems, more emotive acting, etc. means anyone is being intolerant. We don't see the Vulcans speaking Vulcan, Andorians speaking Andorian, or humans speaking anything but English and we chalk it up to the in-universe bullshit Universal Translator. Do the Klingons turn theirs off? Does Starfleet always turn theirs on? All supposition. So while I certainly don't blame anyone for liking the Klingon scenes for the language, I don't think its fair that people who don't are labeled intolerant or not real fans.

That concludes my lecturing.

Although only mentioned briefly in canon, since Vulcans are telepaths they can speak "internally" to one another. Thus if we saw a "realistic" Vulcan-only scene it might involve a bunch of people sitting silently in a room. Real exciting!

 

[Sir Stewart Wallace]

If things were realistic in Star Trek, there wouldn't be thousands of alien species all within 1000 light years of Earth with roughly the same technology and motivation.

 

[EmoBorg]

Seeing how Klingons speak in the new series, i suspect mumble rap might be a thing in their culture.

 

[eschaton]

Seeing how Klingons speak in the new series, i suspect mumble rap might be a thing in their culture.

I'm certainly having a hard time visualizing them doing opera.

 

[Ridcully]

English speaking Nazi's
Keep talking Klingon!

 

[F. King Daniel]

I think the makers of STD overestimated the number of hard core Trek fans who speak Klingon or even care for the accuracy of the language.

My guess is that they have a new edition of the Klingon dictionary planned for release and thus want the language used loads on the show.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Also, "Remain Klingon!" sounds rather impotent and undermines their entire ethos if they say it in human English

 

[Captain pl1ngpl0ng]

The one thing that ruined "lord of the rings" for me was the english speaking orks...

I think its a great move having the klingons speak klingon!
They look really great too. Absolutely love this new serie so far, cool stuff.

 

[SJA]

I'm ambivalent about the subtitles but you folks are missing out on some belting shows if subtitles are too much of a hindrance to your viewing pleasure!