Universal translators.

[THE_FETT]

But... but... I can see their lips moving in English!!!

Clearly the UT projects a little hologram over the mouths of aliens to make it appear that they're speaking in English.

I figure if I'm willing to suspend disbelief on faster-than-light travel, transporters, beam weapons, magical holodecks, and a utopian society that can somehow sustain a money-free economy, the universal translator is no big leap.

As others have said, it's TV. The UT was just a plot device to explain why aliens are speaking English. It's not an idea that's meant to be examined all that closely.

What he said.

 

[clever_username]

clever username; universal translators work by reading the brain patterns of the person talking to you and interpreting them into your own language, so when quark and co went back in time they could talk to the humans but without the translators they couldnt even hear the english.

right. but how does a person without a translator understand what you're saying?

 

[Timo]

In the case of Quark vs. the Americans in "Little Green Men", it would be fairly simple because all the non-UT folks were speaking a single language. If the UT is indeed tied to the brain, as I suppose it is, it would intercept the sounds that Quark's ears pick and turn them into Ferenginese somewhere between his ear and brain. Similarly, it would pick Quark's thoughts (the ones his brain had already processed into speech) and intercept them before they reach his vocal cords, and translate them to English. We could build something like that today already...

Quark would probably have a mental drop-down menu in his UT which he could use to set his UT to output English speech. He could also have it set on Bajoran to allow Odo to understand him, although I suspect Odo already knows his way around English - and quite possibly Odo always carries a Bajoran (or Cardassian, or recently Federation) UT with him, like he seems to carry a commbadge even through his transformations.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[FordSVT]

I liked the UT problems part of Sanctuary. The rest of the Skrreean storyline sucked.
I wonder what happened to the Skrreea during the Dominion War. Maybe, the Jem'Hadar slaughtered all of them.

Yeah, that was the part I liked. I don't really remember the rest of the episode, I was just thinking "Cool, finally the UT doesn't get it!"

Finally?

Do the words "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra" mean anything to you?

 

[Tyberius]

I liked the UT problems part of Sanctuary. The rest of the Skrreean storyline sucked.
I wonder what happened to the Skrreea during the Dominion War. Maybe, the Jem'Hadar slaughtered all of them.

Yeah, that was the part I liked. I don't really remember the rest of the episode, I was just thinking "Cool, finally the UT doesn't get it!"

Finally?

Do the words "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra" mean anything to you?

Shaka. When the walls fell.

Sokath! His eyes uncovered!