Plus, I doubt Christopher Plummer wanted to spend any more time (than absolutely necessary) speaking Klingon...
Why Can't Uhura Speak Klingon in Star Trek VI; Is She a Diffrent Person After Nomad
- Thread starter Star Trek Apolgist
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This is my pet peeve, but I hate when people complain about Picard's English accent. Why no one is complaining about, Worf's, Pulaski's or Uhura's* American accent? Why it is seen natural to adopt American accent when learning the language, but if someone adopts an English accent it is weird and need some sort of an explanation?
(* + countless other non-American characters)
Largely because the accent isn't the problem. Aside from singing Frere Jacque and the occasional red wine, Picard isn't very French. Not a problem....except for when he is being very English. Which he is, whether as a stereotype or as a reflection of the actor playing him. Now the same is sort of true for the others, but their nationality is rarely a point of issue (apart from Worf, who should probably speak with a Russian accent but Klingons sound American it seems.)
So, to be clear, it's not his accent that ever gives me pause (perfectly reasonable for a Frenchman to speak with a perfect English accent, even with a local dialect accent.) It's the fact that his characterisation is so overtly English. Tea. Shakespeare. Early Picard was less so, Patrick Stewart was trying, and less of him had put into the character. I am sure the same is true of other characters, just for me, his is more noticeable (though of only more London had got into Troi. The fights alone would have been amazing.) I dare say dixieland jazz is not that common place a hobby in Alaska.
From a real-world perspective, it's just odd for Picard to be a Frenchman from France who speaks English without any hint of a French accent to speak of. Did he grow up speaking RP English since he was a kid? That's the only way to speak it so perfectly while coming from a culture that traditionally speaks its own language (French).
Kor
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Fixed that for you.
Isn't French a mostly dead language in the 24th Century?
French might be something some people born and raised in France learn on their own for various reasons, but it's not their "native tongue". Might be a thing for traditionalists like the Picards.Memory Alpha said:
I disagree with the video - she is the same person... The reason she couldn't speak it in ST VI was simply down to the script writers and the director who thought it would be funny
It's been a while since I saw the movie, but I believe a similar device was used in Judgment at Nuremburg (1961).
Is it odder than Worf's lack of a Russian accent?
Correct. It's actually Judgment at Nuremberg that the scene in ST6 was consciously based on. (With a little splash of Adlai Stevenson during the Cuban Missile Crisis added for good measure.)
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It depends. I don't remember if the Rozhenkos spent the majority of their time in Russia speaking Russian when Worf was growing up.
I've known plenty of bilingual children of immigrants who speak fluent English with an American accent because they've lived in the US for most or all of their lives.
Kor
That's more likely, since Jean-Luc's friend Louis also talks with a RP accent.
I get what you're saying, but I'm really not see that as a problem. Even Klingons love Shakespeare, so why not Frenchmen? (This Finn certainly does.) Picard is old navy officer stereotype, which may seem somewhat English stereotype, but not overwhelmingly so.
There are tons of characters in Star Trek who come from cultures which have their own language yet speak with perfect American accent! And of course it is quite possible to learn to speak so perfectly, my (Finnish) SO has perfect British accent. As noted, the only explanation needed is that the Picard's English teacher had British accent (which obviously is not more notable than having an American accent.)
It's interesting to follow that track, because once upon a time French was the accepted language of international diplomacy. It is still spoken today, as the primary tongue, in a number of different parts of the world. What allegedly can be construed to account for this major change in the language's ubiquity on Earth? The war perhaps? Or some development related to the European Union?
Wasn't Worf raise in the Ukraine, and not Russia?
Robert Picard speaks English with a slight German accent.
The bureaucrats in Brussels decided that the French language needed to disappear ... bow before them.
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It was heavily implied though...Worf was pretty adamant that the O'Briens should move to Minsk.
My usual half serious response is the British regained their Continental possessions and the French Crown some time after WWIII. So France is part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and France.
Data considering French an archaic language doesn't mean it wasn't spoken in France (and in some other countries.) However, the main language of Federation was English. From Data's perspective a language spoken by a tiny fraction of one planet's population makes it pretty archaic.
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