Futuristic TV shows, how about language?

Should a TV show set in the future (Star Trek for e.g.) use a modified
language?

Anthony Cerrato...

Of course not! And particularly since it was explained many
times in ST, beginning with TOS (and even more so in the ST
novels I think), that they had the "Universal
Translator"--even when later on it was not always visible,
it was ubiquitous, and always being used on missions. There
were occasional problems in some eps with the UT but these
were explained by noting that those languages had no
terrestrial reference points. ...tonyC

.
NO. A similar question you could ask is: "Should TV shows/
movies set
in the past, use the original tongue of the speaker?"

- Should Shakespearean plays use the shifted-vowel set of
1500s england
where "to be or not to be" comes out as "toe bay or note toe
bay"?

- Should a production about pre-1100 King Arthur use Old
English? "We
Gardena in geardagum, Lo! þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða
æþelingas ellen fremedon."

- Or the HBO series ROME? Should they speak Classical
Latin?

No.
No.
No.

Other than an occassional one-off production, tv and movie
stories
should be translated into Modern English, so the audience
can
understand what they are hearing.

.

Aside- BTW, I doubt there will be much difference between
Star Trek
english and our english. English has remained essentially
the same
since 1700, and with standardization & education of the
masses, will
probably still be the same in 2300.

Troy.Heagy...

.

NO. A similar question you could ask is: "Should TV shows/ movies set
in the past, use the original tongue of the speaker?"

- Should Shakespearean plays use the shifted-vowel set of 1500s england
where "to be or not to be" comes out as "toe bay or note toe bay"?

- Should a production about pre-1100 King Arthur use Old English? "We
Gardena in geardagum, Lo! =FEeodcyninga, =FErym gefrunon, hu =F0a
=E6=FEelingas ellen fremedon."

- Or the HBO series ROME? Should they speak Classical Latin?

No.
No.
No.

Other than an occassional one-off production, tv and movie stories
should be translated into Modern English, so the audience can
understand what they are hearing.

.

Aside- BTW, I doubt there will be much difference between Star Trek
english and our english. English has remained essentially the same
since 1700, and with standardization & education of the masses, will
probably still be the same in 2300.

Steven L....

Hey, I wish that more TV shows set in the *past* used the slang and
colloquialisms of that era, instead of using today's modernisms that
don't fit that era. Most of them don't do that either.

But yes, you would expect that new jargon and slang and colloquialisms
would enter the futuristic vocabulary, many driven by technological
innovation. Instead, all we get is the technobabble without the popular
jargon that usually springs up around it: "Under the radar," "surfing
the Internet," "chat," have all become popular phrases in the last 20 years.

The TV miniseries "Brave New World" (1980), based on the Aldous Huxley
novel, did some of that.

Mostly it's been science fiction movies that have invented new jargon,
most notably "A Clockwork Orange."

For instance, if someone here went back 300 years to Britain, you'd
understand the language, but there would be differences and words you
might not get. Go back 500 years, it would be even more difficult, you
might catch 2/3rds of what was being said. Go back to Chaucer's time
and you'd think you ended up in a country where English wasn't spoken.
So, given this, the evolution of language, should they at least include
jargon, slang and dialog that is made up, to add authenticity? Or
should the characters (300 years from now) just all speak Mandarin? :)

Lobster Man...

This is one area "Firefly" got right.

Stan Brown...

And Farscape got horribly wrong. "Microt" for minute, "solar day" for
"day" -- it just sounded silly.

Anim8rFSK...

well ... farscape didn't orginate the term 'solar day' -- I think Spock
said it as far back as "The Doomsday Machine" and I imagine he did't
originate the term.

yeah, here we go:

"Mr. Spock, status report."
"Warp drive and deflectors will be out for a solar day.
Repairs proceeding on transporter and communications."

I always assumed it meant something like 'local' or 'not local'

Anthony Cerrato...

I believe it always meant "solar _Earth_ day". A "Mars day"
or a Vulcan day" would be different of course. It makes
sense that the Fed. uses many Earth related terms.

Stan Brown...

Well, of course. But "solar day" makes sense only ion
contradistinction to "[some other adjective] day". When the *only*
days mentioned are original Earth 86400-second days, the adjective
"solar" just doesn't match how people actually speak.

...tonyC

Ken from Chicago...

WITHIN LIMITS.

It's not entertaining if you can't understand what's said.

kilroybass...

in the future, i don't think people are gonna say "f**k" or "sh*t". it
should evolve.

Rhino...

I'm not so sure about that. I have a bad feeling that those are the ONLY
words people will say in the future since they seem increasingly common
today.....

And subtitles have limited appeal.

They could do a deal like HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER where onscreen portrayals are
in English even tho are suppose to be in foreign languages, maybe put up an
onscreen graphic: "" Maybe start off having
them speak in a different language and then flash the graphic and having
them switch to English.