# Everyone gets this wrong **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, movies\ **Created:** [June 3, 2025, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166 "2025-06-03T15:48:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166/149 "2025-06-05T20:09:04Z")
Frankly, I find these sort of nitpicks annoying. Nobody wants to watch a show that _requires_ subtitles, which would certainly be the case for one set 300 years in a spacefaring future. The show was supposed to be entertainment, not a scientific exploration of the future. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166/150 "2025-06-05T20:09:46Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > When they time-travel back to the 20th century, they don’t seem to have any trouble communicating. Does that mean that, in the future, people still speak English in a way that’s not appreciably different from the 20th century version? The 20th century is about the most plausible time frame for this, as it’s when audio recordings became ubiquitous. Prior to the late 1800s, we had no way of knowing how people actually spoke, but so long as our recordings exist, the future will know exactly what we sounded like. As such, it’s likely that language will remain much more stable over time. This is related to a phenomenon I’ve noticed, which is that a lot of regional accents seem to be gradually disappearing. My cousins who grew up in Newfoundland have much less of an accent than even my mother’s generation, and I suspect part of that is because they had a lot more access to TV and movies growing up. They heard how people talked on TV, and it influenced how they talk. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166/151 "2025-06-05T20:18:50Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > Prior to the late 1800s, we had no way of knowing how people actually spoke, but so long as our recordings exist, the future will know exactly what we sounded like. And at least some of those recordings (i.e., movies) will be considered “classics”, that still get watched centuries into the future. We might already be seeing this effect: The Wizard of Oz was from nearly a century ago, but if you put any of the cast in a modern-day city, most folks wouldn’t notice that they had any sort of unusual accent (their phrasing might be different, and they’d probably have different slang, but no accent difference). A linguist who studies accents might be able to pick out a few things, but then, the Star Trek cast didn’t interact with any linguists. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166/152 "2025-06-05T20:21:37Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > That’s the thing there you’re correcting, and not the character name? I’m not quite sure what you mean. I just think there’s a simple explanation of the battle of wits in _The Princess Bride_. The whole “I can not choose the wine in front of me”, “you’re trying to make me give something away; it won’t work” is all totally irrelevant. Vizzini switches cups, waits for Westley to drink first, and once he does, Vizzini believes his own cup to be safe. It’s a great scene, and all the back-and-forth and misdirection is wonderful. And in some sense it was necessary as a distraction so Vizzini could switch the cups. But the crucial moment is right at the end, when Vizzini waits for the Man in Black to drink first. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166/153 "2025-06-05T20:26:27Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > > [@MrDibble](#): > > > > That’s the thing there you’re correcting, and not the character name? > > I’m not quite sure what you mean… Westley Hint! ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166/154 "2025-06-05T20:49:28Z")
The music over the opening credits freaks out my wife so bad she has to leave the room. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166/155 "2025-06-05T21:20:20Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Every moment of every day people believe they or their relative dying is moving from a corrupt world to a perfect paradise, and yet they fight against dying. I think this is proof that few people actually believe what they claim to. Now, as an idealistic Christian, if I fall off a skyscraper, I’ll be very disappointed if I spend my last moments screaming. I’d like to think that, if I actually believe that I’m seconds away from dancing with celestial beings, I’d have some fun on the way down. Maybe pretend I’m swimming (doing the breaststroke with my cheeks puffed out?), and throw in a few flips and a salute. Entertainment for the crowd below… see if they can be horrified and amused at the same time. eta: Ooh, jumping jacks! ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166/156 "2025-06-05T21:25:14Z")
It’s not clear to me how well crosses work in the Buffyverse. Some vampires aren’t affected by them (don’t we see a vampire gang holed up in a church in one episode?). Angel being a 19th century Irish vampire might be a particularly vulnerable one. He’s certainly scared of holy water (as when Cordy faced off Angelus) ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166/157 "2025-06-05T21:59:14Z")
They fear them, but they’re also burned by them. But some of them are tough enough or crazy enough to ignore the pain. But even then, there’s clearly a physical reaction. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166/158 "2025-06-05T22:17:49Z")
Thanks ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166/159 "2025-06-05T22:19:50Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Sure, but you can discuss what it is that the movie appears to be showing us on screen - and in this case, it does appear to be showing that either: > The flow of time is subject to its own inertia, or > The flow of time is dependent on the direction the Earth rotates. Let’s see if there is a consistent explanation for what we see on screen. Superman wants to travel back in time, so he speeds round the Earth faster than light. This reverses his own temporal arrow so he is travelling backwards in time. This condition would presumably persist indefinitely until Supses reverses the process. In order to reverse his temporal direction, he has to speed round the world in the opposite direction from before. He does so, but now he is considerably earlier in the timeline, and none of the nasty things have happened yet. In the Earth’s frame of reference, events continued to progress in a forward direction, one second per second. In Superman’s frame of reference, he was able to travel backwards in time for a bit, then forward in time again - at the same time, an earlier version of Superman is presumably busy saving the world, but failed to save Lois. Time-traveling Superman was successful at saving Lois, but since he changed history, there must be an alternate timeline out there somewhere in which Lois died, and in which Superman suddenly disappeared and was never seen again. We will never know what happens in that universe - maybe Lex Luthor becomes president. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166/160 "2025-06-05T22:28:30Z")
I’ve also seen “Crosses _used_ to work, but stopped” in _The Logical Magician._ Figuring out why some folklore still applied but some didn’t was a core plotline of the novel. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166/161 "2025-06-05T22:53:17Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > They fear them, but they’re also burned by them. But some of them are tough enough or crazy enough to ignore the pain. But even then, there’s clearly a physical reaction. There was one episode (S3, IIRC) where they introduce a vampire that was almost as old as the Master had been. He’s powerful enough to shrug off getting stabbed by a normal wooden stake, but dusts when Buffy impales him with a 4x4 beam. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166/162 "2025-06-05T23:36:50Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > The show was supposed to be entertainment, not a scientific exploration of the future I don’t always agree with that sentiment. There’s a limit to how much crap I will take before it is no longer entertaining. (See: The Alternative Factor) But when it comes to language in Star Trek, yea, I’ll forgive a lot. Even untranslated Romulan and Klingon curse words. But! Don’t then turn around and draw attention to it, as in DS9’s Little Green Men. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166/163 "2025-06-05T23:38:24Z")
I think you mean Kokistos, The Worst Of The Worst, a vampire who was apparently turning into a bull or boar as time went on. This was the episode which introduced Mr Trick. I can’t remember if this episode also introduced Faith or if she came a tiny bit earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2025, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166/164 "2025-06-05T23:45:12Z")
I think it was a goat. And it was the episode (“Faith, Hope, and Trick”) that introduced Faith to the series. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166/165 "2025-06-06T00:25:34Z")
Until the Federation is run by the workers and not a hierarchy of elites, it is not socialist. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166/166 "2025-06-06T00:46:41Z")
I misspelled his name. But according to the IDMB Faith, Hope, And Trick is the epsiode with Kakistos. > **["Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Faith, Hope & Trick (TV Episode 1998) ⭐ 8.1 |...](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0533422/)** > > 45m | TV-PG ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166/167 "2025-06-06T00:59:31Z")
Sorry, I was confirming your first post, not correcting it. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2025, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166/168 "2025-06-06T01:16:42Z")
Oh, my apologies! I misunderstood. Umm, never mind. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everyone-gets-this-wrong/1019166.md?page=8)