# Star Trek pet peeves **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 10, 2005, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-pet-peeves/307734 "2005-06-10T13:58:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-pet-peeves/307734/61 "2005-06-12T11:38:27Z")
> [@Max the Immortal](#): > > 1. Can the universal translator somehow translate the more subtle qualities of various dialects? Sure it can. It gets across the Ferengi ability to “pronounce” every English word except “human”. I suppose that the Ferengi could have actually been saying the actual word, “human”, rather than using their own word, and so the Universal Translator was translating their Ferengi words into Standard but leaving the actual Standard word untranslated, thus letting us hear the mispronunciation. It occurs to me that the reason other races don’t mispronounce “human” is that they are using their own word for us, and the UT translates it correctly. I mean, it’s pretty clear that Romulans don’t call _themselves_ Romulans, since that word is based on the Earth name for their star. **Rube E. Tewesday** - The Doctor had the power of the ship’s computer behind his personality and “intelligence”. But only Dr. Soong could accomplish the same thing within the much smaller space of an android’s positronic brain. Does that make more sense? ---
**Author:** ![Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-pet-peeves/307734/62 "2005-06-12T12:13:14Z")
> [@Phase42](#): > > **Rube E. Tewesday** - The Doctor had the power of the ship’s computer behind his personality and “intelligence”. But only Dr. Soong could accomplish the same thing within the much smaller space of an android’s positronic brain. Does that make more sense? Not so much. Sure, I’d thought about that, but jeez louise – one lone wacko can master a feat of microtechnology that’s beyond all the rest of the Federation? ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-pet-peeves/307734/63 "2005-06-12T12:33:46Z")
> [@Max the Immortal](#): > > 1. Can the universal translator somehow translate the more subtle qualities of various dialects? I had to explain to my son why some of Worf’s Klingon words didn’t get translated, ie, KaPlah, or Kalhaiyah (yes, I know the spelling is completely conjectural) in that some terms could not be translated in English. We got on a whole argument about why Worf invited his friends to the rite of “Kalhaiyah, the Path to Clarity,” (During the Worf/Dax wedding episode, _You Are Cordially Invited_) and he asked why the UT didn’t just translate Worf’s “Kalhaiyah” into “Path of Clarity.” I explained that “Path to Clarity” was a rough translation, and Worf, being in Star Fleet, may know that “Kalhaiyah” was not able to be translated by the UT. Meanwhile, he and Ivylad are rolling their eyes at me. The tapdancing I do to defend my favorite shows… ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-pet-peeves/307734/64 "2005-06-12T13:49:35Z")
Speaking of the hologram doctor, remember that episode where they managed to transmit him back to the Alpha quadrant and it turned out that the rest of the holo-doctors didn’t work out so well so they put them to use manning garbage scows or mining or some crap? What the hell was that? ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-pet-peeves/307734/65 "2005-06-12T19:32:05Z")
Were they hauling away the Enterprise _as_ garbage? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-pet-peeves/307734/66 "2005-06-12T19:37:18Z")
> [@Binarydrone](#): > > Speaking of the hologram doctor, remember that episode where they managed to transmit him back to the Alpha quadrant and it turned out that the rest of the holo-doctors didn’t work out so well so they put them to use manning garbage scows or mining or some crap? What the hell was that? There was a new model emergency medical hologram. The Doctor’s model had been put to use as you describe. The Doctor and one of the new EMH’s save the day against a Romulan transformer ship. ^ :dubious: ^ ---
**Author:** ![Strinka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strinka/32/512_2.png) [@Strinka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strinka)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-pet-peeves/307734/67 "2005-06-12T19:54:42Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > I had to explain to my son why some of Worf’s Klingon words didn’t get translated, ie, KaPlah, or Kalhaiyah (yes, I know the spelling is completely conjectural) in that some terms could not be translated in English. We got on a whole argument about why Worf invited his friends to the rite of “Kalhaiyah, the Path to Clarity,” (During the Worf/Dax wedding episode, _You Are Cordially Invited_) and he asked why the UT didn’t just translate Worf’s “Kalhaiyah” into “Path of Clarity.” > > I explained that “Path to Clarity” was a rough translation, and Worf, being in Star Fleet, may know that “Kalhaiyah” was not able to be translated by the UT. > > Meanwhile, he and Ivylad are rolling their eyes at me. The tapdancing I do to defend my favorite shows… Maybe they had the UT turned off. Worf was raised by humans so, presumably, he can speak English. I don’t know the context or who he was talking to so maybe that isn’t feasible. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-pet-peeves/307734/68 "2005-06-12T20:55:32Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > I had to explain to my son why some of Worf’s Klingon words didn’t get translated, ie, KaPlah, or Kalhaiyah (yes, I know the spelling is completely conjectural) in that some terms could not be translated in English. We got on a whole argument about why Worf invited his friends to the rite of “Kalhaiyah, the Path to Clarity,” (During the Worf/Dax wedding episode, _You Are Cordially Invited_) and he asked why the UT didn’t just translate Worf’s “Kalhaiyah” into “Path of Clarity.” Babe, explain to me how the UT can make everyone’s lips move as though they’re speaking English, and then I’ll tell you why certain words don’t get translated 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-pet-peeves/307734/69 "2005-06-12T21:20:37Z")
[Top 10 Things I Hate about Star Trek](http://www.happyfunpundit.com/hfp/archives/000514.html) ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-pet-peeves/307734/70 "2005-06-12T21:30:38Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > I had to explain to my son why some of Worf’s Klingon words didn’t get translated, ie, KaPlah, or Kalhaiyah (yes, I know the spelling is completely conjectural) in that some terms could not be translated in English. I’ve also wondered about the instances where, Picard is talking to the Captain of a Klingon ship. Assuming the UT is in operation, the respective Captains are each speaking their own language and hearing their own language. We, the viewers, are of course hearing English. The Klingon turns to his crew and says something rude about Picard, _and we hear it in Klingon!_ Why didn’t the Enterprise UT translate those words? Then, to top it off, Picard then _switches to Klingon_ and responds to the insult, showing the Klingons that he knows their language and he understood whatever rude thing the Klingon Captain just said. If the Klingon’s UT has been feeding them Klingon all along, why to they suddenly act so surprised? Why does it suddenly sound so different to them that they know Picard is speaking Klingon? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2005, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-pet-peeves/307734/71 "2005-06-12T21:54:57Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > Babe, explain to me how the UT can make everyone’s lips move as though they’re speaking English It has to do with vision depending upon the speed of light, which is much faster than the speed of sound and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. ^ :dubious: ^ ---
**Author:** ![Baraqiyal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@Baraqiyal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baraqiyal)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2005, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-pet-peeves/307734/72 "2005-06-13T00:17:40Z")
Is it possible that all Klingons can speak English and don’t need to use the universal translator when speaking to humans? I remember in one of the movies (ST III I think), a Klingon captain scolding an underling for speaking in Klingon when he should have been speaking English. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-pet-peeves/307734.md?page=3)