Also in Stargate SG-1, and Stargate Atlantis, how almost ALL the aliens speak english for some odd reason, and even understand technical terms that were only invented in the past 50 years, although they were taken from earth thousands of years ago. I know, it’d be really hard to do a show where thats not true, and it wouldnt be as good, but it just ticks me off.
The only one that comes to mind immediately (other than Spearchucker) is the doctor who wasn’t actually a licenced doctor - he was permanently assigned to the 4077 before he was found out.
It’s been a long while since I’ve seen most of the series, so I can’t come up with any other specific examples.
And in most cases from non-English speaking areas.
I think they’ve encountered other languages a grand total of twice: On Abydos and on Chulak (both Arabic variants).
In Quantum Leap, or Twice in a Lifetime, or any of those other shows where a character has the ability to go back in time and change things, fixing someone else’s problems (or helping another person fix theirs, as the case may be) every week…
How many people that they help would never have been born, or not had their problems if they hadn’t meddled in someone else’s problems? Conversely, how many people ended up not being born because Sam, or Mr Smith/Jones meddled in the affairs of someone whose lives effected their parents’ lives? One episode of Twice in a Lifetime actually had the character whose life they were changing have a miscarriage because she messed up the attempt (at first…she eventually fixed her mistakes). The child did end up being born - just 10 years later - still enough to drasticaly change things. But aside from that one episode of TiaL, I don’t remember either of those shows acknowledging that aspect in any way, shape, or form (and even then, it was implied that being born in 1990, and in 2000 was exactly the same thing!).
To be fair, they did do this … once. In Star Trek: the Motion Picture, when the space station is intercepting a Klingon transmission, you can hear him speaking Klingon in the background, with the computer providing a translation in the foreground.
I can see why they dropped this, though. Too distracting. Yes, it’s a niggle, but the alternative would be … awkward viewing.
(Even worse: have you considered how many languages the Enterprise crew speak? For example, does Sulu actually speak English … or Japanese? How 'bout Spock or Picard or Troi? When we’re seeing them, are they actually speaking Vulcan, French and Betazoid? Thanks to the translators, we’ll never know …)
Here here! We’re halfway through the second season, and he’s worn out his welcome after two decent episodes. He’s the only clunker in the series, so far.
Other than that, “Futurama” is our new Saturday night thing. Some of the episodes had us literally crying helplessly on the couch (the Santa Claus episode and the mutants in the sewers in particular). And we did not, absolutely will never, explain to our 13-year-old son what the “Kegalcizer” is (or why my wife said to me: “Did you see how much metal she’s lifting?”).
Agreed. Just because you don’t see homosexual characters, it doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Besides that, there’s the lesbian relationship (and kiss) between Dax and her former lover in Deep Space Nine without so much as a raised eyebrow from any of the crew.
And don’t try to write it off as it being just because it was two women… the episode aired in the mid-nineties amid a lot of controversy and even nowadays how many men do you see kissing on mainstream television shows?
I thought I was the only one who thought that. I’ve felt that way since the shows inception.
My pet peeve is the way that Horatio’s sunglasses seem to be their own character on CSI: Miami. My friends don’t understand why I love the show, but endlessly mock his sunglass antics and facial expressions. Way too melodramatic, but good content. The ME needs to stop fondling the bodies so much too.
Zapp is a caricature of Captain Kirk anyway, so I think that might’ve been a little too transparent. I’m not a huge Zapp fan either, like I said, but some of his lines are uproarious.
The many times on BtVS and Angel (especially more frequent in the later seasons) in which vampires were exposed to sunlight with absolutely no ill effects. And I can’t even begin to start ranting about their cheap cop-out with that in season 5 of Angel…
Also, on TV or in movies, whenever anyone’s on the phone, they don’t say goodbye. They just hang up.
So far I’m enjoying Stargate Atlantis, but there is something about it that bugs me already: Torri Higgenson (the chick who plays Dr. Elizabeth Weir) looks like Michael Jackson. Not all of the time – sometimes I think she’s quite attractive – but there have definitely been several moments where she has strongly resembled The Gloved One. It’s a little creepy, frankly.
So does the kid in Nip/Tuck. Actually, many things are bothering me about that show this season.
But the kid, who is supposed to look like Julian McMahon, bears more than a slight resemblance to plastic surgery man himself (which is odd, given the theme of the show). It’s even more creepy when various women are attracted to him.
I imagine Sulu could speak English, as he was born in San Francisco (he mentions it in ST:IV when they are flying over the 20th Century version of the city). Spock’s mother was human, with an English-sounding name (Amanda Greyson), so perhaps he grow up speaking English and Vulcan both. IIRC, Troi’s father was also human, though I don’t know his specific nationality.