The necessary fanwank always seemed simple to me. Picard had a really good English (English language tutor, I mean) and picked up his/her accent perfectly when learning to speak a second language.
Except for Worf’s adoptive human parents (but not his adoptive brother, strangely enough).
And that colony of pseudo-Scots that apparently Crusher’s grandmother came from (the one with the weird parasitic sex alien).
And apparently Marina Sirtis affected a strange accent that she (and presumably the show runners) fanwanked came from her Eastern European human father.
Fans got to wank hard to keep Trek consistent.
And the colony of pseudo-Irish farmers from “Up the Long Ladder”.
I can understand Chekov described as a “foreign language speaker,” as Russian is his native language, but isn’t English Scotty’s native language? Yes, he has an accent noticeable to American ears, but so would an Australian. I’m sure Scotty is fluent in Gaelic, but even in this day, the majority of Scots speak English.
I think it was pretty clear that Uhura was a native Swahili speaker, though she had no discernable accent. The fantasy man the Salt Vampire illusioned up for her spoke Swahili, I think.
I remember some Trek short story in which Kevin Riley came onto the bridge annoyed at his shore leave being cut short, and started cursing like a sailor. The omniscient narrator notes that the native English speakers were somewhat offended, but Spock and Uhura not only didn’t care but were fairly curious, as he was using the sort of words they hadn’t been able to learn in school. I’ve always liked the image of Uhura surreptitiously recording Riley’s diatribe for future reference.
Coming back around, the Patrick-Stewart-As-Jean-Luc-Picard analogue would be if Scotty, complete with kilt and sporran, had invariably replied to Kirk’s requests not with a clenched-jaw “she cannae take much more, cap’n” but with a click of the heels and a prompt “Jawohl! Mach Schnell!”
Scotty was from the Lowlands, Glasgow or Edinburgh. Those were never Gaelic-speaking areas. Why would you be sure that he was fluent in Gaelic?
Weren’t they from a colony ship launched pre-Federation and out of touch with the rest of humanity? No reason their accents should drift towards Federation Basic or whatever it’s called these days.
The variety of English accents heard on the show is a good point, though. Clearly English itself kept a variety of accents instead of drifting towards a standard.
Troi’s weird, peusdo-Slavic accent was supposed to be a Betazoid accent, but none of the other Betazoid characters (including Lwaxana, her mother) even bothered so Sirtis dropped it and slipped into a Mid-Atlanic accent. She was also originally supposed to have 3 breasts, but that was dropped before filming.
Just an assumption, nothing concrete. I might have read it in some novel, but it’s not canon. Anyway, my point is, Scotty isn’t a foreign-language speaker to anyone whose first language is English such as Kirk or McCoy.
The “Boycott Star Trek 2” brought another (incredibly obvious) TNG example.
Chief O’Brien was unabashedly Irish.
Actually, Scotty was from Aberdeen, as was revealed in “Wolf in the Fold.” Doohan supposedly modeled his accent after an army buddy who was from that city.
Until I found out she was English, I thought she was Israeli and that was her real speaking voice. D’oh! :smack:
Certainly no discernable African accent. I’d be interested in what real native Swahili speakers think of her speech in “The Man Trap.”
I’ve had real Scots tell me that Doohan’s accent was in no way authentic. I’ve also read that Ziva on NCIS (who is Colombian in real life, and not Israeli) consistently mispronounces her Hebrew lines.
I’ve never heard a real Scot who sounds like Scotty either.
I think the real question about Picard is when and why the the writers first have him drinking “tea, Earl Grey, hot”? I think it might have happened in “Encounter at Farpoint”. The accent can be wanked, as many here have done, but drinking tea, especially Earl Grey, is stereotypically British. If they wanted him to be French, they should have had him drinking wine (off duty) or French coffee or something like that. The accent can be fanwanked easily, but making him culturally English can’t.
It did. He was in his ready room telling Riker how he disliked having to command a ship with families aboard.
If you want to fanwank it even further, he could have acquired the taste for tea from his English tutor.
He did. She was surprised and delighted that he spoke it. That was how I first learned the existence of the Swahili language, actually…
For that matter, Chekov doesn’t sound like a real Russian. Walter Koenig is Jewish and from New York, and he sounds like it. Back in 1967, the only thing he knew about Russian accents was that his grandfather (I think), who was from Russia, had trouble pronouncing the letter “v.” In reality, Russian men sound more like Steve Martin’s Yortuk Festruk when they try to speak English.
There is (or at least used to be) a clip on YouTube with Walter playing a GI on Combat!. He looks like he’s about 15. (Leonard Nimoy was in a couple of episodes as well, playing GIs who spoke German.)