I realize the universal translator is just a hand-wave to avoid the “Aliens Speaking English” trope, but there are at least some basic rules established for it:

When it translates, it will use the closest approximation in the database, it can learn as it hears more of a new language, it’s apparently a neural implant (at least with Ferengi), and probably a few more that I’m missing.

Does it keep the original speaker’s voice, tone, inflection, and in this case, melody? Does Kira hear Vic singing in perfect Bajoran or is the universal translator belting out Frank Sinatra in Lwaxana’s voice? Do the lyrics still make sense with the computer translation?

I very rarely complain about the UT, and I enjoy the Vic Fontaine component, but I just have a hard time combing the two lol.

Sometimes I wish they would have gone with a “standard” language like Space Esperanto that just sounds to the audience like English rather than the UT.

Update: I completely forgot Federation Standard existed, and that’s probably the language Vic is using, and Kira is very likely fluent due to her time spent on DS9. It’s kind of a retcon since that wasn’t mentioned until DIS, but I can live with it.

  • hopesdead
    7•3 months ago

    The Federation Standard is a New Trek creation, so maybe the rules wouldn’t work. Doubt anyone living in a non-Federation world would bother learning it.

    Secondly, in “The 37’s”, the cryogenically frozen humans from the 1930s each hear people speaking their native language due to the universal translator.

    • Admiral PatrickOPEnglish
      6•3 months ago

      Doubt anyone living in a non-Federation world would bother learning it.

      Right. I guess the UT would still be needed, but only for edge cases. After being reminded it existed, I looked it up. Pike mentions he’s surprised the Terralysians speak it. I’m suspending disbelief with Vic being a hologram (and could have been programmed to speak it) and Kira and Odo picking it up over the course of 7 years on DS9.

      “The 37’s” … each hear people speaking their native language due to the universal translator.

      That part I can accept at face value since it’s just speaking. Now if Amelia Earhart had broken out into some anachronistic Pat Benatar, I’d have had several further questions lol.