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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2022 15:15:56 GMT
This is one concept I’ve never been able to wrap my head around. Does the Tardis translate languages even when the Doctor isn’t near to it?
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Post by themeddlingmonk on Jan 13, 2022 15:35:43 GMT
It’s a telepathic thing that gets into the heads of the people who are travelling in the TARDIS.
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Post by Tim Bradley on Jan 13, 2022 18:59:03 GMT
Mind you, the TARDIS can't translate Tibetan into English - despite the Doctor having visited Tibet.  Tim  |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2022 19:01:46 GMT
Mind you, the TARDIS can't translate Tibetan into English - despite the Doctor having visited Tibet. Tim Or Aboriginal Australian. Then again I don’t know if the Doctor’s ever been to Aboriginal parts of Australia. |
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Post by Tim Bradley on Jan 13, 2022 19:11:08 GMT
Mind you, the TARDIS can't translate Tibetan into English - despite the Doctor having visited Tibet.  Tim  Or Aboriginal Australian. Then again I don’t know if the Doctors ever been to Aboriginal parts of Australia. Or it could be the TARDIS translator circuit wasn't properly invented until the time of the RTD era, despite mostly everyone speaking English in international parts of Earth as well as on alien planets beforehand. Tim |
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Post by constonks on Jan 13, 2022 19:13:26 GMT
It's faulty and inconsistent like the rest of the TARDIS, I expect. A working circuit could probably manage every language in the vicinity. The Christmas Invasion is the only one to really make it a plot point (though it's first mentioned - vaguely - in The Masque of Mandragora)
On a side note, one of my favourite translator moments comes in the EDA novel Genocide when Sam Jones encounters a pre-vocal civilization and can "hear" their gesture-based language, even if she doesn't have the words to describe how that works. A neat idea, one that I'd like to see revisited.
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Post by Tim Bradley on Jan 13, 2022 19:16:47 GMT
It's faulty and inconsistent like the rest of the TARDIS, I expect. A working circuit could probably manage every language in the vicinity. The Christmas Invasion is the only one to really make it a plot point (though it's first mentioned - vaguely - in The Masque of Mandragora) I was going to correct myself as I remembered it being mentioned in 'The Masque of Mandragora'. Thanks for mentioning it. Tim |
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Post by grinch on Jan 13, 2022 19:24:19 GMT
It's faulty and inconsistent like the rest of the TARDIS, I expect. A working circuit could probably manage every language in the vicinity. The Christmas Invasion is the only one to really make it a plot point (though it's first mentioned - vaguely - in The Masque of Mandragora) On a side note, one of my favourite translator moments comes in the EDA novel Genocide when Sam Jones encounters a pre-vocal civilization and can "hear" their gesture-based language, even if she doesn't have the words to describe how that works. A neat idea, one that I'd like to see revisited. Reminds me of one of my favourite translator moments. In The Kamelion Empire where the Doctor and Co encounter the Grungs. A species of alien whose language the TARDIS refuses to translate mainly because it solely consists of hard profanity and slurs. |
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Post by aussiedoctorwhofan on Jan 13, 2022 19:39:09 GMT
Mind you, the TARDIS can't translate Tibetan into English - despite the Doctor having visited Tibet. Tim Or Aboriginal Australian. Then again I don’t know if the Doctor’s ever been to Aboriginal parts of Australia. To quote my good Aboriginal mate here, there's dozens and dozens of different languages and dialects. A lot are dying out unfortunately. Her mother knows about 6 (not including English).
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lidar2
Castellan
You know, now that you mention it, I actually do rather like Attack of the Cybermen ...
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Post by lidar2 on Jan 20, 2022 10:09:39 GMT
Works for time lords, but how do the Daleks speak every language as well? Have they an inbuilt universal translator?
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Post by grinch on Jan 20, 2022 10:23:31 GMT
Works for time lords, but how do the Daleks speak every language as well? Have they an inbuilt universal translator? I’d imagine so. Well, we know that they at least know how to speak German. |
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Post by sherlock on Jan 20, 2022 10:29:55 GMT
Works for time lords, but how do the Daleks speak every language as well? Have they an inbuilt universal translator? Deep within the Dalek City lurks the feared Dalek Linguist tasked with comprehending every inferior language in the known universe so Daleks can shout exterminate in the corresponding language of those they’re about to kill, because they find it more fun to kill them that way. Or so I assume. |
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2022 13:54:48 GMT
If English isn’t the primary language on Gallifrey, they instead have their own language, how come the Tardis translates into into English rather than Gallifreyan, especially on alien planets that don’t actually speak English.
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2022 13:55:23 GMT
Or Aboriginal Australian. Then again I don’t know if the Doctors ever been to Aboriginal parts of Australia. Or it could be the TARDIS translator circuit wasn't properly invented until the time of the RTD era, despite mostly everyone speaking English in international parts of Earth as well as on alien planets beforehand. Tim I believe it was mentioned in Goth Opera as well. |
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Post by mark687 on May 15, 2022 14:05:25 GMT
This was explained in Charlotte Pollard Further Adventuress as
Basically
The TARDIS gets inside the Companion's head and translates the local Language or the individual speakers native Language (if it knows it) into the Companion's native Language which the locals hear as their native Language. If it doesn't know the native Language the Companion hears an speaks gibberish.
However if the Companion already knows the word in the local Language being spoken (ie Merci) then the Companion hears and says it as such.
Regards
mark687
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Post by fitzoliverj on May 15, 2022 16:38:31 GMT
In "Death and Diplomacy" Chris and Roz get separated from the TARDIS to such a distance that they no longer get the benefit of translation
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Post by Kestrel on May 16, 2022 0:05:17 GMT
Depends on who's writing the story, really.
The (excellent) Klein Trilogy over in the MR has a particularly good story where a main plot point is the TARDIS translation circuit affecting, essentially, everyone on an entire planet. Though the exact spatial distance anyone is from the TARDIS at any given point is left vague, it's at least several dozen kilometers.
An in-universe answer might be that the TARDIS, itself, decides what to translate, how to translate, when to translate, for whom to translate, and how far to extend that courtesy (spatially and temporally). The sentience of the TARDIS has always been pretty meta -- being, essentially, the hand of the author extruding physically through the fictional universe -- so you could say that, "Depends on who's writing the story," is exactly the same as saying, "Depends in the TARDIS' mood."
And in both cases the end result is motivated by the desire for whatever makes the best story.
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Tim 
Tim 
