continuity breakdown

[lightstorm]

alright the ancients obviously don't write anything in english, in fact on SG-1 daniel has to translate everything. but on atlantis they can just read it no problem. why?

[PG15]

Members of the expedition know how to read Ancient and translate for the rest of them.

[Agent_Dark]

Google can translate into Ancient.

[Evil_Genius_McKay]

What is really disturbing is how everyone on almost all of the planets the go to speak English, even in the Pegasus Galaxy! Now figure that one out. I'm pretty sure the Ancients left for the Pegasus Galaxy long before English was ever thought of.

[Jarnin]

Google can translate into Ancient.

Seriously? You have to provide a link!

What is really disturbing is how everyone on almost all of the planets the go to speak English, even in the Pegasus Galaxy! Now figure that one out. I'm pretty sure the Ancients left for the Pegasus Galaxy long before English was ever thought of.

That's a production thing. If they had to have a translator for every episode, it'd get old really quick. It's the same reason for the 'universal translator' on Star Trek or the 'translator microbes' on Farscape. You're not supposed to really pay attention to that, even though it is a glaring discrepancy.

[Evil_Genius_McKay]

Seriously? You have to provide a link!


That's a production thing. If they had to have a translator for every episode, it'd get old really quick. It's the same reason for the 'universal translator' on Star Trek or the 'translator microbes' on Farscape. You're not supposed to really pay attention to that, even though it is a glaring discrepancy.

Yeah I'm aware of that, otherwise you would have Daniel Jackson spending most of the episode trying to communicate with the natives and that would get old. That doesn't mean it makes any mores sense though. At least Star Trek and Farscape made an attempt.

[s09119]

Yeah I'm aware of that, otherwise you would have Daniel Jackson spending most of the episode trying to communicate with the natives and that would get old. That doesn't mean it makes any mores sense though. At least Star Trek and Farscape made an attempt.

I hated ST's attempt, it's even MORE lame.

Translator: OOO! An unknown language that no one's ever heard! Let me instantly know how to speak that!

I mean, I'd rather have no explaination that that, myself. And Stargate's attempt is alright (Goa'uld took humans from Earth. Earthlings speak English. Wha-lah), but you're right, English wasn't around then.

OOO I got it! When SG-1 went back in time in Moebius, they taught the Egyptians English. Then, when the Goa'uld spread them out across the galaxy, they knew how to speak it! (I know the timeline gets erased, but hey, it could happen )

[IcyNeko]

There were multiple episodes in Atlantis where Weir and her team had to use their laptop's reference database to decypher Ancient writings. Like the episode with the time dilated ancients.

[Evil_Genius_McKay]

There were multiple episodes in Atlantis where Weir and her team had to use their laptop's reference database to decypher Ancient writings. Like the episode with the time dilated ancients.

Yeah I know both Weir and McKay can at least partially translate written ancient along with of course Daniel Jackson.

[Jarnin]

There were multiple episodes in Atlantis where Weir and her team had to use their laptop's reference database to decypher Ancient writings. Like the episode with the time dilated ancients.

Technically, those weren't ancients. They were just regular ol' humans that wanted to ascend.

I know, I know... Off topic.

[IcyNeko]

Well, heck, I want to ascend too. :O

[TKG]

hmm ascention, my greatest foe! No seriously, the english to anceitnt hing was all about time saving in production, imagine if the writeres had to spend the extra time to teach the actors to speak weird sounding languages? Personally I found the whole we spend most of an episode understanding what your saying bit annoying.

Of course then again it would've bene hilarious if they did that and it turned out all the alien dude was saying the whole time was "Excuse me would you happen to have any gua'uld pupon?"

[prion]

What is really disturbing is how everyone on almost all of the planets the go to speak English, even in the Pegasus Galaxy! Now figure that one out. I'm pretty sure the Ancients left for the Pegasus Galaxy long before English was ever thought of.

Everybody speaks English in Trek, BSG, any scifi show. And if the show were made in Germany, they'd be speaking German. However, it would be great if the team arrived on a world where they had a totally different language... don't know if we'll ever see that though.

[Jarnin]

Everybody speaks English in Trek, BSG, any scifi show. And if the show were made in Germany, they'd be speaking German. However, it would be great if the team arrived on a world where they had a totally different language... don't know if we'll ever see that though.

They did it with the Unas. Of course that was back when StarGate was on Showtime, and they had artistic license to do what they wanted without the network interfering to bolster ratings...

[Col. Shadow Quinn]

It's just easier to have the actors speak english so they don't waste the time translating and lose time meant for the plot. It would also get boring after a while.