Too much Earth idiosyncronisities?

[Shiro]

that's nothing. what about:

SHEPPARD: Hey, buddy, you wanna lower your gun?
RONON: What the hell?

I'm sure that most cultures have a concept of an underworld.

[cityofroses]

The fact that everyone speaks English in a whole other galaxy bothers me more.

[Jeffala]

The fact that everyone speaks in English in a whole other galaxy bothers me more.

See, at least Star Trek had the Universal Translator to fall back on.

[Integrabyte]

...you want them to speak French?

[JackHarkness_Hot]

In regards to the use of Imperial units (or what you Americans call it, English units), only 3 countries actually utilises it, United Kingdom (not so much now as 90% uses metric, 10% that do use it are actually the older generations), Canada and the United States.

In terms of whether it's a good idea or not to use metric, well they should be using it, especially on Stargate Atlantis. Say you're a scientist from Germany that have to calculate something in regards to distance, firstly you're gonna calculate something in metric as you're taught in school and universities then just so American/Canadian members can understand your calculations, you have to convert it to Imperial units. (Thus, more or less the scientists are "dumbing" down).

It wastes time and efforts - basically only 2 countries out of the whole entire planet uses Imperial and imo it's rather preposterous. There's a reason why we Brits call it Imperial, cos it's an ancient form of measurement.


It's easy to use:

10 millimetre/er = 1 centimetre/er
100 centimetre/er = 1 metre/er
1000 metre/er = 1 kilometre/er

What's so difficult about that? The currency more or less uses the similar format - 100 cents = $1.


Personally, I think the writers should learn and appreciate if Atlantis was solely an American base then yeah, use Imperial but if it consists of international scientists, then they should re-frame from using Imperial units.

[Jeffala]

I think they should measure length in kellicams.

[Integrabyte]

I think they should measure length in kellicams.

...even hooligans, why not

[Avenger]

I think it's pretty nit picky to be honest.

[Jill_Ion]

The scientists in SGA do use the metric system.

I am not interested in seeing the Team have to explain everything from time to measurement to what the hell "hell" means on every planet they visit. What? Do we need 25% more exposition?

If any of us need to hear TV characters using made up words for common English words, watch Farscape. Good show. Lots of made up words.

[WingedPegasus]

Are the Stargate aliens showing too many Tau'ri behaviorism and speech patterns?

Not only do they all seem to be using the Imperial, and to a much lesser extent also the metric, System, they also use a lot of Earth (specifically American) expressions.

In "Miller's Crossing", Ronon exclaims "Sweet!" in response to John telling him he's found something for him to point his gun at.

Am I the only one who was irked at this? The suspension of disbelief is almost all gone by now. Ronon and Teyla (to a lesser extent) have become so earthified they feel and sound just like pretty much any other Earthling.

Um, no. See below post as to why.

To be fair, when you're around your friends, you tend to pick up sayings from them and use them yourself.

Ronon has been hanging around the Atlantis crew for over two years now. I'm not really surprised he's picked up a couple of mannerisms.

[Jill_Ion]

Plus, there's Sci-Fi precedence for a non-human/alien character sounding more Earth-like after hanging out with us wacky Tau'ri!

The Cat in Red Dwarf.

[Amalthea]

In regards to the use of Imperial units (or what you Americans call it, English units), only 3 countries actually utilises it, United Kingdom (not so much now as 90% uses metric, 10% that do use it are actually the older generations), Canada and the United States.

In terms of whether it's a good idea or not to use metric, well they should be using it, especially on Stargate Atlantis. Say you're a scientist from Germany that have to calculate something in regards to distance, firstly you're gonna calculate something in metric as you're taught in school and universities then just so American/Canadian members can understand your calculations, you have to convert it to Imperial units. (Thus, more or less the scientists are "dumbing" down).

It wastes time and efforts - basically only 2 countries out of the whole entire planet uses Imperial and imo it's rather preposterous. There's a reason why we Brits call it Imperial, cos it's an ancient form of measurement.


It's easy to use:

10 millimetre/er = 1 centimetre/er
100 centimetre/er = 1 metre/er
1000 metre/er = 1 kilometre/er

What's so difficult about that? The currency more or less uses the similar format - 100 cents = $1.


Personally, I think the writers should learn and appreciate if Atlantis was solely an American base then yeah, use Imperial but if it consists of international scientists, then they should re-frame from using Imperial units.

Canada is about 90% metric as well, just for the record. Just the old fogies use imperial, and even then most have converted. All our official documents are in metric. The only countries besides the US that haven't converted officially are Liberia and Myanmar (Burma to some).

But, it doesn't matter. The show is made for Americans and thus, American systems will be used. It's as simple as that.

[Amalthea]

If any of us need to hear TV characters using made up words for common English words, watch Farscape. Good show. Lots of made up words.

Exactly. And there have been enough Fargate jokes.

[FallenAngelII]

In case you hadn't noticed, the queens have a pretty good psychic ability.

They cannot read minds. They get information while feeding (somehow). And that's even only been shown in the pilot (a lot of stuff in pilots are never heard from again in canon or later retconned).

I'm sure that most cultures have a concept of an underworld.

And they all call them "Hell" and "Go to X" always means "Off to the Underworld you go!"?

I am not interested in seeing the Team have to explain everything from time to measurement to what the hell "hell" means on every planet they visit. What? Do we need 25% more exposition?

Or the aliens could just not use words of measurement and the like. It's quite easy.

To be fair, when you're around your friends, you tend to pick up sayings from them and use them yourself.

Ronon has been hanging around the Atlantis crew for over two years now. I'm not really surprised he's picked up a couple of mannerisms.

I never said that was a possibility. However, it's still stupid. Instead of showing us Satedan or Athosian culture through speech or expressions, they instead made Teyla and Ronon more Earth-like to make it easier on the dumber viewers.

Either way (if it's intentional or just out of stupidity), it's bad.

[PG15]

Re: "Go to hell"

The Keeper didn't need to know what "hell" was; just by the tone you can tell that Sumner was saying something rude/defiant, and the Keeper just took that and went with it.