All The Time In The World (304)

[GateWorld]

DARK MATTER - SEASON THREE ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD EPISODE NUMBER - 304 Three finds himself reliving the same day over and over again when he is caught in a causality loop. But his attempts to break free are complicated by the arrival of an assassin sent by Ryo Ishida. VISIT THE EPISODE GUIDE >>

[tomstone]

This was quite the genius Episode. We finally saw more of Three´s soft side, got to know better the new Crewmembers and got a glimpse into the Future. However, when five was telling the Android all the things that would happen, I was waiting for a blue Telephone box to show up in the corner.

[TOIVA]

Well, a combination of "Window of Opportunity" and "The Last Man". I kinda like both of those and did like this one too. And always nice to hear French there without translations.
And seeing as the Android is my favourite character, lovely to see more of her.
What surprises me is that I'm starting to like Three. He's becoming the most natural fit on the Raza. He acts believably at last and he carried this episode magnificently (and his pronunciation is pretty damn good, guess he's one of those French speaking Canadians, although he sounded more metropolitan).

Btw. that last shot, are we supposed to know who Ryo was speaking to? I couldn't make anything out of that person.

[planet_tv]

Well, a combination of "Window of Opportunity" and "The Last Man". I kinda like both of those and did like this one too. And always nice to hear French there without translations.
And seeing as the Android is my favourite character, lovely to see more of her.
What surprises me is that I'm starting to like Three. He's becoming the most natural fit on the Raza. He acts believably at last and he carried this episode magnificently (and his pronunciation is pretty damn good, guess he's one of those French speaking Canadians, although he sounded more metropolitan).

Btw. that last shot, are we supposed to know who Ryo was speaking to? I couldn't make anything out of that person.

Well according to Anthony Lemke's bio on IMDB he's fluent in french.

[Laura Dove]

It's a bit ironic because Three eventually sounded more natural (with a Quebec accent to my French ears ;-) ) than the Android, who sounded like a sat-nav when she spoke French. Zoie Palmer probably doesn't speak French and learnt the sounds by heart, but the rhythm was all wrong.

What I don't understand is why they went with the totally grammatically wrong "l'un des flux antimatière transducteur" instead of "l'un des flux transducteurs d'antimatière", especially as the episode was written by Joseph Mallozzi as far as I know? It was very distracting.

[TOIVA]

It's a bit ironic because Three eventually sounded more natural (with a Quebec accent to my French ears ;-) ) than the Android, who sounded like a sat-nav when she spoke French. Zoie Palmer probably doesn't speak French and learnt the sounds by heart, but the rhythm was all wrong.

What I don't understand is why they went with the totally grammatically wrong "l'un des flux antimatière transducteur" instead of "l'un des flux transducteurs d'antimatière", especially as the episode was written by Joseph Mallozzi as far as I know? It was very distracting.

Spot on with Zoie Palmer. Three did speak with the Quebec accent back when he was "learning". Then I heard it less and less (well sure, I didn't hear much of French lately and wasn't paying that much attention).

The difference with the expression you mention is one sounds actually scientific, hyper-modern while the other is more old-school. Obviously the more anglicised version is the one sounding more modern, that's why they kept it.

[Laura Dove]

Well, "un flux antimatière transducteur" doesn't sound scientific or modern in French(*), it sounds like random words just stacked together meaninglessly. The only kind of signification it might have would be akin to "a feed that is like antimatter and converts stuff", very far from "a feed that converts antimatter".

(* At least in France French. Quebec French might be evolving differently due to the influence of English, admittedly. Although from what I've seen, words and expressions might be different between the two sides of the Atlantic, but they still follow the same grammar.)

[TOIVA]

Well I understood it precisely as an "antimatter feed that converts (something)". Either way, that word structure is exactly what we were using at school in phycics or chemistry and granted, what teachers of french itself didn't quite like.
But it's exactly the same thing that is happening to my language transforming its structure more akin to english.

[Laura Dove]

"A feed made of antimatter and which converts things" should still be "un flux d'antimatière transducteur" (it's totally possible I misunderstood the original meaning in English by the way, if the feed was indeed not converting antimatter but made of antimatter and used for converting stuff; technobabble in a foreign language can be hard to get :-) ). Omitting the "d'" is really peculiar in French. Putting two nouns together can happen but it's rare and kind of means the first noun serves a function that normally befalls the second noun, or it displays the main characteristics of the second noun, or takes the form it has. With "flux" and "antimatière" it sounds really weird because "flux" is a concrete concept while "antimatière" is a matter make-up (sort of). You can't really build a level of comparison between those two concepts.

Out of curiosity, what's your language? Here in France, we tend to include English words, sometimes misusing an existing French word that should have a different meaning, but core grammar isn't influenced so easily.

[TOIVA]

My language is one of slavic ones (like Polish or Russian) and I learned French while living in one of past French colonies/dominions. Was going to a French school there with mostly French teachers. That said, there was a lot of african pronunciation influence. And I only really learned English way later while going to another French school back home in my country.

That said, it was always my peculiarity to use heavy handed expressions in long sentences in any language which as I mentioned, science teachers appreciated while any language teachers didn't quite like. They just never feel that heavy handed to me and flow very nicely. It's far more efficient eliminating articles or determinants whenever you feel you might get away with it.

EDIT: Forgot to mention I even briefly studied French as a translator. I'm just kinda captivated by foreign languages and comparing them. That's probably why I keep arguing about this detail.

Oh, and back on topic: your explanation is very detailed, however, if the discussed meaning is correct (which frankly I doubt even the writers know, it's just some technobabble), then "un flux d'antimatière transducteur" has a problem of having the adjectif of flux way behind and making it seem it's the antimatter that is converting stuff (obviously it'd be wrong gender and should then be "transductrice"). Dans "un flux antimatière transducteur", both "antimatière" and "transducteur" serve to define the "flux". In this case, and I'm beating myself for not finding other examples, the makeup of the defined word (aka the structure, material) can be used in its noun form but is still having the function of an adjectif.

[Laura Dove]

Thanks for your explanations. It's indeed possible different French-speaking countries are more tolerant of some alternative syntax, and conversely, that we take some liberties in France that would seem grammatically incorrect to them. In France, even science teachers would likely not say "un flux antimatière transducteur".

As French is practiced in France, the "masculine" form of "transducteur" indeed makes the expression "un flux d'antimatière transducteur" unambiguous, as "un flux d'antimatière, qui (= le flux d'antimatière) se trouve être transducteur". "D'antimatière" is then more intrinsic to the "flux" than "transducteur". It's rather technical and not easy to explain... I'm not sure I'm very clear here.

Using a noun as a pseudo-adjective happens (the grammatical term is "apposition") but it's relatively rare, and in the specific case of "flux" and "antimatière", it doesn't work for me as a native speaker. Like, to use more mundane concepts, we would never say "un courant eau violent" but "un courant d'eau violent", even with "violent" applying to "courant".

And yes, French is much more verbose than English, both because words tend to be longer and because of all those small link-words that English often does away with. English is more elegant. :-)

[TOIVA]

As French is practiced in France, the "masculine" form of "transducteur" indeed makes the expression "un flux d'antimatière transducteur" unambiguous, as "un flux d'antimatière, qui (= le flux d'antimatière) se trouve être transducteur". "D'antimatière" is then more intrinsic to the "flux" than "transducteur". It's rather technical and not easy to explain... I'm not sure I'm very clear here.

Oh you're quite clear and pretty much correct here. I'll have to concede that your version should have been used instead to be a more generally correct version. That said, personally, I find that, as you mention down below, "apposition" works for me in this expression and makes it stylistically more fitting to the sci-fi setting.

Using a noun as a pseudo-adjective happens (the grammatical term is "apposition") but it's relatively rare, and in the specific case of "flux" and "antimatière", it doesn't work for me as a native speaker. Like, to use more mundane concepts, we would never say "un courant eau violent" but "un courant d'eau violent", even with "violent" applying to "courant".

Well yes, that's why I had such a hard time finding an example that would be at least somewhat similar...

Either way, thank you for your native speaker insight, Laura Dove. Gotta say it was fun to think about French grammar once more after all the time I spent in rather english-based settings recently.

[Laura Dove]

You're welcome. I have to say that while I'm a native speaker, my last grammar lessons date back to when I was a kid. My field of expertise is computer programming, not literature (though I tend to be better at grammar and spelling than many of my colleagues).

[Mrja84]

Just going through Season 3 now. Very much enjoyed this episode. I like that they started it off in res (with Three already experiencing the loop).

Felt very much like Window of Opportunity, but Three didn't try to do anything like kissing someone or playing golf with expensive equipment.

I felt it was odd that Five's future self still looked like Five, but with makeup. I would have preferred a different actress like they did for Cassandra in Stargate SG-1.

The episode was a great way to get to know the new crew members and relate to Three. I'm surprised with ll the loops it took him awhile to see Sarah. I would have though he would have used that as a learning opportunity, but I guess even the thought of failure in a loop was painful for him.