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So, I was watching the episode "Basics", and something occurred to me which came off as a little odd. At the end of the first part, when the Kazon marooned the Voyager's crew on the planet, they took off all their commbadges. However, they're still able to understand and speak to Neelix and Kes. I thought that the universal translator was built into the ship, and each individual commbadge. Seeing as they have neither, they shouldn't be able to understand each other. I had considered that Neelix and Kes learned English the old-fashioned way, but something as major as that would have been given some screen time in at least one of the episodes.

Thoughts?

At least in DS9's "Little Green Men", it's implied the the UT is in the ear. Of course, that's Ferengi tech, but I don't think it's too much of a stretch to assume that Federation UT tech works the same way.

Umm... it's VOY, a.k.a. the beginning of complete producers' lack of concern for detail.

On many occasions, Starfleet personnel are seen talking to aliens who do not possess a universal translator (as a few aliens specifically ask how they can understand each other). That being the case, I'm not sure I see how a device built into the ear of the Starfleet personnel would allow the alien to understand them.

:quantum:

It would have been great to see them write that in. Probly would lead to the most intelligent things said by Neelix in the series.

stitch626 wrote:It would have been great to see them write that in. Probly would lead to the most intelligent things said by Neelix in the series.

Are you envious of Seven of Nine? She got to attack Neelix and you didn't, after all.

Mikey wrote:Umm... it's VOY, a.k.a. the beginning of complete producers' lack of concern for detail.

umm, concerning the universal translator, that'd be about episode one of TOS, actually.

RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:

Mikey wrote:Umm... it's VOY, a.k.a. the beginning of complete producers' lack of concern for detail.

umm, concerning the universal translator, that'd be about episode one of TOS, actually.

How so? If refering to The Cage, the Talosians were fully telepathic, I'm sure they'd easilly understand and speak English.
If refereing to the actual first episode... there was no non-English speaker.

stitch626 wrote:

RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:

Mikey wrote:Umm... it's VOY, a.k.a. the beginning of complete producers' lack of concern for detail.

umm, concerning the universal translator, that'd be about episode one of TOS, actually.

How so? If refering to The Cage, the Talosians were fully telepathic, I'm sure they'd easilly understand and speak English.
If refereing to the actual first episode... there was no non-English speaker.

... It was a joke.

Oh.

And it was a joke... but there's some seriousness behind it. Trying to explain the UT is, at best, a losing proposition. ST has tried a few times, and the inconsistencies are just...

Just let the whole language thing fade into the background. It's really not worth the headache.

I think that the universal translator is just a concept that's meant to add convenience to the storyline and for the audience. I doubt we'd enjoy Trek very much if the Captains had to ask their communications/operations officers for a translation after every sentence that any alien species says. Also, it would take too much effort to create new languages for all the alien species, and as we can see their waning creativity with some of the lower-quality episodes, the task of creating new languages for every alien species that was encountered would be well above their abilities and imagination.

All true, and all of that has been gone over before. None of it, unfortunately, addresses any IU use of the UT - for example in the episode being discussed.