Doctor Who musing

[moon_custafer]

How does the TARDIS translation work when the Doctor and companions are around a multilingual group of people? I mean, I suppose when addressed as a group they all hear whatever language they all have in common, or the one most likely to be used as lingua franca in the setting; but if the Doctor takes one person aside, do they perceive it as a switch to their own native tongue? Or are their assumptions (about where the Doctor comes from) a factor?

Comments

[selenak]

In The Eater of Light (s10 episode), which I rewatched yesterday, this sort of comes up. We have Bill, the Roman soldiers who talk in Latin, and the Caledonian locals who talk - Pictish, I guess? (Not sure what the language of the Caledonian tribes at that point was called, but probably not Gaelic.) And the Doctor, and Nardole (who's from the future and not from Earth, so presumably isn't talking in English, though he could have learned it in the last 70 years on Earth with the Doctor and Missy in Bristol). Bill realises that the first Roman soldier she meets hears her speaking Latin while she's hearing him speak English. Later, when she and the Romans encounter the Doctor, Nardole and the Caledonians, the Romans understand the Caledonians (and vice versa) in literally a new way because they hear each speak each other's language (Kar explicitly says she's not speaking Latin, and the Romans do not speak her language, either, yet that's what she hears them do), Bill asks the Doctor whether this is because of him & the TARDIS, which he confirms. Bill does use the word "telepathy".

A more vague memory - in "Fires of Pompeji", after the Doctor has explained the TARDIS automatically translates whatever Donna says into Latin to the locals, Donna wonders what happens is she speaks actual Latin to a Roman and tries saying "veni vidi vici" (i.e. the only Latin phrase she knows), to which the Pompeii salesman she's talking to replies "me not speak Celtic" in an exaggareted slow way.

So basically: the TARDIS translates so everyone hears their own native language, not the language they have in common. And is versatile enough to make Donna sound like a tourist. :)

[moon_custafer]

And a couple of jokes in “Vincent and the Doctor” and “Cold War” indicate that the TARDIS (a) will attempt to indicate accents by means of equivalence, i.e. someone speaking French in a Dutch accent is translated into Scottish-accented English and vice versa; and (b) will occasionally have trouble with idioms or terms that don’t have an exact equivalent – David Warner’s character has, from his reaction, evidently heard Clara’s “I sing it at karaoke on a hen night” as something like “I sing it at empty orchestra on a night of chickens.” Which you’d think would happen much more often than is shown, but like the Doctor’s ability to steer the TARDIS, the accuracy of the translation circuits evidently varies in accordance with plot or humour requirements.