questions about translator microbes

[Zapp$ter]

Hi I have just recently started watching Farscape on TV.

I have a few questions about the Translator microbes.

How exactly do they work? I mean sometimes in a few instances they don't seem to translate at all. For example I think it is the last episode in season 1, Family ties?, where Rygel is about to do something very bad. Anyway, D'argo proceeds to say something to Rygel in an alien language which Crichton doesn't understand so he asks Chiana what D'argo said.

Do all the races speak a common language which is translatable by the microbes, thus allowing Crichton to understand the others?

Or am I just thinking into this thing too much?

Might I add, I have just realised what I have been missing, when I started watching Farscape. I mean I am a SciFi fan it's just that since the next generation and DS9 I haven't really watched any SciFi shows except just recently with Farscape. I find myself thinking about the show/ daydreaming at regular intervals during the day whilst chuckling at something funny I remember in one of the episodes.

Anyway keep up the good work, I hope you guys can bring Farscape back so that a fifth season can be shown. Even though I haven't got that far yet, I would like to know how the story was meant to end :aok:

Sorry about that, I ended up droning on :O

[ipimen]

hey!!! welcome to the Farscape universe, i'm glad you are enjoying it :D

I always say this when i talk to a "newbie" (please don't be offended by that term) you are so lucky to be experiencing this for the first time, i wish i had a reset button so i could forget about everything and then start watching from the beginning....

Anyway, about your question, this is what i think: Maybe the Transaltor microbes do not translate everything, maybe they do the best that they can handling so many different languages at the same time :D

Maybe is just the writers trying to be cute and make us wonder why we didn't understand. Or maybe is their way of reminding us that they do not speak in english and that we are listening in english just because it's a tv show :D

There can be many explanations, i have also wondered about that sometimes, but i'm not very picky and most of the time i let it pass.

Again, welcome and please spread the word about this beautiful show and make us all grow in numbers so we can conquer the world :D

[sny]

Hey, welcome! Feel free to write some letters to the powers that be asking for more Farscape... by all means, we can use all the new hands we can get.

Now, on to your question. First, I'll steal a description from another site.

"Translator microbes require accepting one whopper of a premise – that tiny microbes can figure out an underlying structure to almost any language – but once you’ve done that, you never have to wonder "How are these characters communicating?" again."

Now, my own comments. Think about all the languages on earth. They all have a common underlying structure, in some sense. There are verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs and all that jazz in every language. Every language has sentences. Every language has colloquialisms (regional sayings), figures of speech or idioms (like "you're pulling my leg" in English versus "you're pulling my hair" in Spanish both meaning "you're teasing me"). Languages are built on letters and symbols and these symbols combine to make sounds or syllables, and they combine to make words and they combine to make sentences which combine to make ideas. Let's assume that every language everywhere follows these rules.

Suppose these translator microbes know the rules, or they somehow enhance your own brain's ability to figure out the underlying rules. (Both are possibilities, I guess.) They have "learned" dozens, hundreds of languages, by being exposed to them. They "learn" new ones, maybe passing them along as they are exchanged from colony to colony, or they have a "collective memory" of some kind. As they are distributed to new individuals and form new colonies inside these people's brains, these people encounter new languages. The microbes work the same way codebreakers do, by using a set of rules to establish a pattern, and then decoding that patter to something you can understand.

As far as things the translator microbes have "trouble" with, I don't so much think of it as being an error, but more a word with no direct translation from the other language to English (the language that Crichton is familiar with, and therefore serves as our Point of View language for the series). Those exist in foreign languages. Particularly in older languages like Greek. For instance, see this page.

http://members.aol.com/donibess/sophros.htm

It's all about a Greek ideal with no direct translation in English. Or the German word gestalt.

Gestalt Theory
"Gestalt" is a German term which has no direct translation, but it is taken to mean any of the following: form, configuration, shape and essence. Gestalt psychology takes the view that phenomena should be studied and treated as a whole rather than on an elemental or componential basis. A maxim developed from this theory is that the whole is different from the sum of its parts.

And finally, it's a neater solution and has less potential for goofs than say, Universal Translators, and the "no direct translation" is nice artistic license for cursing in prime time without really cursing, a la "frell".

I've put too much thought into this and scared myself. No more anthropology for me.

Stacie

[Selena]

Originally posted by Zapp$ter
Hi I have just recently started watching Farscape on TV...

...Might I add, I have just realised what I have been missing, when I started watching Farscape. I mean I am a SciFi fan it's just that since the next generation and DS9 I haven't really watched any SciFi shows except just recently with Farscape. I find myself thinking about the show/ daydreaming at regular intervals during the day whilst chuckling at something funny I remember in one of the episodes.

Anyway keep up the good work, I hope you guys can bring Farscape back so that a fifth season can be shown. Even though I haven't got that far yet, I would like to know how the story was meant to end :aok:

Firstly welcome. Oh boy Zapp$ter, I wish I could go back to those early days ... I just couldn't get enough of Farscape. I'd get home from work and have to look at the last episode and any other's that were my favorites at the time. I've got favorites from every season but I love watching them all (on DVD now). What is even scarier is when you begin to notice similarities between what's going on around you and something you saw on Farscape and you find yourself quoting from the show! :rolleyes:

I still get a big kick out of watching Premier and seeing John's wide eyed innocence and how beautifully Ben acted in that episode.

As for the translator microbes once they colonize the base of the brain they seem to be able to translate most languages. I believe we were told in one of the episodes that they translate using common references. There are times when there are none so they're unable to translate what was being said. And at times they don't translate certain sayings accurately ... judging by the number of times Crichton's comments get misquoted ... because there's no common reference to match the saying.

How was Farscape meant to end? Only a couple of people are privy to that information and they're not talking :shutup: I do know that it wasn't meant to end the way it did and I'm glad DK (David Kemper) decided to leave the "To Be Continued" at the end of the episode.

[Zapp$ter]

Thanks for the replies, they were a real help. I guess I shouldn't be so picky in the future :O

But at least I understand how the microbes (theoretically) work.

This is slightly off-topic but are the DVDs for Farscape good? What are the extras like?

I was thinking of getting the boxed set which contains all of the first season episodes on DVD. Is it worth it? I will need to work solidly to get enough cash together but I think I may end up getting it.

Are there any plans for a complete boxed set of DVDs for seasons 2,3 and 4?

Also If I am buying separately how many volumes makes a complete season? e.g. Is it Volumes 3.1 to 3.9 or is there less per season?

Thanks for the help guys, hope I'm not bothering you too much.

[sny]

Originally posted by Zapp$ter
This is slightly off-topic but are the DVDs for Farscape good? What are the extras like?

I was thinking of getting the boxed set which contains all of the first season episodes on DVD. Is it worth it? I will need to work solidly to get enough cash together but I think I may end up getting it.

Are there any plans for a complete boxed set of DVDs for seasons 2,3 and 4?


Thanks for the help guys, hope I'm not bothering you too much.

No bother. We're typically pretty friendly and helpful types. Yes, the DVDs are great. I assume you're in the states. Great. Well worth the $89 I paid online. Look on mysimon.com and you should be able to scrounge up the set for under $100. Considering it's 22 episodes, that's quite cheap. The extras consist mainly of scenes that were edited out of the United States showing being added back in, and some behind the scenes stuff as well as interviews with the cast, and profiles of the characters. There are also several fantastic commentaries. The season 1 box set is currently the only complete season box set out. Make sure you're getting the complete box set, not just the best of season 1 box set.

I can't comment on the later seasons, since I'm still waiting for the full season box set. Supposedly ADV is wavering on whether to do a box set for season 2. So you might want to visit http://www.advfilms.com/index.asp?bhcp=1 and contact them, letting them know you are interested in the season 2 box set. The more we pester, the more likely they are to realize there's enough of a market for the repackaging and likely cost break we would get from a full season set over the volumes.

Stacie

[Selena]

Originally posted by Zapp$ter
Thanks for the replies, they were a real help. I guess I shouldn't be so picky in the future :O ...
This is slightly off-topic but are the DVDs for Farscape good? What are the extras like?

I was thinking of getting the boxed set which contains all of the first season episodes on DVD. Is it worth it?

... Are there any plans for a complete boxed set of DVDs for seasons 2,3 and 4?

Also If I am buying separately how many volumes makes a complete season? e.g. Is it Volumes 3.1 to 3.9 or is there less per season?

Go ahead and pick! That's what the show does to you it makes you think about things in general.

Is the box set worth it? I'd say a resounding Hell Yeah!!! The quality of the image on DVD is amazing and there are extra scenes on the DVD episodes that are missing from the TV episode. Then too, there are the great interviews by the cast that are really excellent to hear.

There are 4 episodes per DVD (usually) although a couple had 3 episodes so that there were 5 boxes in each season except season 1 which had 2 episodes on each DVD making 11 if you bought them individually.

I'd check out Amazon.com and a couple of the other sites that sell for less. At Amazon.com (believe it or not) there are 'used' DVDs for sale I bought 2 extra copies of Premier just before Christmas at less than $5 each. They were still shrink wrapped. I could not imagine parting with my DVD of any of the Farscape episodes but I guess some people can.

At this time we are writing to and e-mailing ADV to bring out the rest of the seasons in box sets.

[scape_sister]

I got my Season 1 box set from www.deepdvddiscount.com. I got it for $89.99 and free shipping! It was well worth it. They were pretty quick, it was within 2 weeks.

I have emailed ADV about continuing to make the box sets available. I want to buy S2, S3, and S4 that way, so I let them know. I encourage you to too if that is the route you are interested.

As for extras, yes they are great, and besides the ones mentioned above, I especially enjoyed the eps with commentaries. Especially the Ben and Claudia ones. They're funny together!

;)

Somewhere in these thousands of threads I read that someone was able to get it for $79, but I don't remember where. Sorry. I don't know if that was with free shipping or not though.

:aok:

[marandken]

I can't wait to own complete seasons 2-5 (!). Just got the first season box set.

When I first started to watch the DVD's (thru Netflix), I was completly shocked and surprised to see D'Argo's actor (Anthony Simco). Man, he is SO un-D'Argo-like. I loved it!!

Seeing him also made my son a bit less intimidated by the whole thing (even though he's not allowed to watch most Farscapes because he's 9 and it's NOT a show for kids!!).

I miss my Friday first runs...:pop:

I actually bought my first TiVo because of FS.

[Zapp$ter]

Well I live in the UK, but I can still pick up the boxed set for around about 80-90 pounds. I will probably go to that website and pester ADV about releasing other full season boxed sets.

I've made up my mind. I am going to get the season full boxed set. But not just yet, since I have exams coming up in about 2-3 weeks which will last for about a month. I finish my exams three days before my birthday. So I plan on getting the boxed on the day of my last exam which is the 26th of June. After that I have no more school, so I will probably spend the entire weekend watching the episodes. I can't wait, but it will definitely be worth it after all the work I am going to have to put in for my exams.

Again thanks for your helpful comments and opinions, it is much appreciated on my behalf :aok:

[waltersgirl]

welcome to the board you guys.

{{{{{{{{{{study vibes}}}}}}}}}}}}}

[Mike@Pilots Chamber]

A link with Family Ties (1.22), where D'Argo says something untranslatable. I think this was in Ancient Luxan, as D'Argo has to inject himself with a new batch of translator microbes in 3.16 (Revenging Angel) to understand the ship.

[aeryns_newbe]

Not to add anything else, but truely I'm not used to such long discussions. Now on to Farscape.

Translator microbes, according to a newbe who hasn't seen most of season 3 or 4, and has seen most of season 2 and all of season 1, a newbe who hasn't the sci-fi channel and started on Farscape from the DVDs, according to me...

Translator microbes translate languages to the person with them on, into that person's language... we are to assume this means we also have microbes injected. Also notice that in PK Tech Girl D'Argo curses to the She-yang (sp?) and that isn't translated, and also the Far-cuss words like Frell, yotz, dren, tralk, ect. are not technically words either... just used often enough that we think they are.:rollin:


:ewink:

[Spooklet]

Originally posted by Zapp$ter
Well I live in the UK, but I can still pick up the boxed set for around about 80-90 pounds. I will probably go to that website and pester ADV about releasing other full season boxed sets.

I suggest you buy from Play24.com then - it's the cheapest site for DVDs I've found, plus free P&P. (S1 is £79.99 there...)

Seasons 2-4 are also available, but in 5 individual box-sets of 2 discs (4-5 eps each set). Although the last two sets have yet to be released.

The extras on all the DVDs are excellent though. Stuffed full of Farscape facts, behind the scenes info, deleted scenes, character profiles etc. You should note that the DVD episodes aren't any different for us because we got the unedited versions screened on TV in the first place ;). Best DVD buy I've ever made... Not that I'm biased, or anything ;)