Does Troi speak Romulan?

[AdmiralACF]

This isn't really of any relevance to a game, but I was wondering just recently if Troi speaks Romulan. I mean, when she was masquarading as Major Rakal, I doubt a universal translator would have helped her stay undercover. After all, her lips would be moving differently than the words the Romulans heard, right? Any thoughts, Counselor? (Sorry, a little Picard slipped in there.)

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Tony Fanchi
Scotty "Laddy, don't you think you should rephrase that?"
Korax "You're right. I didn't mean to say the Enterprise should be hauling garbage, I meant to say it should be hauled away as garbage!"
[The Trouble With Tribbles/Trials and Tribbilations]

[Sarge]

Is there any canon evidence of "hypno-training" to learn things automatically in a short time with technological assistance? That would explain her speaking in Romulan, but the only example I can think of is the teaching device from TOS "Spock's Brain".

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LUGTrek isn't really dead. Not as long as we remember it.

[Cochrane]

The UT is obviously supposed to explain why everyone can understand eachother, but how do you explain all the cases where someone is undercover in a place where they don't speak the language? It's not just the Deanna incident. It's also previously unknown cultures, and undercover first contact and pre-first contact personnel. None of the aliens who shouldn't know about UT's think anything of strange lip movement.

[Paul]

I think that it's the First Rule of Script-writing:

Never let reality get in the way of a good story.

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"Just think of it - a blind man, teaching an android how to paint? That's gotta be worth a couple of pages in somebody's book." - Riker to La Forge.

[Diamond]

I believe that the Starfleet Intelligence Handbook (The First Line) has a device that allows for Universal Transelation capability in a covert environment. I forget the details, but I think it was an implant that allows the UT use to not be obvious.

[Karg]

And if you Remember "Little Green Men" Quark, Rom, & Nog have UT's in their Ears

Karg

[calguard66]

There is a book where McCoy learns Romulan via RNA transfer...

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"I'd rather die standing than live on my knees..."
Shania Twain

[Chris Blanchard]

I always liked to think that she could speak Romulan, or at least passable Romulan. That was part of the reason that SHE was picked over someone else from the crew. Just my two cents.

Chris

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God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage.

[AdmiralACF]

I wonder if the real Rakal looked anything like Troi? I always figured there must have been some reseblance, otherwise running into someone who knew Rakal would be very, very bad.

[Aldaron]

And of course, just to be annoying...
Why is it that whenever Picard says: "Q'apla!" to whichever Klingon is around, the UT doesn't immediately translate it into "Success!", when it translates what the Klingons say for us!


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"May I find you with peace, and leave you with hope."

[Jabara Eris]

Originally posted by Aldaron:
And of course, just to be annoying...
Why is it that whenever Picard says: "Q'apla!" to whichever Klingon is around, the UT doesn't immediately translate it into "Success!", when it translates what the Klingons say for us!

Maybe it doesn't need to because the word is so commonly understood.

For example, let's say we all had universal translators today. We would want it to translate when someone is speaking volumns of Spanish at us (for those of us who don't know Spanish), but we wouldn't want it to speak over someone when they're just saying something like, "Ciao, baby!" or "Adios, dude!" because those words are well known.

Picard seems to be quite fluent in Klingon (as are many Starfleet officers), so I expect they probably just set their translators to stay inactive when they hear a casual conversation with Klingons.

Either that, or the translators are programmed with specific vocabularies -- such as common, exotic and technical Romulan -- each of which can be activated depending on the needs and knowledge of the user.



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Voka a Bentel
(May you walk with the Prophets),

Eris

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"Rana naz’g ol resu ji joreen."
(It is the unknown that defines our existence)
-- Bajoran proverb
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[Dave]

I think it was in the FASA scenario entitled "Return to Axanar" in which the crew needed to know some Klingon in order to complete the adventure. While the average player might simply want to consult the ship's computer, or maybe buy a phrase book in the local village, the characters must hike through caves whereupon they find a few scattered items, one of which is a helmet. The players must find a reason to halt their urgent mission in order to try on the old helmet, whereupon knowledge of the Klingon language is dumped into their heads. Only then can they complete the adventure. What made it even more silly (IMHO) was that the illustration showed the helmet with a clear faceplate (I can only assume that students of Klingonese are subject to facial injuries).

I've never played it since much of the plot depends on a series of unlikely discoveries that the PCs must make, rather than depending on ingenuity and decision-making.. It seemed that a lot of plot hammering would have been in order. Has anyone used "Return to Axanar" as a LUG adventure?

As much as I enjoy pre-LUG scenarios, the writing contained in LUG adventures (including those on TrekRPGNet) is far better.

[Cochrane]

Just to be more annoying, maybe the reason Picard's Qa'pla isn't translated is analogous to why we usually hear conversations between Klingons on a Klingon ship in English.

[DaveTalley]

yep Axanar was a bitch to run, 2 years of game time, I need to sell my stuff , it calls out to me :-)
Dave