this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2024
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I vaguely remember long ago seeing an interview that explained that new worlds would default speak English because otherwise they’d have to spend the majority of the episode with Daniel having to learn each new language.
https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/2743/why-does-everyone-on-almost-every-planet-in-the-pegasus-galaxy-speak-english#2744
I always assume it was a plot hole/device to keep the story moving.
No way in hell everyone speaks English or anything close to it. Each SG team would need a linguist just to make contact.
For things like star trek they have translators to explain it away but for Stargate I just accept it. Otherwise the show wouldn't work.
Doesn't every SG team have a linguist? I thought that was specifically Daniel's job in SG1
Different teams had different purposes. I am sure most teams had no use for a linguist, even if it had been a more realistic English-less universe.
Doesnt SG3 mostly just shoot people and blow stuff up?
If that was the reason, they still could have had the majority of the Galaxy speak a common language that was not English. In fact, that wouldn't even need to be a concession to practically. For the most part, they were operating within a well established transportation network and empire. Even uf planets had their own local languages; it makes sense that there would be a Lingua Franca that a significant portion of people living near the gates understand.
That still means that probably half of the runtime of the show would be done in a con-lang variant of ancient Egyptian; which probably wouldn't fly in an English speaking market not used to subtitles.
Surely 80-90% of Daniel’s job is teaching languages to the other teams. Especially after Children of the Gods when they discover that the whole network is run by the Goa’uld/Jaffa.
Rather than subtitles, after establishing there was a common language, they could just have shifted to English, like they did. They could then lampshade it later. Have someone new walk in, only to find them all talking in galactic. O'Neil apologising, then shifting back to English, when talking to a new politician or diplomat, could have been some amusing character building.
The plot hole is filled (they are all talking galactic standard) while the viewer are happy (since it actually in English).