Poor Joan Collins. Getting hit by a mack truck would put me in a bad mood too.

I like the microbe idea better than anything else that's been proposed for translation. Because it actually involves the speaker and listener's brain in the whole process, rather than being something mechanical/electronic, and while we all can reasonably guess the limits of mechanical things and electronic things, the brain is like a Get Out Of Plot Hole Free card. Like, we can theorize ideas like what Thomash said above, and it comes within shouting distance of sense. If you've got really stentorian lungs.

The real problem with microbes is that (a) you have to get around the whole chicken-egg question of language acquisition in childhood, and (b) the people on Farscape never took a science class in their lives.

So, did the Mutant X and Andromeda convo result from this news? Because I must have skipped it while I was skimming.

did the Mutant X and Andromeda convo result from this news?

No, although it was mentioned therein.

Yeah, when she took the wig off? And she gathered the liquid Odo onto her skirt? I was all moved and stuff.

That's a great storyline. Lwaxana could easily be kind of shrill and one-note, but that whole relationship between her and Odo was so great.

And then I caught the last half hour of "Duet" yesterday. Harris Yulin doesn't leave one piece of scenery unchewed, but I don't care. And last week was the episode where Kira was sent to one of the moons to relocate Bajoran settlers, and Jake and Nog ended up with a hundred gross of self-sealing stembolts.

t flush with DS9 nostalgia

The microbes fail for me because they still use alien words for which there seems to be a direct English equivalent (Trek does this too, all the freaking time). Also, by the time they got to Earth and had Aeryn and Grammy speaking English, it all fell to shreds for me.

Not to mention the "documentary" that aired (love how Moya was able to receive that broadcast, BTW -- she must have digital cable), with interviews with all the aliens. Either all the aliens learned perfect English, or the Earth was crop-dusted with translator microbes.

Yup, that's the problem with Farscape. You can't think about the science, or your head will explode.

Either all the aliens learned perfect English, or the Earth was crop-dusted with translator microbes.

Nah, they just all watched Sesame Street and learned, like Aeryn.

"City of the Edge of Forever," written by Harlan Ellison.

Won a Hugo, didn't it?

Just checked. Yes, it did. Best Dramatic Presentation, 1968. Although it looks like every other thing that was nominated for it was also a Star Trek episode.

The original script was heavily revised, though, wasn't it? It was initially a crewman with a drug problem who dragged them down to the planet, or something like that.

Still a great episode.

The original script was heavily revised, though, wasn't it?

I think so. I seem to remember that Ellison washed his hands of it when it was first shown.