From: bjelli@cosy.sbg.ac.at (Brigitte Jellinek)
Subject: Re: German "Star Trek". 
Reply-To: bjelli@cosy.sbg.ac.at
Organization: University of Salzburg / Austria
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 10:49:39 GMT

In article <2600@pro-freedom.cts.com>, kfr@pro-freedom.cts.com (Kurt Roithinger) writes: 
>i lived in austria for 10 years and watched "trek" there as much as i
>could. the series over there, as i remember it, was called "raumschiff
>enterprise" (=starship you-know-what).
>
He then gives a german version of the opening lines. 

I have lived in Austria all my live, and I'm a big fan of "Raumschiff Enterprise".
I have never seen the original english version - only the dubbed german version.
Star Trek was first shown in german-speaking countries in 1971. Since then there
have been numerous reruns on both german and austrian TV channels.

Kurt's version of the opening title is not quite correct, so here goes
my version: 

       Der Weltraum --- unendliche Weiten.
       Dies sind die Abenteuer des Raumschiffs Enterprise,
       das mit seiner 400 Mann starken Besatzung fuenf jahre lang
       unterwegs ist um neue Welten zu erforschen, neues
       leben und fremde Zivilisationen zu entdecken.
       Es dringt dabei in Galaxien vor, die nie ein Mensch zuvor gesehen hat.


(I'm not too sure about lines 4 + 5, maybe I'll look it up)

Here's some more information about the german version of Star Trek:

The opening lines are not spoken by Kirk, but by some unidentified voice.
At the end of end of STII:TWOK the same lines are spoken by the voice of Spock.

TNG is called `Starship Enterprise - The next century` ("Das naechste Jahrhundert").
I'm not too sure about the opening lines, but I guess they are the same.

I've read that in the opening lines 'where no *man* has gone before'  was 
changed to 'where no *one* has gone before' to eliminate the sexism and racism.
The german version is ".., die nie ein *Mensch* zuvor gesehen hat.", meaning
`that no *human* has seen before` (so at least Uhura is included, but not Spock). 



In article <10294@umbc3.umbc.edu>, cs202144@umbc8.umbc.edu (cs202144) asks:
>How are Data's lines translated into German? Does he ever use a German
>contraction or does he speak, EVEN GERMAN, with no contractions. I have
>asked this question at least twice before and have gotten no answer that
>could explain how this is handled.

I have'nt noticed any diffrence between Data and the other members of the crew 
as far as use of language is concerned. I don`t belive that the people who do the
dubbing pay enough attention to even notice that Data doesn`t use contractions.

It's really hard to translate special usages of a language into another language. 
For example, I didn't know that Scotty, Bones and Sulu had an accent until I read
it in StarLog - in german they don't have accents. But how *should* a scottish accent
be translated into german ??? Checovs accent is translated (and sounds really great,
when he goes looking for "atomgetriebene Kriegsschiffe" in STIV:TVH). 

I promise to pay more attention to Data's language the next time I watch ST:TNG,
and if there's any problem with contractions I'll let you know.
(I`ll post it in rec.arts.startrek.contractions :-)

live long and prosper

     Brigitte


P.S.  : for `live long and prosper`  several translations are given. When Spock dies
in STII:TWOK he says `leben sie lange und in Frieden` = `live long and in peace`.