Editing (section) Translation circuit 0 You are not logged in. == Basic functionality == As the [[Ninth Doctor]] once told [[Rose Tyler]], the translation circuit was a "gift of the TARDIS, a telepathic field that gets inside your brain — translates." ([[TV]]: ''[[The End of the World (TV story)|The End of the World]]'') The Doctor himself was a part of the circuit, without whom the circuit was broken. When the [[Tenth Doctor]] was incapacitated due to post-[[regeneration|regenerative]] crisis, for example, Rose lost access to the circuit, and could no longer understand languages she did not personally know. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Christmas Invasion (TV story)|The Christmas Invasion]]'') Sometimes, the translation circuits would not work for passengers in different timezones. When [[Nyssa]] was trapped in [[1957]] while the [[Fifth Doctor]] and the TARDIS were in [[1963]], [[German language|German]] signs were not translated for her. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[1963: Fanfare for the Common Men (audio story)|1963: Fanfare for the Common Men]]'') [[Bernice Summerfield]] experienced the effects of the translation circuit only when the TARDIS was around. As an [[archaeologist]], she always felt this was "cheating". ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Lies in Ruins (audio story)|Lies in Ruins]]'') Exactly who could take advantage of the circuit, and under what circumstances, was variable, suggesting the Doctor could change its settings in some way. The [[Fourth Doctor]] told [[Sarah Jane]] in [[Renaissance]] [[Italy]] that it was a "gift of the [[Time Lord]]" that ''he allowed'' her to share. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Masque of Mandragora (TV story)|The Masque of Mandragora]]'') [[Bernice Summerfield]] found that she could understand languages such as [[Hindi]] and [[Sontaran (language)|Sontaran]] and mused upon this in her diary. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[All-Consuming Fire (novel)|All-Consuming Fire]]'') {{quote|I hadn't had to learn a word: somehow my association with the Doctor had enabled me to understand any language I came across.|Bernice Summerfield|All-Consuming Fire (novel)}} During the incident with the [[Sycorax]] on [[Christmas]] [[2006]], the translation circuit worked for all [[human]]s on the Sycorax ship, even though the [[Tenth Doctor]] was not, at the time, apparently aware of their presence. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Christmas Invasion (TV story)|The Christmas Invasion]]'') Even when [[Davros]] had swapped minds with the Doctor, he was able to 'share' his body's gift of translation with [[Flip Jackson]] and [[Jared Ramon]] when they arrived back in 1815, allowing them to understand French despite the fact that Flip and Jared had never been inside the TARDIS. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Curse of Davros (audio story)|The Curse of Davros]]'') On yet another occasion, the [[Seventh Doctor]] told [[Elizabeth Klein]] that the telepathic field was limited to a certain radius around the TARDIS, with the Doctor losing the ability to communicate with the native Vrill once he moved beyond that radius, although this can be attributed to the fact that the Vrill communicated via smell, with the result that the language was so complex that the Doctor would be unable to even attempt to speak it on his own. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Survival of the Fittest (audio story)|Survival of the Fittest]]'') The Ninth Doctor once mentioned that the translation systems had a swear filter that prevented the passengers from hearing any [[swear word]]s; even an angry cavewoman's rants were translated as her saying, "Blinking", rather than a more apt phrase. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Only Human (novel)|Only Human]]'') The translation circuit was apparently capable of translating for creatures without a language. [[Marnal]], the previous owner of the Doctor's TARDIS, identified the animal language translators as one of the many functions in the TARDIS that was no longer in operation after the Doctor's botched repair work on his ship, but the [[Eighth Doctor]] dismissed these as irrelevant. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Gallifrey Chronicles (novel)|The Gallifrey Chronicles]]'') However, it would appear that the Doctor would later at least attempt to repair these circuits, as the [[Eleventh Doctor]] was able to barely communicate with a [[Krafayis]], which were only of animal-level intelligence, ([[TV]]: ''[[Vincent and the Doctor (TV story)|Vincent and the Doctor]]'') and later apparently understood a horse when it told him its name. ([[TV]]: ''[[A Town Called Mercy (TV story)|A Town Called Mercy]]'') Multilingual individuals were sometimes capable of identifying what language was being spoken. When the [[Fourth Doctor]] spent time conversing with [[Emmeline Neuberger]], a native [[German language|German]] speaker who also spoke reasonably good [[English language|English]], he responded to her with equal ease when she spoke to him in English and German without showing any sign that he noticed her change in language, Emmeline noting that she couldn't tell what language he was addressing her in. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Wolfsbane (novel)|Wolfsbane]]'') The Doctor tended to have more luck in identification. The [[Fourth Doctor]] identified the mercenary trader [[Garron]] as originating from [[Somerset]] simply by hearing his accent, despite the fact that he was on the planet [[Ribos]] at a time before it had become aware of other worlds and hence would have no reason for an Earth native to visit it. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Ribos Operation (TV story)|The Ribos Operation]]'') On another occasion, the [[Tenth Doctor]] used [[Madame de Pompadour]]'s particular French accent to identify the century in which she lived, while [[Mickey Smith|Mickey]] simply assumed she was speaking English. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Girl in the Fireplace (TV story)|The Girl in the Fireplace]]'') When [[Rose Tyler|Rose]] was talking to a pair of African mercenaries, she continually heard them talking in English even when they explicitly said that they would switch to an obscure African dialect that was only known in a small part of the continent in the 22nd century. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Art of Destruction (novel)|The Art of Destruction]]'') The TARDIS translations were closer to the original language than other translators, although it would allow 'local' translations to take over if languages were already being translated. [[Selachian]] [[Selachian battlesuit|battlesuits]] had built in translators, giving them a harsh voice. When removed from their armour and in range of the TARDIS, their speech sounded more melodic, closer to the [[Ockoran]]'s natural song-like language. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Final Sanction (novel)|The Final Sanction]]'') Likewise, the translation circuit did not compensate for the glitch in [[Sil]]'s translation system that caused his voice to sound so disturbing. ([[TV]]: ''[[Vengeance on Varos (TV story)|Vengeance on Varos]]'') The TARDIS translator gave some individuals noticeable accents. It made [[Elizabeth Klein]], a [[German language|German-speaker]], perceive the [[Seventh Doctor]] as having a "stuffy [[Prussia]]n accent", ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Survival of the Fittest (audio story)|Survival of the Fittest]]'') where he traditionally sounded Scottish to most native English speakers. [[Vincent van Gogh]], a native Dutch speaker, assumed that [[Amy Pond|Amy]] was from Holland due to her having a similar accent to his own. ([[TV]]: ''[[Vincent and the Doctor (TV story)|Vincent and the Doctor]]'') However, the [[Second Doctor]], [[Jamie McCrimmon|Jamie]], [[Ben Jackson|Ben]], and [[Polly Wright|Polly]] still spoke in their usual accents while speaking [[Russian language|Russian]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Night Witches (audio story)|The Night Witches]]'') It has been suggested on some occasions that the TARDIS translation also slightly modified peoples' minds so that they did not consciously register that they should be unable to understand the languages they were listening to. The Doctor was able to [[deduce]] that Sarah had been hypnotised when she directly asked how she was able to understand Italian during a trip to the fifteenth century. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Masque of Mandragora (TV story)|The Masque of Mandragora]]'') On another occasion, when [[Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart|the Brigadier]] asked how he was able to understand German during a trip to a party thrown by the Nazis in [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]'s honour in [[1942]], the [[Sixth Doctor]] reflected that the champagne the Brigadier had drunk was probably responsible for him asking the question. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Shadow in the Glass (novel)|The Shadow in the Glass]]'') As noted by [[Bill Potts]], the circuit also appeared to handle lip synching, in that the speaker being translated would also appear to be moving their lips in time with what was being said in translation. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Eaters of Light (TV story)|The Eaters of Light]]'') [[Rose Tyler]] was able to use the TARDIS translation circuit to consciously ''write'' in [[Russian language|Russian]], when she did not speak the language. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Rose and the Snow Window (short story)|Rose and the Snow Window]]'') === Failure to translate === Although the circuit could translate a vast majority of languages that it encountered in the universe, there were some instances where the circuit failed. Reasons for this varied, including debility of the Doctor, ([[TV]]: ''[[The Christmas Invasion (TV story)|The Christmas Invasion]]'') age of the language, ([[TV]]: ''[[The Impossible Planet (TV story)|The Impossible Planet]]'', [[AUDIO]]: ''[[Absolute Power (audio story)|Absolute Power]]'') and complexity or simplicity of the language. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Judoon in Chains (audio story)|Judoon in Chains]]'', ''[[Death and the Queen (audio story)|Death and the Queen]]'') {{facts}} Notably, the TARDIS would not translate [[Gallifreyan (language)|Gallifreyan]] script. ([[TV]]: ''[[A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)|A Good Man Goes to War]]'', [[AUDIO]]: ''[[Lies in Ruins (audio story)|Lies in Ruins]]'') In his [[Second Doctor|second incarnation]], the circuit failed to translate both [[German language|German]] and [[French language|French]] while on a planet controlled by the [[War Lord]]s, while it did translate the War Lords themselves. ([[TV]]: ''[[The War Games (TV story)|The War Games]]'') Whilst visiting [[Vincent van Gogh]], [[the Doctor's TARDIS]] was covered in posters which remained in French. ([[TV]]: ''[[Vincent and the Doctor (TV story)|Vincent and the Doctor]]'') Of course, it was established that there was a lag in translation of the written word. ([[TV]]: ''[[A Good Man Goes to War (TV story)|A Good Man Goes to War]]'') In his [[Third Doctor|third incarnation]], the Doctor knew the eyebrow language of the [[Delphon]]- musing later that this was one language that could not be translated automatically and it had taken some time for him to learn the subtle nuances of the language- but did not understand [[Chicken]] or [[Polari]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[Spearhead from Space (TV story)|Spearhead from Space]]'', ''[[Carnival of Monsters (TV story)|Carnival of Monsters]]'', [[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Blame Game (audio story)|The Blame Game]]'', ''[[The Havoc of Empires (audio story)|The Havoc of Empires]]'') When he was on the island of [[Salutua]], the Doctor was unable to communicate with the [[Semquess]], but this can be attributed to his current distance from the TARDIS- which was back in England thirty-six years in the future- and the complexity of the Semquess language, which both featured underwater communication and use of their multiple limbs. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Eye of the Giant (novel)|The Eye of the Giant]]'') When the [[Fifth Doctor]] and [[Vislor Turlough]] initially encountered the [[Phiadoran]]/[[Vrall]] [[Lytalia]] on [[the Moon]] in [[1878]], Turlough assumed that his inability to understand her was natural, but the Doctor soon realised that they had only failed to understand her because her language syntax was being replaced by English based on knowledge extracted from the brain enzymes of Sub-Lieutenant [[Granby]], and she had merely been making random sounds to conceal this until she had another excuse to speak English. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Imperial Moon (novel)|Imperial Moon]]'') On [[Heaven (Love and War)|Heaven]], the [[Seventh Doctor]] claimed that the TARDIS could not translate writing since it didn't have a mind to read, and thus he was unable to read [[Heavenite (language)|Heavenite]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Love and War (novel)|Love and War]]'') The [[Hervoken]] language, encountered by the Tenth Doctor and Martha, couldn't be fully translated, though the essence was understood. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Forever Autumn (novel)|Forever Autumn]]'') Even some [[Earth]] languages did not translate. In the time of the [[Fifth Doctor]], the TARDIS was unable to translate for [[Kurkutji]], who spoke an old Aborigine dialect, although the Doctor's companion [[Tegan Jovanka]] was able to speak the language normally through personal knowledge. ([[TV]]: ''[[Four to Doomsday (TV story)|Four to Doomsday]]'') The [[Seventh Doctor]] noted that the TARDIS translator had always had trouble with [[Esperanto]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[A Thousand Tiny Wings (audio story)|A Thousand Tiny Wings]]'') Some languages that were too complex, like the [[Sittuun]] language encountered by Amy and the Eleventh Doctor, would not be translated. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Night of the Humans (novel)|Night of the Humans]]'') In other instances, if the idea was too complex, translation would be incomplete or faulty, an example being when the Fifth Doctor used the phrase, "We will have been here before", to describe the TARDIS arriving at a crater on [[the Moon]] in the early twenty-first century when the TARDIS would visit that location in [[1878]] in its personal future. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Imperial Moon (novel)|Imperial Moon]]'') The [[Seventh Doctor]] and [[Melanie Bush|Mel]] encountered [[Golosian]], which was also too complex to be translated by the TARDIS, although a translator created during their visit to [[Dark Space 8]] was able to provide an accurate translation of the Golosian language. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Bang-Bang-a-Boom! (audio story)|Bang-Bang-a-Boom!]]'') The [[Foamasi]] language also went untranslated. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Leisure Hive (TV story)|The Leisure Hive]]'') This was apparently due to the complexity, as the language stimulated the visual cortex of the [[brain]], meaning Foamasi effectively saw their language. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Sleepy]]'') On the other hand, [[Judoonese]] was too basic to be translated. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[Judoon in Chains (audio story)|Judoon in Chains]]'') Even later, languages which predated the universe could not be translated. The [[Krop Tor script|script]] written on the planet [[Krop Tor]] was not translatable. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Impossible Planet (TV story)|The Impossible Planet]]'') A very old [[Minotaur (species)|minotaur-like species]] couldn't be translated properly. Its words sounded like roars and grunts to the companions, and the [[Eleventh Doctor]] had difficulty understanding several words. ([[TV]]: ''[[The God Complex (TV story)|The God Complex]]'') Inscriptions on the very ancient [[Cradle of the Gods]] weren't translated in the eyes of the Eleventh Doctor and his companions. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Dalek Generation (novel)|The Dalek Generation]]'') The Doctor was able to bypass the translation circuits to say minor phrases in other languages, such as "thanks" in [[Vietnam]]ese ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Interesting Times (short story)|Interesting Times]]'') or "[[Allons-y]]". ([[TV]]: ''[[Army of Ghosts (TV story)|Army of Ghosts]]'', et. al.) The [[Twelfth Doctor]] once claimed this was because of his precise control over the translation circuits. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Four Doctors (comic story)|Four Doctors]]'') As [[Clara Oswald|Clara]] found out, while her speech translated into perfect [[Russian]], phrases like "[[hen night]]" and "[[karaoke]]" did not translate. (TV: ''[[Cold War]]'') === Sabotage === On some occasions, the TARDIS translation circuits could fail to work through deliberate action on the part of others. On one occasion, {{Delgado}} disrupted the [[Third Doctor]]'s attempt to talk to him by hacking the translation and telepathic circuits of the Doctor's TARDIS and feeding the Doctor's words back to him before he had spoken, resulting in his words coming out backwards. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time Monster (TV story)|The Time Monster]]'') Translation could be affected by the listener's own perceptions, as when the circuit initially failed to allow [[Anji Kapoor]] to understand the language of the [[Hitchemus Tiger|intelligent tigers]] of the planet [[Hitchemus]] because Anji couldn't accept that the Tigers were sentient. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[The Year of Intelligent Tigers (novel)|The Year of Intelligent Tigers]]'') When facing the alien artist [[Monos]], who sought to use a psychic gauntlet to imprint his identity across London, the Doctor was able to defeat him by having Amy and Rory deliberately sabotage the translation circuit, scrambling all language in the ship's vicinity so that nobody could process Monos's name properly, giving the Doctor time to disable his equipment. ([[COMIC]]: ''[[Sticks and Stones (comic story)|Sticks and Stones]]'') Establishing interface with the TARDIS Insert: – — … ° ≈ ≠ ± − × ÷ ← → · § Sign your username: ~~~~ Wiki markup: {{}} | [] [[]] [[Category:]] #REDIRECT [[]] <s></s> <sup></sup> <sub></sub> <code></code> <blockquote></blockquote> <ref></ref> <references/> <includeonly></includeonly> <noinclude></noinclude> <nowiki></nowiki> Symbols: ~ | ¡ ¿ † ‡ ↔ ↑ ↓ • ¶ # ¹ ² ³ ½ ⅓ ⅔ ¼ ¾ ⅛ ⅜ ⅝ ⅞ Characters: Á á Ć ć É é Í í Ĺ ĺ Ń ń Ó ó Ŕ ŕ Ś ś Ú ú Ý ý Ź ź À à È è Ì ì Ò ò Ù ù  â Ĉ ĉ Ê ê Ĝ ĝ Ĥ ĥ Î î Ĵ ĵ Ô ô Ŝ ŝ Û û Ŵ ŵ Ŷ ŷ Ä ä Ë ë Ï ï Ö ö Ü ü Ÿ ÿ ß Ã ã Ẽ ẽ Ĩ ĩ Ñ ñ Õ õ Ũ ũ Ỹ ỹ Ç ç Ģ ģ Ķ ķ Ļ ļ Ņ ņ Ŗ ŗ Ş ş Ţ ţ Đ đ Ů ů Ǎ ǎ Č č Ď ď Ě ě Ǐ ǐ Ľ ľ Ň ň Ǒ ǒ Ř ř Š š Ť ť Ǔ ǔ Ž ž Ā ā Ē ē Ī ī Ō ō Ū ū Ȳ ȳ Ǣ ǣ ǖ ǘ ǚ ǜ Ă ă Ĕ ĕ Ğ ğ Ĭ ĭ Ŏ ŏ Ŭ ŭ Ċ ċ Ė ė Ġ ġ İ ı Ż ż Ą ą Ę ę Į į Ǫ ǫ Ų ų Ḍ ḍ Ḥ ḥ Ḷ ḷ Ḹ ḹ Ṃ ṃ Ṇ ṇ Ṛ ṛ Ṝ ṝ Ṣ ṣ Ṭ ṭ Ł ł Ő ő Ű ű Ŀ ŀ Ħ ħ Ð ð Þ þ Œ œ Æ æ Ø ø Å å Ə ə Greek: Ά ά Έ έ Ή ή Ί ί Ό ό Ύ ύ Ώ ώ Α α Β β Γ γ Δ δ Ε ε Ζ ζ Η η Θ θ Ι ι Κ κ Λ λ Μ μ Ν ν Ξ ξ Ο ο Π π Ρ ρ Σ σ ς Τ τ Υ υ Φ φ Χ χ Ψ ψ Ω ω Please note: No personal information from you is required to edit on the Tardis Data Core. 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