Science Fiction & Different Accents / Languages
Do American people notice or get distracted by British accents and references in sci-fi shows?
Do British people notice or get distracted by American accents and references in sci-fi shows?
Same question for other cultures like Australian, Canadian, or Regional accents in a country.
Do you mind if the show uses a different accent/language from your own?
What do Americans or Canadians think about British-ness of Doctor Who?
What do British or Australians think about American-ness of Star Trek?
Do you prefer hearing your own native accent in sci-fi shows?
Some examples off the top of my head are below.
Of course there are many other shows than this.
American:
Star Trek
Babylon 5
Stargate
Falling Skies
Star Wars
British:
Doctor Who
Blakes 7
Torchwood
Red Dwarf
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Australian:
Farscape
I think American accents in outer space series actually make them seem more authentic,as we're used to astronauts being American anyway.
Having said that,the original Star Trek went out of its way to include different accents,but by way of explanation that Earth in the far off future would effectively be one multi-cultural 'country'.
I'm always conscious of actors not using their real accents,such as Canadian James Doohan playing 'Scotty' in Star Trek while in Doctor Who David Tennant,who in real life has a Scottish accent,put on an English one.
BTW,as William Shatner is also Canadian,do Americans recognise that in his speech ? Maybe he's lived in US so long that there's no trace
of a difference (if there is a perceptible difference anyway )
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I have lost the will to be apathetic
I question listing Star Trek as "American."
Given that the first two captains were played by Canadian and British actors (neither of whom disguised their accents), and the number of other diverse accents presents by regular performers (Koenig and Sirtis, for example) and guest artists, it's hard to picture a more diverse Anglophone cast.
I was quite capable of encompassing the breadth of accents in Torchwood.
Red Dwarf wouldn't have worked without the dialect tension between Lister's Scouse and Rimmer's RP.
Accent immediately tells you a great deal about a person, and Britain has always been far more open to presenting the breadth of both its ethnic and its class diversity in its television. Unless regionalism, race or class is a central theme, American television always resorts to a generic, neutral accent. But British television is always prepared to have part of the story told in the subtext of accent.
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--James
Given that the first two captains were played by Canadian and British actors (neither of whom disguised their accents), and the number of other diverse accents presents by regular performers (Koenig and Sirtis, for example) and guest artists, it's hard to picture a more diverse Anglophone cast.
The first two captains in real life chronology (not the fictional chronology of the show) were played by an American from New Orleans, the late Jeffery Hunter, and a Canadian from Montreal, William Shatner. The characters they played, Captain Christopher Pike and Captain James Kirk, were Americans. As for William Shatner, since he was playing an American character, the mostly American viewers of the NBC Channel of America assumed him to be American, not Canadian. All Star Trek from TOS to Enterprise were clearly American TV productions, with an American ethos, despite some pretensions to futurist-multiculturalism, and were produced with an overwhelmingly American cast and crew in California. Despite occasionally hiring a few notable actors from outside the US.
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