posted
I was wondering, perhaps you could clear my confusion regarding fine niuances of English...
You see, in The Expanse, when Trip learns that Florida was hit, he goes to the captain and they say this:
Trip: Ah, she may have been away. Architects take a lot of trips.
Archer: Older or younger?
Trip: My baby sister. When we were in school...
Now, I freely admit that english is not my first language but I pride myself with being able to understand it quite well, even if sometimes I get times mixed up when writing messages in this language
So, I uderstand that above quote says that Tucker has two sisters, one older and one younger. Archer, being his friend and CO is aware of that, but he doesn't know exactly where they live. So, when Trip mentions that one of his sisters lives in Florida, the asked "Older or younger", trying to find out which sister lives in Florida.
But right away in next episode Phlox contradics that reasoning by stating "Commander Tucker had one sister".
So, I wanted to ask you: is this their mistake, or my mistake?
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posted
Well, in light of Phlox's line, it must mean that Archer was unaware that Trip had a sister. Some friend, huh?
Since the whole thing with Phlox was concerned with Trip's loss, they must surely have referenced the other ep in writing this one. They wouldn't have ignored it, that would be daft. We moan and bitch about their overlooking of some pretty obscure bits of continuity, I can't imagine that with the high quality of work that goes into Enterprise they would commit such a grievous error. Unless it was to enhance Trip's loss. Which they're quite capable of.
Your own English is much better than theirs, Kazey. Keep it up. 8)
posted
"Older or younger?" means "Is she older or younger than you?"
If he had two sisters, Archer would probably say "Which sister?" or "The older one or the younger one?" or "Cathy or Anne?"
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posted
Admittedly, asking "Older or younger?" makes it sound as if this was the first time ever that Archer and Tucker discussed the sister. Which would be weird.
I'd have expected something like "Remind me... She's older than you, right?"
posted
My point exactly. To me, asking whenever one's deceased sister is older or younger is just incredibly rude...
I simply think that making sure which sister one's talking about is the simplest answer. That's why I'm confused.
So, I think even if there was second sister, she mysteriously dissapeared in the plot hole to "enhance" Trip's loss, like Lee said. (this isn't the first time, mind you - Mayweather's brother wasn't mentioned before Horizon, even though Travis talked about his family before...)
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posted
Ignoring the commander-subordinate relationship for the moment, it's plain they're friends, at least since the flashback elements of "First Flight." And I think anyone of us is capable of remembering all our friends' siblings, but not just the fact of their existence but also their ages and even their names.
Trek is no stranger to magically producing previously-umentioned siblings before (Sybok, B4, Nicolai Rozhenko) but I don't think they've ever downgraded anyone's family size before. . .
Kirk - brain-eaten brother Spock - God-bothering half-brother McCoy - sister? Scott - sister (non-canonically anyway) Sulu - not sure Chekov - sister? Uhura - we don't even know if she has a first name!
Picard - chargrilled brother Riker - only child Data - evil brother, retarded brother Troi - ghostly dead sister Crusher - not sure LaForge - sister(s?) Worf - anonymous amnesiac brain-washed brother, loony alien-abducting 'stepbrother' Wesley - only child, thank God Yar - nutjob Sarah-Connor-clone sister
Sisko - sister? Kira - only child O'Brien - don't know, probably loads of sisters, it'd explain a lot Dax - let's not even go there Bashir - only child I think Jake - duh. . . Quark - disgrace-to-all-Ferengi-but-now-their-Supreme-Leader brother Odo - even more complicated than Dax
Janeway - sister (in those Jeri Taylor books anyway) Chakotay - only child? Tuvok - don't know Paris - only child? Kim - only child? Torres - only child Neelix - vapourised sister EMH - countless brothers-in-hologram
I'm really not clear on any of the Voyager characters at all, and I haven't bothered to do Enterprise because there's another 5 years of convoluted family history to go!
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posted
Oh yeah. But for Lwaxana Troi to have had another baby means she had sex, and I can hardly be blamed for suppressing any memory of episodes involving that, now can I?
posted
No, Kira had two siblings. We met them in that time travel episode in the sixth season with Dukat and her mother (*shudder*), remember?
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posted
I try not to. Although the mother, I just found out, was played by Leslie Hope Bibb from 24. She lost her memory too, there's definitely a pattern developing here!
"Older or younger" - i.e. he's trying to get a rough idea of how old the sister is.
I have plenty of friends/coworkers who I've know for a long time but I don't know if their siblings are older or younger than them, especially if they are all adults.
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quote:Originally posted by Kazeite: My point exactly. To me, asking whenever one's deceased sister is older or younger is just incredibly rude...
Well, he could have asked "was she "original" or "extra crispy"? That would have been rude.
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posted
I dunno. I don't think they were originally intending that Trip had two sisters. I think it's just Archer being a bit of an idiot for not knowing his friend has a sister.
Asking if she was younger or older doesn't really seem especially insensitive either. He just wanted to know more about her (a bit late, but there you go). As Jason said, it's not like he said, "Oh. So, was she sex on legs, or a complete minger?"
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posted
Well .. let's break the quote down and make it better english - rather than shortened english.
quote:
Trip: Ah, she may have been away. Architects take a lot of trips.
Here - Trip is CLEARLY only speaking about one sibling.
quote:Archer: Older or younger?
Archer COULD have said, "Is this sister you're talking about older than you are; or is she younger than you are?"
quote: Trip: My baby sister. When we were in school...
Here - trip answers ... that she is clearly younger, by saying it's his baby sister. I have a younger sister too - and she's 24 ! I still call her my baby sister (don't get any ideas guys !! )
At no point here, does any one of them imply that Trip has more than one sister; only that there was possibly one in Florida during the attack - and she becomes subject of the conversation which continues...
Hopefully that clears up the english-side of things... whether Trip ACTUALLY does has another sibling *shrugs* i'm sure we'll figure that out.
posted
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