Was it worth it to ya? (aka Fire the Nuclear Wessels)

[PepperElf]

oh and speaking of Chekov ....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMaGnpVaSGQ

it's the entire medical scene though, but i always loved McCoy's "dark ages" comments anyway

[vikingchyk]

But to me, "vessel" will ALWAYS be heard or read with Chekov's accent. "Wessels" forever.

Me too. At the time the movie was released, a bunch of people from my office went to go see it together. We all busted out laughing at that scene, because we worked with someone whose last name was Wessel. He wasn't too put out being called 'Nuclear Wessel' for quite some time after that.

[vikingchyk]

I thought the line from Chekov was "We are trying to get to the nuclear Wessles at Alimidia" or something like that.

Chekov: We're looking for the naval base in Al-a-mee-da - can you tell us where the nuclear wessels are?
Unhelpful: Oh, I don't know. I think it's across the Bay. In Alameda!
Chekov: That's what I said - Alameda, I know that.
Uhura: But where is Alameda?

Across the Bay, duh!

[Zoom]

Just so this doesn't devolve into Fratching, I won't mention the Horst Wessel Song.

Um, except to mention that I won't mention it.

[wolfie]

Hamster poop?

Yep, one of the hazards of firing "live ammunition".

As for the Chekov lines, "Captain, we have found a nuclear wessel, and she is the Enterprise."

I've heard that when Star Trek IV was shown in the Soviet Union (audio in the Original Russian, of course), the censors left in what was a throwaway line for North American audiences but had audiences rolling in the aisles behind the Iron Curtain "The bureaucratic mentality is the fundamental constant of the universe", and an extremely politically-charged line about the crew's arrival in the 20th century United States "Remember, you are entering a primitive and paranoid society".

[RealUnimportant]

Chekov: We're looking for the naval base in Al-a-mee-da - can you tell us where the nuclear wessels are?
Unhelpful: Oh, I don't know. I think it's across the Bay. In Alameda!
Chekov: That's what I said - Alameda, I know that.
Uhura: But where is Alameda?

Across the Bay, duh!

IIRC that whole bit was improvised by Walter Koenig & Nichele Nichols, and the unhelpful lady wasn't even an extra but a genuine passer-by who just reacted normally. They had to send a crew member running after her to get a release signed to use it.

[mharbourgirl]

Found ya a nuclear weasel:



Also, there's a band.

[Cia]

Has the guy discovered how royally screwed his is yet?

[Chromatix]

It is highly ironic, given his name, that Chekov has trouble with V sounds. Even more ironically, his console password - given verbally - in the reboot movie contained two "Wictor"s, which he had some difficulty getting the computer to accept.

There seem to be two major forms of Russian accent, one which sounds like Chekov and another which is more guttural. The latter would have no trouble with V.

[RealUnimportant]

That's not irony, that's forced humour. The V in Chekov is an F sound, which is why it doesn't cause issues. It's a wery vell known stereotype, based on the differences between Cyrillic & Arabic symbols vs pronunciation iirc.

[PepperElf]

It is highly ironic, given his name, that Chekov has trouble with V sounds. Even more ironically, his console password - given verbally - in the reboot movie contained two "Wictor"s, which he had some difficulty getting the computer to accept.

There seem to be two major forms of Russian accent, one which sounds like Chekov and another which is more guttural. The latter would have no trouble with V.

Part of that I think is that... they didn't actually know much Russian when they wrote his character.

No Russian would ever say "Wodka" the way Checkov does. It's "Водочка"... which is pronounced "Vodka".


It's one of the gripes I have with the series.

[Flood]

I remember reading that the kid they got to play Checkov in the reboot really is russian and originally read the lines in a proper russian accent.

But then the director told him to say Wictor. To which the kid just shrugged and said "That's not russian, but you're the boss."

[Jester]

There seem to be two major forms of Russian accent, one which sounds like Chekov and another which is more guttural. The latter would have no trouble with V.

No Russian would ever say "Wodka" the way Checkov does. It's "Водочка"... which is pronounced "Vodka".

Interesting.

My roommate, who is Estonian, but spent his childhood under Soviet control (he was born in 1978) pronounces vodka as "wodka" but has no trouble saying v's. For instance, he might say "That wodka is very good." He has a strong accent, yes, but he is very well-spoken, more than a lot of immigrants in this country. I just always assumed that the "wodka" was not an inability to say v's, but rather the way they always said certain words. The dialect, if you will. Just as most Americans will say pronounce mozzarell as "MOTTS-uh-RELL-uh," whereas most Italian Americans will pronounce it "MOOTS-uh-rell."

[Seraph]

"MOTTS-uh-RELL-uh," whereas most Italian Americans will pronounce it "MOOTS-uh-rell."

I used to pronounce it that way, until I got made fun of for "not knowing how to say it right". Protesting that it was the way my family said it meant nothing, lol. I'd forgotten all about that, actually...been over a decade. (/cringe)

[Jay 2K Winger]

Re: the proper pronunciation of words.

I have an ear for how "natives" pronounce things. It goes with my knack for accents and the like. So I know that what Jester says is more or less true.

My knack came in handy once while I was doing "You Can't Take It With You" on stage at school. I pointed out to the girl we had playing Madam Kolenkhov (since we didn't have enough guys to go around to play Kolenkhov as a male) that Russians pronounce their capital city "Mus-coh" as opposed to the American pronunciation "Moss-cow." She took it to heart, so in a scene in the play, when Grandpa (me) and Kolenkhov are talking, we both pronounce it respective of our cultures. "Moss-cow" for Grandpa and "Muss-coh" for her.