RSS feedI was doing some research on the TV series Stargate Atlantis, and bumped into the following rather interesting entry in MGM’s official FAQ.
Q: Why do the aliens speak English?
A: Practical reasons that come with television production. The time constraints of an hour-long episode mean that it would become a major hindrance to the story each week if the team had to spend the first 10 minutes of each episode learning to communicate with a new species.
This seems to me like the first time a producer has intentionally officially broken the audience’s suspension of disbelief. Most other series’ seem to try to justify why such plot devices exist, in the context of the universe in which the series is set. e.g. a babelfish type device, all aliens are decendants of earthlings, or something similar.
Could MGM be actually assuming their audience is intelligent? Hey folks, we’ve finally taken a step forward, with a slight wink to Steven Johnson.