Doctor Who: En français...

[fajrdrako]

I've been taping Torchwood in French once a week, and Doctor Who once a day. I failed to set my machine properly yesterday, and missed an episode of Doctor Who. I was upset because I thought it would be one of my favourites - "À la croisée des chemins" or "The Parting of the Ways". But I have that one, deliciously intact and beautiful. So I would have expected this morning's episode to be "Un Loup-garou royal" ("Tooth and Claw") if I missed "Une nouvelle Terre" ("New Earth") but no, it was "L'Invasion de Noël" ("The Christmas Invasion").

Fine. But how did they fit "The Christmas Invasion" into a normal one-hour timeslot? They cut, of course. I don't know what else they cut, but they chopped the end of at the point where the Doctor, Rose, and Jackie have just begun to hug. The Doctor's on fine terms with Harriet Jones - no mention of Torchwood, no attack on the Sycorax ship, no sabotaging of her political career.

I rather wish the English version had stopped there, too.

I wonder what episode I missed yesterday.

Comments

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Un Loup-garou royal

I know just enough French to know that that title is a really bad spoiler!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I suppose it is a spoiler, if you interpret it right - I don't think I'd have thought of that.

I love some of the translations in French. For example, "The Empty Child" becomes "Drôle de mort" - who'd have guessed? And instead of being "Army of Ghosts", as I would have expected, it's "L'Armée des ombres" - "Army of Shadows". "Doomsday" is "Adieu Rose": I don't think I like that. For one thing, the double meaning is lost. "The Girl in the Fireplace" is "La Cheminée des temps", "The Fireplace of Time", which is nicely poetic.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

I don't know what else they cut, but they chopped the end of at the point where the Doctor, Rose, and Jack have just begun to hug.

Jack isn't in The Christmas Invasion...?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Eee! I meant Jackie!

(Freudian slip or what? I wish it was Jack!)

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

You can see Ztélé's schedule online at www.ztele.com .

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thank you... I hadn't even thought of going there to look. Good site, good listings. I can't tell what I missed! I suppose it might have been, or must have been, "Le grand méchant loup". I'll have to double-check my recordings, because I thought I got that.

[ceruleancat.livejournal.com]

Apropos:
Most of the TV we get is of course dubbed to French. Which is bad.
But Buffy - is really crappy.

Sample - Original version:
GILES: Uh, Ms. Calendar?
JENNY: Oh, no, please call me Jenny. Ms. Calendar's my father.

French - ... ma mere.
That's not dubbing, it's censorship. At best, it's incompetence.

[ceruleancat.livejournal.com]

Not to mention the ep titles.

Some Assembly Required > Le Puzzle
School Hard > Attaque à Sunnydale (to distinguish it from all other episodes, I suppose.)

Not to mention the show itself is called "Buffy contre les vampires".

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Some Assembly Required > Le Puzzle

Eee - not even close!

Attaque à Sunnydale (to distinguish it from all other episodes, I suppose.)

LOL

You wonder what the translators are thinking of - !

[ceruleancat.livejournal.com]

Apparently, that accuracy is unimportant. It seems to be a standard trait of the translation.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

But PS... I think I'd really like to see Buffy in French anyway. I'm about to start watching it in English. Maybe today. I got a copy of the DVDs. Yay!

[ceruleancat.livejournal.com]

YAY on watching Buffy! We'd both love to give any input, discussion or spoilers
if you want. Even recommendations on what order to watch. The sequential doesn't bring out the love as much.
And I highly recommend being well-versed in the original English version before attempting the French. If you don't know the English dialogue, you'd really miss out (not to mention the bland dubbing). Buffy is really too well-written to be destroyed like that. (But be lenient at first. They started slow.)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I need to find some Buffy icons. Suggestions as to sources would be welcomed.

[ceruleancat.livejournal.com]

My personal rec - Adam sparklebutch has loads and does them by request.
But there's lots of Buffy comms with icons and all sorts of stuff.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

So maybe if I talk nicely to Adam I can get something spiffy? Gotta watch more to know who/what themes I'm into but we already know I'm a Spike fan.

[ceruleancat.livejournal.com]

Definitely. His standard policy is 'ask, use, credit'.
Spike doesn't come in until early S2, but that shouldn't stop you from having icons now and getting more later. :)

What did you like in the eps you saw so far?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

What did you like in the eps you saw so far?

1. Giles
2. Willow

For starters...

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

giles_stills

Actually, a LOT of communities and uses. Big thriving fandom.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Big thriving fandom.

Hooray!

Thanks for the comm link.

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

I was amazed to find out I only have 15 Buffy icons, and that includes quotes ones (from and about), Angel ones, and Slayer comics ones. Two of those are Willow, but none is baseline Willow. There are also two tea ones, and some books ones. And one Little Britain.

And only two quotey ones on IJ!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I've certainly seen you use some entertaining Buffy icons... and that's a good one there!

I think I will have fun, when I have some time, searching out Buffy icons.

There's a lot of pretty there.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

French - ... ma mere.
That's not dubbing, it's censorship. At best, it's incompetence.

Reminds me of the CBC cutting Captain Jack's reference to how he was pregnant once. This is in English - theoretically the same language as the original - what, they think Canadians can't handle mpreg?

Hmmph.

I can forgive simply bad translations more than I can forgive deliberately bowdlerized translations.

Wait a minute. No, I can't. Translations ought to be brilliant and perfect and true to the original in quality as well as content, dammit.

[ceruleancat.livejournal.com]

I can forgive occasional translation errors because everyone makes mistakes. I should know. I worked in translation all my adult life. But this is worse than just bad translation across the board. They seem to have a standard of very loose interpretation of the original. I've noticed this in titles of other shows and movies, but I never actually bothered to listen carefully to the dialogue in other things, and we both know Buffy dialogue very well, so the looseness is very evident.
And Buffy is well-written, giving a lot of characterisation in the dialogue, so they're really making a big difference there.
At one point in his first ep, Spike bursts in and says "What can I say? I couldn't wait." which really gives you a touch of the boy's mode of behaviour.
The French version prefers a generic vampire comment -
Spike : Eh oui je suis là. Et je meurs de faim.

Blah.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I watched the first episode of Buffy today and I think I may have fell in love. Sort of. Will report more reactions later.

Translation errors: I think it depends what they are. I hate boring and stodgy translations. (I think you've already heard me rant about Penguin Classics.) I don't like dishonest translations - which includes the kind of thing you were talking about with Buffy, and that I was talking about with Torchwood, where they change things arbitrarily.

I haven't checked yet but, though I saw bilingual sets of Buffy in the stores, I think my set is just in English - I got part of it second hand and cheap, the other part from an American friend. But that's okay. I can't watch everything twice over in two languages. I don't have time. I just enjoy it, is all.

[ceruleancat.livejournal.com]

We're glad you enjoy it. It only gets better.

When I'm talking about translation errors, I'm referring to minor incidental problems, not to systematic rewrite.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It only gets better

Yay! I will continue. Soon.

Sladen Confirms Sarah Jane For DW S4 & SJA S2

[raissad.livejournal.com]

Check this out:
http://www.sfx.co.uk/page/sfx?entry=sarah_jane_the_return_again

Re: Sladen Confirms Sarah Jane For DW S4 & SJA S2

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Hooray! What good news!