Universal Translator

You know the TARDIS does that telepathic universal translator thing?
So companions hear everything in English, and the people they visit hear everything in the language they expect to hear.
And sometimes it means everyone around them hears every language as their own language too, like in the recent 11th Doctor audio The Gemini Contagion, where it mentions that without the TARDIS doing the translating nobody would be able to understand but with the TARDIS around everyone can understand each other.

What happens once the Doctor leaves?
Does it wear off instantly?
Do you get VWORP VWORP VWORP and then everyone is speaking foreign again?
What about Companions that got left behind in weird places? Gallifrey presumably has enough other sources of translation, but Earth history wouldn't, and probably not any other places either. Did Companions decide to stay with the love of their lives and then suddenly stop being able to speak to them? That would suck. Or do they keep the translation effect?

If the translation effect lingers, how long for?

People hardly ever notice things are being translated. They just get on with talking as if it's perfectly natural they suddenly speak the same languages. It's very useful.



So I was reading a Stargate fanfic that observed many planets seem to already speak English and I wondered
what if the Doctor had visited?
He leaves, the universal translator effect lingers, and nobody much thinks about it.

Wandering force of chaos and automatic translation.



Also, I always wonder, what about the nuances and the untranslatables? How does the TARDIS transmit connotations and make things properly understandable not just literal? She's waaaaaaaaay smarter than google translate but there's so many translations for even very well understood texts I just wonder how she decides.


It would drive a linguist nuts, travelling with her. Only ever hearing English while knowing there's all these cool languages happening. The Doctor can hear if they're not speaking English, and he can learn other languages, so he's not getting quite the same input as we are.
Or possibly he is - I'm watching with subtitles after all. TARDIS generated subtitles would be a really interesting way to interact with the universe.
... especially if they stuck around after she left...

(no subject)

You know, it's a very good thing there's no lessons today, because 'stayed up all night reading Dr Jackson's Diary' would not have been a proper reason not to turn up.
... I started out reading askverse Ianto and Jack getting married, and somehow it reminded me, and then it was a lot of hours later and also a different day.
... much much LOL though :-D