Hey, another Battlestar question...

[conuly]

So, they speak English, right? And all their writing is in English, right? Including on those oh-so-sophisticated computers they have....

Now, I can accept that this is necessary to ease comprehension and speed along the narrative. Yes, even the writing. But then why, oh why, do they suddenly stop speaking English when it comes to time-words and animals? All of a sudden it's "secton" this and "lupus" that. WTF?

If I keep this up, I'll need a new icon....

Comments

[zathras26.livejournal.com]

I agree that those time measurements are about right, especially since there's that one ep where one of the crew members is counting off microns, and her countdown is just about one micron per second. In the longer time periods, however, it does appear to be different... Adama says that the average life expectancy is "about two hundred yahrens", which suggests that a yahren is a somewhat shorter period than our year, although it's also possible that their life expectancy is longer than ours due to their more advanced technology (including, presumably, better medical techniques).

The main thing to remember is that here on Earth, calendars and time periods were all created based on either the movements of the sun or of the moon. That would, presumably, not be the case in the world of Galactica, in which humanity is settled on twelve different planets, which would require a more objective time measurement because everyone's "solar day" would be different.

[hopefulnebula]

It's like Farscape. They have these nifty "translator microbes" that are basically a Babel Fish without the mess and they translate everything except swears and measurements of time. But they have "solar days". For which planet isn't established (or hasn't yet been established).