tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Feb 02 10:34:33 1994

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Transcript: ~mark on WABC

Well, at the cost of being a few minutes late to work this morning (pInwI'
yIja'Qo'), I scribbled down a transcript of sorts of my appearence on
Channel 7, the New York WABC station a few weeks ago.  I'm afraid ny
descriptions of the Star Trek scenes they use is imperfect, but that's not
the key part.

There are some inaccuracies in things they say, I think.  Some may be due
to things I said (either in error or because they misunderstood), or things
from the AP release (for the same reasons).

=========================
MES=Mark E. Shoulson (that's me)
TF=Tim Fleicher(sp?), the reporter who interviewed me
VO=voice-over

First, the teaser, at the beginning of the program: (shots of MES reading
from text, becoming some ST scenes with Klingons and ships shooting and
stuff.)
Voice-Over: That strange language is the sound of Klingon being spoken.
Meet the man who translated the Bible into the Star Trek language.

(repeated at each commercial p break more or less the same, once actually
saying "Trekkie-speak" instead of "the Star Trek language")

(sorry, my VCR cut off the first few words when I started recording; I know
my parents and brother have more complete ones).

Anchorman: [(presumably) The Bible has been] translated into hundreds of
languages, and tonight you can add one more.  It's a language you won't
find in school, it's not spoken in any foreign country, in fact, there
aren't many people even speak it [sic].  However, the Bible is now being
translated into Klingon.  You know, the alien language from Star Trek?  Tim
Fleicher (sp?) has details.

(Star Trek scenes, Klingons speaking... I think valQIS talking about having
bought data and ready to transmit, subtitles... Ships shooting each
other...)

Voice-Over: The Klingons, as followers of the science-fiction series _Star
Trek_ know, did not speak for a long time.  But, with the movie _Star Trek
3_, linguist Marc Okrand gave them the Klingon language.

(Scene of Christopher Lloyd saying "He chu' ghoS: DIvI' neHmaH", changing
to MES, two-shot with reporter, reading)

MES: ...bIngDaq bIQ'a' tIqDaq chongeHpu', 'ej muDech bIQtIq... [actually,
this particular reading had a mispronunciation: I said "bIqtIQ" instead of
"bIQtIq".]

VO: Beam down to Earth, Klingon is now being spoken by Mark Shoulson.

(shot over shoulders of reporter and MES, who are pointing at the papers on
the counter in front of them as though discussing it.  Caption reads town
and news station information).

VO: ...And now he, and several other language enthusiasts, are translating,
of all things, the Bible into Klingon.

(Brief shot of Bible open to Jonah, then cut to MES with caption: MARK
SHOULSON / Klingon linguist)

MES: I'm not sure if the language really is big enough to do this--or do it
well--um, but I basically decided that if it was going to happen, I would
rather it happen with me than without me.

(extreme close-up of picture on TKD cover, pulling back to show the whole
cover)

VO: With the help of an official Klingon Dictionary, Mark has translated,
and now reads from, the book of Jonah.

(shot of MES)

MES: bIQ'a' Ha'DIbaH. [silly grin].

VO: There is, though, no word for "fish", so, he improvised.

MES: ...from "bIQ," which is "water"; "bIQ'a'" is "great water," "sea";
"Ha'DIbaH means "animal." [shrug]

(Shot of HolQeD cover being held, TKD on table in background)

MES (voice-over): A lot of people who are involved in the Klingon, um,
y'know, the Klingon speaking movement [1] are really... not necessarily
complete Trek fanatics, [2] they just like the language, or in my case, I
like languages in general

(at [1], extreme close-up of "The Journal of the Klingon Language
Institute" legend on bottom of HolQeD cover.  At [2], shot of a hand
flipping pages of the TKD glossary (around the S's, I think))

(2-shot of MES and reporter)
VO: It's Mark's hobby, but his work [1] will no doubt go beyond Jonah [2],
perhaps to other books.

(At [1], top of page of the printout of translation.  At [2], close-up
oblique shot of some of the translation text (Chapter 2))

MES (voice-over): ...jIqoy'pu', ghoghwIj DaQoy'pu'.

(shot from behind and somewhat below MES, showing both MES and reporter)

Tim Fleicher: Now translate it for me.

(during this line, shot fades to a shot of a Bible, cover-page of the Jonah
section)
MES: Um, it starts off with "Whilee I was in my pain, [1] to God I called
out, and he answered me."

(At [1], cut to closeup of the corresponding section of Bible text, reading
"I called to the LORD out of my distress, and he answered me;..." 
Jonah 2:2)

(shot of reporter over MES's shoulder)

TF: Would it be, then, as Mr. Spock once said, "logical"?

(had to correct him so he said "Mr." instead of "Dr."...)

(shot of MES)

MES: Logical?  Uh, I don't know, I do a lot of things that aren't logical.

(Back to Star Trek scenes, someone saying "yajchu' qaH", subtitle
"Understood clearly, sir.")

VO: Tim Fleicher, Channel 7, Eyewitness News.

(back to anchorman in newsroom)

Anchorman: Now this whole idea originated during a Klingon camp last summer
in Minnesota, a camp for Klingon and language fans, where the church
service was conducted in Klingon.  So there you have it.

=========================

Well, there you have it, warts and all.  OK, it had some down sides, but on
the whole it was a pretty good interview and spot.

~mark

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