Because there are three human beings, the Drak'ho Admiral asks which of them is captain. Wace explains that the other male is their leader but does not yet speak the language well so that he needs the Lannach'ho prisoner as interpreter. Van Rijn who, through the Lannach, is learning two Diomedean languages simultaneously is playing an elaborate game as usual. He insists that it is he, not Wace, who must speak, however difficult and roundabout this is. The Admiral accepts that an alien aristocrat has the right to speak.
This reminds us, slightly, of Larry Niven's animated Star Trek episode where the kzinti capture three Starfleet officers. Spock is senior but the kzinti cannot talk with a pacifistic herbivore. Uhura is second but the kzinti cannot talk with a female. So Sulu, who maybe looks to some of us like a Jap in an old war comic, has to do the talking.
Not really the same situation. Van Rijn, working hard to appear ignorant and naive to his captors, controls most of what happens.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Ha, I remember that! Here we see Old Nick at his wiliest, pretending to be an irritating, bungling oaf, needlessly making things harder for everyone--when he was actually being very clever.
Happy New Year! Sean
Of course, George Takei, who played Sulu, is gay...
And Uhura is black. The number of issues concentrated in that one scene is amazing.
If there's a genetic element in being gay -- and men tend to be either/or, mucn more so than women -- then the fact that men don't have to -disguise- it anymore will drastically cut down the number of gay men. Because previously being married and having children was a good disguise.
Post a Comment