colin heaps <100622.3610@compuserve.com> asks:
> So what happens??

Thanks; I think I have that issue.

Larry DiTillio made the point, while on the show, that some SF
fans reared on ST expect everyone to talk like English earls, very
proper. We go for vernacular every time. I like the rough edges, the
hesitations, the stumbles. In editing 402 the other day, there's
several takes to choose from in a particular scene, but I picked the
one where the actor slightly stumbled over the line, because it was at
the heat of the moment, and in that kind of situation, we all get
flustered. It made it feel more real.

Slang and idiom have been with us forever, and always will be.
Now, on the other hand, I don't go full-tilt bozo with it, by peppering
the dialogue with lots of techtalk and futureslang because I think it
becomes intrusive. So we try to find a balance. Some people don't like
it, and like their SF to all sound the same. That's fine. Tastes
vary.

Also, I use some dialogue styles that lean toward the
theatrical, what you'd see on the stage, or hear in a radio drama.
Other times I'm right in the gutter. You use different tools for
different jobs. My influences are from Rod Serling and Charles
Beaumont and Norman Corwin and Ray Bradbury, so you're going to hear
those colors from time to time, and because you don't hear a lot of
that particular style in TV these days, some people think it's
bad...no, it's just a different approach to dialogue.

Look at Harold Pinter, then look at Christopher Fry, then look
at Joe Orton. Between just those three you've got three very stylized,
consistent approaches to dialogue, not like the other two at all, and
between them more diversity than in a hundred TV shows. In theater,
which is where I cut my teeth, it's *okay* to have dialogue that's
somewhat stylized, or a bit more formal, a bit more literate, or
whatever. In TeeVee it's all gotta be the same. To which I say...why?

(I've also made the mental assumption of a return to a new
formality in 2260, since styles go in and out of fashion. People use
the word Mr. and Ms. more often, there's a more formal stance with
people you often get when a culture comes out of a major war, as we did
after WW2.)

But dialogue tastes are utterly individual; what works for one
may not and likely will not work for someone else. And that's okay.
That's as it should be. As long as the totality works.

jms