Distress Call - this has always bothered me

[Theunicornhunter 2]

I can understand within the Federation there may be a universal "distress" signal or even the universal translator may decipher one if the language is in the database. But in an uncharted section of space or dealing with an unknown race or particularly in the Delta Quadrant how do you recognize a "distress call"

 

I know ENT tried ot explain that the "universal translator" could decipher an entire lanaguage based on a couple of sentences - but that's more fantasy than science.

 

Am I the only one bothered by this?

[Odie 0]

A distress call is design to be simple and try to draw someone's attention. Distress calls also repeat themselves over and over again that contains very simple information if the person understand their language. Just the fact they repeat themselves leds to a distress call.

[recycle 0]

Not sure how you recongize a distress call . Maybe by universal trainsator..

[Takara_Soong 4]

I guess it would depend on what type of distress call was made - audio with message, audio with only the equivalent to an SOS or a visual message. With some it might be obvious that the sender is in distress while others might depend on the instinct and experience of the crew to decide.

[Hooray for boobies 0]

Given how easy it is for them to communicate with almost anyone, even in the DElta quadrant they should have little problem identifying a simple distress call. One might question the near infallability of the universal translator as a concept I suppose, but that's just one of those things you have to buy in order to enjoy Star Trek.

[SeeingEyeBorg 0]

I've also heard people call them "distress signals" rather than calls. Could just be an alarm sound designed, as said earlier, to draw attention.

[KIMIMELA 1]

Data responded to one and almost went against the Prime Directive.

 

I don't have any problems with them.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

This is why universal translators are important in distress calls:

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[Eratosthenes 0]

This is why universal translators are important in distress calls:

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Hahaha that was great.

 

 

And I'm not bothered by that at all. They made Star Trek in a way that it could convey messages to the audience while still keeping a fairly firm backing in reality. As far as communication between species, they wanted to keep it simple unless the whole point of the episode was to make a commentary on bad communication.

[Gary Phaserman 0]

I'd imagine distress signals also have a sub-frequency flag that says "Hey, this is important!" which is why the Comm console beeps when one is recieved, rather than filtering it out like the rest of the background radio and subspace radio traffic. If every transmission was intended to get the attention of every ship, the Communications station would be a very busy place. It would be reasonable to assume that transmissions are flagged as either "Any available" which might be easily translatable in any language, just two words, or flagged for the destination, For example NCC-1701-E. The computer monitors communications traffic over the various channels, and when it picks up something that might be either flagged for the ship or a possible distress signal, it alerts the communications officer.