Star Trek: 10 Episode Spoilers Hidden In The French Translation
3. Le Secret (The Chase)
Season six, episode twenty of Star Trek: The Next Generation is an epic, planet-hopping scientific mystery thriller that, by its end, reveals perhaps one of the most profound truths about all humanoid life. Captain Picard is invited on a quest of discovery of ‘galactic importance’ by his former archaeology professor, Galen. When he refuses, Galen leaves in his shuttlecraft and is attacked by the Yridians.
The professor dies in sickbay, leaving the crew of the Enterprise-D to take up his mission. Blocks of numbers on Galen’s computer are discovered to represent strands of DNA that fit together into an algorithm – a computer program written into the genetic code of species from across the galaxy billions of years ago. By collecting DNA samples from a number of star systems, and with a little collaboration/rivalry with the Klingons and Cardassians, the program is completed and activated, its ‘secret’ revealed.
The original title may not win awards for creativity, and it certainly gives away a main plot device, but the audience is none the wiser of any reason for ‘the chase’ before it’s revealed. The French-speaking audience, on the other hand, would know that the episode centred around a, or THE, secret [Le Secret] before the first frame. A direct, word-for-word, translation of ‘The Chase’ in French would perhaps have come up lacking, or even misleading, but, given the stakes and important revelations of the episode, more care could have been taken to avoid a cosmic spoiler.