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Cathy Gale Seasons |
| (The titles included at the top
of each comment are: the original in English and the translation of
the "official" Spanish title, respectively.) |
"A
Chorus Of Frogs" / "A Chorus Of Toads"
We know that toads and frogs are the same thing for many people... But
they are not. A toad is a different species from the branch of batrachians,
that lives mostly on land and is larger than a frog. Anyway, we don't
need to get into zoology to translate this title well—what we see in
the episode are frogmen and not "toadmen". And finally, unlike
frogs, toads don't croak; now how would have they managed to sing a chorus?
An unsolved mystery...
"The White
Dwarf" / "The White (Male) Dwarf"
Oops guys! Not even a peep at the episode? If you, dear reader, thought
the story deals with the Snow White tale or some intrigue at a circus...
you're wrong! The subject of this episode goes around astronomy, wherein
a white dwarf (which in Spanish is stated as feminine noun) is
a hot star, near the end of its life, that is more solid but less bright
than the sun. Anyway, of course, it's not necessary to be an astronomer
to know this. Just giving the episode a fair watching, or at least reading
a review before translating its title, would be a masterful touch of common
sense.
"Conspiracy
Of Silence" / "The Conspiracy Of The Silence"
You think the silence is skilled enough to hatch a plot to harm
people? Hmmmm, you're wrong again... Not wanting to sound too philosophical,
we'd like to point out that the silence per se is not assigned
to this kind of activities. That is to say, the silence is not
an organization with capacity to conspire. As it can be easily seen, the
odd habit of placing definite articles when there is none in the original
title nor the translation needs them can give an incorrect meaning, as
in the present case.
"Bullseye"
/ "Target Practice"
This one is not too bad, even though in the episode nobody practices shooting.
Only those acquainted with this sport know that the Spanish word for bull's
eye is diana (nothing to do with Miss Rigg, to be sure). However,
in place of such an unusual term, we could suggest The
Center of the Target as a more appropriate translation.
"Killer Whale"
/ Idem
Okay, predictably, no cetacean ever appears in this episode—though a
"save-the-whale" message is implied—but once again a literal
translation takes us to the wrong meaning. The largest member of the dolphin
family, killer whales are very social and were never reported to
have killed any human being, despite the bad reputation Hollywood gave
them. Then, why not call this episode Orca,
the other name killer whales are known by, which by the way is widely
used in Spanish?
"The Medicine
Men" / "The Men Of Medicine"
Well, there isn't much to say here... except the translation is a load
of crap! Someone should teach these translators that a Medicine Man
is a sort of witchdoctor, and not a medical doctor! Well, on second
thought, no lesson is needed after all: just have them get any ordinary
bilingual dictionary in a supermarket—that will do.
"The Little
Wonders" / "The Little Surprises"
Undoubtedly, a surprise may be wonderful, but this isn't
the case. If little wonder does not imply any surprise, then why
didn't they translate the title simply as No
Surprise? No wonder The Little Surprises makes no
sense in Spanish!
"Build A Better
Mousetrap" / "To Build A Better Trap"
That maddening habit again—to put the verb in infinitive ("to build")
when it isn't preceded by "to" in the original title. In addition,
the expression "to build a trap" is rarely used in Argentina.
If you think you can catch translators with it, please, Set
A Better Trap.
"The White
Elephant" / "The White (Male) Elephant"
Oh dear, these fellows indeed have a little problem with genders, it seems.
Everyone who has watched the episode knows that the elephant they mention
all the time is a female named "Snowy."
"Dressed To
Kill" / "She Is Dressed To Kill"
But folks... again you fell asleep while watching the episode? Tell us,
what woman are you talking about? That cute Pussy Cat? One more time the
play on words Brian Clemens did with the title is completely lost in translation.
None of those people "dressed to kill" is a woman. That's why in Spanish, the adjective "dressed" should be stated as
masculine, and even in plural since there are at least three killers.
In view of this, we believe the correct Spanish title for this episode
should be They are Dressed to Kill.
An additional curiosity: as far as we know, this is the only episode in
the whole history of The Avengers where Argentina is mentioned.
Look for the scene wherein Steed and Cathy are handcuffed and he tells
her that certain person was last heard of in Argentina. Years later, at
the end of The Beatles' movie "Yellow Submarine" a minion of
"The Blue Meanies" suggested his superior to move to Argentina.
Gee, maybe someone in England was promoting Argentina as a tourist attraction
during that decade...
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