I've been going over my yesterday's Skandal notes.
Some things I find interesting to share:

Just for the record: Sherlock adresses everyone with "Sie" instead of "du" – except for Mycroft (wonder why…). Only poor John seems to have no-one in the whole wide world he is so familiar with that he would use the less formal "du".
Only once the dubbing makes a mistake in this regard. Instead of saying: "Hamish. John Hamish Watson. Falls Sie nach einem Babynamen suchen…", John utters: "…falls ihr nach einem Babynamen sucht!" What an unforgivable confidentiality!

The dubbing adds a lot of cursing that isn't in the original version.
Sherlock's shout at the door bell: "Shut up!" becomes "Ruhe, verdammt!"
"I want you to open the safe" becomes "Ich will, dass Sie diesen fucking Safe öffnen!"
Mycroft's "Shut up, Mrs. Hudson" becomes an (unappropriate!) "Halten Sie die Klappe, Mrs. Hudson" (which is much ruder than "Ruhe!" or "Halten Sie den Mund!")

The conversation between Irene and John ends with "I don't think so, do you?"
German dubbing solution: "Ist, glaub ich, nicht nötig, oder?" ("It's not necessary, I believe, is it?")

Some random phrases:
"Let's have dinner" = "Geh'n wir essen"
"Laterz" = "Also dann"
"Brainy ist the new sexy" = "Grips finde ich einfach sexy"
"Vatican cameos" = "vatikanische Kameen"
"The woman woman" = "Die Frau-Frau"
"transparent" = "offenkundig"
"obvious" = "offenkundig"  (hardly any German would use "offenkundig" instead of "offensichtlich" or "logisch!" or "klar")
There are more sentences you wouldn't say like "Ich find's ansprechend" – "Du findest doch alles ansprechend!" ("It works on me …Everything works on you!"). I'd say: "Ich finde das toll/sexy – du findest doch alles toll/sexy!")

All in all I agree with the German script. No offence, ARD!

(I'll stop now boring you with unimportant details. Promise.)

Of course you're right, Irene. How could I forget about lovely Jeanette...!  But she was gone so quickly - and now John really has no-one anymore...

No, no cuts were made, it wasn't necessary as DAS ERSTE is without commercials after 8 p.m.

I agree,  kind of puzzling with the swearing.    Thanks very much  tobe,  I do find the differences in the details fascinating,
from the bit of German I know.    I had not heard of 'Grips' before,  for example…   And it's great to have you point out the colloquialisms.   

and m0r,  I am right there with you on those German Beatles songs.

All this talk of travel,  ah,  dreaming on now...

Wow, Davina - you've got a good feeling for the German language! Laterz = späterz sounds nice but doesn't really hit the spot of this certain London accent thing, I presume. Some things can't be transferred into German - like the "bloody stupid power complex" - I don't think someone got this clue with the Battersea Power Complex here!
As for the swearing: The additional "fucking" safe thing serves imo the clarification that an American is involved. They could have given Neilson a dubber with an American accent but they didn't. So -  we all know that Americans constantly use the f word -this way Neilson's nationality is being made obvious...
"Shut up" in a more polite way would be "Seien Sie still" /not "stumm" (dumb) - that would have been the appropriate translation in the Mycroft/Mrs Hudson scene. Mycroft is no bully after all - especially not towards old ladies!

As for Reichenbach: I have absolutely no idea how the German dubbing will leave any emotional wrecks behind...

Last edited by tobeornot221b (May 18, 2012 9:28 pm)

Hm, okay, I'm also gonna put my two cents in if you don't mind...
I think all in all it was quite a good dubbing. Of course, dubbing ITSELF should be a crime, you know, but all things considered it was one of the better ones...
Didn't really have a problem with any translations expect maybe for the "fucking safe" - 'cause that's how Americans talk or what? haha - and the weird "es stinkt" (wtf?!) by Mrs. Hudson.
Oh, and the "offenkundig" of course. But he did that since the first episode. I think they kinda want it to be his "elementary".
But what I will NEVER stop complaining about is the freaking SIE! How? Just... how? Why in the world would somebody address his best friend as "Sie"?
Surely, no matter how polite, one would stop using the formal form if he would bloody move in with the other person. Can they really be that stupid at the ARD?
But, really, that's the thing they do. I don't know if they have a weird picture of the British or if they just don't know better... but surely then one would rather use "Du", 'cause who is that formal nowadays anyway?
I already complained about that in Doctor who. To the Whovians: Yes, the Doctor and Rose did INDEED address each other with "Sie".
Ridiculous, I know.
But not as much as with John and Sherlock. Of course the "Sie" is something that you connect with the Victorian Holmes and Watson, but the whole point is that it's transferred into the present time and no one addresses his friends formally nowadays.

Btw. when Rose said "I love you" in Doomsday, she changed to "Du". Let's hope they have the presence of mind to do so with Reichenbach, too.
(I already hoped for it to happen in the second season because of the time that has passed or something... but I didn't really expect it.)

Ugh - sorry for the long rant!

Edit: Just wanted to add - if I recall it correctly, John used "Sie" for Sarah aswell!

Last edited by Sammy (May 19, 2012 1:35 am)

Sammy wrote:

Btw. when Rose said "I love you" in Doomsday, she changed to "Du". Let's hope they have the presence of mind to do so with Reichenbach, too.

Unless "Nobody could fake being such an annoying dick all the time!" is considered to count as "I love you" (could it be clearer at all?) they won't change anything, I guess!

Can any of you remember how hey translated:

Mycroft: I'll be mother
Sherlock: And there's a whole childhood in a nutshell

I saw it once in German (17th May). I borrowed my DVDs a friend of mine; so I can't rewatch the scene in German at the moment.

I had to google "I'll be mother", because I had no idea what he wanted to say. Funny phrase.

SusiGo wrote:

"Ich bemuttere euch mal."
"Und schon sehe ich die Kindheit wiederauferstehen."

Not really brilliant, I'd say. But it's always difficult to synchronise the words with the lip movements.

And, Sammy, the change to "du" is more than overdue. They missed the opportunity to change it in the graveyard scene. 

Oh, not good. I know why I prefer the original version.

Yes lip movement is a problem, I understand that dubbing is difficult.
I think a suitable translation would be "ich bin dann mal so frei" or something like that, but Sherlocks reaction would't have worked then.

wow, indeed, that's quite a different meaning/connotation in those translations!

A very weird thing has just happened to me at work.

I was chatting with my colleague from next door at the office, and she was complaining about people wasting everyone's time in meetings with stupid comments and stupid questions and stupid ideas, and we were being a bit mean, fantasizing about how great it would be if we could kick people out of meetings simply on the grounds of their too low IQ, and she - of course in jest - suggested telling them "Ihre Anwesenheit steigert die Dummheit hier im Raum ins Unerträgliche!"and I baulked, stared, went beet red and said nothing at all, I felt so caught.

"Your presence raises the stupidity in this room to intolerable levels" sounds SO much like a quote, I really need one of you ladies from the German contingent who have their DVD handy to check the German audio track of the "CIA men in 221b" scene in ASIB and let me know whether I really have been working wall-to-wall with a fellow closet Sherlock fan for years without knowing it! Please?