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In the episode of DS9 titled "Valient". Jake comments to the acting chief engineer of the Valient that his Grandfather still refers to Luna as the Moon. "As if it's the only one" I believe the quote is. Does anyone know what he's talking about? Is there an artifical moon in Earth's orbit that we haven't seen?

I don't think so. I think that's it's probably more likely that "as if it's the only one" means in a general sense, like within the whole Solar System. You could say the same thing about the Sun/Sol.

I originally thought (when I was a kid) they did it that way in Star Trek, because every species would call their moon "the moon" and their sun, "the sun" so it was to avoid confusion.

But of course we know that isn't necessarily true anyway (what would they call it if they had a binary star, or multiple moons?), so maybe they did it to make things sound more exotic? In other sci fi, names of planets and things change to indicate vast cultural shifts and swaths of time passing (like in Phantasy Star or Dune).

After all they say "I'm from Earth" not "I'm from Planet Terra" (or "Sol III") (though we do hear sporadic mentions of the "terran system").

I've heard people say that "Sol" is what our star is called because it's the "Solar" system. But if that's true, why do we call it "the Sun" ? It's not the "Sunar system." Solar system applies to other systems outside our own too, it's just a description. Our's might sound generic but the aliens have names for their's too. At least I think they do in the shows I remember...

Sol is the name of the Roman god of the Sun (equivalent of the Greek Apollo), and back then the Romans called the Sun "Sol."

"Solar" means "of the Sun," so "Solar System" is "the system of the Sun".

A somewhat less commen name for Earth's moon is Luna, simply to distinquish it from the Generic "Moon", and is by no meens limited to Star Trek.

Some people in real life call the Moon Luna simply to distinguish it from the Generic Moon.

Actually, a lot like with the Sun and "Sol", "Luna" is what the Romans properly called the Moon.

I was going to mention that in my post, but decided that it was just excess.

Maybe it's just that the Federation loves Latin? Picard certainly did.

Kurgan wrote:I originally thought (when I was a kid) they did it that way in Star Trek, because every species would call their moon "the moon" and their sun, "the sun" so it was to avoid confusion.

But of course we know that isn't necessarily true anyway (what would they call it if they had a binary star, or multiple moons?), so maybe they did it to make things sound more exotic? In other sci fi, names of planets and things change to indicate vast cultural shifts and swaths of time passing (like in Phantasy Star or Dune).

The name changes in Phantasy Star were due to translation errors on Sega's part. I find it hard to believe that "Noah" could change to "Lutz" between games, even if a thousand years passed between them. Especially since Noah/Lutz was, in a sense, still alive for all that time.

Well I suspected that for some things:


Dark Force ----> Dark Fallz -----> Dark Phallus (?!)

But like Motavia ---> Mota, Dezoras----> Dezo. Parma ----> Palm.

Oh well, it seemed kinda cool. Less understandable if the same team did the translations (which I have no idea). ; )

They just shortened all the names to four letters for the second game, I'm not sure why. By Phantasy Star IV, the names for the planets were basically the same as they were in the first game, except with a few Ls exchanged for Rs and vice versa, as is common when translating Japanese to English.