Line #25 Main/AliensOfLondon


1	->'''Rose:''' If you ''are'' an alien, how comes you sound like you're from the North?\
2	'''The Ninth Doctor:''' Lots of planets have a North!
3	-->-- ''Series/DoctorWho'', [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E1Rose "Rose"]]
4
5	When aliens [[AliensSpeakingEnglish helpfully speak English]] (or any other Earth language), an issue comes up — what sort of accent do they have?
6
7	As is the case for any language, "unaccented" English doesn't exist. When you don't notice someone's accent, that's because they're speaking with a very familiar accent — either your own, or a "broadcast standard" like American Broadcast English in the US and Received Pronunciation in the UK. So what sort of accent would an alien, a being with a wholly unearthly language background, have?
8
9	In movies and television, the most common answers are the most pragmatic: ''The accents of the actors playing the aliens'', or if any of those accents would stand out too much, ''the accents of the audience''.
10
11	Those are the easiest solutions, and viewers [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief often don't think about it]] as long as the accents are unremarkable to them. Have an actor speak with a strong and identifiable accent, though, and the same people who wouldn't think twice about an alien talking like a Londoner or a Midwesterner start wondering why the extraterrestrial sounds like someone from New Orleans, [[Series/{{Farscape}} Sydney]], or [[Series/DoctorWho Manchester]]. You also see this reaction when shows reach other countries and new viewers are puzzled (or amused) at the entire rest of the universe speaking like Brits or Yanks.
12
13	Naturally, ignoring the issue of accents isn't the only option. After all, if the aliens have learned how to speak English, they could have their own accent, shaped by their alien language (and possibly their alien mouths). On the other hand, if the aliens work very hard in their language classes, then they might learn to speak with a particular human accent, perhaps that of their teachers or one of the broadcast standard accents. Going the easier route, if [[TranslatorMicrobes translation technology]] lets humans understand aliens speaking their ''own'' languages, then what accents the translator uses are entirely arbitrary; this could be the accent of the manufacturer, one of the broadcast-standard accents, or just an option changed with a turn of a dial.
14
15	Now, '''representing''' some of these choices is trickier in certain media than others: writing "he spoke with a Rigellian drawl" is vastly easier than making up an accent and coaching actors to use it [[OohMeAccentsSlipping reliably]]. That doesn't stop some television or movie productions, though. After all, it's always possible to cheat by boldly [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent mangling an accent]] or exploiting a foreign actor's own ''real'' accent when most of the audience is unfamiliar with it. Still, getting this week's guest star to properly "talk like an alien" may be easier said than done...
16
17	Again, this isn't simply an English-language trope — every language has accents, and the same issues come up in ScienceFiction works in those languages.
18
19	The [[TropeNamer trope-naming]] ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode can be found [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E4AliensOfLondon here]].
20
21	----
22	!!Examples:
23
24	[[foldercontrol]]
25
26	[[folder:Advertising]]
27	* The [[https://youtu.be/YWmbUMStlGI "Mental Wealth"]] advert for the ''Platform/PlayStation'' features a cross-eyed alien girl with a Scottish accent discussing the philosophy of how humanity can achieve greater strides in their minds as opposed to what they can do in the physical world.
28	[[/folder]]
29
30	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
31	* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': Jeice (the red-skinned LongHairedPrettyBoy from the Namekian arc) is this ''three times over''.
32	** The Ocean dub gave him a Liverpool accent thanks to Creator/ScottMcNeil.
33	** The Funimation dub gave him an Aussie accent thanks to Creator/ChristopherSabat, which ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' memed to hell and back.
34	** In ''Kai'', he has a New Zealander accent thanks to Creator/JasonLiebrecht.
35	* ''Anime/{{Tamagotchi}}'': Shakertchi, one of several Tamagotchis on Tamagotchi Planet, speaks with a French accent in the Australian English dub. May be {{justified\|Trope}} by the fact that Tamagotchis assimilated human culture and [[AliensSpeakingEnglish learned how to speak in human language]] after visiting Earth for the first time, evidently assimilating human accents in doing so.
36	* ''Anime/VoltesV'' has a variant where Katherine Rii (voiced by Creator/NorikoOhara) speaks with keigo, to reflect her status as a noble Boazanian.
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Asian Animation]]
40	* The Chinese series ''Animation/HappyHeroes'' features multiple HumanAliens as main and recurring characters, including the villain Big M. from Planet Gray. The official English dub of the seventh and eighth seasons from Miao Mi, an educational service designed to teach Mandarin Chinese to children, gives Big M. a British accent for a small handful of episodes.
41	* ''Animation/{{Mechamato}}'': In a series that features alien MechanicalLifeforms, some of which do speak human language and some who don't, a few of them have regional accents:
42	** Paintasso is a WickedCultured art enthusiast space robot with a French accent, even in Malay.
43	** Garamzeey is a gourmet ChefOfIron who worked in the space prison's kitchen. He partly speaks GratuitousItalian.
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:Audio Plays]]
47	* Present in ''AudioPlay/ThePrincessThieves'' where all the characters, despite most beings from other dimensions, speak with British and American accents.
48	* Coruscant-born ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' characters tend to sound British in the audio plays of the books.
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder:Comic Books]]
52	* Justified in ''ComicBook/TransformersGeneration2Redux''. While several Transformers have accents from various Earth countries, it's because those specific Transformers were either created and "raised" entirely in those various countries, or resided in one long enough to pick up the accent. Pyro, for instance, was born in the United Kingdom and is basically an Expy of [[Series/DoctorWho the Tenth Doctor.]]
53	* As a bit of a consequence of having a British writer, ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' has the alien robots occasionally slip into using distinctly British speech ("I've not", "You've been ages"), which sticks out rather badly due to the characters usually speaking in American English. In an amusing LampshadeHanging, two characters (Brainstorm and Getaway) are deliberately written with British and New Zealander accents, which [[HypocriticalHumor the other characters]] [[SelfDeprecation mock as being weird]].
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder:Film - Animation]]
57	* ''Animation/BoBoiBoyMovie2'': Retak'ka speaks with an old Malay accent, which fits his ancientness after being frozen in crystal for 100 years. In the English dub, his accent is more akin to a British one.
58	[[/folder]]
59
60	[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
61	* In ''Film/AlienFromLA'', the underground Atlanteans are actually aliens who are also apparently Australians. One character even tells Creator/KathyIreland "You know, in Australia, my voice is as annoying as yours."
62	* In ''Film/FreaksOfNature'', the aliens speak English with a thick German accent since they are voiced by Creator/WernerHerzog.
63	* In ''[[Film/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians The Lightning Thief]]'', the ''Greek'' gods all have ''British'' accents (though if you want to be technical, Poseidon (played by Creator/KevinMcKidd) has a Scottish accent).
64	* When ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' was filmed, Creator/KirstieAlley still spoke with a Kansan accent. When it came through in her line readings, director Creator/NicholasMeyer coached her to use the pronunciations of a standard American accent. Apparently, it wouldn't do for a Vulcan to have a ''regional'' American accent.
65	* ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'':
66	** David Warner plays what is probably the only Klingon ever to have a British accent rather than an American accent.
67	** Not to mention the fact that Christopher Plummer spent the whole movie quoting Shakespeare with his own personal accent, making him a Klingon with an (ostensibly) Canadian accent.
68	* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
69	** Most, though not all, [[TheEmpire Imperial]] officers in Original Trilogy works have [[EvilBrit an English accent]]. The reasoning is that they're from the [[AristocratsAreEvil upper-class Core Worlds, spent a long time in the Core Worlds, or are just from the upper-class in general]].
70	** Obi-Wan Kenobi has an English accent due to being played by English actor Creator/AlecGuinness in the Original Trilogy. For his portrayal of the younger Obi-Wan, Scottish actor Creator/EwanMcGregor affects an English accent in order to match with Guinness.
71	** The Clone Troopers in Prequel Trilogy works all have New Zealander accents, because [[LamarckWasRight the man they were cloned from had one.]] ''Possibly'' [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in the ''[[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Legends]]'' and [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse the Canon]], where he trained them personally. In the animated installments, they speak with an Australian accent, since Creator/DeeBradleyBaker is more skilled in using that accent.
72	** The Twi'leks (or at least the ones from Ryloth) speak with a French accent in the animated shows. This was intended to be a reference to the [[LaResistance French Resistance]] against Nazi-occupied France in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, as the first appearance of the Twi'lek homeworld of Ryloth and major Twi'lek characters in ''[[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars The Clone Wars]]'' was when the native Twi'leks were fighting against the Separatist occupation of their homeworld.
73	** As seen in ''[[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars The Clone Wars]]'', the Pantorans speak with South African accents. This is because their debut ADayInTheLimelight episode is [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything about how the Pantorans feel about the discovery of natives that some view as lower than them and others wish for peace between the two people]].
74	** The Neimodians speak with Japanese/Chinese accents, stereotyping that Asians are greedy.
75	** Bounty Hunter Sugi from ''[[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars The Clone Wars]]'' speaks with an accent that is a [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent mix]] of Russian and Middle Eastern.
76	** Thrawn in ''Rebels'' speaks with a Danish accent, due to his [[Creator/LarsMikkelsen voice actor, Lars Mikkelsen]].
77	** Fenn Rau has a Scottish accent, due to his [[Creator/KevinMcKidd voice actor, Kevin McKidd]].
78	** Kaleesh cyborg General Grievous speaks with a vaguely Eastern-European accent.
79	** Interestingly, ''Star Wars'' actually has a pretty easy way to justify this that's never really been brought up in official material for whatever reason; the TranslationConvention. To elaborate, its canon that the characters aren't actually speaking English, they're speaking a ConLang called Galactic Basic; it's simply "translated" for the benefit of the viewer. Logically, this would suggest that the characters aren't speaking with Earth accents, we're merely being given the closest equivalent to whatever accent they ''are'' using. So, for instance, the above-mentioned Twi'leks don't have French accents, they're speaking Basic with a Rylothian accent and this is how the "translation" represents that to you.
80	* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse
81	** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'': Yondu and his Ravagers all have American "deep south" accents.
82	** PlayedForLaughs in ''Film/ThorRagnarok'', where Korg, an intimidating gladiator alien made of stone, inexplicably speaks with [[VocalDissonance a gentle, high-pitched New Zealand accent]].
83	** Talos in ''Film/CaptainMarvel2019'' speaks with Ben Mendelson's natural Aussie accent, while the other Skrulls don't sound especially Australian.
84	* In ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'', all Kryptonians are played with the actors' natural accents. With the exception of Creator/MarlonBrando as Jor-El (American) and Maria Schell's Vond-Ah (Austrian-Swiss), the rest are all British (Susannah York as Lara, Trevor Howard and Harry Andrews as the Elders, Creator/TerenceStamp as Zod and Sarah Douglas as Ursa. Jack O'Hallaran is American, but Non is mute, so we don't hear his accent).
85	[[/folder]]
86
87	[[folder:Literature]]
88	* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/BetweenPlanets'' had intelligent "dragons" inhabiting the [[ScienceMarchesOn swamps of Venus]]. Unable to ''speak'' human languages, they can still ''learn'' them and use [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocoder hand-operated vocoders]] to synthesize the sounds of speech. One dragon thus "speaks" with a pronounced Texan drawl due to having a Texan teach him English, and an important character in the book is a Venerian dragon who is a highly respected physicist (not to mention a member of the aristocracy of his species) ... who learned English from someone with a pronounced Cockney accent.
89	* Played for [[RuleOfFunny humor]] in Creator/RobertSheckley's ''Mindswap''. The protagonist is sitting in a bar on an alien world with no idea where to go next, when he's approached by one of the world's aliens, who offers to help. The alien is from a country to the south, so he speaks English with a stereotypical Mexican accent, and also speaks fluent Spanish.
90	** Justified in-universe as being an example of Metaphoric Deformation, where the mindswapper's use of internal metaphors to deal with the alien experiences breaks down under the strain, and they start to see aliens as being humans.
91	* The [[HumanAliens Loric]] of ''Literature/LorienLegacies'' speak with an accent that resembles French. The main character's guardian has given himself the human name Henri because of it.
92	* In ''Literature/MindGames'', when you use the System to learn a language, it automatically imprints it into your mind with an accent similar to the area where you learned it. This produces unintentionally hilarious results like [[spoiler:elves]] who sound more like Luke Duke than [[spoiler:Legolas.]]
93	* In ''Literature/TheShipWho Searched'', an alien who's [[AnAlienNamedBob taken the name "Fred"]] for the sake of humans - he can speak human languages without issue, but is TheUnpronounceable to humans - speaks with a posh British accent and mannerisms, despite this being so far in TheFuture that this is the ''only'' reference to that country at all.
94	[[/folder]]
95
96	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
97	* While ''Series/BabylonFive'' gave each of its alien ambassadors noticeable accents, the other members of their respective races didn't share them -- which implies a great deal of regional differences on those planets, similar to Earth culture.
98	** While Londo Mollari sounded like an over-the-top Russian nobleman, his aide, Vir Cotto, sounded like he was from New Jersey (or perhaps Northern Virginia, where actor Stephen Furst is from). While Mira Furlan's (real!) Croatian (Slavic) accent brought an exotic air to Delenn, Bill Mumy's Lennier merely had a clipped, precise mode of speaking not too different from any other incarnation of TheSpock.
99	** Londo's actor Peter Jurasik is on record as saying: "Because I'm the first Centauri, so I make him talk any way I want. So, I made the accent up, a kind of amalgam of a number of different accents. I used a little of my Slovak grandmother, and I mentioned Ireland – I love the rhythms of Irish. So I mixed it up and made it my own.".
100	** One of the TV movies featured a Centauri woman with a thick French accent.
101	** An interesting thing to note was that older alien characters had thicker accents than younger ones.
102	** Attempted aversion by the wonderfully talented William Forward who played Lord Antono Refa in seasons two and three. Forward made every attempt to emulate Jurasik's bizarre creation.
103	* Most of the characters in the 2000s ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica\|2003}}'' speak with American accents, but there are a handful of characters who speak with other recognizable accents -- British, New Zealand, and Irish in particular. Why they should speak this way is never explained, as it's otherwise implied that human civilization is linguistically homogeneous. In one episode, Baltar claims his "British" accent to be a result of him, an Aerelon, attempting to affect a Caprican accent -- when he uses his "natural" tongue, it's a heavy Yorkshire accent. See UsefulNotes/BritishAccents.
104	** They may not be exactly "linguistically homogeneous" either. Writings in French and Chinese have been spotted in the background, and French loan words such as ''elan'' and ''esprit de corps'' are used. The surname Inviere is said to be "Old Gemenese" for "resurrection" (in reality, it's Romanian).
105	*** The keyword being "old" - the Twelve Colonies had a bunch of different languages in the past, but everybody seems to speak "English" now.
106	** Relating to the above, the spinoff prequel ''Series/{{Caprica}}'' showcases the Tauron language, based on (or [[TranslationConvention represented by]]) Ancient Greek. Since it takes place fifty years before ''Battlestar Galactica'', it's not clear whether the other languages all die out later or if they are simply never seen in ''BSG'' because everyone speaks Caprican (which is or is represented by English). It's also useful to note that Gemenon appears to be a sort of more-religious "sister planet" of Caprica, which might be why their language might have died out earlier.
107	* ''Series/DoctorWho'' is generally the most recognizable example of this trope to Americans, since it depicts a universe with a wide range of accents, all of them British and Irish. This is explained in-show with the idea that the Doctor's TARDIS [[TranslatorMicrobes translates]] all alien languages for its passengers.
108	** The revival started off with this, namely the page quote at top. [[note]] As minisode [[Recap/DoctorWho50thPrequelTheLastDay "The Last Day"]] demonstrated, there ''are'' Gallifrey natives with this accent. [[/note]]
109	** The Time Lord Drax has a Cockney accent so thick that even the (Fourth) Doctor comments on it. He explains he picked it up in Brixton.
110	** Spinoff ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' also uses this trope, since many of the aliens originated in ''Doctor Who''. One example is Mr. Smith, Sarah Jane's extraterrestrial supercomputer.
111	** Daleks speak in [[UsefulNotes/BritishAccents Received Pronunciation]], which can be quite hilarious at times with their [[CreepyMonotone shouty monotone voices]] and AccentUponTheWrongSyllable speech quirk -- in their very first serial, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks "The Daleks"]], they pronounce "vegetables" (pronounced in most casual British accents as something closer to "veg-da-bles") as "VEG-E-TA-BLLLLES", and it's wonderful to hear. Humour value aside, this was a neutral accent to hear on television in the 1960s, but they carried on doing it long after everyone else in ''Doctor Who'' and on television in general spoke in more naturalistic accents, making its non-neutrality and affectedness very obvious. This contrast is especially striking in the episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E6Dalek "Dalek"]], where the Doctor (who generally spoke RP in his early incarnations) is [[ChewingTheScenery screaming]] at the Dalek in broad [[OopNorth Manc]] while the Dalek responds in the Queen's English.
112	* Everyone in ''Frank Herbert's {{Series/Dune}}'', the 2000 [[Creator/{{Syfy}} Sci Fi Channel]] miniseries, spoke with a Czech or other Eastern European accent, and the fictional language spoken in the book is an "Inglo-Slavic hybrid" with butt loads of Arabic and Farsi loan-words.
113	* Since ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' was produced in Australia, a large percentage of the cast have some variation of an Aussie accent.
114	** Claudia Black also used her natural, distinctive English-Australian hybrid accent for Aeryn Sun, causing problems for other actors playing Sebaceans.
115	** Lampshaded in one episode where Crichton needed to impersonate a Sebacean, he asked if the translator microbes would translate accents.
116	** This trope actually worked for ''Series/{{Farscape}}''[='s=] premise, as John Crichton was an American astronaut lost in the Uncharted Territories (clearly the outback of the galaxy), [[FridgeLogic so it would make sense]] that the aliens spoke in accents different than his own. And since many of the alien species, unlike the people of Earth, regularly make contact with other aliens and travel to other star systems, it makes sense that their accents are more similar to one another than to a human from Earth.
117	* Of course, Japan has all aliens, magical beings, etc. speak Japanese as they speak English in English-speaking countries, but one episode of ''Series/MahouSentaiMagiranger'' challenged WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief when the Heavenly Arch Saint Magiel, the building-sized highest-ranking member of a group of magical beings from the FluffyCloudHeaven-like dimension of Magitopia, insisted on not being addressed with a certain [[UsefulNotes/JapaneseHonorifics honorific]] by the BigBad (building-sized leader of the Scary Pit Hell-like dimension of Infershia). Usually, Aliens of London draw the line at speaking the same language and don't go as far as to be particular about being treated according to specific social niceties of the culture they've ''never experienced''. The American equivalent wouldn't be AliensSpeakingEnglish, it'd be Aliens Insisting On Being Addressed As "Ms." or Aliens Being Offended By Being Called "Gringos" or something like that. Finding a slightly less ''distinctly'' Japanese way of having the two characters disapprove of each other would have helped sell the premise a bit better.
118	** While ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' doesn't quite have an example that bad, it too repeatedly runs into this trope as a number of [[MonsterOfTheWeek Monsters Of The Week]] have accents for no reason. Mora/Morgana of ''Series/PowerRangersSPD'' is the most obvious, as she was a regular character. The fact that the show has repeated [[OohMeAccentsSlipping problems with accents]] since production was moved to UsefulNotes/NewZealand only complicates things.
119	* A couple of prominent American accents crop up in ''Series/TheMandalorian''. There's Migs Mayfeld sporting Bill Burr's thick Boston accent, as well as Valin Hess who speaks with a distinctive Southern drawl. Both work, with Migs' accent painting him as a snarky wiseass while Valin's helps him stand out among the Empire's surplus of [[EvilBrit Evil Brits]] by making him almost come off as the intergalactic equivalent of an amoral Confederate soldier.
120	* In the 2012 TV series ''Series/TheNeighbors'', Larry and Jackie cite that they picked British English accents while learning to speak English because they think said accents are the best.
121	* The language spoken in ''Series/RedDwarf'' is officially called "Earth", but sounds an awful lot like British English.
122	** It's actually a blend of British and American English. Englishman Lister uses several American terms in "Legion" (for example, he says ''sneakers'' rather than ''trainers'') whereas American Capt. Hollister uses several British terms (and 'vacation') in Series VIII.
123	** Rimmer apparently speaks with a "broad Ionian accent," according to the novels, but Chris Barrie plays him with a standard English accent. Whether that ''is'' an Ionian accent, or whether Rimmer sounds different in the alternate continuity of the novels, is never quite made clear.
124	** The Cat is a completely different story. He is played by an English actor, but the character [[FakeAmerican supposedly learned English and mannerisms from recordings of James Brown]]. This doesn't stop the Cat from pronouncing the last letter of the alphabet as "zed", and "yoghurt" with a short O. However, a later episode has him disagree with the rest of the crew on how to pronounce "charades". It is all played rather inconsistently.
125	* Notable in season 9 of ''Series/{{Smallville}}''. Zod (From Planet Krypton) is played by Callum Blue (From London), while most of the other Kryptonians speak with an American accent. Of course, Jor-El ALSO speaks with a British accent, and Zod was depicted similarly in ''Film/SupermanII'' with a notable British accent. One could infer that since the Kryptonians with English accents always appear to be elite members of their society, this might be an upper class accent. The American accent tends to be more prevalent amongst the military grunts in the warrior caste.
126	* Speaking of Claudia Black, she played Vala on ''Series/StargateSG1'' with her native Australian accent. Similar to the above ''Next Generation'' example, it was {{Hand Wave}}d that she had gotten her accent from her mother when Fred Willard was cast as her father and, of course, used his American accent. So apparently there's some alien planet out there where people have Australian accents. (The show didn't last long enough after that to give Vala's mother a chance to show up.)
127	* Franchise/StarTrek
128	** The [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries original]] Sarek was American Mark Lenard. In the ''Film/StarTrek2009'', he is played by English actor Ben Cross. As a result, Sarek inexplicably becomes English in the Abrams Verse. He is also played by English actor James Frain in ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'', although he does his best to affect a more American accent.
129	** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
130	*** Captain Jean-Luc Picard is the quintessential Frenchman. With an English accent. And when he goes home to France, everyone ''else'' in France has an English accent, too.
131	*** In the ExpandedUniverse there ''is'' the language "Federation Standard", which has never been fully explained but is presumably a language to encumber every member of the Federation, regardless of series. It's probably (but not necessarily) based on English. One can assume other regional languages have become merely points of culture to people like Picard. It's explained in-universe that French became obscure by the 24th century (episode "Code of Honor").
132	*** For the first few seasons of ''TNG'', Marina Sirtis affected a fake "alien" accent based on an Israeli woman she knew. Unfortunately, when her mother (played by Majel Barrett-Rodenberry) showed up, she used her natural accent. The writers rationalized that Troi's accent came from her human-but-well-traveled father. But when ''he'' showed up with an American accent for a flashback, Sirtis finally gave up.
133	*** David Warner portrayed a Cardassian in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E10ChainOfCommand Chain of Command]]" with an English accent, while most others have American accents.
134	** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': Major Kira (a Bajoran) and Lieutenat Dax (a Trill) both have American accents.
135	** The later series have relatively ethnicity- and accent-blind casting for aliens:
136	*** ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': In most cases, Romulan characters converse in English with the same accent as their actor.
137	*** American accent -- Zhaban (Creator/JamieMcShane), Ramdha (Creator/RebeccaWisocky), Zani (Creator/AmirahVann).
138	*** English accent -- Narek (Creator/HarryTreadaway), Narissa (she's an exception; Creator/{{Peyton List\|1986}} is American, but she adopts an English accent for her role so that it's more convincing that her character is Narek's sister).
139	*** Australian accent -- Elnor (Creator/EvanEvagora).
140	*** Irish accent -- Laris (Creator/OrlaBrady).
141	*** Indian accent -- Pel (Creator/AyushiChhabra).
142	*** On ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'', Booker, who's Kwejian, is played by British actor David Ajala; his father Tareckx is played by Canadian actor Rothaford Gray; and his adoptive brother Kyheem is played by Cuban actor Ache Hernández, each one portrayed with their actor's natural accent.
143	* ''Series/Tracker2001'': Cole has Creator/AdrianPaul ‘s British accent.
144	[[/folder]]
145
146	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
147	* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
148	** Most voiced characters have some variant of UsefulNotes/{{British Accent\|s}} based on whatever FantasyCounterpartCulture they're from.
149	** The orks speak with extremely pronounced cockney accents (with the occasional Irish, Scottish and TalkLikeAPirate thrown in for good measure), which makes sense given that they're inspired heavily by FootballHooligans. How pronounced it is depends on the medium, in some they grunt, yell and use the occasional human loanword, in others they're perfectly able to hold conversations with humans (admittedly, these conversations consist mostly of threats and insults).
150	** The Tau have a vaguely Asian-accented speech due to their {{Animesque}} design.
151	[[/folder]]
152
153	[[folder:Theater]]
154	* In early productions of ''Theatre/TheRockyHorrorShow'', Creator/TimCurry aged Frank N. Furter with a German accent before switching to his "mother's phone voice" posh English accent that carried over to the movie.
155	[[/folder]]
156
157	[[folder:Toys]]
158	* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'': In several of the continuities, giant robots from another planet, some inactive for millions of years, have accents mimicking a variety of present-day Earth cultures; the majority speak American English, but ''[[Anime/TransformersCybertron Cybertron]]'' Jetfire and ''[[Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 G1]]'' Outback are distinctively Australian, for example.
159	** In his bio, Jetfire is said to have picked up his accent while stationed on [[MythologyGag Nebulon]], which means we have an entire planet of Australians now.
160	** And the entire populace of the planet Gigantion have incredibly fake Scottish accents.
161	** In [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers the original series]], most of the robots had a straightforward, almost accentless tone, but Ironhide, Wheeljack, Prowl, Jazz, Rumble, and others had accents ranging from soft-but-noticeable to thick-yet-somehow-suits-the-character-so-we'll-let-it-go. Yeah, Ironhide is from the Texas part of Cybertron.
162	** In his very earliest appearances, Optimus Prime has just a hint of drawl in his accent.
163	** Not to mention Tracks and his Thurston Howell III, upper Connecticut accent.
164	** Also pops up in the [[Film/TransformersFilmSeries films]], when [[BlackDudeDiesFirst the first Autobot to die happened to be voiced by a black man]]. [[note]]In their defense, Jazz's death is due to HeroicSacrifice - he bravely stands his ground against Megatron to protect the fleeing humans, even though he knows he stands no chance against the Decepticon. Also, the choice was explained: ''somebody'' had to die, and we've got five Autobots. They didn't want it to be someone who'd died before, which cuts out Ratchet, Ironhide and (several times over) Prime, who'd do his usual die-and-get-better duty in the sequel. And Bumblebee is the ''franchise mascot.'' That leaves only Jazz.[[/note]] In [[Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen the second film]], Skids and Mudflap are two idiotic robots who seem to have based their mannerisms on hip-hop culture. Specifically; they're wiggers. There's also an Australian 'Bot.
165	** In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' Blitzwing has three separate German accents, the Jet Twins have Eastern European accents, Jazz is still black (but in a fairly different way, more {{Beatnik}} than JiveTurkey, and also is the first Transformer to wear pants), and, as usual, uptight bad guys are always British.
166	** ''[[Franchise/TransformersTimelines Timelines]]'' throws in [[ComicBook/TransformersShatteredGlass Shattered Glass]] Blaster who sounds... something approaching German, while [[ComicBook/TransformersWingsOfHonor Wings of Honor]] Ironfist is vaguely Australian.
167	** On the other hand, in the Japanese adaptations (dubs and original animated series like ''The Headmasters'', ''Victory'', etc) many of the Autobots and Decepticons have [[UsefulNotes/JapanesePronouns different speech patterns]], although this is because of the age of their respective voice actors, rather than a stylistic choice (The notable example is Megatron, since he use ''washi'' for addressing himself in the original series, due of [[Creator/SeizoKato his voice actor]] being older).
168	[[/folder]]
169
170	[[folder:Video Games]]
171	* The Beta from ''VideoGame/GreyGoo2015'' all talk with an accent that comes across as a blend of Australian and South African.
172	* ''VideoGame/LegoStarWars:'' All the Mustafarians in ''The Skywalker Saga'' speak with Liverpudlian accents.
173	* Zinyak of ''Videogame/SaintsRowIV'' speaks with a posh British accent. He's also a fan of British literature and theater and will even read the entire first chapter of ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'' on the classical music radio station that he [=DJs=].
174	* Inverted in ''VideoGame/StarOcean'' - the aliens, from Earth and with quasi-European names, all speak English in their voice clips, while the audio for the Fellpool, the alien race all the main characters are, are quite Japanese. Text is homogeneously Japanese, of course, which can probably be blamed on TranslatorMicrobes.
175	* Similar to the movies above, most of the Imperials in ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' speak with English accents. They are commented on in-game due to defections from both sides (both on having and the lack of the accent). The Imperial Agent PlayerCharacter (who is, obviously, Imperial) is told to "lose the accent" in their very first conversation, and spends most of the rest of their time on Nal Hutta, along with a reprise when infiltrating some rebels on Balmorra, putting on a not-tremendously-convincing Republic (read: American) accent. Likewise, the Jedi Consular player character will put on an Imperial (read: British) accent when posing as a sith.
176	* ''Franchise/MassEffect''
177	** Lilihierax from the first game (in?)famously had a sort of Brooklyn accent, although it's unclear if it was even a deliberate, conscious decision from the VA. None of the other turians had anything like it.
178	** Some Quarians, primarily Tali, seem to have a Russian or Middle Eastern accent. Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib has a rather prominent English accent, provided by Martin Jarvis. Others don't seem to have a very pronounced accent of any kind.
179	** Javik from the third game has a bit of his voice actor's Nigerian accent in his voice. More than a few players called him "Jamaican" as a result.
180	** ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'': The Anagrans, apparently because they're [[MulticulturalAlienPlanet multicultural]], have a variety of accents from all over the British Commonwealth Nations. Your party member Jaal sounds sort of West African, but with a sharp ear you can pick out Anagrans with Aussie, British Midlands, or New Zealand accents. The villains of the game, the kett, have a more Received Pronunciation British accent, but it's harder to make out because of the distorted effect their voices have.
181	* In ''VideoGame/TreasurePlanetBattleAtProcyon'', the Procyons speak with a Russo-German accent.
182	[[/folder]]
183
184	[[folder:Webcomics]]
185	* {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' when uranianUmbra uses the phrase "Bob's your Uncle" and then reveals that she isn't sure she used it right. Turns out that her British accent is a deliberate affectation or "quirk", something all trolls do to an extent. Tavros does this with Spanish, and Vriska to a limited extent with Italian, both of which are straighter examples. Justified in that [[spoiler: they helped ''create'' the Earth, and thus the Spanish and Italian languages]].
186	* ''Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids'': The GM gives various ''Star Wars'' characters different accents to help them stand out. Among other things, this means several characters who were {{Evil Brit}}s in the film (Tarkin, Dooku) get turned into {{French Jerk}}s. Things get really out of hand when he has to introduce the Separatist Council members in rapid succession and has to change accents four times within as many sentences.
187	-->'''GM:''' It's to show he's from another culture. He's not French, he's... uh...\
188	'''Ben:''' Space French.
189	* Nosh, a Veetan in ''Webcomic/DriveDaveKellett'', speaks in a strong Russian accent. We later find that not only do other Veetans not do this, they also think it's odd. [[JustifiedTrope Turns out he spent several years in Moscow.]]
190	[[/folder]]
191
192	[[folder:Web Original]]
193	* ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this with Jeice, who talks with an Australian accent and uses figures of speech familiar to Australia, by explaining he's from [[SpaceX Space Australia (more specifically, Space Brisbane).]]
194	-->'''Krillin:''' Wait, hold on. You’re from Australia?\
195	'''Jeice:''' ''Space'' Australia. Or more specifically, Space Brisbane. Go Space [[UsefulNotes/RugbyLeague Broncos]]!\
196	'''Krillin:''' So... it’s like... Australia...\
197	'''Jeice:''' In space. Gotta be careful though, Burter. Space dingo will eat your space baby.
198	* ''ARG/TheNoedolekcinArchives'': Kirk may be from space, but he speaks fluent English in a [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent (maybe)]] British accent.
199	[[/folder]]
200
201	[[folder:Western Animation]]
202	* ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' sees a Thanagarian get hit with this again as Hawkman was voiced by Georgia-born Creator/RobertPatrick.
203	* ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' and ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'':
204	** Rattrap sports a Brooklyn accent.
205	** In keeping with the voice being partly inspired by Creator/AnthonyHopkins, Megatron sounds like an EvilBrit.
206	** Quickstrike has the most overplayed villainous cowboy drawl you ever did hear.
207	* In the third and fourth ''{{Franchise/Ben 10}}'' series, Ben's alien forms start speaking in various foreign accents. Brainstorm gets a stuffy British one, Gutrot has a harsh Brooklyn one, NRG has a Russian one, [=ChamAlien=] and Clockwork are German... this is doubly bizarre since all of them are just a single shapeshifted American teenager, and his accent doesn't change for most forms, or any of them early on.
208	* ''WesternAnimation/BikerMiceFromMars'':
209	** The original series episode "Last Stand at the Last Chance" featured an alien cat villain with an Australian accent named Cat Scan.
210	** Hannibal T. Hairball from the 2006 series has a Russian accent in spite of being a member of a race of alien cats called the Catatonians. "Rumpity Dumpster" introduces his half-brother Pierre Fluffbottom, who has a French accent.
211	* ''WesternAnimation/BumpInTheNight'' featured a pair of aliens named Sleemoth and Gloog. In spite of being from another planet, Sleemoth has a Scottish accent and Gloog has a British accent.
212	* The British Isles have a huge variety of dialects. Hence, it's a RunningGag on ''WesternAnimation/DangerMouse'' that when the heroes encounter an alien or weird creature, it will speak with a funny regional accent. If it's thick enough, one of the heroes will initially think it's an alien language.
213	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
214	** Spoofed as French is actually extinct (except among gargoyles, apparently). Yet several characters speak it at various points... Making it just another inconsistent joke in the series (similar to how there aren't any wheels in the year 3000... except for the thousands of wheels that they have, that is).
215	** Zoidberg has a distinct Yiddish accent, as do several of his Decapodian relatives.
216	* A couple episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheGarfieldShow'' see the titular character face off against aliens with Italian accents. In this case, it's meant to tie into how they inexplicably resemble lasagna, an Italian food.
217	* On ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'', Tak has a British accent while none of the other Irkens do. [[LaResistance Lard Nar]] has one too, though we only have one other Vort to compare him to.
218	* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'':
219	** [[ActionGirl Hawkgirl]] speaks with a Cuban accent, matching her voice actress Creator/MariaCanalsBarrera. It set the precedent for future actors to play Thanagarians, most of them being of Cuban or Latin American extraction.
220	** Martian Manhunter speaks with Creator/CarlLumbly's Jamaican accent.
221	* To emphasize his snooty, pretentious personality, Swanky from ''WesternAnimation/PetAlien'' speaks with a British accent despite none of the other aliens doing so.
222	* In ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'''s "Chronicles of Meep", the aliens speak with different accents depending on which translator they are using. The translators are shaped like mustaches, and the accent fits the stereotype of that 'stache.
223	* ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'': Jet's uncle Zucchini, despite being a space alien, has a Brooklyn / {{Joisey}} accent.
224	* ''WesternAnimation/RoswellConspiraciesAliensMythsAndLegends'': The Banshees all have some sort of Irish accent. In the pilot it's mentioned that they first settled (on Earth) in the British Isles, so presumably they settled in Ireland, [[JustSoStory which is where the legend comes from]].
225	* ''WesternAnimation/SolarOpposites'': Jesse speaks with a slight Minnesotan accent, which A.I.S.H.A. lampshades in "The Platinum Beyblade Burst 800 Takara Tomy Edition." No other Shlorpian seems to have it, with their accents all depending on their voice actors.
226	* The Mewmans in ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' have a pretty random combination of American and English accents despite living in another dimension from Earth.
227	* Most gems in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' have American accents the same as the humans living in Beach City, but a few have others:
228	** Garnet, Sardonyx, Aquamarine, and Rainbow Quartz ([[spoiler:the one made by Pearl and Steven]]) have British accents. What's even odder about this is [[spoiler:Garnet]] and Rainbow Quartz are [[FusionDance formed by two people each]], none of which have a similar accent. Bluebird Azurite, Aquamarine's fusion with Eyeball, also has a British accent, but Cockney instead of Aquamarine's [[IAmVeryBritish RP]].
229	** [[TheEeyore Blue Diamond]] has an Irish accent. Her VA [[OohMeAccentsSlipping seemed to be trying to hide it]] at first, but [[VocalEvolution then just made it part of the character]].
230	** Topaz has a slight Mexican accent.
231	** Larimar has a strong Swedish accent, playing off her ice-themed design.
232	* In ''WesternAnimation/ThreeTwoOnePenguins'', the accents that the various aliens have include American (Zidgel, the Gator King), Southern American (Wild Bill Quasar, that yellow cowboy alien that appears every so often), Australian (Midgel, the Bandicoot and Lizard Kings), British (Fidgel, the dart aliens from Tell-a-Lie, the Tiki King), and whatever the hell Miso Guapo's accent is supposed to be.
233	* Allura and Coran from ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'' both [[AliensSpeakingEnglish speak English]] with English accents despite never having been to Earth.
234	[[/folder]]

Context Main / AliensOfLondon