Pat: sorry, but you're strictly...

 Posted on 11/24/1994 by STRACZYNSKI [Joe] to GENIE


Pat: sorry, but you're strictly wrong about "all the inhabitants of B5
speak English." Yes, the ambassadors do, because this is an Earth run
station, for which English has been selected as the baseline language, and if
you're going to be an ambassador to Russia, you learn the language you're
working in. This is simple common sense.

There are MANY races on B5 that either don't speak English, or do so in
very primitive ways (like the Drazi). The pak'ma'ra, which we saw in
"Legacies," use a physical translation device, which we saw being used when
Garibaldi interrogated one of them; nagrath also used a translation device
hung over his chest because his mandibles aren't capable of making human
sounds; similarly, Kosh speaks in musical tones, which are translated by the
flashing device on his encounter suit. When B5 ran into a new species in
"Voice in the Wilderness," they were shown taking our langauge and translation
files, and using them very haltingly in order to communicate with us.

So I'm sorry, but you're simply wrong on this point.

jms