On Mon, Nov 10, 2003 at 03:12:18PM -0600, David Dyer-Bennet wrote: > At least Doc Smith had the Arisians use their Visualization of the > Cosmic All to know what the lenses would have to be able to > translate. Well, plus the Lenses were explicitly telepathic. The Star Trek brain scan idea fails when the aliens are in a different ship than the translator. Dealing with real first contact protocols (language acquisition, biocontainment procedures) would simply make Star Trek and Stargate SG-1 unwatchable. Or slower and more expensive, at any rate. I suspect the same was true of Crusade, although I never watched much. (You'd think a series motivated by plague would be more cautious about exploring strange planets.) -xx- Damien X-)