Name the individuals, races, cultures and/or planets that don't...

[JustKate]

Bottom line, the UT is completely unrealistic, but who cares? We know that it is just a plot device, because it is a TV show and you can't have everyone speaking in all sorts of made-up languages. It's no problem, we can use the suspension of disbelief just fine, and it still sounds less stupid than the idea that everyone in the galaxy is speaking English.

Yeah. And anything more realistic would be incredibly clumsy. Some degree of realism can be - and has been - done short-term such as for a movie or for a sentence here and there in Trek, but a TV show, even just TOS? Nah. For me, "Universal translator" is merely shorthand for "somehow they bridged the language barrier, but we're not going to show you how because it would get in the way of the plot. So let's get back to our story, OK?" It's as simple as that.

 

[T'Girl]

The episode where Quark and his brother travel in time to the year 1947, it's made very clear that he speaks no english at all.

 

[I am not Spock]

^Yeah. I love Quark and his brother trying to fix their UTs in that scene.

 

[Sector 7]

^
^^ This is one of the very few DS9 episodes I like. It is such an original and humorous take on Roswell that I never get tired of seeing it.

 

[EmperorTiberius]

I think the way UT is supposed to work is you actually understand the language while it is working (ie you learn it), but as soon as you take it out, you forget it. That's why when they're talking, their lips are in sync.

And I think anyone going to starfleet academy needs to know English.

 

[NIUPonyBoy]

^ Now that has always been one of my biggest gripes! I would have been sooo much happier all these years if, when an alien was speaking in their own tongue, but we heard english due to the universal translator, it should have looked like a dubbed japanese film. Where the words didnt line up with the actor's mouth. I really would have prefered that so much more.....although i am sure the actors would have HATED it.

And, as much as you may have liked it there are possibly 10x as many fans who would find it annoying and pointless.

I know I would have.