Science fiction: faster than light travel. Transporting living beings from one place to another. Translator that can handle previously-unknown languages.
Will not happen. Ever.
Horseback. Horse and cart. Horse and wagon. Donkey cart. Chariot. Boat. Ship. Bicycle. Motorcycle. Automobile. Aircraft. Spacecraft.
;^)
Forgot camel and elephant...
Iirc, ( this may be from one of the books, which are non-canon, i know) the translator worked on the basis of there having been a common origin to all the humanoid species. An ancient species that had seeded the galaxy, including providing at least rudimentary language from which all humanoid language derived.
The translator worked on the principle that a computer could identify the rudimentary commonalities and extrapolate a working translation.
There were episodes where the translator didn’t work because the species was non-humanoid. The result was Spock getting to mind meld with things like rocks and whales. There was also an episode (Next Gen) where the translator figured out the words, but couldn’t figure out the language constuct because the aliens spoke in allegory/metaphors.
Finally, with really advanced species there was an assumption that THEY had figured out humanoid language and were speaking to us in a language the translator could understand.
But... the flip phone they were using is now “obsolete technology”.
Will not happen. Ever.
Anything is possible as long as you have no idea about how things actually work.
“I canna change the laws of physics, Captain!”
I think that the translator that can handle previously unknown languages is “possible”, maybe even with todays technology and a big investment. Think of what the NSA does in cryptography, breaking codes. You are basically translating an unknown language, but just finding the “words” not the meaning. Add a learning based algorithm, coupled with a live database that holds language/semantic rules, frequencies of occurance for all known languages... very difficult, but probably not impossile.