Esperanto

From Tongue Tied

Esperanto is an artificially created international language. It is the semi-offical language of the Space Corps and all the officers are not required but expected to learn it (Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers). Arnold Rimmer has been trying to learn the language himself (partially from learning videos), having officer hood ambitions. In the end he has failed miserably, while his bunkmate Dave Lister has picked up a basic understanding of the language (Holly naturally also understands the language) ("Kryten" and Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers). Corridors aboard Red Dwarf are sometimes labeled in Esperanto.

"Esperanto" is also the name of a Space Corps seeding ship called the SSS Esperanto ("Back to Reality"). While aboard, the Red Dwarf crew are attacked by a despair squid and are subjected to its hallucinogenic ink. In their hallucination, a Brummie technician named Andy says that to kill the squid they were supposed to use the laser cannons of the SSS Esperanto, citing the name "Esperanto" as a clue (Esperanto means "one who hopes", and hope defeats despair. In real life it was named "one who hopes" as it was created as a worldwide common language, in the hopes of preventing war).