Nico wrote:
Gan: scants
What are "scants"?
Oh, I see Kathryn already asked that.
Re "I guess", I can't hear any of the characters saying that - it sounds quintessentially American to me. For some reason, it comes out OK (there - I've no problem with a B7 character saying OK, I think that was already standard in 1970s UK English) as "I would guess that" but that's a bit high falutin' for Vila. I'd definitely use "I suppose" (or just "Suppose") for him. "I imagine" is another alternative, but it doesn't sound like Vila.
One complication, I think, is that UK English is becoming increasingly Americanised (it was alleged the other day that Tony Blair spells his own party's name as "Labor", which I doubt is meant as a Latinism), and has probably shifted in that direction even over the last 20 years. I often strike things out as hopelessly un-English, and next day hear somebody actually saying it. I am, of course, convinced that having been a sixth-former/college student during the Original Broadcast of B7 means that I am precisely attuned to the version of English used by BBC scriptwriters of that period, but this may be a delusion, as I know that I pick up new phrases and drop others all the time.