Poll: Which Trek series has the most technobabble?

[TheGodBen]

We are walking a fine line here, I for one don't mind to much Treknobabble, it may lose a few of the viewers, however, you can't dumb it down to much or it will lose some it's appeal.

But technobabble does dumb down the show; the cast speaks a load of gibberish, then a pretty light comes out of the deflector dish, and then the problem goes away. An intelligent solution is one where the crew has to out-think a problem using tactics, technobabble can be written by anyone.

As for the worst offender; Voyager. Not only did they have more technobabble, they had more nonsensical technobabble.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

I agree with most posts in this thread.

 

[Semah]

TOS had little to no technobabble, mostly having situations where keeping the ship in good repair allowed it to perform the job it was designed for. TNG and Geordie LaForge started the "Reconfigure phase modulatioon of the deflector dish and project a stream of tachyons." sort of thing. Voyager then did this in every episode.

 

[GalaxyX]

VOYAGER

 

[LutherSloan]

If I were to rank them from most to least, it would go:

1. Voyager
2. TOS
3. TNG
4. Enterprise
5. DS9

 

[Cyke101]

We are walking a fine line here, I for one don't mind to much Treknobabble, it may lose a few of the viewers, however, you can't dumb it down to much or it will lose some it's appeal.

But technobabble does dumb down the show; the cast speaks a load of gibberish, then a pretty light comes out of the deflector dish, and then the problem goes away. An intelligent solution is one where the crew has to out-think a problem using tactics, technobabble can be written by anyone.

As for the worst offender; Voyager. Not only did they have more technobabble, they had more nonsensical technobabble.

DING DING DING, we have a winner. That just about nails it; technobabble should never ever be used to advance the plot. There are shows like CSI and House which need their own brand of technobabble, sure, but it's used as a result of the characters' personalities and/or actions, and not as a substitute or crutch for the writers like Voyager used it. (come to think of it, I'd have to watch ER more, but with their style of writing, I wouldn't be surprised if, the more technobabble was involved in an operation, the more likely the patient was to die on the table)

A recent thread brought up the issue of Darmok, one of the most critically acclaimed episodes of Trek ever, which I love citing as an example: we get technobabble explanations, just like in any Trek show, sure. The key difference there is that the technobabble really got Riker and the crew nowhere, and the plot only advanced because 1. the crew never gave up looking for a solution and more importantly, 2. Picard and Darmok's main story was completely character-driven. For that matter, the last technobabble explanation that the crew came up with nearly got them killed, which is the exact opposite of what would happen in your standard Voyager episode.

 

[Astraea]

I agree with everyone else: Voyager's by far the worst. If all other nonsensical technobabble fails, nanoprobes could always save the day.

As for technobabble in other shows, at least the tech talk on a show like House is grounded in reality; interpreting that technobabble is possible. But, problem is, I don't have the same grounding for 24th-century technology that I have for 20th century medicine. With Voyager, you can basically make s**t up to solve anything (and they did), and it doesn't feel remotely plausible.

 

[Semah]

If I were to rank them from most to least, it would go:

1. Voyager
2. TOS
3. TNG
4. Enterprise
5. DS9

How can you rank TOS above TNG?

 

[-Brett-]

Voyager, easily. Not just the most technobabble, but the worst use of it.

DS9, and usually TNG technobabble would be there to help the characters from one point to another when they might not be able to get there another way, or to demonstrate how bad the situation is in an in-character way.

"The bomb has fictional elements XYZ. That's Romulan technology!"

"The ram scoop conduit in the deflector array is venting dihydrogen oxide! That doesn't really mean anything relevant, I just want you to know how fucked up the ship is."

Rarely used as a resolution. But with Voyager, it'd be more like:

"The bomb has fictional elements XYZ. That means if we vent dihydrogen oxide out of the ram scoop conduit in the deflector array, it might just reverse the polarity and save the day!"

 

[Praetorian]

We are walking a fine line here, I for one don't mind to much Treknobabble, it may lose a few of the viewers, however, you can't dumb it down to much or it will lose some it's appeal. It would be like turning Voyager into a Capt Proton episode,with outdated dialog. Remember we are seeing the way things are in the 23/24th century, you need to speak in some technicial terms or it will lose it realism.

^^
Voyager was Science Fiction...

There's nothing clever about Treknobabble. In fact as it was said, if anything is a sign of lack of cleverness and writing ability, instead relying on totaly made up stuff to solve problems.

Also Treknobable has nothing to do with Science Fiction. More like the opposite. As far as I know science-fiction is supposed to be based on reality. Stuff like a Dyson Sphere is Science Fiction. Saying that it was built when the Chronotoreans used a tetryon carrier wave and reconfigured the boreon emiters means nothing at all...especially if that's used to solve a problem.

"Science fiction (abbreviated SF or sci-fi with varying punctuation and capitalization) is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology."

"Science fiction differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically established or scientifically postulated laws of nature."

From Wikipedia (Yeah, sue me)

That leaves no room for inversed nadyons residues.

 

[KeepOnTrekking]

Before opening the thread, my answer was Voyager followed by TNG.
Right from the second episode of VOY ("Parallax"), Janeway and Torres go off into their own private conversation of how to solve the problem during the conference meeting. TNG had the same problem with Geordi and Data (and sometimes Wes). DS9 only got painted into a corner if O'Brien or Dax had to pull a rabbit out of their hats and try to explain it. As far as TOS, I liked Roddenberry's approach of crossing out 2 pages of technobabble once and pencilling in "Reverse course!" I think TOS's worst offender was the 3rd season "That Which Survives."

 

[KJM]

A recent thread brought up the issue of Darmok, one of the most critically acclaimed episodes of Trek ever, which I love citing as an example: we get technobabble explanations, just like in any Trek show, sure. The key difference there is that the technobabble really got Riker and the crew nowhere, and the plot only advanced because 1. the crew never gave up looking for a solution and more importantly, 2. Picard and Darmok's main story was completely character-driven. For that matter, the last technobabble explanation that the crew came up with nearly got them killed, which is the exact opposite of what would happen in your standard Voyager episode.

IIRC Riker's last idea was to just fire on the other ship.

 

[2 of 10]

We are walking a fine line here, I for one don't mind to much Treknobabble, it may lose a few of the viewers, however, you can't dumb it down to much or it will lose some it's appeal. It would be like turning Voyager into a Capt Proton episode,with outdated dialog. Remember we are seeing the way things are in the 23/24th century, you need to speak in some technicial terms or it will lose it realism.

^^
Voyager was Science Fiction...

There's nothing clever about Treknobabble. In fact as it was said, if anything is a sign of lack of cleverness and writing ability, instead relying on totaly made up stuff to solve problems.

Also Treknobable has nothing to do with Science Fiction. More like the opposite. As far as I know science-fiction is supposed to be based on reality. Stuff like a Dyson Sphere is Science Fiction. Saying that it was built when the Chronotoreans used a tetryon carrier wave and reconfigured the boreon emiters means nothing at all...especially if that's used to solve a problem.

"Science fiction (abbreviated SF or sci-fi with varying punctuation and capitalization) is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology."

"Science fiction differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically established or scientifically postulated laws of nature."

From Wikipedia (Yeah, sue me)

That leaves no room for inversed nadyons residues.

Fine, have it your way, I'm taking all my stuff back to the Voyager Forum...

 

[Dane_Whitman]

If I were to rank them from most to least, it would go:

1. Voyager
2. TOS
3. TNG
4. Enterprise
5. DS9

TOS had virtually NO technobabble, while TNG had LOADS of it!

And DS9 had some technobabble in the first two seasons. In fact, there's more of it in DS9's first couple of episodes than in four seasons of ENT.

1. Voyager
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2. The Next Generation
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3. DS9
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4. ENT
5. TOS

 

[Cyke101]

A recent thread brought up the issue of Darmok, one of the most critically acclaimed episodes of Trek ever, which I love citing as an example: we get technobabble explanations, just like in any Trek show, sure. The key difference there is that the technobabble really got Riker and the crew nowhere, and the plot only advanced because 1. the crew never gave up looking for a solution and more importantly, 2. Picard and Darmok's main story was completely character-driven. For that matter, the last technobabble explanation that the crew came up with nearly got them killed, which is the exact opposite of what would happen in your standard Voyager episode.

IIRC Riker's last idea was to just fire on the other ship.

Yeah, but the phaser shots came from the torpedo tube. Technobabble had to be involved!

But seriously, not quite. IIRC, Geordi said some phaser shots would disable the scattering field, so there was some technobabble involved anyway.

And I got the name wrong, I meant to say Dathon and not Darmok.

 

[skeeter291]

I'm going with Voyager with TNG a right on its heels.

 

[dreadpiraterose]

I think objectively it's Voyager. This thread could be closed...it's like asking which Trek had the most Spock on it!

ROFL. Yeah... Voyager.

 

[M'Sharak]

I'm going with Voyager with TNG a right on its heels.

That's about the way I'd call it. The main difference that I see between the two is that TNG at least hinted now and then that they knew they were laying it on a bit thick (Riker's explanation of the ship's computer to Morta in "Rascals" being a pretty clear wink); Voyager didn't seem to have the same awareness and poured on the tachyons, chronitons and antimatter radiation, full steam ahead.

Edit:

Off-topic, but I've gotta ask: Dane, who is the gentleman in your avatar? I feel I ought to know, and it's driving me crazy because I can't come up with a name to match the face.

 

[Dane_Whitman]

Off-topic, but I've gotta ask: Dane, who is the gentleman in your avatar? I feel I ought to know, and it's driving me crazy because I can't come up with a name to match the face.

M'Sharak, if you are into either horror films, Italian genre cinema or the technical side of cinematography and direction, you may have heard of this man. He is Mario Bava, one of the greatest directors who ever lived. He's up there with Hitchcock, Kubrick and any other great director in my book. He has done everything from sword and sandal flicks, spaghetti westerns, horror films to gialli (Italian thrillers with a distinct style) and even a science fiction/horror film (Planet of the Vampires). He is noted for his experimental camera techniques, striking use of surreal sets and lighting, and intense atmospheres.

If you have not seen any of his films and are interested, I recommend Black Sunday, Blood and Black Lace and Kidnapped (Rabid Dogs) as good examples of Bava's broad range.

 

[137th Gebirg]

I would say Voyager, without a doubt. Seems everything was solved by inverting the phase transducer of the metagenic framostat in order to...whatever.

However, the Enterprise-D had one serious design flaw: the starboard power coupling went down every other episode for some lame reason or other. This, while at the same time boasting that the Galaxy class starship had triple-redundancies everywhere. It wound up simply being the Attack of the Silly Plot Devices. And don't even get me started on holodeck and transporter malfunctions.