The legacy of technobabble....

[Warped9]

TNG didn't invent technobabble, but they can make a fair claim to enriching it to full bloom. As the series progressed it got progressively more evident and (depending on your perspective) progressively worse.

Each following series and film compounded the issue. It's at a point now that I absolutely loathe technobabble whenever it's used so heavily that it often mars what might otherwise be a decent story.

I want to underline a distinction here. A moderate use of fictitious technical jargon can add a bit of technical veneer to exposition. But heavy handed use of techno-bullshit as TNG often employed (as well as DS9, VOY and ENT) is something I find intellectually insulting. Whenever I hear it now it's as if the write rumber-stamped "tech, tech, tech" into a script as directed to fill screen time.

 

[Deckerd]

I thought Voyager was the worst offender. Not really sure what the writers thought they were doing, since it added nothing to the stories.

 

[Pemmer Harge]

Ah, Treknobabble! The deflector dish must be the greatest invention ever, since it seems that it can be reconfigured to do just about anything.

 

[Trekker4747]

I thought Voyager was the worst offender. Not really sure what the writers thought they were doing, since it added nothing to the stories.

Exactly.

TNG used it quite often but they had a... "logic" to it there was a "theory behind the science."

Voyager? Not so much.

 

[Plecostomus]

Voyager they used a random word chart, it's clear to me.

TNG they put some thought behind the babble. Deep-Space Nine as well, but not to the same degree.

That damn deflector dish on Voyager got more screen-time and more lines than Harry Kim. It's a wonder they didn't vote the dish Sexiest Man Alive.

 

[Yeoman Randi]

^

I know i am probably in the minority here, but i love technobabble, even when there isnt alot of thought put into the science behind it.

 

[Plecostomus]

^

I know i am probably in the minority here, but i love technobabble, even when there isnt alot of thought put into the science behind it.

I love trying to figure out what they are saying.

I use REAL technobabble daily, and I'm conversant with physics and nuclear-reactor babble thanks to a career I never followed up on.

The Tech is one of the major parts of the show for me... that and dreaming of a horrific transporter accident leaving Troi allergic to clothing for an entire episode.

 

[Tallis Rhul]

Hahahaha!

I like it when the technobabble makes sense. When it's random crap that has no bearing on anything else it's a bit of a shame in a way.

Each actor has their own favourite bit of technobabble as well... how many times were the Optronic Relays fused when O'Brien was on duty?

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

I thought Voyager was the worst offender. Not really sure what the writers thought they were doing, since it added nothing to the stories.

What irritated me most about it on Voyager was how much it was used as a Deus Ex Machina to get out of any perilous situation. The ship is surrounded by hundreds of Borg cubes? Wait maybe if I send out an inverse tachyon pulse at 100 isoquads it will create a resonance feedback in the Borg hypostatic chambers. Do it!(Tuvok pushes 4 buttons). There on their merry way.

 

[Tallis Rhul]

I'll agree with you completely there. If only Jean-Luc Picard had been able to work that one out using his remaining interlink to the Borg collective then First Contact would have been a 5 minute featurette.

JLP: "Yes, I know... the Borg... but it's alright, we'll just send out an inverse tachyon pulse at 100 isoquads."
Data: "Sir, wouldn't that create a resonance feedback in the Borg's hypostatic chambers?"
JLP: "If my memory serves Captain Janeway did it once in an episode of Voyager."
<ROLL CREDITS>

 

[Cyke101]

Agreed with Dark Journey and to add: I hate technobabble puns. No, Doctor, I don't want to hear a children's song bastardized into that monstrosity. Data's Ode to Spot was charming, your song was forced and contrived.

 

[Pemmer Harge]

I thought Voyager was the worst offender. Not really sure what the writers thought they were doing, since it added nothing to the stories.

What irritated me most about it on Voyager was how much it was used as a Deus Ex Machina to get out of any perilous situation. The ship is surrounded by hundreds of Borg cubes? Wait maybe if I send out an inverse tachyon pulse at 100 isoquads it will create a resonance feedback in the Borg hypostatic chambers. Do it!(Tuvok pushes 4 buttons). There on their merry way.

Quite. Voyager, it seems, was stuffed to the gills with mind blowingly brilliant engineers, physicists and biologists. They must have won so many Nobel prizes after they told Starfleet all the stuff they'd come up with in the Delta Quadrant.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

"Okay, Morta. The Enterprise computer system is controlled by three primary main processor cores, cross-linked with redundant melacortz-ramistat 14-kiloquad interface modules. The core element is based on an FTL nanoprocessor with 25 bilateral kelilactirals. With 20 of those being slaved into the primary Heisenfram terminals. Now, you know what a bilateral kelilactiral is?"
"Of course I do, human. I am not stupid!"
"No. Of course not."

 

[Trekker4747]

 

[WillsBabe]

Whenever I hear it now it's as if the write rumber-stamped "tech, tech, tech" into a script as directed to fill screen time.

I remember reading an interview (with Levar Burton, I think) that said that there were blanks in the scripts that said TECH so that it could be added later. I don't think the intention was to just fill screen time, though. I never really minded the TNG technobabble. Maybe that's because I'm interested in what's happening to the characters rather than what the plot of the story is.

 

[Warped9]

Hahahaha!

I like it when the technobabble makes sense. When it's random crap that has no bearing on anything else it's a bit of a shame in a way.

By definition technobabble never actually makes any sense. It's fictitious technical jargon.

When used sparingly it's tolerable, such as when related to a technology that doesn't yet exist and you might come up with a few words to give the audience (or reader) some notion of what the thing is or is doing. More than that it is just as it's called: babble.

 

[Lt.Cmdr.LaForge]

Ah, Treknobabble! The deflector dish must be the greatest invention ever, since it seems that it can be reconfigured to do just about anything.

Ha! so true =]

Personally im a fan of the TNG technobabble since its usually coming from Data or Geordi (2 charqacters who suit that kinda thing imo).

However in DS9 you usually get all the techno crap from Jadzia, and for me it jus doesnt flow right coming outa her mouth...

 

[Tallis Rhul]

She's actually admitted that she found it difficult to do and hated doing it, I think in the extras on the Season 4 DS9 boxed set.

And fair play to her admitting to that... when you're stuck with a full page of explanation on how the gravimetric flux from the wormhole is stablising at optimal levels to create a neutrino surge that could blah blah de blah, it can't be fun trying to remember!

 

[Cyke101]

"Okay, Morta. The Enterprise computer system is controlled by three primary main processor cores, cross-linked with redundant melacortz-ramistat 14-kiloquad interface modules. The core element is based on an FTL nanoprocessor with 25 bilateral kelilactirals. With 20 of those being slaved into the primary Heisenfram terminals. Now, you know what a bilateral kelilactiral is?"
"Of course I do, human. I am not stupid!"
"No. Of course not."

Okay, granted, I like technobabble when it's used as a self-referential poke at Trek itself. Kudos to Riker for pulling it off

 

[WillsBabe]

I think what's clever about the pseudo technobabble is how the writers wrote it so we know that it's bullsh*t. They did a good job in distinguishing it from the genuine technobabble.