What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

[eschaton]

Imho, There's always been 'good' and 'bad' technobabble. 'Good' technobabble is when it's used to create a credible impression that these people are highly trained specialists that simply use jargon to communicate more effectively. Bonus points if the terms used aren't just a string of tech-y sounding words but actually could mean something in a hypothetical extrapolation of current knowledge.

It becomes 'bad' when it's used to obfuscate that there's a fairly simple solution to the problem, or even that there's no problem that can be described without technobabble in the first place.

If you look at technobabble more broadly (outside of Trek) it's really just a shortcut that lazy writers use when they either don't want to do background research to have real technology, or don't want to actually figure out how to write a smart character.

I recognize that it's been established within Trek to actually mean something, but if we were starting with a clean sheet of paper, I'd absolutely pare it back to real scientific terms and terminology actually needed for plot/worldbuilding.

 

[Orphalesion]

Technobabble never bothered me.
I'm not a person who's very interested in technology, much less in how technology actually works, so whenever they get too technical I tend to kinda blend it out anyway."Blablabla reverse tachyon beam blablablabla"
In addition to that I don't expect writers to actually know details about technology only because they write for Star Trek, I just expect them to write interesting stories, characters etc.

 

[fireproof78]

If you look at technobabble more broadly (outside of Trek) it's really just a shortcut that lazy writers use when they either don't want to do background research to have real technology, or don't want to actually figure out how to write a smart character.

I recognize that it's been established within Trek to actually mean something, but if we were starting with a clean sheet of paper, I'd absolutely pare it back to real scientific terms and terminology actually needed for plot/worldbuilding.

You'd have to start with either a full reboot of Trek (something I fully support for this reason) or creating your own world.

I love Trek to death but I would also enjoy an original work that doesn't say "Oh, we're like Star Trek," but just starts with the same basic idea and goes harder science with it.

 

[Vale]

I remember reading an article once – not sure where, can't find it now, this was a long time ago – that argued quite convincingly that the issue with Star Trek's increasing use of technobabble crossed a line between providing "in-universe flavour" and it instead became bad exposition that just sapped away drama. The example they gave of why technobabble is bad was a real-life emergency situation aboard a spacecraft, namely Apollo 13; where the astronauts contacted mission control with the message:

"Houston, we've had a problem. We've had a main B bus undervolt".

Later Berman-era Star Trek could NEVER get a technical explanation to be this succinct and accurate. It would come across as something like:

"Captain, we are currently monitoring a significant decrease in the particle flux in the secondary electron conduit. Unless I can restore power to the energy couplings in the next 47 minutes we'll lose life support".

 

[Orphalesion]

I agree that Voyager and Ent had a bit too much technobabble. But even here I'd argue it's not bad because "it's not real technology" I'd argue it's bad because they did technobabble stuff instead of more interesting storylines about the characters and their world, and used it as a crutch they resolve plots.

 

[1001001]

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[Vale]

I agree that Voyager and Ent had a bit too much technobabble. But even here I'd argue it's not bad because "it's not real technology" I'd argue it's bad because they did technobabble stuff instead of more interesting storylines about the characters and their world, and used it as a crutch they resolve plots.

That's kind of what I meant. It's not that it's not real technology, it's that it both doesn't sound like real technology and it gets in the way of real plot.

 

[eschaton]

I agree that Voyager and Ent had a bit too much technobabble. But even here I'd argue it's not bad because "it's not real technology" I'd argue it's bad because they did technobabble stuff instead of more interesting storylines about the characters and their world, and used it as a crutch they resolve plots.

Both as a crutch to resolve plots and often a crutch to cause the initial conflict.

 

[GNDN18]

What about pointed sticks?

 

[Qonundrum]

Yeah...I can't stand it:

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But, boy do I want "Chair offline" or "HullPlating.exe has stopped responding" type error messages.

^^this

Deep Dish Nine




Voyager



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What happens if you reverse the polarity on a polarized hull? Implosion?

Pretty much.

While Doctor Who had some woeful extremes between seasons 15 and 17 that were too silly (and for silliness' sake), Trek's technobabble - Treknobabble - may have started with an authentic flair, but the later eras quickly put the words into-- I've not had my 18th cup of coffee today and there's already an app for what I was going to describe:

https://www.technobabble.biz/

...dang, now that is legendary...

Sheesh, any old search engine where you start to type "Trek techn", and the engine's autofill's feature's first three prefetched results to choose from brings up "star trek technobabble generator" - which has something of a plus side or two: , it's helping you save electrical costs from the 7 seconds' worth of typing that's keeping the monitor, 'puter, and internet running - and it's reducing the risk of carpal tunnel surgery from saving you extra typing - all at the same time, woohoo!

90s Trek really did end up using technobabble to pad out plotting and without the care that TNG previously had. VOY and ENT having the worst examples by far... especially when the prefix of "Borg" wasn't used in VOY...

 

[Orphalesion]

I love Trek to death but I would also enjoy an original work that doesn't say "Oh, we're like Star Trek," but just starts with the same basic idea and goes harder science with it.

I mean the more and the more varied Science Fiction on TV, the better. Like, in today's climate of brand recognition and reboots and stuff I'm sometimes really worried that we'll end up in a world where all TV/Movie science fiction will be reduced to Star Trek or Star Wars and all TV/Movie fantasy will be reduced to Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings.
And I really wouldn't want to live in that world...

 

[Ragitsu]

Positronic...Supersonic.

reduced to Game of Thrones

That is a depressing thought.

 

[fireproof78]

I mean the more and the more varied Science Fiction on TV, the better. Like, in today's climate of brand recognition and reboots and stuff I'm sometimes really worried that we'll end up in a world where all TV/Movie science fiction will be reduced to Star Trek or Star Wars and all TV/Movie fantasy will be reduced to Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings.
And I really wouldn't want to live in that world...

I'm not worried about it but I do want a lot more science fiction that leans on itself more than pop culture SF tends to do.

 

[Kor]

My controversial option of the day: TWOK went overboard with the disgusting Ceti eel close-up stuff and the bloody dead bodies. To me, stuff like that isn't Star Trek. Same with any gory Borg body-horror type stuff.

Kor

 

[Ragitsu]

My controversial option of the day: TWOK went overboard with the disgusting Ceti eel close-up stuff and the bloody dead bodies. To me, stuff like that isn't Star Trek.

It was endemic to late 1970s/early 1980s science-fiction.

 

[GNDN18]

My controversial option of the day: TWOK went overboard with the disgusting Ceti eel close-up stuff and the bloody dead bodies. To me, stuff like that isn't Star Trek. Same with any gory Borg body-horror type stuff.

Kor

TWOK went further than any Trek before, but compared to Alien, parts of Blade Runner, and anything Cronenberg was doing at the time, it was pretty tame.

It’s not like Meyer filmed a toddler wandering toward their doom in the transporter room as the Genesis Device was about to detonate.

 

[Commander Troi]

My controversial option of the day: TWOK went overboard with the disgusting Ceti eel close-up stuff and the bloody dead bodies. To me, stuff like that isn't Star Trek. Same with any gory Borg body-horror type stuff.

We saw it in the theater Monday and I have to admit I still can't watch the mind-control eels being put in their ears. The dead bodies were fairly tame though.

 

[fireproof78]

TWOK went further than any Trek before, but compared to Alien, parts of Blade Runner, and anything Cronenberg was doing at the time, it was pretty tame.

It’s not like Meyer filmed a toddler wandering toward their doom in the transporter room as the Genesis Device was about to detonate.

Perhaps but it's a different tone to Trek. I wasn't watching Alien,or Blade Runner or Cronenberg.

 

[GNDN18]

Perhaps but it's a different tone to Trek. I wasn't watching Alien,or Blade Runner or Cronenberg.

My point only was to go with what Ragitsu posted: a certain amount of gore was de rigueur in many sci-fi films of the tîme.

 

[cooleddie74]

The Alex replicant "growing" scene in The Last Starfighter creeped me out more than anything in TWOK.