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Behind the Scenes: Treknobabble
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this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
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Risa
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I hate when people try to write technobabble like that. It has a logic and if you have watched enough star trek it starts to make sense.
Then JJ Abrams comes a long and has Butterbeer Crampleslice tell us life support system is behind the aft nacelles. Even the first few seasons of the new Trek shows did this crap until they brought on science and Canon consultants
There is nothing technochron blorbinator in the Trek lexicon - I'm saying that writing example technobabble like that shows a lack of understanding of the source.
I don't have any specific examples, but I remember the first 2 seasons of discovery and a little in the first season of Picard getting Trek particles wrong and not knowing systems. It got better once they hired Erin MacDonald and brought on David Mack and a few other novelists to consult on prodigy and I think Picard iirc
edit: Hey look I can play the edit game too - I provided a poorly researched example and explained that technology use not well used in early discovery - I acknowledged that being critical of technology use can be hand waived because its fictitious and apparently that's not good enough for our combative OP. I also provided sources on the franchise now using specialists to keep track of technology and technobabble, and advised that I am not a "nutrek hater" as our contentious colleague here had to go and attack me personally - check below for the receipts and tax returns!
I'll be sure to take notes next time I do a rewatch
Probably because most people don't go around saving copies of these examples. You notice it make a mental note and then forget until someone brings it up again.
I sure as hell don't go around documenting everything that bothers me about a tv show. In fact I usually do the opposite and try to ignore them.
I’m on your side on this one for sure.
The Star Trek community is amazing at pointing out obscure references, and letting you know exactly who said it and what episode it was from, all the way back to the 60’s. It blows my mind pretty often lol
So unless someone can point out specific examples…
That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some. Just need to see it. The burden of proof is on the people with these claims.
I am going to shift the window on what I meant a little - star trek uses its technology as a plot contrivance all the fucking time, every series is guilty of it. Tech can be a hindrance to the protagonist or be stupidly overridden depending on what the plot needs. Most of the series are good at making the tech at least make sense in the world.
Take the breath sensor in s1e03 - as a security device its there to just be beaten, which is stupid - but also in star trek world with scanners and tricorders it makes no sense. The main computer could scan you at the door and know who you are without breathing on something. Its a fundamental misunderstanding of the world. To new fans its not a problem, but have you met a Star Trek fan before?
Once they brought people on that actually can beat the technology needs into shape for the world, this new era of trek has been fine IMHO. None of it is story breaking, and its frivolous because yes, this is fiction and the world can be whatever it wants for scifi reasons. This was the first example I found quickly scrolling transcripts. There's others like the SQL line in season 2.
Both of us can do backflips to justify our positions. I also acknowledged that it's fiction and it can be whatever it wants to be. I dont claim to know everything.
It doesn't change the fact they brought on people specifically to do a better job of these things, so that backflips are less required 🤷♂️
Erin MacDonald interview
...
confirms Mack as consultant
There are other resources and tweets out there confirming as much.
Don't assume I'm a "nutrek" hater. I love new Trek mate, I buy the discs, I stream it, I've got the eaglemoss models! I use to defend the spore drive as a cool use of subspace domains or that Picard season one is a good remix of the themes of the episode tapestry all of which earned me many down votes on parts of reddit.
I can still be critical when parts of it could IMHO be done a little better, and as I said I'm glad that new Trek really is trying