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57
Worst examples of Treknobabble (startrek.website)
submitted 3 months ago by jalanhenning@startrek.website to c/startrek@startrek.website
46 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

What do you think are some of the worst examples of Treknobabble in the franchise?

And what series do you think does it poorly the most often?

all 47 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world 37 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)

I think Discovery had the worst. It isn't the technobabbke it self that was the problem, it was how it was delivered.

Everyone seemed to be needed to be the most intelligent person in the room. So one person would start with some sudden realisation and solution, and then another would interrupt them and pick up the idea and then either back to the first person, or yet another person would interrupt. Between then all they'd build a tower of technobabble and deus ex machina, and self congratulatory nonsense. It was just so silly.

Person 1 "wait if we reveresed the polarity of the neutron projector..."

Person 2 "yes! It'd cause a build of tachyons and we'd be able to resonate the electron confabulaotr! Oh but there wouldn't be enough plasma."

Person 3: "no wait, that might work! We'd have to recomboulate the manifolds and..."

Person 1: "...that would allow us to recrystallise the warp matrix! Of course!'

Whose a genius? Everyone in the room is a genius! Let's all give ourselves a round of applause.

That and all the space kung fu.

[–] turkalino@lemmy.yachts 29 points 3 months ago

I mean, as an engineer, I can tell you that sort of group solving DOES happen in meetings sometimes, but it’s the speed they do it at in the show that’s unrealistic. At the same time, slowing it down would make for bad television so idk

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 20 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Disconnected nacelles and programmable matter were complete turn offs for me.

[–] mina@berlin.social 6 points 3 months ago

@reddig33

Same with reconfiguring space ships in flight. What a bs!

@BananaTrifleViolin

[–] Corgana@startrek.website 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Is this example actually real or is it made up?

[–] M500@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The text is not really, but the situation is.

[–] Corgana@startrek.website -2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

OP asked for examples and the comment in question (along with your reply) gives the appearance that you're both just making up nonexistent situations in order to complain about a TV show.

[–] M500@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I think you commented to the wrong person.

[–] Corgana@startrek.website 3 points 3 months ago

Apologies I see how you got that impression, I edited my comment for clarity.

[–] nullPointer@programming.dev 30 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)

reversing polarity is the solution to all of your woes.

[–] DannyBoy@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 months ago

When switching from flux core wire to regular wire with shielding gas on my welder it calls to reverse the polarity of the electricity to the welding gun. You have to open it up and swap two wires around. It always cracks me up inside when I'm telling people I had to reverse the polarity of the welder to get a better weld.

[–] Repelle@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

A few months ago I bought some old (quite good) speakers. My first step, of course, was to use a calibrated mic to measure them. One measured way better than the other. Took them apart and realized at some point someone had connected wires incorrectly on one of the tweeters causing it to be out of phase. Do you know what this means?

I REVERSED THE POLARITY AND FIXED MY AUDIO PROBLEM. That day I became a Starfleet Engineer.

[–] aperson@beehaw.org 2 points 3 months ago

That, or inaprovaline

[–] Nomecks@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 months ago

I thought it was an inverse tachyon beam from the main deflector array

[–] grue@lemmy.world 24 points 3 months ago (2 children)

JJ-Trek, hands down. From "red matter" to interstellar transporter beams to Khan's magic blood.

The reason it's so bad is that it's fucking plot holes galore. By the end of Star Trek (2009), starships are obsolete. By the end of Into Darkness, everyone should be immortal.

Treknobabble is supposed to serve the plot, but this shit undermines the entire premise instead. It's ridiculous!

[–] themoken@startrek.website 8 points 3 months ago

Meh, Trek is always terrible at following up after the big movie action. Aging is reversible if Insurrection is canon. Literal resurrection has been possible since at least Khan. Time travel is routine in Voyage Home. None of it makes sense outside of the context of the movie, they're basically their own canon even before JJ.

[–] Routhinator@startrek.website 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Let's not forget the "cold" fusion bomb that froze lava.

[–] Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

What blew my mind about that whole intro is they hid the entire ship UNDERWATER AT THE SHORELINE with a severe risk of damage to the local terrain and sea life instead of, you know, being in orbit.

[–] Ep1cFac3pa1m@lemmy.world 16 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I’ll try extrapolating the verteron exovector (or something like that)

Harry Kim Voyager S1E1

[–] jalanhenning@startrek.website 17 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Thanks, that sent me Googling. "KIM: I'll try extrapolating the verteron exit vector. No, I can't get it. There's a strange phase variance in the radiation stream. We'll have to wait until the probe exits." Episode 6 (another wormhole?!) http://www.chakoteya.net/Voyager/106.htm

[–] Ep1cFac3pa1m@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

exit vector

Thanks, couldn’t remember the exact line

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 3 months ago

at least there's only one word in there that makes it complete nonsense, "extrapolating a vector" sounds vaguely sensible, technobabble for "i'll have a guess at where it's headed"

[–] kaitco@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I’m going through Voyager now and I feel like they do this nonsense more than any of the other Treks thus far.

[–] StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 1 points 3 months ago

The thing is that while the technobabble is just that, the process represents how engineering gets done better than most other ‘serious’ SF, albeit at compressed speed.

Voyager did a better job than any at showing how the thinking and problem-solving work gets done - which to me is more the point.

All this criticism seems to come from folks who’ve never seen nerds working in teams being nerds. They seem to want science FICTION to be locked down to concepts that someone with a mid 20th bachelor’s degree in science would know.

Whereas the real life scientists and engineers in my circle react more like Erin Macdonald did when she was working on her physics PhD and saw Voyager. She recognized the process and thought it was cool that some of the newer concepts in gravimetrics were referenced but didn’t sweat the small stuff.

[–] ipacialsection@startrek.website 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

"I can't stop the heterocyclic declination!" (TNG: "Samaritan Snare")

[–] kaitco@lemmy.world 12 points 3 months ago

The writers: We are smart.

[–] AGD4@lemmy.world 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Almost anything involving the space-magic Enterprise D dish between the engine nacels:

Need more power? Modify the main deflector and divert power from shields.

Space anomoly? Bombard it with tachyon particles from the main deflector.

Need to modulate frequency of phaser array because a borg cube adapted to your weapons? Use the main deflector to send a resonance pulse and overwhelm their shields with a flood of positronic particles.

[–] fitjazz@lemmyf.uk 15 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Don't forget to bounce a graviton particle beam off the main detector dish.

[–] DrunkenHarold@lemmy.ca 14 points 3 months ago

It's charged with antiprotons, you'll blow up half the ship.

[–] qantravon@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That's the way we do things lads, we're making shit up as we wish!

[–] fitjazz@lemmyf.uk 1 points 3 months ago

I'm so glad at least one person got the reference.

[–] lordnikon@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

now you are star trekking across the universe

[–] theilleists@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

On the starship Enterprise, under Captain Kirk!

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com 13 points 3 months ago (2 children)

"Polarize the hull plating!"

What.

[–] Corgana@startrek.website 5 points 3 months ago

I don't think this one is so bad. Polarized plating reduced the effectiveness of energy weapons the same way polarized sunglasses reduce the glare from the sun.

If anything a vague "shields up" makes even less sense.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 3 months ago

pipe fox news through the PA system along the outer sections of the ship

[–] lordnikon@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

technobbabble is only bad when it solves the point of the story the only one that was bad about that in classic trek was voyager. In nutrek technobbable is the least of it's worries and that comes from a disdain and lack of respect for the audience. At best it is Star Wars with Star Trek Redskin Mod installed.

At worst incoherent and telling the same story and yes one story over one season every season. We found a MacGuffin now let's go on hunt. look at JJs sequel Trilogy and Star Wars and discovery season 1, 2,3 of discovery it's all the same. i think Ronald D Moore once said the amazing part about Star Trek was you could tell and genre of story in Star Trek.

Im not just talk episodic versus Cereal cuz look at DS9 you had a war story and right in the middle of it you had a love story with Kira and Odo and a heist movie. Im very sad that doesn't happen anymore.

[–] happenis@lemmy.today 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

We need a Trek-style Retroencabulator video

https://youtu.be/RXJKdh1KZ0w

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)
[–] Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

It's not so much technobabble, but from mid-TNG on through DS9 and VOY it seemed that, at least once per episode, "Some kind of..." was used to describe anything new.

[–] thebardingreen@lemmy.starlightkel.xyz 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

SNW's scientific accuracy and technobabble are so bad, it often pulls me right out of the story. I feel like Next Gen era at least tried a little bit. Yeah, it was awful, but it was watchable. I've gone back and watched some to verify it's not just in my head. It's not. Does SNW have science and technology consultants? If so, if the problem is them they should be fired, but I suspect the problem is the writers / directors not giving two fucks what the consultants have to say. Be better guys.

[–] SteleTrovilo@beehaw.org 1 points 3 months ago

The topic was asking for examples; got any?

[–] MrPhibb@reddthat.com 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Prolly Lower Decks, though I don't watch it, I'd be rather surprised if'n they don't have the worst technobabble when it'd be funny

[–] grue@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

That just means Lower Decks has the best treknobabble!

[–] Fades@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

Kind of the point…. LD makes fun of trek a lot

[–] Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

The scene where Picard needs a heart transplant around season 2 of TNG was pretty bad. You can't just make up words for a procedure we already have. My girlfriend still isn't over it.