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?

6 points

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.

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37 points
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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.

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20 points

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

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6 points

@reddig33

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

@BananaTrifleViolin

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29 points

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

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2 points
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6 points

Is this example actually real or is it made up?

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4 points

The text is not really, but the situation is.

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-2 points
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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.

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2 points

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

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11 points

That just means Lower Decks has the best treknobabble!

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4 points

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

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3 points
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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.

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1 point

The topic was asking for examples; got any?

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24 points

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!

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8 points

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.

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5 points

Let’s not forget the “cold” fusion bomb that froze lava.

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6 points

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.

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