Why Technobabble Makes Star Trek Suck

[Zer_]

This has been my biggest problem with Trek for, like, years now: watching people push buttons, and talk about all of the buttons they're pushing, is boring. The Abrams movie wasn't perfect, but at least it didn't have the characters blather for minutes at a time about how they're going to magically resolve the plot by recalibrating the polarity of the primary plasma isolinear trilithium bullshit-o-tron conduits.

Red matter.

Red Matter is even less plausible then most of the stuff you see in The Next Generation.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

What about it? It's this magical stuff that makes black holes, and the villain has some of it, and that is bad. Of course it's not realistic--no more realistic than, say, a magical torpedo that turns one kind of planet into another kind of planet--but as a plot device, it pretty much works. And, again, the characters don't deal with it by rejiggering the hyperphasic science emitters for the last fifteen minutes of the movie.

So it's OK when the science stuff is added at the last minute as long as they don't do anything boring like making it believable or explaining it?

 

[Necrofudge]

Incurring the wrath of the nerds is not wise. Then again, I doubt they would do anything other than whine.

Someone has never seen the geek hierarchy chart. Science Fiction writers are at the top. Star Trek fans are only slightly higher up than furries. A real nerd would be too ashamed to disagree.

I'm still wondering whether or not its insulting that you accused me of not being a nerd.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

I'm still wondering whether or not its insulting that you accused me of not being a nerd.

If you are wondering then you probably are a nerd and should show some nerd pride and be offended. I'm always hearing about how we actually rule the world or something so stand tall.

Anyway, I was just accusing you of being ignorant of the subtleties of the nerd social strata and tribal politics. Stross is the anti pope of the singularity while Star Trek is for the hoi polloi.

 

[General Vagueness]

So some degree yes, but my complaint is that the comm system works however they want it to work at that time. Its inconsistent, like a bad plot device it doesn't follow any rules. I am far more fond of the old "push a button to talk" approach, because that button becomes believable. And Galactica's method was best. Call someone, they pick up the phone, or not.

Having to pick up a phone is better? Are you serious? We're talking about actiony sci-fi here, what if someone breaks it, what if they can't get to it-- and for just pushing a button again what if they can't get to it? I don't know about you but I always figured a lot of work went into it so it would always work the way they wanted-- that's kind of the point of technology, isn't it?
Reliable, fast communication in sci-fi like Star Trek is, to paraphrase Ursula K. LeGuin, "a convenience, like toilet paper".

 

[Go Fighting In The War Room]

And that was why Firefly was so damn good... (but clearly not good enough for FOX)

I will say this to my dying day. Firefly was not a sci-fi show. It was a western that just happened to have a spaceship in it.

OT: Ugh the technobabble in Star Trek drove me nuts, hence why I didn't watch it for too long. The lack of excessive technobabble in SG-1 worked though, especially since they used theoretical laws of physics to formulate their technobabble.

Exactly. Star Trek drove me nuts, because of technobabble, and SG1 kept my intrest without it. There is no need for it.

And yes, I love Firefly. Stupid FOX cancelling the greatest shows ever... (Ahem... Arrested Development anyone?)

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I wouldn't watch it, in the way back then it was considered bad luck to have women on board and I shudder to think of Worf's scurvey laden growls.

 

[CyberAkuma]

They are far worse technobabbles than that of Star Trek...