Star Trek's Treknobobble, Explained

Key takeaways

• Star Trek maintained scientific accuracy by hiring consultants to review scripts and add technical vocabulary.
• The jargon added to the scripts made the show more realistic even without the audience understanding everything.
• Fans and writers alike accepted the jargon as evidence of the show's believability and coined the term “Treknobabble”.

when Star Trek The producer, Gene Roddenberry, was working Star Trek: The Original SeriesHe was very aware of the fine line that science fiction walks between fantasy and reality. He was doing a show about exploring the galaxy in a giant spaceship years before the first man walked on the moon. Obviously, Roddenberry knew he would be creating a fantasy world. But he wanted to Star Trek Fantasy should be as realistic and science based as possible.

Like Scientific American Reportedly, Roddenberry achieved that goal by recruiting real scientists to help make his fiction believable. Harvey P. A physicist named Lynn, Jr. was the first scientific advisor. Star Trek. He reviewed the script TOS pilot, “The Cage,” and worked with the writers to make them more accurate. Once the series was finally picked up, the producers hired De Forest Research scientists John Pearce and Peter Sloman to review all the scripts.

The language of scientific accuracy

Whenever Pierce or Sloman found something inconsistent with scientific fact, they worked with the writers to make changes that made sense for the story and maintained accuracy. This often meant adding a lot of technical language to the scripts, and soon, Star Trek became notorious for its technical jargon.

The sheer amount of jargon in the TOS At times it became difficult for the average viewer to follow. However, because it was science fiction, the jargon actually made the show more realistic to the audience. They admitted that they couldn't understand all the talk of “light years” and “parsecs” and “nacelles” because they weren't scientists, so the jargon had the effect of convincing the audience that the characters knew what they were talking about.

However, the dedication to scientific accuracy had its downsides. Fans who were scientists, academics and explorers started writing letters to themselves Star Trek The staff asked for clarification and pointed out inconsistencies and errors in some of the facts contained in the episode. Despite their anger, writers and consultants began to accept these letters as evidence that their program was believable enough that people wanted to nitpick about the details, rather than condemning the entire premise as wild fantasy.

The birth of Treknobabble

When Roddenberry and his creative team began development Star Trek: The Next GenerationThey were still committed to maintaining the same level of scientific accuracy TOS. As they had done before, the producers hired consultants to help the writers with the technical stuff. However, writers had a lot of trouble walking the line between good science and good sound science that worked for their stories.

Naren Shankar, one of the science advisors for the last season TNG told the authors of Fifty Years of Mission: The Next 25 YearsHis work:

…wasn't about science, it was about perpetuating pseudoscience
Star Trek
the world

He said the previous science advisor was adamant about scientific accuracy, and Shankar felt the authors were angry. So, Shankar did what he asked them to do: fill the script with some vocabulary that sounded good and wasn't so wrong that it lost all scientific merit.

In fact, filling in the blanks in the script is literally how scientific vocabulary came into every episode. When the writers worked on a new episode, they would write “[TECH]”Somewhere they needed some semi-believable technical language. From there, science consultants filled in the blanks. Actors often received scripts before jargon was added, and practiced scenes by saying “takes” when their lines appeared. On a semiregular basis, Trek actors shot scenes. Even though the show's science advisors did their best to stick to at least plausible jargon and concepts, they eventually created an entire language. Star Trek-Distinctive jargon that has remained throughout the franchise.

However, the term “technobubble” did not enter the collective consciousness Star TrekThe franchise became famous (or perhaps infamous) for its use of technobabble – scientific or technical sounding dialogue that makes no sense in the real world. According to Oxford English Dictionarywas created by the word The Wall Street Journal In 1981, long before the premiere of TNG. But the word is so connected Star Trek Fans of that show, and later the general public, began using the term “Treknobabble” to refer to it. star trek-Typical technobabble.

The internet phenomenon of Treknobabble

As the Internet grew in popularity, so did nerds and geeks Star Trek Ever since they were children they started bringing their love Star Trek on the internet. in star trek-With specific bulletin board systems and subsequent forums, Trekkies discussed, analyzed, complained, and enjoyed TrekNoBabble.

Fast-forward three decades, and now the Internet is full of Treknobabble generators, Treknobabble memes, and Treknobabble rap. like Star TrekTreknobabble is now part of the mainstream.

Sources: Scientific American, Fifty Years of Mission: The Next 25 Years, Oxford English Dictionary