Treknobabble

Treknobabble is a portmanteau of "Star Trek" and "technobabble" (itself a portmanteau of "technology" and "babble").

It is used humorously by fans of the various Star Trek television series, and disparagingly by its critics, to describe the infamous amount of pseudoscientific gibberish packed into many episodes. The term has escaped Star Trek fandom (and anti-fandom) and has become more commonly used in contexts where useless and incorrect "technical" explanations are given, typically in situations involving various pseudosciences or in science fiction writing. "Piller filler" is a synonym, a derivative of producer Michael Piller's name. A similar term is "wantum physics", a derivative of quantum physics, referring to science that basically accomplishes whatever the writer wants it to accomplish.

Some fans of the show feel that treknobabble devices and phenomena are increasingly used as "dei ex machinīs" in Star Trek, to the detriment of plot, drama and characterization. For example, an emotionally difficult problem such as whether or not to sacrifice the captain to save the ship is bypassed by a "focused tachyon field" which allows both to escape. Reportedly, writers on "" and later series would add the tag "" to portions of the script where they needed some jargon inserted, which would then be assembled by a different set of staff, though this theory is disputed. [http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2005/04/writing-jargon-preservation.html] This somewhat undermines the traditional role of science as the inspiration for plot in science fiction, although the show was always intended to be primarily drama in the space opera style rather than straightforward science fiction.

Last Unicorn Games' Star Trek pen-and-paper roleplaying game contains a small list designed to aid the players in the use of Treknobabble; rolling a pair of six-sided dice gives a number (from two to twelve) and by rolling once for each of three columns, a player will construct a three-word 'Treknobabble' phrase (such as 'neutrino displacement grid' or 'resonating polarizing regulator').

Another increasingly common use of this term has it applied to any in-depth discussion about Star Trek-related matters among fans.

Examples of treknobabble

There are two possible sources for treknobabble: use of the actual item in the show itself as well as use of the term outside of its place of origin. Both are provided below.

Examples from episodes

:"We've learned that if we uncouple the transporter's Heisenberg compensators and allow them to rescramble randomly, we can beam a holodeck object... or a person... off the grid.":* In the "TNG" episode "Ship in a Bottle", Captain Picard simulates technobabble to fool Professor Moriarty. (In the context of the plot for this episode, this statement isn’t necessarily intended to be taken seriously by the audience; a dedicated Star Trek fan would immediately recognize that the Heisenberg compensators do not, in fact, 'rescramble' as Picard suggests).

Sometimes there are references to totally unrelated scientific terms, e.g.:*In an episode "Canamar", a planet is called Keto-Enol, ostensibly after its two intelligent species, but is really a term in organic chemistry.

In this ironic example from the "" episode "Rascals", Commander Riker uses treknobabble to confuse one of the Ferengi who has commandeered the ship. Humorously, the treknobabble is supposed to be gibberish even within the Star Trek universe.:"Okay, Morta. The "Enterprise" computer system is controlled by three primary main processing cores cross linked with a redundant melacortz ramistat and fourteen kiloquad interface modules. The core elements are based on FTL nanoprocessor units arranged into twenty-five bilateral kelilactirals with twenty of those units being slaved to the central heisenfram terminal. . . . Now this is the isopalavial interface which controls the main firomactal drive unit. . . . The ramistat kiloquad capacity is a function of the square root of the intermix ratio times the sum of the plasma injector quotient. . . ."

Similarly, in the episode "", in which the Romulans steal the newly built and technologically advanced USS Prometheus, a short dialogue between Voyager's EMH Mark I (Robert Picardo) and the Prometheus's EMH Mark II (Andy Dick) during the episode's climax parodies Treknobabble itself:

EMH Mark II: "The secondary gyrodyne relays in the propulsion field matrix have just depolarized."

EMH Mark I :"In English!"

EMH Mark II: "I'm just reading what it says here!"

Examples from books

:"If we interplex the comm systems in both suits, we might be able to create a phased carrier wave. "Voyager" would read the signature and know it's from us." — "", "Day of Honor" by Michael Jan Friedman and Jeri Taylor.

Some may consider all or part of various reference works, like the "", as Treknobabble.

Examples from other sources

[http://totl.net/Dome/chapter6.php3 This web site] contains the following sentence when describing a presentation made by a telephone company, very clearly establishing use of the term in a situation which does not even peripherally involve Star Trek.

:"Treknobabble about the future of communication spews from concealed speakers [...] "

[http://fdcmuck.gushi.org/Backstage/Ariel/object.html This MUCK introduction page] , in giving an example of providing an object description says:

:"@desc sample thing=Upon looking at the Sample Thing you see that it is quite an intricate device. It consists of a subspace jargon emitter attached to a small phased matter rerouter, and you can count at least five Treknobabble modulation units around its perimeter."

This example uses the term "treknobabble" in the middle of a block of text also containing examples of "treknobabble" from the television series.

Many editions of the webcomic Bob and George have used both techno- and Treknobabble (as well as other Star Trek references; the creator, David Anez, is also a Star Trek fan).

In parody

*The folk singer and songwriter Voltaire often writes songs about Star Trek, as he is a fan of the show. One song, "The U.S.S. Make-Shit-Up", is dedicated to Treknobabble and its inanity.
*In the Futurama episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before", when the Planet Express crew is wondering how to stop Melllvar, Fry voices his knowledge of "TOS" as a solution:::Fry: Well, usually on the show, someone would come up with a complicated plan, then explain it with a simple analogy.::Leela: Hmm. If we can re-route engine power through the primary weapons and reconfigure them to Melllvar's frequency, that should overload his electro-quantum structure. ::Bender: Like putting too much air in a balloon!::Fry: Of course! It's so simple!:After apparently making the necessary adjustments, Bender remarks:::"I'm done reconfoobling the energymotron...or whatever...":After trying this and seeing it fails, the crew remarks:::Leela: It's not working! He's drawing strength from our weapons!::Fry: Like a balloon, and...something bad happens!

External links

* [http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/tv/deeper_trek_movies_000919.html The Deeper Side of Trek: Technobabble] — illustrates both uses of the term.
* [http://www.physicsguy.com/physandtrek/index.html Jay's Physics and Star Trek Page] — perhaps the platonic ideal of someone trying to rationalise treknobabble.
* [http://www.midwinter.com/~koreth/particles/ The Particles of Star Trek] — "So tiny, you can't tell it's a deus ex machina!" A humorous look at the negative aspects of treknobabble as a plot device.
* [http://www.ics.mq.edu.au/~msjj/ Random Technobabble Generator] — a treknobabble generator.
* [http://hyotynen.kapsi.fi/trekfailure/ The Star Trek Failure Generator] — another treknobabble generator.