Star Trek Treknobabble, explained

Key points

• Star Trek maintained scientific accuracy by hiring consultants to review scripts and add technical terms.
• The jargon added to the scripts made the show more realistic for viewers, even if they didn't understand all of it.
• Fans and writers alike accepted the slang as proof of the show's credibility and created the term “Treknobabble”.

When The one from Star Trek the creator, 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 making a show about exploring the galaxy aboard a giant spaceship years before the first men walked on the moon. Roddenberry obviously knew he was going to create a fantasy world. But he wanted to The one from Star Trek fantasy to be as realistic and based on real science as possible.

AS American scientist Roddenberry reportedly achieved this by hiring real scientists to help him make his fantasy believable. A physicist named Harvey P. Lynn, Jr. was one of the first scientific advisors for Star Trek. He reviewed scripts for the TOS pilot, “The Cage,” and worked with the writers to make them more accurate. Once the series was finally chosen, the producers hired scientists Joan Pearce and Peter Sloman from De Forest Research to review all the scripts.

The language of scientific accuracy

Whenever Pearce or Sloman found something inconsistent with scientific facts, they worked with the writers to make changes that made sense for the story and maintained accuracy. This often meant adding very technical language to the scripts and, soon, Star Trek he became famous for his technical jargon.

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

However, dedication to scientific accuracy had its drawbacks. Fans who were scientists, academics and researchers themselves began writing letters to the Star Trek personnel who ask for clarification on some facts contained in an episode and report inconsistencies and errors. Despite their annoyance, writers and consultants began to accept these letters as proof that their show was credible enough to make people want to be picky about the details, rather than condemn the entire premise as a 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 as TOS. Just as they had done before, the producers hired consultants to help the writers with technical matters. However, the writers had a lot of trouble walking the line between good science and good-sounding science that worked for their stories.

Naren Shankar, one of the scientific consultants for the last few seasons of TNG told to the authors The fifty-year mission: the next 25 yearsthat his work:

…it wasn't about science, it was about maintaining the false science of
Star Trek
world.

He went on to say that the previous scientific advisor was adamant about scientific accuracy, and Shankar got the impression that the writers were bothered by this. So, Shankar did the job he was asked to do: fill the script with jargon that sounded good and wasn't so imprecise that it abandoned any scientific merit.

In fact, filling in the blanks in the script was literally how scientific jargon found its way into every episode. When the writers worked on a new episode, they wrote “[TECH]” wherever they needed semi-believable technical language. From there, science consultants filled in the blanks. Actors often received scripts before the jargon was added and rehearsed scenes by saying “technology” whenever it appeared in their lines On a semi-regular basis, Trek actors had to memorize complicated lines of jargon on the day that scenes would be filmed, even though the show's science consultants did their best to stick to the jargon and concepts that were at least plausible, they eventually created an entire language of Star Trek-specific jargon that has persisted throughout the entire franchise.

Although the term “technobabble” has not entered the collective consciousness due to Star Trekthe franchise has become famous (or perhaps infamous) for its use of technobabble: scientific or technical-sounding dialogue that actually means nothing in the real world. According to the Oxford English Dictionarythe term was coined by Wall Street Journal in 1981, long before the premiere of TNG. But the term has become so associated Star Trek to which fans of the show, and later the general public, began using the word “Treknobabble” to refer to Star Trek-specific technobabble.

The Internet phenomenon of Treknobabble

As the Internet grew in popularity, the same nerds and geeks who had loved it Star Trek since they were children they began to bring their love Star Trek to the Internet. In Star Trek-specific message board systems and subsequent forums, Trekkies discussed, analyzed, complained, and made fun of Treknobabble.

Fast forward three decades and now the internet is full of Treknobabble generators, Treknobabble memes, and even Treknobabble raps. As Star TrekTreknobabble is now part of the mainstream.

Sources: American scientist, The fifty-year mission: the next 25 years, Oxford English Dictionary