XPost: alt.startrek, rec.arts.startrek.current   
   From: elvisgump.NO@SPAM.fastmail.us   
      
   in article oVZPe.2486$9i4.146@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net,   
   RageForTheMachine at rageforthemachine@earthlink.net wrote on 8/27/05 8:29   
   AM:   
      
   >   
   >  wrote in message   
   > news:1125079457.409637.113840@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...   
   >> I was just wondering what everyone's pick is for the worst use of   
   >> technobabble (as a cop-out, as a WTF? moment, as a confusing mix of   
   >> nonsensical statements, etc.) in any Star Trek series or movie.   
   >>   
   >> Please quote it exactly. That means checking a tape or DVD.   
   >>   
   >> As for my pick, I don't know if it's the worst, but I find it rather   
   >> funny for some reason, and I even inadvertantly memorized it.   
   >>   
   >> It's in the teaser of TNG's "Relics", when Riker and LaForge are   
   >> looking around the ship:   
   >>   
   >> LaForge: "Commander,...the transporter is still online. It's being fed   
   >> power from the auxilliary systems."   
   >>   
   >> Riker: "The rematerialization subroutine has been disabled."   
   >>   
   >> LaForge: "Yeah, and that's not all. The phase inducers are connected to   
   >> the emitter array, the override is completely gone, and...pattern   
   >> buffer's been locked into a continuous diagnostic cycle."   
   >>   
   >> Riker: "This doesn't make any sense. Locking the unit into a diagnostic   
   >> mode just sends the matter array through the pattern buffer. [Note: For   
   >> whatever reason, my friend, Mike, chuckled and exclaimed "Yes!" when I   
   >> quoted this line to him; it must be his favorite thing that he didn't   
   >> understand. :P] Why would anyone - "   
   >>   
   >> LaForge: "There's a pattern in the buffer still."   
   >>   
   >> Riker: "It's completely intact. There's less than .003% signal   
   >> degradation. How is that possible?"   
   >>   
   >> Any others?   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> Mark   
   >>   
   >   
   >   Well as far as using technobabble as a Deus Ex Machina none of the other   
   > series could hold a candle to Voyager. The episode that immediately pops   
   > into mind is the one where they encountered the swarm of ships. They spend   
   > the whole episode building up this dark, mysterious region of space where no   
   > ship ever comes out of, have them face this armada of ships, and them bam,   
   > technobabble rears its head and Voyager wins the day. Tad anti-climatic.   
   > Less technobabble, but more how they used lazy technology solutions to   
   > overcome problems is that they twice used the tactit of beaming a photon   
   > torpedo on to a Borg ship and detonating it. So much for the Borg analyzing   
   > and adapting.   
      
   So many times it clearly revealed how little the writers cared about the   
   science in the their fiction which was sad. But then not much on tv or film   
   gets past reversing the polarity of the neutron flow...   
      
   >   I think a funny take off on technobabble was when Riker was "explaining"   
   > the ship's operation to the Ferengi sabateur.   
      
   I forget the "specs" that Riker lists, but I have this funny feeling that   
   we'll probably see a lot of those specs on some sub $500 dollar computer   
   over at Walmart in the next 20 years...   
      
   What will we do with terabyte thumb drives is what I want to know?   
   --   
   "Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow."   
    -- Dr. Who   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)