10 Star Trek Quotes That Made Us Trekkies
8. Techno-Trekno-Babble
The word's got 'babble' in it so, unless we're talking about a brook, we're already off to a bad start. This is also not one quote, but an entire quote concept. Now I'm babbling! I think there's been a phase shift in my bilateral kelilactirals. I'll try rerouting the primary heisenfram terminals!
'Technobabble,' also known as 'Treknobabble' and 'technospeak,' really is one of those 'hate to love, love to hate' type phenomena; writers and actors over the years have certainly had a few non-technical words to say about it. And yet, there's something so quintessentially Star Trek to a string of vaguely scientific words, all, on the surface at least, a glorious nonsense that can be used to jive and jargon your way out of anything. There are those actors who also get into the fun of it — Robert Picardo, for example, does his delightfully silly series "Technobabble Al Fresco" on social media.
Don't pretend you haven't either. We've all tried to memorise some of those seemingly interminable lines, from the "secondary gyrodyne relays and the propulsion field intermatrix" to the "there's a thermal inversion in the power coupling." "Quick, cross-connect to the transfer coil." Having this unique, distinct, and intricate shared vocabulary is ultimately part and parcel of what makes and unites us as Trekkies. To an outsider, it all may sound like impenetrable gibberish, but to us it's the codified lexicon with which we communicate about our favourite show.