History Technobabble / LiveActionTV

-->'''Jo:''' That ring around the blood spot is called "skeletonization."\\

*** Humorously Lampshaded and subverted in the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E14Clues Clues]]", where Data, [[BewareTheHonestOnes trying to lie through his teeth for the safety of the ship]], tries to use technobabble to explain away why some moss growth proved [[YearInsideHourOutside the crew was out for far longer than the couple of seconds he claims they were]]. After he left, Picard asked Geordi if he believed the explanation; turns out, he didn't, and was even shocked that Data would try to bluff them like that.

* Quoth Castle, in an episode of, well, ''Series/{{Castle}}'', "Tory found some unscrambled artifacts in the registry to a service-set identifier. ''[{{beat}}]'' I don't know what that means either, but she got really excited about it." Amusingly, it actually ''almost'' makes sense if you think about it.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E6DemonsOfThePunjab "Demons of the Punjab"]] has the Doctor {{lampshade}} the convoluted explanation she gives for how the TARDIS can track the old, broken watch Yaz got from her grandmother along its timeline by forewarning the companions that the explanation ''will'' be complicated.

* I''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': The technobabble started with this show and hasn't stopped since, with later installments in the franchise [[{{Flanderization}} making it progressively more and more common,]] as well as [[DenserAndWackier more absurd.]] Eventually, the various bits of jargon became standardized to the point of being [[StockPhrase repetitious,]] with such things as "Running a Level 3 Diagnostic", and "Realign the Phase Inverters" becoming stock phrases for the introduction of almost any new plot device. [[ReversePolarity Reversing the Polarity]]" was little more than an excuse for [[DeusExMachina arbitrarily fixing any device.]]

** Creator/StevenMoffat expressly hated technobabble, on the basis that only the kind of fan who has memorized the entire Star Trek Technical Manual would enjoy watching it. This is why there's a clear line between the original series and the revival one when it comes to the use of this trope; the Ninth Doctor onward will prefer BuffySpeak, a LampshadeHanging like in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E4TheGirlInTheFireplace "The Girl in the Fireplace"]], or even a reminder that the ancient Time Lord who's saved the universe a few dozen times knows what he's talking about, doesn't have time to try to explain to it all to {{Muggle}}s who want to stand around demanding explanations, and if you want to survive you should ''really'' let "don't blink" or "when I say run, run" be the end of it. Under Steven Moffat in particular, the Doctor is portrayed as having a brain that outruns his mouth so he'll have a sentence or two of ItRunsOnNonsensoleum where he's talking more to himself than anyone around him, and then tell you what needs to happen (just ''why'' that needs to happen may not follow) and quickly lose patience with anyone who is still standing around demanding detailed explanations when he's just told you what you need to do in the next ten seconds if you don't want to get exterminated/deleted/eaten/etc.

* In [[Recap/TheOrvilleS2E13TomorrowAndTomorrowAndTomorrow "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow"]] from ''Series/TheOrville'', the explanation for Past Kelly appearing on the ''Orville'', that when the ship encountered a gravitational wave it amplified the field in an experiment that John and Isaac were working on, and brought her back because Present Kelly was passing by and happened to be thinking about her and Ed's first date. Though, as [[https://www.space.com/the-orville-season-2-episode-13.html one reviewer]] noted, it's kept to a minimum as opposed to "modifying the dilithium incubator to trigger an ongoing cascade of energy within the crystal by combining it with dark energy, which will replicate the power of a supernova."

* In ''Franchise/StarTrek'', the technobabble started with ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' and hasn't stopped since, with later installments in the franchise [[{{Flanderization}} making it progressively more and more common,]] as well as [[DenserAndWackier more absurd.]] Eventually, the various bits of jargon became standardized to the point of being [[StockPhrase repetitious,]] with such things as "Running a Level 3 Diagnostic", and "Realign the Phase Inverters" becoming stock phrases for the introduction of almost any new plot device. [[ReversePolarity Reversing the Polarity]]" was little more than an excuse for [[DeusExMachina arbitrarily fixing any device.]]
** ''TNG'' also loved to use the "inverse tachyon pulse" routed through the "main deflector dish" which managed to do completely contradictory things like work as a sensor and be an unstoppable death ray [[note]]The deflector dish is actually the housing for a particle beam that is used to push free-floating microparticles out of the Enterprise's flight path when at warp speeds. It is capable of channelling energy far more powerful that the ships' phasers in order to do this. Since the deflector beam can't penetrate the Enterprise's own navigational shields (navigational shields are not DeflectorShields, they stay up all the time and are designed to protect the ship from free-floating microparticles at sbulight speeds, and augment the structural integrity field at warp) for some reason, the shields are configured to have a "window" right in front of the deflector dish to let the beam out, which makes it the perfect place to put sensor arrays so the data they pick up won't be scrambled by the navigational shields.[[/note]]
** Humorously Lampshaded and subverted in the ''TNG'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E14Clues Clues]]", where Data, [[BewareTheHonestOnes trying to lie through his teeth for the safety of the ship]], tries to use technobabble to explain away why some moss growth proved [[YearInsideHourOutside the crew was out for far longer than the couple of seconds he claims they were]]. After he left, Picard asked Geordi if he believed the explanation; turns out, he didn't, and was even shocked that Data would try to bluff them like that.
** Lampshaded in the ''TNG'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E7Rascals Rascals]]", when Riker makes up a bunch of technobabble to confuse a Ferengi engineer trying to take control of the ships, in a way that's pretty indistinguishable from the show's standard technobabble.
** {{Lampshaded}} in the following exchange from the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E13BattleLines Battle Lines]]":

** Another ''Deep Space Nine'' episode, "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E07QLess Q-Less]]", plays it more blatantly. As they're busily attempting to solve the cause of repeating (and intensifying) power drains and graviton bursts, [[AGodAmI Q]] is harassing the crew, and pops in with the statement, "Picard and his lackeys would've solved all this technobabble hours ago!"
** Parodied on ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E13MessageInABottle Message in a Bottle]]".

** Inverted in a later episode, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E10Blink "Blink"]], of the famed TimeyWimeyBall line, also by Creator/StevenMoffatt. The Doctor names a machine he builds "the timey-wimey detector" and describes its operation as "goes 'ding' when there's stuff."

** {{Lampshaded}} in the following exchange from the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E12BattleLines Battle Lines]]":

** Another ''Deep Space Nine'' episode, "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E06QLess Q-Less]]", plays it more blatantly. As they're busily attempting to solve the cause of repeating (and intensifying) power drains and graviton bursts, [[AGodAmI Q]] is harassing the crew, and pops in with the statement, "Picard and his lackeys would've solved all this technobabble hours ago!"

** Episode "Stasis Leak": The Cat asks "What is it?" when confronted with a doorway into the past. Rimmer and Lister both blurt out technobabble of varying thicknesses before The Cat simply replies, "Oh! A Magic Door! Why didn't you say so?"
** From ''Tikka To Ride'':

* In the Franchise/StarTrek franchise, the technobabble started with ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' and hasn't stopped since, with later installments in the franchise [[{{Flanderization}} making it progressively more and more common,]] as well as [[DenserAndWackier more absurd.]] Eventually, the various bits of jargon became standardized to the point of being [[StockPhrase repetitious,]] with such things as "Running a Level 3 Diagnostic", and "Realign the Phase Inverters" becoming stock phrases for the introduction of almost any new plot device. [[ReversePolarity Reversing the Polarity]]" was little more than an excuse for [[DeusExMachina arbitrarily fixing any device.]]

** Humorously Lampshaded and subverted in the ''TNG'' episode "Clues", where Data, [[BewareTheHonestOnes trying to lie through his teeth for the safety of the ship]], tries to use technobabble to explain away why some moss growth proved [[YearInsideHourOutside the crew was out for far longer than the couple of seconds he claims they were]]. After he left, Picard asked Geordi if he believed the explanation; turns out, he didn't, and was even shocked that Data would try to bluff them like that.
** Lampshaded in the ''TNG'' episode "Rascals", when Riker makes up a bunch of technobabble to confuse a Ferengi engineer trying to take control of the ships, in a way that's pretty indistinguishable from the show's standard technobabble.
** {{Lampshaded}} in the following exchange from the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "Battle Lines":

** Another ''Deep Space Nine'' episode, "Q-Less", plays it more blatantly. As they're busily attempting to solve the cause of repeating (and intensifying) power drains and graviton bursts, [[AGodAmI Q]] is harassing the crew, and pops in with the statement, "Picard and his lackeys would've solved all this technobabble hours ago!"
** Parodied on ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' "Message in a Bottle".

** For all its overuse of technobabble generally, ''Voyager'' did manage to have fun with this at times. From the season 3 finale:

** In the ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' two-parter "Shockwave", [[TheCaptain Captain Archer]] comes back from a time-trip with instructions on how to build a quantum beacon that can [[SeeTheInvisible see through]] a Suliban InvisibilityCloak. Trip -- TheEngineer, mind you, who helped design the engine that powers ''Enterprise'' -- is visibly struggling to keep up with Archer.

** In the first episode, Jack explains how the PerceptionFilter causes them and the elevator to be unnoticed by passersby.