Subject: I, too, am bad at technobabble
Author:
Posted on: 2015-06-24 04:40:00 UTC
I just have a hard time coming up with the basics of it, I guess? I don't know where to start.
You're probably aware of this already, but there's always Memory Alpha if you need to look up the definition of a term or find references to it. For example, here's their page on tetryon particles.
I've been trying to write a series of short fics that take place in Star Trek. My issue is with the technobabble. Some pieces of it are used consistently enough that it'd be canon defilement to get it wrong. And I'm not just talking about things like the Warp Core. Stuff like that is obvious.
And now, on to the problem, which is to say, I can't remember the stuff like: Tetryon particles! These things are used all the time, but not regularly enough that I can remember them very well. And I don't want to re-watch the whole franchise just to get one piece of technobabble right.
My knowledge of engineering is also getting in the way, as I'm finding myself using real and theoretical tech in these fics, because I just cannot come up with technobabble! It doesn't just sound like gibberish to me, because I know the Terminology, so it sounds wrong instead. Nucleogenic particles do not cause rain. The closest thing I've heard of to Theta Radiation is Cherenkov Radiation, which is not a byproduct of antimatter/matter reactions. Explosions are, though. Star Trek was correct there, at least some of the time.
I don't dislike technobabble, I dislike using it, for the above reasons. I would just skip the technobabble, and design the starship as I went, but the most advanced spacecraft I could come up with is just a Space Shuttle, which Starfleet doesn't use.
Does anyone else have these issues, or a way to fix them? Even something like a technobabble generator would work, as long as the fans don't rip me limb from limb for using "Quantum" when I should have used "Ionic" or something else. If the fans aren't as rabid as I remember, I might be fine, I just want to avoid accidentally making badfic due to misused terminology.
It's not compulsory. No, really. You can store it via a weak measurement thing that allows you to monitor it safely without causing it to annihilate matter. How do I know this? Because World One scientists at the University of Toronto managed it a few years back and I wouldn't hesitate to say that Trek's future science has improved the technology drastically. =]
The only Trek episode I deem unworthy of even being capitalized. I know it is possible to store antimatter and study it, but in threshold, they used antimatter injections to (spoiler alert) cure Tom Paris's and captain Janeway's sever case of amphibiosis. That's my nickname for what happens to you when you go beyond warp ten. It also has the dubious honour of being the only Trek episode not considered canon. Coincidence? You decide!
Antimatter, it has been postulated by certain theoretical physicists, is basically time-reversed matter. Maybe that's what they were thinking of when they prescribed a few molecules of boom juice. =]
Read about it here! Though I must point out that it was an effort led by CERN and Canadian scientists from TRIUMF (Tri-University Meson Facility), not U of T specifically.
I just have a hard time coming up with the basics of it, I guess? I don't know where to start.
You're probably aware of this already, but there's always Memory Alpha if you need to look up the definition of a term or find references to it. For example, here's their page on tetryon particles.
Memory Alpha is probably going to be your best bet, or if you do not want to re-watch the entire series, you could maybe do a film or two. Less time, still get a large portion. the TNG films have a good deal of that kind of stuff and how it works from what I recall. If I recall, First Contact might be a good place to start. I think they cover most of the common technobable.
Though I might be wrong, and am just recommending it to be watch. It is probably my favorite Trek Film.