Matters of Honor (re B5 s

 Posted on 11/10/1995 by jmsatb5@aol.com to rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated


I don't consider the "bonehead maneuver" to be technobabble, for
several reasons. For starters, the "babble" part isn't there; TB goes
on into long explanations of neutrino waves and particle theory and
elements that have to be recalibrated, on and on and on....


Second, a prime requisite for TB is that it's a technology that
comes out of nowhere, artifically invented to create a problem and/or
create a solution. Neither applies here; we've seen jump gates and
jump points now for three years; we've seen them disrupted in "The
Long Twilight Struggle." It was just using the tech we've already
established.


In a way, it's kind of unfair that we get hammered when we use a
little teeny piece of technology because ST has abused it for so man
years. That's not our fault, and one shouldn't develop a kneejerk
response so that ANY reference to technology becomes technobabble. If
that's the case, then the term becomes meaningless.


This is, also, a *science* fiction show; if sometimes we have a
touch of science, it's the nature of the show; you can't have SF
without at least some measure of tech...otherwise you've got fantasy.
The day we do a page and a half of discussions about particles being
recalibrated, particles that didn't exist twenty minutes before the
need became apparent, *then* we can get gigged on technobabble.


jms