How Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Christina Chong keeps the technobabble straight
Technobabble. It's the bane of every Star Trek actor's existence, especially if their character is in the science department. Still, even those characters who aren't a part of that division can have their fair share of difficult scientific language specific to Star Trek to memorize. On Star Trek: Voyager, Garrett Wong used a workaround by writing his lines on black tape over the Voyager bridge console. Then Tim Russ and Robert Beltran created their own formulas for keeping their lines straight.
So it shouldn't come as any surprise that the tried and true methods are still being used in today's Star Trek. Christina Chong, who plays Lt. Noonien Singh on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds admitted at Creation's Trek to Chicago Convention that she cuts her lines up really small and puts them on the bridge. [via Screenrant].
" I put my lines on the bridge. I cut them up really small. ... There's just some lines that are hard to remember, the science schmience.... When you've got only one or 2 lines through a 5 page scene, you've gotta stay focused, and make sure you come in on time. I have been known to not come in on time a few times. I've put the lines there for when I'm off in my mind. It's not for me, it's for them.""
- Christina Chong
There is one actor from Star Trek: Voyager who seems to have memorized almost every ounce of technical jargon from his time aboard the starship, and that's Robert Picardo. He played the Emergency Medical Hologram for seven seasons, and as the doctor, had quite a bit of technical speak. Now, twenty-two years beyond the ending of the series, Picardo creates videos on his Youtube channel where he repeats technobabble he had to say onscreen. And he delivers the lines perfectly with no notes. Now, he probably studies the lines again before saying them for his followers, but it's still quite impressive to see him do so without the use of any props or aids.
Chong probably isn't the only Star Trek actor who's keeping track of lines the old-fashioned way. And hey, as long as the viewers can't tell, what difference does it make? It's still great entertainment!