Rick Berman wanted to get rid of technobabble as he thought it was overdone

Technobabble was the bane of almost every Star Trek actor's existence. Having to memorize dozens upon dozens of words that, in the real word, didn't make sense had to have caused a strain on even the toughest veterans of acting. Some actors, though, had to learn their lines so well, they still remember it after all of this time. [Robert Picardo has even shared some of his technobabble with his followers on Youtube.]

The actors weren't the only ones finding the talk challenging as even Rick Berman said, according to The Fifty-Year Mission The Next 25 Years from The Next Generation to J.J. Abrams by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, he would "fight tooth and nail with Gene [Roddenberry] and with others to get rid of technobabble." Not only did Berman think it was overdone, he thought it was overdone to a "comical degree."

But can you imagine Star Trek without all of the tech-speak? It wouldn't be the same if there weren't plenty of words that we couldn't understand. The scientists and engineers aboard the ships and space stations are supposed to be brilliant. The captains and officers have to know more about their world than we ever could, and that's exactly where that talk comes in.

The actors deliver those lines with such authority that they make them believable, and, for a little while, we can convince ourselves we're watching real space explorers who are making first contacts with new alien species and fighting off dark matter anomalies that inadvertently destroy unsuspecting planets.

Though Berman wanted to remove the technobabble, I'm glad that Roddenberry stood his ground on this. I may not understand one word of something Commander Stamets or Lt. Commander Data has said, but they way they have said it, sure makes it sound important. And that's just one of the reasons why Star Trek is so entertaining.