Battlestar Galactica co-creator Ron Moore who also wrote some of the best TNG and DS9 episodes, was recently interviewed at the New York Television Festival.  In hilarious fashion, he riffed on Treknobabble.

Harlan Ellison called it Balonium and it existed even back in the TOS days, but TNG took it to new heights.  What Moore, and Ellison before him, described is lazy writing.  I think it’s what killed the earlier franchise.

Once you start taking shortcuts to plot resolution that essentially mean nothing, all the conflict is meaningless.  I’m hoping JJ Abrams has paid attention.