Was accurate science and technical advisers an important part of The Next Generation?

I think not only had science become important but the audience had become so much more sophisticated. They’d tape the show and make sure that we’re saying something that is at least reasonably accurate or appropriate. We always trusted that someone had done the research before they got to us.

I never met any technical advisers. I know that they exist. I know that the first draft of the scripts always had lines with parentheses around the word ‘tech’, and the next draft would have those tech lines filled in with something that became ‘Pillar-filler’, technobabble or gobbledegook.

I was thrilled that the technobabble usually went to the very talented lips of Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton or Patrick. I mostly asked the questions and they had to come up along with the answers.