I think the reason modern vernacular sounds really off in the new Star Trek shows is because the old writers treated Star Trek as a period piece and purposefully scrubbed the language of as many time-period identifiers as they could.
Small things slip in occasionally, and it’s usually limited to certain characters. Geordi speaks more casually than Picard, Picard speaks more casually than Worf, etc. But Star Trek has always had, as Patrick Stewart puts it, “elevated language” to enhance the sense that we are watching something in a time set apart from our own. I'm not just postulating here, multiple writers talk about this in behind the scenes content.
Language usage is vital for world building. This is a writing 101 rule.
Imagine if Mr. Darcy told Elizabeth Bennett that he thought she was “super hot”. Or if he even said “that’s cool”. It would sound ridiculous, right?
With futuristic periods, some writers like to create slang. This has mixed results and is usually distracting. So, the OG Trek teams did the other option which is to keep language formal. Scrub it. Slang changes by the year, formal language changes by the century. This also adds to the disciplined setting of Starfleet.
I know the new writing teams think the mid 2020’s style speech is “more relatable” but it’s actually a pretty big technical blunder on the world-building front. It will also result in the shows aging poorly because now they’ve been branded with period-specific language that will inevitably go out of use. Which is something the older shows have largely avoided.
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