It seems odd to me that the writers wouldn't have at least a modicum of knowledge of the technology with which they were working. The writer's guide was pretty well fleshed out before the first episode even started filming, and it was quickly updated as Sternbach and Okuda decided on other details. It was published over twenty years ago and it is pretty cool if you're a fan:
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Next-Generation-Technical/dp/0671704273/One could excuse that a team of writers concerned chiefly with character development wouldn't need to get into detail with the technology, but as a sci-fi writer myself, I really don't understand how you could entirely divorce yourself from it and still be the best person for the job. I always imposed upon myself the requirement not just to understand my own technology, but to develop it as realistically as possible until I hit a conceptual wall and could go no further. And while I pride myself on my technobabble, rarely is it 100% baloney - I do try to research ideas and present something that sounds plausible.
My girlfriend and I have been watching TNG on Netflix lately, and obviously I'm noticing more blatantly stupid technobabble than when I was a kid. I also saw an entire scene of it last night. Geordi was searching to see if a specific material, or any of its constituent elements, were present on the ship. They devoted three or four minutes of airtime to him going back and forth with the computer down in engineering. By the end of the scene, all they'd done was go through a long list of made-up crap with no solution. Then, the next time we see Geordi, he explains what happened to Data in literally three seconds, obviating the need for the previous scene entirely. It is exactly the kind of needless crap that my writing group and I try to avoid. Anyway, I digress.
