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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/7866
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/7866
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

There is indeed such a term.

Phil Farrand of _The Nitpicker's Guide to Star Trek_ called this "being the **cabbagehead**." Certain information had to be revealed to the audience, but it was information which the characters would reasonably already know.

So the writers picked someone in the room to be the "cabbagehead," meaning someone developed the I.Q. of a cabbage and everything had to be explained to him or her as though s/he had never gone through Starfleet training and years of spaceflight experience. (Counselor Troi got this role a lot on TNG.)

The cabbagehead doesn't have to be someone who abruptly turns stupid, however. (TV Tropes calls this [holding the Idiot Ball.](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IdiotBall)) This role can be more realistically played by a person who is on the job for the first day, someone "new in town," someone from another planet, a child, someone who didn't have sufficient clearance, someone out of the information loop, or a new in-law. These are not doctors who have forgotten med school, but people who could _not_ be expected to know certain information, so the other characters must explain it to them (and thereby the audience).

Original score: 17