"What we got back, didn't live long.....Fortunately."

[MacLeod]

It appears as if the rematerlisation sub-routine had started, perhaps if it hadn't they might have been able to sent the signal back to the sending pad. And perhaps the system which controlled the ability to interrupt the rematerlisation subroutine was one of the systems that failed.

[Timo]

It might be pointed out here that a transporter malfunction scene almost always involves "partial materialization", so that the audience can see the victim for a brief while and agonize whether the process can be taken to its happy conclusion or not. ST:TMP just follows that pattern...

Timo Saloniemi

[SicOne]

Timo wrote:

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...But the writers took great care to establish that Scotty's survival method had little to do with normal transporting. The diagnostics mode apparently doesn't involve the usual interaction between the constituent particles of the transportee, but puts them to a stasis of some sort. So Scotty isn't awake, doesn't suffocate and doesn't starve.

Timo Saloniemi

Ahhhhhh. Technobabble to the rescue, again!

[Wingsley]

I'm still trying to figure out why transporter systems on-board Federation starships keep relying on components found in the engine room. Never made much sense to me.

[Crazy Eddie]

Because the engine room is full of doohickeys and thingamabobs and if I had to build a transporter, that's what I would make it out of. Yep, lots and lots of doohickeys and thingamabobs.

[T'Girl]

SicOne wrote:

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Wouldn't, then, have Scotty and the hapless redshirt in "Relics" also have been aware of the passage of time ...

Given Barkley's experiences, yes Scotty would have been aware of something, some passage of time. Now whether he was fully aware of 75 years of sharp personal perceptions, or instead a vague surreal existence in the recycling matter stream, is debatable.

Scotty was obviously confused for a half minute after materializing, one possibility is Scotty hallucinated in the matter stream limbo.

There is also the consideration that Scotty had a visible head injury, the laceration on his left forehead. This by itself could have been the cause of his confusion.

[Timo]

I'm still trying to figure out why transporter systems on-board Federation starships keep relying on components found in the engine room. Never made much sense to me.

I think blssdwlf in another current thread made an excellent suggestion regarding this. Transporting always involves massive violation of conservation of momentum (a huge linear and angular momentum difference between a guy standing on a planet and a guy standing in the transporter room of an orbiting or hovering starship). Perhaps the system dumps the momentum into the engines, or draws it from there?

Of course, that would suggest that the engines are directly related to the engineering room. Which doesn't really sound plausible. The engineering room would otherwise seem to be involved only in providing power for the engines, not in actually directly propelling the ship.

But dumping of momentum would in any case be achieved through the usual magic of artificial gravity and inertial damping. The machines responsible for this might well be located right next to the main powerplant, in the High Energy Magic department, so that Lt. Stibbons could directly supervise.

Scotty would have been aware of something, some passage of time

But that would mean that his "survival" method would not have allowed him to survive. After all, his only hope was to stop time from passing.

If Scotty is aware, then he also metabolizes, and will starve within a week. Which of course won't matter much because he's already dead of thirst. Which probably didn't hurt as he had already suffocated at that point.

Timo Saloniemi