Trills and teleportation

[Qonundrum]

So in watching TNG's "The Host", I had forgotten the Trill slug things can't survive transporting (teleporting), in a highly contrived-yet-glossed-over scene since the shuttle's about to disintegrate but they can land it without issue anyway so apart from padded exposition. what was accomplished apart from some cod drama...

But in DS9, as I recall, Dax was transporting around to places like Troi eating yummy fudge sundaes. Or is teleported somewhere by aliens and all is A-OK, the little parasitic critter within was still happy (and hungry for fudge!).

As a certain parody show proved one needn't have transporters to increase the sense of urgency, scale, and even threat ("The Orville"), why couldn't DS9 have kept the "avoid transporters" limitation for DS9's Trills?

In-universe, was there a cure of technological innovation applied?

(For production and script writing time crunch concerns, it's easy to see why they nixed it.)

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Because plot! It worked well for one episode, but poorly for a character that appeared regularly. Transporting is simply Star Trek's conceit that allows the story to move quickly from scene to scene. Once they decided on having a regular character be a Trill, it was something that would hinder storytelling, and it was rightly dispensed with. Not all ideas are good ideas, and I'm happy when they are trashed.

ETA: Curious side question: why did Quark's holodeck interpret Dax as a singular being? The transportation could have been handwaved away with compensators and changing delta-v, whatever, but the holodeck was not built to interpret what a compound being is.

 

[Gelnon]

The holodeck probably sees the symbiant as an organ rather than a seperate entity.

 

[Timo]

So in watching TNG's "The Host", I had forgotten the Trill slug things can't survive transporting (teleporting)

I guess that was a big fat lie all along. Trill slugs can beam just fine - they just want their hosts to say "No can do!" because if the hosts did march into transporters, the machines would inform the operator of the presence of a huge parasite within: "Delete intruding lifeform Y/N?".

Odan (who never deemed it worthwhile to give its hosts the use of a name) wanted to keep its dirty little secret more than it wanted to bail out of the failing shuttle - probably because it knew perfectly well that the shuttle wasn't a lost cause yet, as the events would soon prove. It's just too bad that it and/or its host then went into shock and ended up on Crusher's table where the secret was uncovered anyway.

in a highly contrived-yet-glossed-over scene since the shuttle's about to disintegrate but they can land it without issue anyway so apart from padded exposition.

I don't see the contriving. Starfleet thinks shuttles are expendable; nothing would be lost by bailing out in a transporter, even if the shuttle only suffered 78% loss of espresso-generating capacity. But Odan thinks the secret is paramount.

As a certain parody show proved one needn't have transporters to increase the sense of urgency, scale, and even threat ("The Orville"), why couldn't DS9 have kept the "avoid transporters" limitation for DS9's Trills?

Because we already had McCoy?

In-universe, was there a cure of technological innovation applied?

As said, I doubt any was ever needed.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Timo]

ETA: Curious side question: why did Quark's holodeck interpret Dax as a singular being? The transportation could have been handwaved away with compensators and changing delta-v, whatever, but the holodeck was not built to interpret what a compound being is.

You mean in "Our Man Bashir"?

For all we know, Jadzia without Dax played the part of Honey Bare, while Dax without Jadzia was playing the part of Dr. Noah's Disgusting Henchman #27 just around the corner.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Orphalesion]

I mean it's also perfectly possible that after the Trill let the Federation in on their secret (most likely very soon after the events with Odan) the problem with the transporter (if there indeed ever was one, see Timo's response above) was probably easily resolved very quickly by Starfleets many, skilled engineers.

 

[Timo]

This "secrecy" issue is an interestingly repeating one. Federation negotiators could be expected to provide not just their credentials but a long list of requirements whenever Picard ferries them. But he's never told that Riva is deaf; that Sarek is ill; or that Odan is a slug. Not even for the pertinent parts that would allow the diplomats to save face, with Picard none the wiser.

Major biological-medical secrets are the norm in the Federation anyway, which is probably to be expected when alien species meet, but takes some heavy duty enforcing after the first couple of decades. Yet if it works after twenty years, why stop after episodes like "Amok Time" or "The Host"? Any exposure there happened aboard a Starfleet ships, which could be sworn to silence or quietly blown up if need be.

So Kirk and McCoy learned a thing or two about Vulcan reproduction? Doesn't mean they told their bosses, or that the bosses told their other underlings. Ben Sisko may have been aware of something bugging his buddy Curzon, but if he ever told his boss, he may well have been told back to never speak of this again. Yet the practical problems emerging from the secrecy are sort of obvious, and could probably have been avoided with better cover stories.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[at Quark's]

In that TNG scene, they simply forgot to mention the interference of plot particles in subspace. Of a variety never seen since. Or something.

That said, having a character on DS9 that couldn't beam over could possibly have been interesting.