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What technology is used too little in Star Trek?

BohandiAnsoid

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Motre than once, people in Star Trek used some technology in one episode and then forgotten it. Or a function of a technology. Phasers firing wide beams would be, for example, very useful in the Domionion War, if only to sweep for shorunded Jem'Hadar. Or what abond these transpoders KLirk and Spock used once, and they were nver used again? And other thing like that. What technology do you think was used too little in Star trek?
 
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Transporters. Transwarp beaming. In the 32nd century, they should have been tapping their badges and moving between worlds. Anti ageing with transporters. Curing all ills with transporters. Beaming through time, beaming to other universes, raising an army of duplicates. Resetting a save state if you die.

Producers want to keep it recognizably Star Trek, when it should be humanity becoming the proto-Q. That's the show I want to see.
 
Transporters. Transwarp beaming. In the 32nd century, they should have been tapping their badges and moving between worlds. Anti ageing with transporters. Curing all ills with transporters. Beaming through time, beaming to other universes, raising an army of duplicates. Resetting a save state if you die.

Medical use of transporters yes. Transwarp beaming might be hit by the same issues faced by the 32nd Century Federation following the Burn?

Beaming through time? Time travel was banned by then. Through we saw the earlier Timefleet could do just that, as well as integrating alternate versions of the same individual.

If the Federation doesn't like cloning, I'm sure transporter dupes (where not explicitly resulting from accidents) aren't allowed.

Ultimately, the reason we don't see the more "out there" uses of a lot of Federation tech is that the Federation is a lot better at keeping Jeff Goldblum happy and concerning themselves with whether they should rather than whether they can.
 
Transporters. Transwarp beaming. In the 32nd century, they should have been tapping their badges and moving between worlds. Anti ageing with transporters. Curing all ills with transporters. Beaming through time, beaming to other universes, raising an army of duplicates. Resetting a save state if you die.

Producers want to keep it recognizably Star Trek, when it should be humanity becoming the proto-Q. That's the show I want to see.

This, others have described Disco moving to the 32nd century avoids issues with canon, but it doesn't.
It basically ignores a lot of the stuff that came before it, and then on top of this by forcing to keep things as they are, they are actually running CONTRARY to what Trek is supposed to be - evolution/change and a better vision of tomorrow.

They could have easily set the stage for new kind of Trek showing us how all this knowledge was used.
And then... nothing.


Medical use of transporters yes. Transwarp beaming might be hit by the same issues faced by the 32nd Century Federation following the Burn?

Beaming through time? Time travel was banned by then. Through we saw the earlier Timefleet could do just that, as well as integrating alternate versions of the same individual.

If the Federation doesn't like cloning, I'm sure transporter dupes (where not explicitly resulting from accidents) aren't allowed.

Ultimately, the reason we don't see the more "out there" uses of a lot of Federation tech is that the Federation is a lot better at keeping Jeff Goldblum happy and concerning themselves with whether they should rather than whether they can.

This has less to do with pushing things just because they can (even though this is kinda the very premise behind SF/UFP), and more to do with the highly unrealistic premise that in the proverbial SEA of technology the UFP had at its disposal since the late 24th century that very little has in fact changed in 800 years.
And of course, because they didn't change that much, it bit the UFP in the proverbial rear end - after all the episodes and events SF encountered in the 23rd and 24th century also warning about the dangers of not changing.

Besides, for an organisation based on science and exploration - remaining static is a proverbial slap in the face.
Regulations would exist yes, but they wouldn't push development into the ground (they would encourage RESPONSIBLE development of technologies being regulated - even if some tech is outright banned, aspects of that technology will likely be used and further developed).

Point being, the UFP should have been massively more advanced vs what we got.
 
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Besides, for an organisation based on science and exploration - remaining static is a proverbial slap in the face.
Regulations would exist yes, but they wouldn't push development into the ground.
Exactly!

Here are things I would like to see:
1) Personal Shields become "Common Place" for away teams within StarFleet
We saw it at the end of ST:PIC S3.
It's been in ST Video Games since forever

Let's clearly establish rules / limits for it's usage when carried on person into the field on a away mission or out in the wild:
- Obviously these would be battery powered and need to be recharged, so limited operational time & can't be on all the time.
- Passive/Active Body mounted sensors can help determine when to turn the Personal Shields on/off or people can turn it on manually through various means

2) More Androids / Droids in general.
We need wide-spread usage of these every where, use them more often than even Star Wars
It's only been a recent phenomenon that we see them at all, and mostly in recent shows.

3a) Body Armor as a standard feature
When going on away missions, Body Armor should be standard.
I know it's common in newer shows, but alot of that are set in the DISCO-verse.
We need that to become standard, period.

3b) Passive & Active Camoflauge
When actually going into "Real Combat" & not a exploratory mission that happens to get into a Fire Fight.
Wear REAL Camoflauge, not just wear your standard uniforms.
Actual Camoflauge that can mimic the environment would be nice.
Even if it's passive that changes once or twice and stays turned off to limit EM signature emission.

4) Sometimes StarFleet has to deal with taking back facilities, planets, etc.
More Ground Operations, especially since everybody will be using Sensor Jamming / Transporter Jammers.
So I want to see how StarFleet tries to recover terrain over something as large as a Planet.
Especially through long ground combat operations & theaters.

5) More IRL Ground Vehicles of sorts
We see how some people get to travel
Transporter Gates aren't everywhere, that seems to be limited to certain parts of the city like on Earth in ST:PIC.

We don't know how common Transporters are for civilians.
Given how easily they can be misused, I'd argue that it's highly regulated as to who can own / operate one.
Also the energy cost is rather high to use a Transporter, so I can see why most people still use the old fashioned way to get around.
We see plenty of flying vehicles and other forms of locomotion.
So everything depends on cost, and I wanna see more Ground Vehicles.

6) Frontier Life
I wanna see what new Colonies / Frontiers look like when they're starting out on a new planet.
There should be plenty of interesting new tech to help setup civilization

7) Space Camping
I want to see how civilians setup camp in space on the Frontier
Especially around new planets that they're surveying for colonization or for researching, or just hanging out around for scenic purposes.

I think the equivalent of a actual physical tent will be Inflatable Habitats that are easy to erect & take down.
Without the rich resources of any Governmental Organization, most people have to go with the option that is cheapest.
Setting up a Orbital Facility that is full of Inflated Orbital Space Station modules w/ local grav plating & 0G Connectors might be neat.

8) More Space Suits / EV Suits / Combat Suits
Given all the varied environments / atmospheres, I'd expect more in-suit action of sorts
Especially with Armored Combat Suits

9) StarFighters & Remote Attack Drones
Those should definitely become more common & a standard complement on each StarShip, regardless of size.

10) AI/Drone StarShip
The Texas class wasn't a bad idea, the Programmer/Coder that the Admiral chose was in a bad mental state and wrote it wrong.
Redo the Texas class and give it what it really needs.
Dedicated Small AI Drone StarShips that are mass produced to become the superior equivalent of the Jem'Hadar Attack Ship.
Where every major StarShip can have a small group of them following them around and use them as screening vessels as needed.

Avoiding needless loss ot StarShips filled with Organic people is neceesary IMO, and having these around should make it harder to lose actual people.

11) Actual Long Range Combat
Given the prevalence of Weapons that can travel at long range, we need more realistic BVR combat with Beam Weaponry & Projectiles / Fighters / Drones to happen.

12) Giant Mecha
For Ground Combat & Planet Side Campaigns, I'd like to see what kind of Giant Machinery both sides can use to help sway the tide of war for taking back & holding terrain.
Given the future tech, it should be interesting to see what each side can come up with.

Giant Mecha in space doesn't make sense, the StarShip platform & it's cousins would eat them alive in Space Combat.

But in Planetary Combat, being able to bring that much hardware, fire power, armor, shielding, sensors would be game changing for Planet-side Action.

I know it's a specialist tool, but that's what half of the tools are.

13) Futuristic Ships / Submarines
We know there are other planets with oceans & seas, it'd be nice to see how we deal with those environments that don't involve a dedicated StarShip.
We only got to see a short bit of that with ST:PRO for a short scene.

But we can see more of that kind of action.
 
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Body armour. Why?

Phasers and other directed energy weapons can vaporise several cubic metres of matter. Even if the armour DOES stay intact, you're almost certainly cooked alive inside it... Armour (vs shielding) is only practical if you expect CQC or primitive projectile weapons and then it's likely of minimal value versus maintaining extra mobility AND not appearing threatening to new species.

You'd be better off with a personal transporter that instantly beamed you out of the way of attacks, like the HADS system on the TARDIS in Dr Who or displacer fields in Warhammer 40K.
 
Ultimately, the reason we don't see the more "out there" uses of a lot of Federation tech is that the Federation is a lot better at keeping Jeff Goldblum happy and concerning themselves with whether they should rather than whether they can.
This. The Federation appears as much concerned with consequences of actions as anything else. Despite technological advancements they still limit their use. Sometimes it's reasonable and sometimes not. Look at the doctor who fixed Worf's spine. Her practices were considered unethical and experimental despite showing results.

Some technology mandates slow progression and limits.

The Percolator
percolator-gif.gif


And...
9h98zi.gif

Kidding!
Though, any old timers want to admit they recognize where that's from? ;)
I use to sell them.
 
Body armour. Why?
When your "Personal Shields" inevitably runs out of energy in a long fire fight while you're on the away mission & you can't escape because Transporter / Teleportation jamming.

Phasers and other directed energy weapons can vaporise several cubic metres of matter.
True, but there are also ablative materials and other types of armor that can take several hits of "StarShip Grade" beam weaponry,
The USS Defiant & Voyager showcased that.

Scale down the materials to be the size of a modern day chest carrier rig to insert tactical plates with the newest materials.

Comparing to "StarShip Grade", ground troop grade beam weaponry should be several orders of magnitude weaker in terms of how many Joules of energy you're dealing with.

The difference in "Not Dying / Losing a 'Body Part'" vs being dead when your "Personal Shields" runs out of energy is worth the effort IMO.

Even if the armour DOES stay intact, you're almost certainly cooked alive inside it... Armour (vs shielding) is only practical if you expect CQC or primitive projectile weapons and then it's likely of minimal value versus maintaining extra mobility AND not appearing threatening to new species.
Quality "Physical Armor" would have solutions to deal with the heat management.

If you need "Extra Mobility", there are other options that you can consider if you don't have the "Beam Me Out" option.

As for appearing "Non-Threatening" to the new species, not pointing your weapons at an enemy would be nice and send in the diplomats & explorers first.

But should things go "SideWays" on the ground mission, than you need to send in guys with the Tactical Gear & Fire Power.

You'd be better off with a personal transporter that instantly beamed you out of the way of attacks, like the HADS system on the TARDIS in Dr Who or displacer fields in Warhammer 40K.
Assuming they jam the Transporters over a wide area, if not planet wide, you might need to rely on options that don't have the "Easy Escape" button.
 
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Body armour. Why?

Phasers and other directed energy weapons can vaporise several cubic metres of matter. Even if the armour DOES stay intact, you're almost certainly cooked alive inside it... Armour (vs shielding) is only practical if you expect CQC or primitive projectile weapons and then it's likely of minimal value versus maintaining extra mobility AND not appearing threatening to new species.

You'd be better off with a personal transporter that instantly beamed you out of the way of attacks, like the HADS system on the TARDIS in Dr Who or displacer fields in Warhammer 40K.
We have seen that phasers can indeed vaporise several cubic meters of matter, BUT they weren't always effective against ALL types of matter.
Some materials, or even composites demonstrated invulnerability to phasers (or directed energy weapons).
At any point, body armour still exists in Trek and it was seen in early TNG. Presumably, this type of body armour IS effective against energy based weapons to a degree, but like most armours, it wouldn't be 100% effective - it could probably prevent fatal injury from phasers set to kill or vaporise... but I suspect it couldn't take multiple repeated blasts - a couple perhaps... perhaps 3 or even 4, but that's pretty much it.

This is why you'd pair it with a personal shield system (which is very easy to create for SF - we know DS9 mentioned them), and even TNG and VOY saw personal armbands capable of projecting an energy field around a person that shielded them from either temporal disruptions, or subspace radiation.
Worf even created a crude personal shield using a comm-badge (the reason that thing didn't last was because he used a comm-badge, so the field couldn't be sustained - presumably a dedicated power cell for the personal shield would be capable of running the shield either indefinitely or for very long periods of time and then recharge itself).
 
At any point, body armour still exists in Trek and it was seen in early TNG. Presumably, this type of body armour IS effective against energy based weapons to a degree, but like most armours, it wouldn't be 100% effective - it could probably prevent fatal injury from phasers set to kill or vaporise... but I suspect it couldn't take multiple repeated blasts - a couple perhaps... perhaps 3 or even 4, but that's pretty much it.
Most IRL Body Armor can't take more than 3-4 hits in the exact same spot, if the shots are spread out, then yes it can take multiple hits; but if it's anywhere close to the same original spot, you can easily penetrate the armor if the first round doesn't go through by having multiple shots hit the exact same spot.

Good luck with doing that IRL in a dynamic fire fight where everybody is going for cover, moving around, and even have personal shields.
What if the person has "Multiple Personal Shield" units on their body?
If one goes down, they activate the other one until they completely run out of resources.

Pray that they don't have Androids / Cyborgs who carry giant battery banks with them to recharge their personal shield units while out in the field.

I saw the DISCO 32nd century mooks, and some of them have the Mega-Man style Arm Blaster, and I was wondering how the heck are you going to make accurate shots with holding your arm out?
Turns out, they don't, they just fire in the general direction with "Spray & Pray" technique. I guess that's one way to train your henchmen.
Give them a weapon that is super easy to use, but lacks any sort of practical accuracy at major distance.
 
Oh yeah, Hand Held Tractor Beams
Wesley showed off one homed made instance.
That's it, we never get to see people use it more often on a personal level.

Personal Anti-Grav tech used in many every-day life things.

Tools and how people use them to fix/make things.

Personal Computing when not in StarFleet.

Life/Tech/Gear not inside StarFleet.
 
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