TMP's Transporter Accident on Loop is the Stuff of Nightmares

what we got back didn't live long - fortunately...

damn that was heavy back then!

 

Nope, not clicking on that. I hated that scene and reading the novelization didn't help matters at all.

 

The female officer was unnamed in the movie, but the novelization describes her as flag officer Lori Ciana, and goes into more detail about a relationship she had with Kirk, and exactly how Kirk felt upon seeing her again.

The movie scene might have been more powerful if both she and Sonak had gotten more character development before the accident happened.

Kor

 

She's just a crewman in the film. The are multiple images without the effects here.

 

True, but even with the character just being crewman, I think it's unfortunate that her only purpose in the film's narrative was to die gruesomely.

Kor

 

But the point of the scene isn't them as characters, it's that the ship is untested and unready and there are potentially dire consequences to going out so quickly, and bookended by the wormhole while nearly destroys the ship.

Whether those two scenes are effective narratively is another matter.

 

It's such an unnecessary scene. And then McCoy's worry about the transporter is treated with a chuckle. It's so strange.

 

We'd had the Enemy Within and the Children Shall Lead (which made little sense because surely if the targeting scanners detect an unsafe location, automatic safety protocols would prevent transport unless you override) but this was the first time we'd had a full on transporter catastrophe. It adds to the sciency feel to the movie for me.

I do agree that the subsequent McCoy scene is too flippant and I wish the characters looked rueful rather than amused but McCoy always raises a smile for us, let alone his friends.

I managed to crib a line for Rand: "Don't look so worried," taken from the fan episode World Enough and Time, just before Kirk reacts to the Yeoman's comments.

The intention is that she is both reassuring him that the system is fixed but also acknowledging she understands that he's nervous about seeing Bones again. It gives her more of a connection to the other characters in the movie. Kirk is then reacting to her comment rather than the Yeoman. They smile because they share a moment.

I'd also like to add a line to fill the silence after she says, "Permission granted," to say, "Just like old times." This reflects a line she was scripted to give from In Thy Image. McCoy then smiles slightly at this point before starting to complain. This will be a trickier edit since I don't have any dialogue spoken by Grace to work with.

The scene still feels off, given how horrific the accident was barely a few hours before but my tweaks take the edge off it for me.

 

...And then the operator would override. This is consistent with how the kids made the adults do idiotic things: Sulu didn't believe his instruments, either.

And no doubt the planning sessions for that movie involved quite a few "Now how could we shock the teens with stuff that would never have been allowed in 1960s TV?" brainstorming, this being one of the more obvious ways in which Star Trek could make you scream.

...Just have it happen in reverse: McCoy gets aboard fine, complaining; the other heroes dismiss his phobia; and then, perhaps immediately thereafter, we finally see that it's Bones who has his head screwed on right.

Timo Saloniemi

 

I think the issue with AtCSL was that the children had moved the ship rather than the operator was being controlled to override the safety or I'd agree completely. Of course they might have had the foresight to control the operator off camera.

I've re-ordered the scenes in Ilia's quarters to allow for Kirk's trip to the Memory Wall in between but there are too many early scenes linked to the accident (Kirk's confrontation with Decker being the main one) to re-order this part, even if you overlook McCoy and Ilia's absence from the briefing. Fine as part of a wish list (I also wish Rand was present on the bridge at the end of TMP as we don't get all of the main characters in one scene until the end of Star Trek IV) but not a practical edit.

 

Was the ship ever fully crewed or ready in those 6 movies?

 

One might argue that the mission in ST6:TUC wasn't quite as totally impromptu as all the others... Although whether the mission of diplomatic escort called for a greater percentage of waiters and a lower percentage of gunners than standard, or perhaps vice versa, we don't know exactly.

(What's fun is that the top officers never seem to be what Starfleet proscribed: TMP is a Kirk-stirred mess, ST2/3 is a birthday cruise, ST4/5 is a publicity stunt for celebrities, and ST6 has a diplomat passenger take over for half the movie.)

Was it intentional that the accident appears to be Kirk's personal fault entirely? That is, Kirk drags Decker away from supervising important work that involves a component whose failure ultimately causes the transporter accident. Had Decker not been distracted by Kirk's takeover campaign speech, he probably would have competently managed those bits of the repair job that were not obvious to the repairmen themselves - such as informing the rest of the ship of the indirect consequences, including "Do NOT try the transporter at this time!".

Timo Saloniemi

 

It's interesting that the problem with the transporter was not thought to be a safety issue to the point where they could work on it while still in use. The faulty sensor was just causing the system to be slow or something. The system shorting out isn't really well explained, especially since they transport is linked to the sending platform. Possibly a power surge disrupted the confinement beam?

The is the prime example of a lack of transporter logic. Why a receiving pad is necessary when it isn't needed for pad to planet transport? If they had established that the presence of warp engines interfered with transporter signals necessitating a receiving pad for ship to ship, it would have covered off both transporter warfare and casual site to site transport within a ship.

 

It could've lingered on the figures being distorted for a second or two longer, and been a touch more horrific really... The Director's Cut boosted it from G to PG in a few places, but only because of the sound mix accentuating the creepiness of some scenes here and there.

 

According to Robert Wise's commentary track on the Director's Edition DVD, she was the navigator, with her death opening the door for Ilia to join the crew as her last-minute replacement, just as Sonak's freed up Spock's spot as science officer.

-MMoM

 

I know many would like horror but that is one genre I don't think belongs as part of Star Trek. So, hard pass on a close up of a horrific transporter accident.

 

As mentioned before in other threads, the TMP full-color fotonovel completely omits the transporter accident, and it isn't missed.

 

It's not fun to watch but I like that it's included to drive home the fact this this star trek stuff can be dangerous.

 

Especially when it comes so soon after this incident!