A Time to Kill- beaming through shields?

[Destructor]

Ultimately, this all boils down to the fact that these are plot devices, and technical rationalizations will always take a back seat to the needs of the story.

But just as readers of Sherlock Holmes had fun 'pretending it was real' and then thinking about the techniques Holmes used to come to his conclusions, so Trek fans have ever tried to imagine the real-world implications of the technology as presented. Saying: "Well none of it's real anyway!" misses the whole point. And yes there have been many Trek writers [bad, lazy writers] who didn't bother pretending it was real and thinking about the established techical boundaries of the universe, but most good Trek writers are fans of the universe who really do care about, and think about, how the world as presented was supposed to work.

 

[David Mack]

Actually, one more question:

Worf later makes a reference to mind-melding with Spock. Can you please let me know what this is referring to?

Keith R.A. DeCandido's novella featuring Spock and Worf, The Brave and the Bold: "The Final Artifact."

 

[Christopher]

Ultimately, this all boils down to the fact that these are plot devices, and technical rationalizations will always take a back seat to the needs of the story.

But just as readers of Sherlock Holmes had fun 'pretending it was real' and then thinking about the techniques Holmes used to come to his conclusions, so Trek fans have ever tried to imagine the real-world implications of the technology as presented. Saying: "Well none of it's real anyway!" misses the whole point. And yes there have been many Trek writers [bad, lazy writers] who didn't bother pretending it was real and thinking about the established techical boundaries of the universe, but most good Trek writers are fans of the universe who really do care about, and think about, how the world as presented was supposed to work.

Remember who you're talking to. I'm the poster child for writing books that explain the stuff in Trek that doesn't make sense. But part of that process is understanding that no matter how clever and detailed your technical rationalizations, ultimately the tech still has to serve the story, not the other way around. If plausibility has to take a hit to serve the needs of the drama, then that's the way it will be.

Yes, it makes technical sense that they'd devise a way to beam through shields, but it makes dramatic sense to use shields as a plot device to cancel out the flaw of the transporter as a plot device, namely that it makes it too easy to escape danger. The needs of the story outweigh the science/technical logic, so the job of someone trying to rationalize the tech is to justify the way it works in the story -- not to come up with clever arguments for why it should be possible to beam through shields, but to come up with clever arguments for why it isn't practical to beam through shields. The former is fine for an abstract, hypothetical discussion, but just don't expect it to have any bearing on how things are actually portrayed in the fiction.

 

[Destructor]

Okay, one MORE question:

So, the plan to get the drop-teams onto Tezwa was to fly the Taj (the Klingon ship Riker had dragged away from the battle) up to Tezwa, and let it get destroyed, and then beam the drop-teams into the exploding wreckage so that they could drop into the atmosphere like debris. So.... did they beam from the Enterprise? And it's more than a warp-jump away? How's that work? Don't we have warp engines because transporters, y'know, aren't very long-ranged? (Future-Spock's special knowledge in STXI notwithstanding).

 

[JB2005]

^Weren't the drop teams on the Taj? So they beamed off there, the ship blew up and covered their descent?

 

[David Mack]

^ JB2005 for the win, ladies and gents.

 

[KRAD]

Actually, one more question:

Worf later makes a reference to mind-melding with Spock. Can you please let me know what this is referring to?

Keith R.A. DeCandido's novella featuring Spock and Worf, The Brave and the Bold: "The Final Artifact."

Which, I must say, was probably the scene that was the most fun to write in the history of my writing career -- and I don't say that lightly.....

 

[JD]

Is that the first/only time those two characters have interacted?