Episode of the Week : Tomorrow Is Yesterday

[eyeresist]

Regarding the transporter solution to get rid of Christopher and the sergeant, I wonder what theory the writer (DC Fontana), director, and producers espoused. I've stated what I think "must have happened," but no one was talking about pattern buffers etc. until the TNG era.

I don't know what the "official" theory is on how transporters work, but I assume the beam-ee is in effect annihilated at the departure site, and created anew from available matter at the arrival site. This is probably something people have become adjusted to, or prefer not to think about. So naturally, when they beam Christopher back, they figure "It'll be alright" and don't think about it too much.

 

[Mytran]

Yours is one line of thought about how the Transporter works but there are many others and it is a subject discussed fairly often here at the TrekBBS! One of the latest threads devoted to this subject is here and the ramifications here.

However, maybe the individual is not annihilated completely but is simply converted into energy, then that selfsame energy is reconverted back into matter at the target sight.
Personally, given the absurd amounts of energy and computer memory required for such a function (which contrasts to how routinely the crew use it) I'm more inclined to believe that people are "phased" into a subspace energy realm temporarily, then "pushed" to the target sight before they phase back into reality. This is more consistent with the "stream of consciousness" presented in TWOK and TNG's Realm of Fear. It also avoids the "murder machine" approach which I think Doctor McCoy would have more than a few passing grumbles against if that were the case!

So naturally, when they beam Christopher back, they figure "It'll be alright" and don't think about it too much.

"They" the authors I'd agree with - the Transporter was invented as a narrative shortcut, after all. "They" the crew on the other hand would I hope think through the ramifications before sending their two abductees to oblivion (no doubt consoled by the thought that they belong to a timeline that no longer exists anyway )

 

[eyeresist]

^ Mytran, that subspace theory is a lot less icky than mine.

 

[Timo]

In "Lonely Among Us", it seems to be an exceptional thing that Picard beams out as "energy only", and afterwards, his body is found to be stored inside the transporter. Seems to support the idea that the matter from A ends up at B, merely becoming "phased" in between.

There are a couple of episodes where matter (i.e. transportee bodies) appears to get duplicated or halved, but we're probably better off thinking of those as exceptions rather than as proof that matter collected at B is what results in the transportee arriving safely. Either way, we'd have to believe in matter coming out of essentially nowhere anyway.

Timo Saloniemi