How many ways...

[Wingsley]

The recent "Sulu"-themed caption contest reminded me of the implausibility of the landing party situation in "The Enemy Within".

A variety of excuses and technical "explanations" have been proposed over the years as to why the Enterprise could not find a way to rescue the men trapped on the planet surface.

Now, I'd like to ask the question from a different angle: how many different ways should a starship, with the Enterprise's technology, have been able to at least get some kind of help (portable shelter or something) to Sulu and his trapped comrades to spare them suffering subzero temperatures?

I'd like to hear what the options "should have been".

 

[Lieut. Arex]

1. Transporter
2. Shuttlecraft
3. Capsule. Think Apollo or Soyuz type. Simple and reliable. This is something Scotty could have whipped up easily though the winds might've made putting it near the landing party tough. Using rockets or an anti-grav for landing would be a better option than a parachute in this case.

 

[scotpens]

They could have followed Sulu’s suggestion and beamed down some hot coffee. What’s the worst that could happen? Would the transporter glitch create a duplicate thermos of evil coffee?

 

[Captain Rob]

The caffeine in the coffee turns into cocaine.

 

[Robert D. Robot]

^ Or it could have ended up being like the bad coffee that was always a running joke on "Barney Miller"....

 

[T'Girl]

similar to when they tuned a main ship's phaser to stun for the gangster planet, tune a main phaser to heat and heat up the area Sulu and company were in. Just into the mid fifties would have been fine.

 

[Wingsley]

Alright, let's say that all of the Enterprise's shuttlecraft were "down" for service at that point, and none available. (What a ridiculous scenario.)

Couldn't at least one of the inoperative shuttlecrafts have been air-dropped to the surface so that the landing party could use it as a shelter?

I don't know why, but the omission of that seems completely ludicrous to me.

 

[Jose Tyler]

Load up a probe with a bunch of battery powered space heaters or personal relaxation lights and shoot it down.

 

[Christopher]

There must be fifty ways to warm your crewmen....

You just send shuttles in, Lynn.
Fire a heat ray, Jay.
You don't need to beam through, Lou,
Just send some hot tea.
Ignite magma veins, Jane.
But watch out for the ash rain...
Just heat up the air, Claire,
And set your team free.


But seriously, the best rationalization I've heard for not using shuttles is that the winds were too intense to allow a shuttle to get through safely. That could also have prevented an unmanned probe/capsule containing relief supplies from reaching its target.

 

[Warped9]

The transporters may have been unreliable in terms of living organisms or machinery, but there is no reason they couldn't have beamed down simple materials that could have been used for shelter and warmth. In addition there is also the option of beaming down materials (if there weren't any already on the surface) that were flammable.

A rudimentary shelter erected to get out of the winds, blankets and heavier clothing for retaining body heat and materials to fuel a fire.

 

[Wingsley]

Do you feel that the atmospherics shown on planet Alfa 117 were clearly beyond the technological limits shown in TOS?

 

[Tan Ru]

There must be fifty ways to warm your crewmen....

You just send shuttles in, Lynn.
Fire a heat ray, Jay.
You don't need to beam through, Lou,
Just send some hot tea.
Ignite magma veins, Jane.
But watch out for the ash rain...
Just heat up the air, Claire,
And set your team free.

Great.

Now I have Paul Simon in my head for the rest of the day...........

thanks.

 

[keksy]

That would be even more effective in keeping them energetic and awake- therefore warmer and safer. So, coke and coffee for the win.

 

[TIN_MAN]

Well, they did beam down blankets of some sort of futuristic thermal qualities, akin to aluminum/Mylar sheeting (which no doubt is what it would have been if the episode was made today?)

And Kirk did say he would "see what I can do" in reply to Sulu's request for coffee.

But what I wonder about is why, since they were using phasers to heat rocks, they just didn't cut a cavity in the surrounding rocks as a shelter?

 

[Warped9]

But what I wonder about is why, since they were using phasers to heat rocks, they just didn't cut a cavity in the surrounding rocks as a shelter?

Very good point. And even if the landing party didn't think of it it's hard to imagine someone aboard ship couldn't have thought of that and suggested it to them.

 

[scotpens]

. . . But what I wonder about is why, since they were using phasers to heat rocks, they just didn't cut a cavity in the surrounding rocks as a shelter?

They missed survival class at Starfleet Academy the day that stuff was being taught.

 

[Christopher]

The reason they didn't do any of this stuff is that the story required the landing party to be in mortal peril and dependent on a working transporter for their rescue.

 

[Wingsley]

^ Yes, I agree. And the notion of that peril being based on a single malfunction that somehow imperiled the entire starship's Transporter system (according to "The Making of Star Trek" by Whitfield & Roddenberry, starships have a total of 11 transporter rooms; four being the six-man-style units, two being cargo facilities and five being the emergency 22-man units) seemed outrageously lame to me. Here we have a ship that can exceed the speed of light, and at this point in the series had already exhibited other outstanding abilities, including weapons that could obviously light up Alfa 177's sky to say the least. And we can't keep Sulu and his buds from freezing to death?

I just put forth this thread to see what everyone had to say about non-transporter solutions that should have been easily and readily available to at least keep the surface expedition out of danger. To me, I can see the atmospherics of Alfa 177 being problematic to an air-based rescue. So maybe they couldn't just send a shuttlecraft down to scoop Sulu and the boys up and move on. But what I can't see is how the Enterprise could be so utterly helpless that they can't send anything down to at least keep Sulu and company out of trouble while the crew above restores the transporter.

For me, I can see technical difficulties becoming a nuisance and providing an interesting story. Maybe the scary arctic nights on Alfa 177 could complicate things and pose some risk for a stranded landing party, but the notion that the expedition could wind up in a situation that dire, that easily, with nobody having a contingency plan, made the characters look clueless. That was a far bigger problem, for me anyway, than the whole transporter-doppleganger plot.

 

[Lieut. Arex]

A large part of the problem is how events like this are and can be portrayed on TV due to dramatic and budgetary restrictions. As Christopher points out, the reason nothing worked is the landing party has to be in peril. In reality, when conducting a survey of a planet for a few days, I'd expect a lab/shelter of some sort to be constructed on the surface to serve as a base camp. For a ship with the Enterprise's capabilities it'd be no trouble at all. Just use the transporter to beam the prefab pieces into place. Instant Quonset hut.

 

[A.V.I.A.F.]

That was a far bigger problem, for me anyway, than the whole transporter-doppleganger plot.

Sulu and his boys were not the top priority and so consequently not a lot of brain power was being dedicated to them. As far as the senior officers were concerned, putting the Captain back together again was a far more important priority. Those on the planet (including Sulu) were far more expendable than a starship captain. R.H.I.P.