Contest: ENTER January Art Challenge: Transporter Malfunctions

[Cyfa]

Welcome to the first Art Challenge of 2024, and the 222nd overall!

The theme for this month's challenge is one I've been voting for on-and-off for ages, so I'm rather thrilled to host.
This theme, as @Starscape said, was:

first suggested back in September '22, it's been cycling through the pattern buffer since and has finally materialised:

Transporter Malfunctions
Duplicates, amalgamations and transmogrifications. Oh my! Kirkvix! Tendivix! DATAVIX! Tuvix your favorite characters... then draw them running in terror from Janeway!

We seen lots of transporter mishaps in Star Trek over the years: characters duplicated, split in two, or merged. Will you take inspiration from those or can you imagine some new transporter dilemma for your favourite characters to face? Or perhaps, you might like to consider the pitfalls of teleporting something as large as a Starship?

I'm hoping we can have lots of fun with this one - and maybe a sprinkling of horror, too - so get your thinking caps on and pencils sharpened (or your electronic equivalent ) and see you back here soon with your art.

The Rules

• the artwork you submit should be created during the month of the challenge
  
• only one final image can be submitted (although it may contain multiple views)
• your final entry should be posted in this thread (although dedicated WIP threads are appreciated)

The winner gets to sport the “Fan Art Challenge Winner” banner below their name for the following month, and has the honor of hosting February's challenge. And if you have any theme ideas for future challenges please post them in the "Suggest Your Themes!" thread.

If you have any thoughts or questions, or just need a bit of help or inspiration, please reply here.

You have until the end of Wednesday 31st January to post your final entries here (although if you need a little more time, just say). I can't wait to see what you come up with!

 

[Michael]

The 222nd contest, yay! And I couldn't have asked for a cooler theme. Hopefully I’ll be able to mix something up for this.

 

[Cyfa]

Despite my many months of voting for this theme, I currently have no idea what to do with it. Originally (back in 2022), my idea was just to 'Tuvix' a couple of characters (although I can't remember which ones now), and Lower Decks has already gone to town with that in season 4's "Twovix" so I want to do something different.
In an effort to get the old grey matter generating ideas, I thought I'd make a list of transporter malfunctions/accidents that I can remember from the various shows - hopefully it might inspire anyone else who's currently bereft of ideas. Please chime in with those that I've forgotten/not seen.

TOS & TAS:

• Kirk split into good and evil version of himself (can't remember the episode name)
• Accidental jaunt into the Mirror Universe ("Mirror Mirror")
• Terrifying materialisation of Sonak and someone else (TMP)
• Landing party beamed into thin air/open space ("BEM" & "And the Children Shall Lead") [EDIT: addition to original list]
• Undetected stowaway, Simon Van Gelder ("Dagger of the Mind") [EDIT: addition to original list]

TNG:

• Geordi and Ro become phased/ghosts ("The Next Phase" ?)
• Picard, Guinan, Keiko and Ro reverted to children ("Rascals")
• Barclay "attacked" by creatures in the transporter beam ("Realm of Fear")
• Duplicated Riker ("Second Chances")
• Ensign Franklin's degraded pattern ("Relics") [EDIT: addition to original list]

DS9:

• Senior staff become holodeck characters ("Our Man Bashir")
• Sisko, Dax and Bashir accidentally transporting back in time ("Past Tense") [EDIT: addition to original list]
• Scrambled transporter beam which left someone a smoking skeleton (DS9: "The Darkness and the Light") [EDIT: addition to original list]

VOY:

• The infamous merging of Tuvok and Neelix ("Tuvix")

ENT:

• That crewman with twigs and stones incorporated into his body (can't remember the episode name)
• Hoshi fades away to goo/ghost (I wasn't going to include this one as it's all in her mind, but I like it - "Vanishing Point")
• Emory Erickson's son became a subspace transporter ghoul or something ("Daedalus")

LDS:

• Rutherford accidentally turns Boims into an annoying sound & light show ("Much Ado About Boimler")
• Tuvix dialled up to 11! ("Twovix")

I've still got nothing, but hopefully a bit of discussion or the addition of examples I've missed will spark something.

And I've just thought: It might also be worth considering those times when the transporter has been used for something out of the ordinary (like reverting Pulaski to her original age in "Unnatural Selection") - what if that went wrong?

Edited to add suggestions by other members.

 

[Michael]

^ Good job on that list, @Cyfa! Looks very thorough to me and I can’t think of much else, save for maybe that in TNG’s “Relics” Scotty had rigged the Jenolan’s transporter to store his and another crewman’s patterns for several decades, with only him surviving the process. Probably not a transporter malfunction per se, but I’m also reminded of the great early Voyager episode “Eye of the Needle” where they thought they were beaming the Romulan R'Mor from the Beta Quadrant through the micro wormhole, but it turned out that he was also from another time.

I also haven't arrived at an idea for this contest yet either, by the way. But your list makes me realize that this could go a multitude of ways.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

TOS:

• Kirk split into good and evil version of himself (can't remember the episode name)
• Accidental jaunt into the Mirror Universe ("Mirror Mirror")
• Terrifying materialisation of Sonak and someone else (TMP)

You forgot:
* The stowaway Van Gelder when they were beaming up supplies (https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Dagger_of_the_Mind_(episode))
* The security guards who got beamed into open space when the ship had moved on and they didn't know (https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/And_the_Children_Shall_Lead_(episode))

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Transporter_accident

 

[Cyfa]

Looks very thorough to me and I can’t think of much else, save for maybe that in TNG’s “Relics” Scotty had rigged the Jenolan’s transporter to store his and another crewman’s patterns for several decades, with only him surviving the process. Probably not a transporter malfunction per se, but I’m also reminded of the great early Voyager episode “Eye of the Needle” where they thought they were beaming the Romulan R'Mor from the Beta Quadrant through the micro wormhole, but it turned out that he was also from another time.

~ Ooh, "Relics" is a good one. Something certainly malfunctioned (or didn't work as intended) to degrade Ensign Whosit's pattern. It actually made me think of a scenario where something/s get's missed off in the materialisation - clothes, fingers etc.
"Eye of the Needle" is probably my favourite VOY episode, and the beaming-through-time scenario is a good one. Although in EotN's case, the transport itself wasn't a malfunction, but having looked at the Memory Alpha link @Laura Cynthia Chambers provided, I was reminded of Sisko, Dax and Bashir accidentally transporting back in time in "Past Tense".

Oh, and thank you for my winner's sash, @Michael

* The stowaway Van Gelder when they were beaming up supplies (https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Dagger_of_the_Mind_(episode))
* The security guards who got beamed into open space when the ship had moved on and they didn't know (https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/And_the_Children_Shall_Lead_(episode))

~ Ah, thanks, Laura! I'm not really au fait with TOS, so I would never have thought of these. I guess something definitely went wrong to allow someone to beam up undetected with a load of cargo, or to beam into open space. Yikes!
And thanks for the MA link which also includes beaming into thin air/wrong coordinates (TAS: "BEM"), and a scrambled transporter beam which left someone a smoking skeleton (DS9: "The Darkness and the Light").

I think I'll add these and any new suggestions to the original list.

 

[Michael]

I was reminded of Sisko, Dax and Bashir accidentally transporting back in time in "Past Tense".

Yes! I forgot about that one as well.

Oh, and thank you for my winner's sash, @Michael

You’re welcome. @EricF diligently took care of that for us. He’s great that way.

 

[Cyfa]

I've added the suggestions so far to the original list, and marked them as later additions.

I think I'll do something fun rather than horrific for my entry. I still don't know what yet, though.

And thank you, @EricF

 

[Cyfa]

I finally have an idea (let's just say "puppets" and leave it at that for now... ). Does anyone else have any ideas for what they're going to do - or have you already started?

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Transporter Adding this link because there's more special operations listed here.

 

[Cyfa]

I've made a start but I've only got a vague idea of what the rest of it will look like. How's everyone else doing?

 

[Cyfa]

Well, it's not quite as I envisaged but it'll do:

I wonder how long they had to wait before someone noticed they hadn't checked in?

How's everyone else doing with your entries? Anyone need any more time?

 

[Starscape]

Nicely done, @Cyfa. Mariner's expressions before and after are perfect.

I'm losing track of the days... here's my final entry:

 

[Orac]

 

[Lord Other]

It's all fun and games until..

 

[Cyfa]

Ha ha haa! Brilliant entries, everyone!

Unless anyone's still working on something and needs more than 3 or 4 hours to finish, I'll put the voting thread up a little later on today.

 

[Michael]

Love all entries so far! And I have an idea for an entry of my own as well, which I would try to realize tonight. So maybe we could postpone the voting for just one day? That would we awesome.

 

[Cyfa]

Consider it postponed

As I'm otherwise engaged tomorrow, I'll put up the voting thread on Saturday morning

 

[Michael]

Thanks for the extra time, @Cyfa! This did the trick. Here’s my entry …

Nothing terribly creative, I’m afraid. I basically went with one of the most famous canon transporter malfunctions and didn’t come up with a new one. Not particularly clever or funny. Just some Tuvix fan art, I guess.

The likenesses are not perfect, but I think you’ll be able to recognize Tuvix, Tuvok, Neelix and a couple of orchids.