Long distance beaming in "Detained"

[F. King Daniel]

I just rewatched "Detained" - and they beamed that communicator to Archer long before Enterprise even entered orbit of the planet he was being held on.

Also, Archer gets kidnapped a LOT. But you all knew that. And Travis actually says a few words this episode!

 

[horatio83]

Poor Travis. Then again Sulu rarely said more than "aye sir, warp two". The funny thing about transporter "rule violations" is that you rarely notice them. There must be plenty of episodes where they beam through shields, over long distances or whatever and you don't notice it.

 

[Timo]

I just rewatched "Detained" - and they beamed that communicator to Archer long before Enterprise even entered orbit of the planet he was being held on.

Umm, what?

The shipboard heroes decide they have to head for the prison planet. The next two scenes take place on the planet, featuring no back-to-back action; they could cover a long timespan. And then the next scene is an undetermined time later, with Travis asleep and Archer noticing the communicator. He picks it up, and T'Pol says the ship is now in orbit. There are no establishing shots of the ship to contradict T'Pol's claim, and no plot point to preclude the ship from being in orbit.

So, no long distance beaming there.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[F. King Daniel]

I just rewatched "Detained" - and they beamed that communicator to Archer long before Enterprise even entered orbit of the planet he was being held on.

Umm, what?

The shipboard heroes decide they have to head for the prison planet. The next two scenes take place on the planet, featuring no back-to-back action; they could cover a long timespan. And then the next scene is an undetermined time later, with Travis asleep and Archer noticing the communicator. He picks it up, and T'Pol says the ship is now in orbit. There are no establishing shots of the ship to contradict T'Pol's claim, and no plot point to preclude the ship from being in orbit.

So, no long distance beaming there.

Timo Saloniemi

They beam the communicator down, then we get a shot of the Enterprise flying through space, then we get a shot of them entering orbit.

 

[Timo]

Flying through space in what sense?

Dialogue is unambiguous and unproblematic: the ship is in orbit four phrases into the conversation. Since our orbital heroes are scanning the prison site for Suliban lifesigns two phrases into the conversation, they seem to have been well within the customary transporter range at that point already.

Unless the ship is shown at warp, then, there shouldn't be a problem there. It's just an orbital shot from the direction of the planet.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[F. King Daniel]

I just double checked. Enterprise is said to be in orbit when they beam the communicator down, then we see Enterprise in space at sublight, then a few scenes later they're warned off from approaching the planet, and a bit later we see Enterprise entering orbit.

So, possibly a withdrawl scene was cut?

 

[Timo]

Right, then - that detail doesn't show in the transcripts or TrekCore screencap series, and there's a lull in YouTube bootleg videos at the moment...

The transporter could well work from a distance we don't recognize as "orbital". We've heard mention of tens of thousands of kilometers, and NX-01 is usually shown orbiting at a thousand klicks at the most.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[7thsealord]

Noting also that a Communicator is less complicated and a heckuva lot smaller than a Human. Could easily have been some trade-off happening there - smaller object means less to dematerialize and reassemble, and could possibly be done over a somewhat greater distance.