TAS Aliens Question

[DonIago]

I think my favorite transporter effect was that used in movies II-VI, particularly the time or two when we saw characters moving and talking while still in transport. It was visually distinct enough to be used in the opening credits of one of the films (I’ve forgotten which).

That would be TVH.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I thought the TMP transporter effect was (so to speak) trying too hard to be realistic, to be either realistic* or even interesting. TOS normal, works best for me.

(My, what an interesting hijack! )

* - whatever that means about something made up and unlikely ever to be real

 

[drt]

That defined column effect does beg my following speculation. We only saw characters materializing upon transporter daises with that laser generated element connecting the upper and lower pads. I wonder how they (the effects crew) would have done the materialization effect for an open environment, no receiving platform like the surface of the planet? Would they have feathered that column? Would they have opted for an ellipsoid or maybe a capsule shape? I mean a crisply defined column would look odd in an open setting.

I've mentioned this before, but TMP strongly implies that transporters need a unit at both ends (which is more "realistic" as @CorporalCaptain mentions). There's the dialog during the transporter accident, to now using travel pods and unlocking shuttles from warp sleds to transfer personnel.

But to answer your actual question, as a kid i imagined it being sort of a flattened octahedron, probably because that was the easiest shape for me to draw.

 

[Maurice]

I think lasers were used for both elements of the transporter. Dykstra's group at Apogee had a big ol laser and it was used to make the cloud over V'ger, the ripples that ran over the ships being patterned, and the rays from the photon torpedoes. They similarly used a laser to create the Nova of Madagon for the original Battlestar Galactica telemovie a year earlier.

 

[johnnybear]

The only time we saw Kirk notice anything in transportation was in That Which Survives.
JB