The Tholian Web gripe

[JHoffman555]

I hate to be one of those guys who can't just enjoy the show. . . however:

When the Enterprise first comes across the Defiant, it does not come up on any of the Sensors. Basically, they only know it is there because they can eyeball it - but they can not scan anything on the ship (because it is phasing between dimensions.)

How, then, are Kirk & co. able to transport over there?

Forget about the safety of zapping yourself to three-dimensional co-ordinates that may or may not be the vacuum of space, how is the transporter chief able to even get a lock on the destination??

This could have been explained with a line of throwaway dialogue, but they didn't bother and, as such, I've had a nagging feeling about this episode ever since I saw it. . .despite how awesome the space suits are.

Thoughts?

 

[A beaker full of death]

This could have been explained with a line of throwaway dialogue

In that case, just let it go. Accept that the show didn't want to insult your intelligence by spoon-feeding you details that you could fill in yourself.

Things like... Chekov was on board, just not in the episode, when Khan was aboard.

 

[Starbreaker]

Scotty is that good.

 

[docrice]

What I found interesting is that even though the ship was in a dissolving state when they boarded her, bulkheads and decks were generally still solid enough that the away team didn't float through them.

 

[Broccoli]

Uh...the wizard did it.

 

[Timo]

When the Enterprise first comes across the Defiant, it does not come up on any of the Sensors. Basically, they only know it is there because they can eyeball it - but they can not scan anything on the ship (because it is phasing between dimensions.)

Which basically means that our heroes are seeing something "psychic", right? I mean, if it's visible to their eyes, then it's obviously visible to artificial instruments as well, including optical devices capable of measuring its position down to the last micrometer.

Okay, let's assume our heroes are seeing a "psychic" image that the optical sensors cannot grasp because it's not really an optical image. Scotty would then have to guesstimate the 3D coordinates of the target spot - which he can of course always do to some degree of accuracy. He could always beam Kirk & pals to a 3D-defined spot of space without any need from sensors (we see such a thing happen in e.g. "And the Children Shall Lead" and "Mark of Gideon", to be sure), so all we need is Scotty having a sufficiently good idea of where to beam.

And Scotty's idea can be infinitely good. After all, even if the image is "psychic", it does appear on an assortment of viewscreens. It can be zoomed like any optical image. It is shown being zoomed. So all Scotty needs is use the optical sensors to get a better look at this "psychic" image to again achieve micrometer-level accuracy.

By the rules of Star Trek, there should be no showstoppers whatsoever in beaming into an object that you can see on the viewscreen and have a good internal schematic of. So what if the Defiant looks a little green and wobbly today? Everybody is entitled to an off day. Sensors schmensors - they can see it, they can do it.

Timo Saloniemi