The Transporter Malfunction
- Thread starter Shat Happens
- Start date
You don't need a station at both ends, just a relay. The communicators provide the relay.
Last edited:
You could deploy a receiving station rover/pod to the planet. Upon landing it would unfold and activate, like a rover does. It'd take a good deal longer, though, and you risk it not working/landing improperly/breaking.
But behind the scenes, you'd get a money-saving reusable film shot of the station's launch for every episode that requires it.
But behind the scenes, you'd get a money-saving reusable film shot of the station's launch for every episode that requires it.
I think there is a lack of logic to many stories. Galileo 7 made it clear how hard it should be to trace specific life forms on a planetary scale but if you can identify individual life forms from orbit you can certainly auto beam them back if they lose communicators, suffer a fluctuation in life signs, or fail to check in on schedule.
They could also beam down spare communicators.
I remember around the time TNG started, I recall an article that stated one of the 1701-D's bridge stations was going to be someone who's job would be to monitor the away teams. It kind of sounds like one of Gerrold's ideas to add some verisimilitude, as this is how it would be done in real life. However, it was obviously going to be too dramatically limiting so was quickly abandoned.
I’m always looking for an angle to work the Cartwright (should have been Morrow) conspiracy backwards.
Kirk blows up at Nogura, right?
Decker’s son knows his place.
Transporters should be safer…but Enterprise is freshly refit.
So sec-31 limpets the transporter…but the Hornblower in Kirk has him find Scotty instead?
The sabotage is done…and a decision to walk down one corridor or the other…
The Memory Wall sequence I might work into an Academy scene…saying it came from another incident.
Kirk blows up at Nogura, right?
Decker’s son knows his place.
Transporters should be safer…but Enterprise is freshly refit.
So sec-31 limpets the transporter…but the Hornblower in Kirk has him find Scotty instead?
The sabotage is done…and a decision to walk down one corridor or the other…
The Memory Wall sequence I might work into an Academy scene…saying it came from another incident.
DG had some very good ideas to make Star Trek more realistic. However, they would also make the show dramatically inert. Or at least more challenging to make exciting without bending the format. Even the classic series would come up with a great idea to keep landing parties safe but quietly forgot about them after the credits rolled (subcutaneous transmitters should be standard). And even the whole "the captain stays behind while a contact team does the dangerous work" was not only half assed (none of the bridge crew should have gone), they rolled it back when Patrick Stewart got cranky because he never left the ship. Star Trek was built on the foundation of "the leads do the heroic shit and fall into danger." So unless you're actually doing a series about an Away Team rather than the usual officer setup, that will never stick.
I'm not advocating for a transporter station at both ends. But >99% of all television shows manage to tell stories without a transporter at all. The idea that a need for a station at both ends would be limiting story-wise, much less "extremely limiting," in any sense that could hamper effective and dramatic storytelling, is a non-starter.
I don't disagree, but I think then you'd be removing transporters from the format. Which is a Star Trek no-no.
So if you're going to keep transporters in Star Trek, we either accept there's no second station or we add one.
TOS had some possible instances of station-to-station transporter usage, when being down to Starbases or over to space stations (e.g., Kirk and Spock materialized at K-7 on the two-pad transporter platform, Spock beamed down to Starbase 11 into one in "Court Martial").Which is a Star Trek no-no.
That would make sense. Even if statistically it's only marginal, reducing the number of transporter accidents would make it worth it.
I also wonder if it has anything to do with cutting down on the interference that likely exists near a starship or other hi-tech installation.
Another example: in TSFS, when the Klingons beam aboard the Enterprise.
Similar threads
