Transporter Room = Zero Fun

[c0rnedfr0g]

It has recently come to my attention that Harry Kim got to do all the transporting from his little Ops station on the bridge. Some of the transporting he did was very tricky, such as beaming Seven and Tuvok from a ship falling into a black hole (or singularity or whatever you want to call it).

From what I've seen on TNG, I would assume that the fancy computer station in the transporter room would be more suited for such precise transporting, yet it seems like whichever schmuck got stuck manning that station never got to do anything (except get easily incapacitated by whomever was escaping from the ship at the time).

What's the deal?

 

[neogothboy74]

I have no idea. But maybe Voyager is designed differently? Or maybe the writers, having been unable to write any meaningful storylines for Kim thought that giving him this task would pass as character development?

 

[Lucy of Nine]

Call me crazy, but I've also thought about this, especially since I'm rewatching TNG... I look at O'brien in the early seasons and think 'poor guy... thats the worse job on the whole ship... just standing there day in... day out... waiting for that one person to beam on from a ship... yawwwn' LOL... glad I'm not the only crazy one!

 

[Crewman47]

It makes you wonder if Transporter operators have secondary duties besides keeping the Transporters maintained and readily avialable when called for. As Operations division crewman they could pull double duty on day to day Engineering tasks.

 

[Robotech Master]

O'Brien even mentioned once or twice how boring it was for him on the Enterprise once he got aboard DS9.

He was a pretty good chief engineer though. He probably had the toughest job, since DS9 was not even a Federation station but an old Cardassian station built by Bajoran slaves.

 

[Kirks_Flying_Wig]

And even when they did use the transporter room, Janeway or Torres would relieve the officer on duty and do the transporting themselves!

 

[Gary7]

It is a thankless job... But I have to imagine that given how complex the transporter mechanism is, it must require constant recalibration and maintenance. Even for 24th century equipment, there's no such thing as maintenance-free. Thus, the act of initiating transportation is probably a small fraction of the job.

Personally, I don't like the idea of the bridge hijacking the job. The transporter console is large and has a lot of instrumentation. Harry Kim's console is already cluttered with other instruments... unless these touch panels can switch control overlays in an instant. In any case, I'd expect the transporter pad to be involved in one of the directions (either coming or going), unless it performs a "relay"... but they never explicitly show that happening.

 

[ProStar]

I would imagine that the transports systems would need maintances on a dialy basis. I would imagine that when the senior staff use them It is for security reasons or they were doing something that would require some specific knowledge of that staff member,then a normal transported chief. Voyager's one because of the low members of crew would do other duties then that like perfroming repairs on the one in Sickbay and in the Cargo bays. They would also repair them if they were damaged in a alien attack.

 

[Karnbeln]

The same reason Torres had an engineering station on the bridge that she was at inconsistently. Having all the characters in one room speaking face to face is more dynamic visually. This is also why Voyager is is first hero ship where all stations face the main viewer; It allows us to see everyone's face.

(The above statements, with the exception of the last, which I've read somewhere before, are entirely my own guesses.)

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Call me crazy, but I've also thought about this, especially since I'm rewatching TNG... I look at O'brien in the early seasons and think 'poor guy... thats the worse job on the whole ship... just standing there day in... day out... waiting for that one person to beam on from a ship... yawwwn' LOL... glad I'm not the only crazy one!

If you think O'Brien had it bad, imagine the poor bastards down in Transporter Rooms 1 and 2. Why was Transporter Room 3 always the transport room of choice?

 

[Akiraprise]

I never thought using the transporter from the bridge was believable. They have an entire room dedicated to this piece of equipment. It's very sophisticated. If it can be operated with the press of a few buttons on the ops console why have such a huge console in the actual transporter room at all? Why have anybody assigned to the transporter terminal? Just let whoever is working on the bridge do the transporting.

 

[The Badger]

If you think O'Brien had it bad, imagine the poor bastards down in Transporter Rooms 1 and 2. Why was Transporter Room 3 always the transport room of choice?

If you think those are boring jobs, what about 'turbolift control' (TNG, 'Hide And Q')? Who do you have to piss off to get that duty?

 

[Jaespol]

Yeah I'd rather be a waiter.

 

[PhoenixIreland]

Call me crazy, but I've also thought about this, especially since I'm rewatching TNG... I look at O'brien in the early seasons and think 'poor guy... thats the worse job on the whole ship... just standing there day in... day out... waiting for that one person to beam on from a ship... yawwwn' LOL... glad I'm not the only crazy one!

If you think O'Brien had it bad, imagine the poor bastards down in Transporter Rooms 1 and 2. Why was Transporter Room 3 always the transport room of choice?

Rooms 1 and 2 are like the Hotel room 1408, you just don't use those rooms anymore after the ensigns assigned to them phaserd their own heads off after going insane with boredom and lack of human contact.

 

[The Grim Ghost]

I don't remember when they started having Kim do much of the transporting, was it like that from the beginning?

If not, remember lots of Voyager's crew died over the years. Tom for example was a helmsman and a nurse, maybe lots of other members of the crew were doing two or three jobs. Maybe sometimes there just weren't enough crew to man every possible station so the job fell to Kim?

That is my stab at an explanation.


On O'Brien, it may seem boring standing around in a transporter room all day, but on the odd occasion when something goes wrong with a transport or an unexpected situation comes up don't you want someone manning the controls who has made it his specialty?

 

[StarryEyed]

Seems like everyone is forgetting two points:

1. All the LCARS panels are touch screens. They can be whatever the user wants them to be. Harry Kim's station could easily be configured as a transporter control panel. It's perfectly believable that he can operate the transporter (or anything else he has the skill to operate) from his station.

2. Transporters are very old tech by the 24th century. It doesn't follow that such a mature technology would be maintenance-intensive.

Dedicated transporter operators could be used for particularly difficult transports. Harry would probably not be used in a very delicate situation unless it was out of the blue and there were no dedicated operators standing by. I can't believe that there is someone standing by at a console 24/7 on the off-chance that a tough transport will need to made. It makes more sense to have the operations officer well-trained in transpoerter operation.

Dedicated transporter personnel might be specialized engineers, particularly well-versed in transporter theory and maintenance. They would probably perform all the routine maintenance and checks needed. They would probably be responsible for replicator maintenance as well since this is a similar technology.

The position of transporter specialist might be a stepping stone for moving up in engineering or ops. This could explain why officers sometime take the controls from a specialist in some situations - They are fully qualified (and perhaps more experienced) themselves.

 

[Ro_Laren]

They had to give Harry something to do!

 

[Deks]

Seems like everyone is forgetting two points:

1. All the LCARS panels are touch screens. They can be whatever the user wants them to be. Harry Kim's station could easily be configured as a transporter control panel. It's perfectly believable that he can operate the transporter (or anything else he has the skill to operate) from his station.

2. Transporters are very old tech by the 24th century. It doesn't follow that such a mature technology would be maintenance-intensive.

Dedicated transporter operators could be used for particularly difficult transports. Harry would probably not be used in a very delicate situation unless it was out of the blue and there were no dedicated operators standing by. I can't believe that there is someone standing by at a console 24/7 on the off-chance that a tough transport will need to made. It makes more sense to have the operations officer well-trained in transporter operation.

Dedicated transporter personnel might be specialized engineers, particularly well-versed in transporter theory and maintenance. They would probably perform all the routine maintenance and checks needed. They would probably be responsible for replicator maintenance as well since this is a similar technology.

The position of transporter specialist might be a stepping stone for moving up in engineering or ops. This could explain why officers sometime take the controls from a specialist in some situations - They are fully qualified (and perhaps more experienced) themselves.

This explanation is close to what I had in mind as well, plus it fits confines of Trek universe nicely.
:-)
One of the explanations for having transporter pads/rooms is to have a centralized location with a dedicated function for the whole system ... although wide-scale integration in terms of having transporter pads throughout the ship (on every deck) seems doable with 24th century technology.
It could save up time in emergencies for example if evacuation is required, and just make sure to separate the system sufficiently from others so it's not always knocked offline during an attack.
With the technology itself being a couple hundred years old by the 24th century, or even by only 100 years, the writers could have implemented the well known systems in a bit of a more creative/logical way.

 

[Richard Baker]

I think it just made the story tighter and faster to have Harry transport. The other way would involve having to film a scene in the Transporter room with an actor running the controls and showing the transporter effect and the result of the transport. That would be about 20 seconds of show time plus the expense of lighting and paying an extra.
I also think it is the same logic which has a character tell us about a battle instead of showin gthe combat itself.
Not with story or technology logic, but Hollywood scene logic. Trim extra pieces out of a show which do not directly contribute to a show and spend the money/time on other elements.

.

 

[kissthestar]

You know, it's true: the transporter operators didn't get to have lives. Look at the British guy from TOS, and at O'Brien until he finally got out of that transporter room. No life, even with his marriage going for him.