Transwarp Beaming Impact on Star Trek novels

[datalogan]

JJ Abrams Star Trek continues to use long-distance beaming with no regards for how "difficult" it should be. In the latest Star Trek ongoing comic (#11), NuScotty and NuChekov use the tech to beam a tribble from the edge of known/explored space all the way back to Earth. With no problems, of course. And since the comics are "cannon" in the Star Trek relauch, that seems to mean they are keeping the technology of easy long-distance beaming alive and well.

 

[datalogan]

Also, I just finished reading the last 2 Typhon Pact novels be DRGIII. In it, so much of the conflict between the Typhon Pact and the Allies of the Khitomer Accords relates to speed and distance. The Typhon Pact is worried about the Allies having slip-stream tech. And they are trying to counter it with other tech that gives them a similar advantage to cover distances quickly (like artificial wormholes) or at least stealthily (phased cloaking).

And yet, more exploration into long-distance transporters is not mentioned. Although it seems to be very related. And JJ Star Trek continues to say it's very easy.

 

[F. King Daniel]

And since the comics are "cannon" in the Star Trek relauch

It's "canon" with the one N. And, no they aren't. Here's What Bob posted a couple of hours after that interview went up....

0h please. have a little fun. i said and have said exactly what you just said forever, but Pascale pushed me, he wont give up! i have said a million times that we cant determine what is canon. on this day, i said something else. “consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”

 

[Lonemagpie]

So, what do we think Scotty might have tried at the end of IFM, if we choose to interpret it that way...?

 

[F. King Daniel]

The novels have done long-distance transportation - in Indistinguishable From Magic, Barclay is beamed a loopy 70,000 light-years from the Delta Quadrant through the MIDAS array by Scotty.

And, of course, the Dominion were doing long range beaming before it was cool. Yet the Typhon Pact never tried to steal one of their transporters.

I'm not saying it makes perfect sense, but, there it all is.

 

[Cap'n Crunch]

So, what do we think Scotty might have tried at the end of IFM, if we choose to interpret it that way...?

That's actually what I was thinking when I read it.

 

[Snaploud]

My guess is that Section 31 just kept it under wraps. They like having all the cool toys for themselves.

 

[Christopher]

You can't keep scientific or technological knowledge under wraps for long. Once the scientific groundwork has been laid, there's nothing to stop multiple independent groups from making the same discoveries.

And again, we've already seen interstellar beaming in TNG: "Bloodlines." We know this technology is out there, that it's known in the 2370s but just isn't used much due to the impracticalities and hazards.

 

[datalogan]

So now, in the most recent comic (12), we get about half a page where the writers say that long-range transporter technology is not going to be used just because Scotty

Spoiler: did something

transported one dangerous little tribble.

Really!?
In the JJ verse, long-distance beaming has consistently been proven to work well with no real issues. Every single thing transported (equipment, Kirk, Scott, Spock,

Spoiler: other things

the tribble, even the beagle

) has been shown to survive with no real issues. This is a very helpful and powerful bit of technology. I don’t by the flimsy excuse the writers came up with to state that the tech is not going to be developed.

Spoiler: SI’s take on it from comic #12

(You serious expect me to believe that Starfleet Intelligence would want to "check out" tribbles, but not long-range transportation?)

But at least it seems like the issue of long-range transporters may finally be behind us in the JJ verse stories. And as I've said before, I would like to get back to storytelling without the issues brought up by easy long-distance transporters. Maybe if the writer just ignored it as a mistake of the 2009 film and just never mentioned it again. But you can't serious continue to use the technology

Spoiler: when

(like in issues 11 and 12)

and expect me to buy into this flimsy excuse for why you're not going to use it again. Ignore the issue completely, or come up with a better way out of it; don't make things worse by compounding one bit of bad writing with still more implausible and unbelievable bad writing.

 

[datalogan]

It's funny, I have a similar feeling with Scotty's little friend Keenser. I don't like the occasional use of him in the comics as (mostly) silent comic relief (like he was used in 2009 movie).

I would rather they either drop the character all-together or really develop him into something believably deep. One or the other.