• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Spoilers Transwarp beaming (Picard S3 spoilers)

The movie specifically said that the supernova somehow threatened the galaxy, so we know it was not like a normal supernova.

This is the part that was slightly retconned for Picard. I say slightly because "threatened the galaxy" could mean many things. It could mean the supernova would overtake the galaxy (what I thought they were trying to say when I watched it). It could mean there was a risk of Romulans attacking the federation due the supernova, etc...
 
It keeps being mentioned as being developed but never used.
My guess is the writers simply chose to not use it (like they decided to not use many other different things... either because they don't know, or because it would wreck with their story which would need to be readjusted to accommodate for more advanced technology).
Given the time's that we see Transwarp Beaming work, it seems to only work really well / efficiently if you have a Transponder or Transceiver to pin point your exact location and know that there are no Spacial Weather Patterns or Environmental Effects screwing with your signal path.

Look at when scottie tried to beam Kirk onto a Moving USS Enterprise, they ended up in the Water System.
If Scottie was off a bit more, he could've accidentally beamed them into the walls like we see in ST: Picard.

Where-as when Kira was kidnapped in the episode "Covenant", the Pah-Wraith worshipping group hid a Homing Transponder inside a necklace that was given to Nerys. That allowed them to (beam her out / kidnap her) at long distances.

The TW beaming might only be limited in range when it comes to the power source.
We know from the Kelvin timeline 'Into Darkness' that Khan used a portable TW beaming unit and an empty small craft to beam himself from SOL to Qu'Onos - that's already a lot more advanced than what the Dominion showcased.

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Transwarp_beaming

According to the novelization of Star Trek Into Darkness, beaming to Qo'noS for Khan was a more complicated plot. 1) The small portable transwarp beaming device on the jumpship only had enough power to beam Khan to an automated cargo station on Earth's orbit.
2) From there he accessed a heavy-load transporter to beam onto an unmanned vessel in orbit of Luna.
3) Khan had equipped the ship with another unauthorized transwarp device wired into the empty ship’s engine. Utilizing the entire energy output of the engine for a single massive burst, he could have beamed anywhere in our galactic region. Transporting to Qo'noS completely burned out the device, so no one was able to follow him using it.

The energy output for beaming so far out is ridiculous that it's not practical and more practical to take the ship to the destination and just beam down from orbit.

With 24th century power systems, TW beaming should be capable of beaming a person dozens to hundreds of LY's... maybe thousands... or you could simply RELAY the transporter signal throughout subspace amplifiers and listening posts that are in the Federation (aka, instant beaming throughout UFP space).
They did beam that Romulan from the Alpha Quadrant to the Delta Quadrant, but the major issue is that the Romulan was from the past.

So it is theoretically possible, but you need to establish a reliable communication network chain across the Galaxy, like the Hirogen did and pray that there are no "Hardware Failures" when transporting people's signals across the network.

Also, hope that your vessel is within range of the network.

========================================

What you should be more afraid of is that Borg Cube in Picard S1 that had the "Spatial Trajector" in the queen's chamber.

Imagine if 'The Borg' didn't limit the "Spatial Trajector" to be a emergency escape method, but a long distance infiltration and assimilation tactic.

You only need to be a few ly's away from your target planet, gather up lots of drones ready to beam across the target planet into all the major city centers.

Then start sending out squads of drones into each major city center to assimilate a planet.

That's the REAL scary part you should worry about.

Imagine going about your daily life, and a squad of Borg Drones pops into your city and starts infecting everybody to make more drones, eventually trying to assimilate the population of your planet.

That is the REAL nightmare scenario that I fear the Borg will use.

They don't even have to be that close to a planet, just fly close enough, or turn on cloaking fields, then beam in Drones to assimilate a population.
 
Last edited:
Given the time's that we see Transwarp Beaming work, it seems to only work really well / efficiently if you have a Transponder or Transceiver to pin point your exact location and know that there are no Spacial Weather Patterns or Environmental Effects screwing with your signal path.

Look at when scottie tried to beam Kirk onto a Moving USS Enterprise, they ended up in the Water System.
If Scottie was off a bit more, he could've accidentally beamed them into the walls like we see in ST: Picard.

Where-as when Kira was kidnapped in the episode "Covenant", the Pah-Wraith worshipping group hid a Homing Transponder inside a necklace that was given to Nerys. That allowed them to (beam her out / kidnap her) at long distances.



https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Transwarp_beaming



The energy output for beaming so far out is ridiculous that it's not practical and more practical to take the ship to the destination and just beam down from orbit.


They did beam that Romulan from the Alpha Quadrant to the Delta Quadrant, but the major issue is that the Romulan was from the past.

So it is theoretically possible, but you need to establish a reliable communication network chain across the Galaxy, like the Hirogen did and pray that there are no "Hardware Failures" when transporting people's signals across the network.

Also, hope that your vessel is within range of the network.

What you should be more afraid of is that Borg Cube in Picard S1 that had the "Spatial Trajector" in the queen's chamber.

Imagine if 'The Borg' didn't limit the "Spatial Trajector" to be a emergency escape method, but a long distance infiltration and assimilation tactic.

You only need to be a few ly's away from your target planet, gather up lots of drones ready to beam across the target planet in all the major citiy centers.

Then start sending out squads of drones into each major city center to assimilate a planet.

That's the REAL scary part you should worry about.

Imagine going about your daily life, and a squad of Borg Drones pops into your city and starts infecting everybody to make more drones, eventually trying to assimilate the population of your planet.

That is the REAL nightmare scenario that I fear the Borg will use.

They don't even have to be that close to a planet, just fly close enough, or turn on cloaking fields, then beam in Drones to assimilate a population.
Yes, I really dislike the concept that humans, relative children in intergalactic exploration, invent something as simple as an algorithm for interstellar beaming using a clapped out shuttle transporter. It's not just the power needed to send the signal, its keeping an annular confinement beam intact. I would have said that a network like the interstellar gate network in Stargate, would be the only way to do it without re-writing or hand-waving Trek physics. The subspace relays would need to be re-purposed as transporter hubs, likely very susceptible to self-destructing whenever cloaked ships are in the area.
 
Are transporters reliant on dilithium too? I suddenly realize that no one in Discovery mentioned transwarp beaming either as a potential way to circumvent the Burn.
 
Yes, I really dislike the concept that humans, relative children in intergalactic exploration, invent something as simple as an algorithm for interstellar beaming using a clapped out shuttle transporter. It's not just the power needed to send the signal, its keeping an annular confinement beam intact. I would have said that a network like the interstellar gate network in Stargate, would be the only way to do it without re-writing or hand-waving Trek physics. The subspace relays would need to be re-purposed as transporter hubs, likely very susceptible to self-destructing whenever cloaked ships are in the area.
I would think that TransWarp beaming would only be used for "Emergency Situations" and not a primary form of travel at great distances (≥ 1.0 ly) due to the # of X-Factors that can screw up your signal.

I wouldn't want my Matter Stream spread over space due to somebody installing faulty hardware or hardware devloping a problem all of a sudden during my re-materialization phase.

There's too many issues with transporting over such vast distances like what if there was a cloaked vessel that directly moves in between the moment I transport and the moment that my data or matter stream is in flight and the cloaking field sends my data or matter stream to god knows where and my signal is lost.

When you're close and in orbit of your target, the amount of X-Factors drop significantly and you scan for things that might interfere with your transport signal.

I'd just rather find it safer if the Transporter System was nearby and not (≥ 1.0 ly) away.

At least use a Spatial Trajector or other Teleportation system if you want to travel such ranges.
Those seem to be far safer at very long ranges than using the classical (De-Materilizer/Re-Materilizer Transporter System).

You have so many options to choose from when it comes to alternate Teleporation Systems:

Spatial Trajectors: (NOTE: The Sikarian version based on their home planet had a range of 40,000 ly because it's Planets Core was made of "TetraHedral Quartz" that amplified the signal's range. Given how large a Planets Core is usually, most StarShips can't carry something that large.

The Borg "Spatial Trajector" seems to be limited to single or double-digit ly in Teleporting Range distance via it's Portal.

Inverter (Folded-Space Transporter):
The Ansata terrorist used these, I theorize that the 32nd century has the Inverter perfected and that the classical Molecular Transporter has fell out of favor due to the energy requirements and convenience.
 
Last edited:
It occurs to me that Kirk and company were the first to see long range transportation in action, when they intercepted Gary Seven on his way to Earth. Perhaps Scotty “reinvented” the technology after analyzing the data following that encounter.
 
We know that by 2387 Scotty had developed transwarp beaming and even told Ambassador Spock about it. How come it hasn't been utilized in Picard? Might have come in handy in some recent episodes. The closest we had was the beam to Nepenthe from the Artifact, but that was specifically mentioned as being unique to the Borg cube's abilities.
It should have been the norm come Discovery's third season. In the first episode, I thought those teleports were between planets, not places on the same one.

I can only assume it was erased from history during the temporal wars.
 
It should have been the norm come Discovery's third season. In the first episode, I thought those teleports were between planets, not places on the same one.

I can only assume it was erased from history during the temporal wars.

I don't think TW beaming was erased from history (otherwise, I don't think Scotty would have finished it in the first place.

It was just never put into action for whatever stupid reason or just writers decided to ignore the technology (like many others for the purpose of drama so the Burn could work - but otherwise would fall flat on its face and would have to rethink the entire story to something more... coherent that fits the universe and advanced technology - plus the underwhelming technological development of UFP by 31st century - looks like they decided to shelve every single piece of technology and intentionally/artificially slowed down their rate of development - because judging from what we've seen in the 24th century, the 31st century makes 0 sense in ANY practical capacity how it was portrayed - meanwhile everyone else seem to be advancing just fine).

All this talk that 'technology takes away from the human condition' is just a stupid and unimaginative excuse to keep things as they are (its why I'm still secretly hoping the 31st century as seen on Disco was not the actual Prime future but an alternate one).
 
I thought Dukat had a long range transporter--to escape Empok Nor...

Which wasn't far from DS9. A few Ly's at most.
Also, it wouldn't be impossible to route a transporter signal through a subspace listening post and/or amplifier.
So, it might not have been anthing too elaborate compared to a run of the mill transporter that was simply modified to work with existing relay stations (at this point in the seried, the Dominion was well versed in SF technology and already knew how to route signals via alien systems).

Could have also been Dominion version of subspace transporter (which the Federation already explored but never used due to health hazzards. Also, given how infrequently the long range transporer was seen being used (about twice on-screen that I recall), it could be the Dominion is using subspace beaming and limits its use to prevent cumulative damage.
 
Well, from Enterprise, Kronos is quite close to Earth.. :p

Could just put a caviet, has a 10 ly range or something, That its not instantaneous, and the signal degrades given time, so its long range, as compared to the 40,000 miles for Federation transporters, but not instantaneous travel all over the quadrant.

You could "technically" beam ships and crews a far distance with the technology.. Like what was done in TOS to the enterprise a couple times.
 
It could simply be the fact that most people aren't comfortable with the risks of the distance involved with the transport. It may have become the norm to be transported to and from orbit. or from one planetary point to another on the same planet, but distances further than that they didn't want to attempt due to the risks involved. Again, Kirk ended up in the beer tube, imagine being beamed into a bulkhead or just into space because someone was a few meters off. Or imagine if half of Kirk ended up in the beer tube and half of Kirk on the other side of the glass.
 
plus the underwhelming technological development of UFP by 31st century - looks like they decided to shelve every single piece of technology and intentionally/artificially slowed down their rate of development
Let's not pretend that this is new to Discovery, it started as far back as TOS.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top