Star Trek wouldn't be Star Trek, without the transporter.
What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?
- Thread starter Amasov
- Start date
Star Trek wouldn't be Star Trek, without the transporter.
Yep. Even ENT had to use the 22nd century transporter sometimes so without the device Trek isn't Trek.
There's a thread on "scary" Trek moments, and I didn't think about it until we got into this about the transporter, but arguably one of the most chilling, disturbing and haunting moments in all of Star Trek involves the transporter in The Motion Picture and the "malfunction" that occurs.
The fact we don't see what Cronenberg-ish mess materialized on the pad back at Starfleet Command makes it even scarier, just that ungodly screaming wail and that it's described as not living long .. "fortunately."
Your imagination fills in the blanks and makes it so much worse.
The fact we don't see what Cronenberg-ish mess materialized on the pad back at Starfleet Command makes it even scarier, just that ungodly screaming wail and that it's described as not living long .. "fortunately."
Your imagination fills in the blanks and makes it so much worse.
Seeing how humans, the bozos in Conundrum, & the weirdos in Schisms have all managed to wipe Data's memories, & in Thine Own Self he just accidentally loses memories, it doesn't seem much more difficult for his memory to get effected than anyone else's.
That at no time during any dealings with the Paxons did they even try to do so to him suggests that his being so unusual to them maybe meant they really had no idea how to deal with him. They might've just been really shocked by him or even afraid to do anything to him, especially given he was conscious the whole time. They never have that kind of contact/interaction.
It also begs the question that if Picard was going to go along with ordering the crew to have their memories wiped, in order to get out of this, why didn't THEY do the same to Data themselves? Surely, Data & Geordi would know how to purge Data's memories for the sake of the objective. So maybe they secretly wanted Data to have a memory of this.
As for the Paxons, they seem pretty unprepared for any of this, like it's the only time it's ever happened. It's either stun them & dump them none the wiser, as usual, or in a pinch just destroy it all. They've never really had to improvise other options before.
Completely agreed, for all the reasons you stated.
Scenes like that make it very understandable why some characters have phobias regarding the transporter.
The Satarrans from Conundrum were less advanced when it came to weapons technology yet more advanced (apparently) when it came to memory manipulation (both when it came to lifeforms and computers). The solanogen-based life forms came from a very different environment. Not everything that is easy for one civ is easy for the others as well, even when they seem of general comparable technological and scientific development.
As for the Federation, I'm not sure they know enough of data's positronic brain to erase memories without causing other damage- they can't duplicate it either, after all.
As for the Federation, I'm not sure they know enough of data's positronic brain to erase memories without causing other damage- they can't duplicate it either, after all.
Geordi pulls some of Data's memories in Insurrection & literally holds them in his hand, for Data to say "there they are". Soong pretty much wiped Data's whole childhood. Picard enters things into Data's memory in Times Arrow. Data's had his memory restored in both Conundrum & Thine Own Self. I'm probably forgetting more, but it doesn't seem to be a big leap that with Data's help, they could work out striking things from his memory if they wanted to IMHO
^those are good examples, though of course Soong would know how to do much more than anyone else.
Very true. I would think Data himself would be second to him in that knowledge, maybe even his equal, by the time he constructs Lal.
I think that was the point; to show how easily people can slide down that slippery slope.
You are correct
It's actually a notice-able distance.
Despite what I’ve said about the transporter being iconic, I don’t know: The Orville doesn’t have one, but a lot of people still experience it as feeling very Trek. I could imagine a series set some years before Enterprise, with no transporter at all, still managing to feel like a Trek show.
Remote Transporter Activation program uses Sensors to detect empty space and to align you far away from objects so that you don't end up fused in furniture or the bulk heads.
Same with Stargate, and no I don't count the titular device as one. Atlantis used a shuttle all the time and it felt very Trek at times. Same with Stargate SG-1.
About transporters that were discussed earlier.
I think it would make sense that when transporting people there should be a transporter at least in the other end of the transport cycle.
Basically, for example you couldn't transport directly from the bridge to engineering, there's no transporter unit involved. You either step into a transporter, get beamed or step out from one after transport.
I think it would make sense that when transporting people there should be a transporter at least in the other end of the transport cycle.
Basically, for example you couldn't transport directly from the bridge to engineering, there's no transporter unit involved. You either step into a transporter, get beamed or step out from one after transport.
My unpopular opinion... The Visitor is very overrated. I've never really liked it, and watching it again for the first time in ages it still does nothing for me.
I know it's hugely popular. Hugely. So I know I'm the odd one out. I really tried with it again. But it does nothing for me. I tried to understand why... and for me it's lack of consequence.
I know it's hugely popular. Hugely. So I know I'm the odd one out. I really tried with it again. But it does nothing for me. I tried to understand why... and for me it's lack of consequence.
- Melanie is a nobody, I don't care about her as a plot device and she goes and she is of no importance.
- Sure older Jake kills himself, but he will live and his father and live... there's no consequence of that.
- I know reset buttons are a big Trek plot device but on this one, it reset and that's that.
- And I know they re-use actors a lot but this is Tony Todd. This is Kurn. I never really bought into him being Jake. And there's often a closer feeling between the real Jake and Ben in a scene in their quarters.
- The future scenes with the crew didn't feel compelling - TNG did better episodes featuring the crew in the future and it felt just a plot device.
The only thing on that list (and TBH I don't remember the episode) that would be terrorism would be poisoning the planets. Presumably civilian settlements. (That's the fun thing about sci-fi - You can do monstrously huge things but because of the scale it's just "Oh and that happened.")
But attacking military assets that would otherwise be used against you? That is definitionally defending your home. After the Cardassian aggression (whatever they called it) the Maquis went to war with Cardassia and then Cardassia enlisted the Federations aid and it was given.
I don't know the "geography" here. I guess this is all in DS9's back yard?
The industrial replicators that were stolen were at DS9... which is INSIDE the Bajoran system. ("FOR THE CAUSE", season 4.) Which their intended use and destination was for civilian use to help Cardassian systems basically destroyed by the Klingons.
Same with the Defiant being stolen. ("DEFIANT", season 3.) And the outpost Tom destroyed was deep INSIDE Cardassian territory. Nowhere near the DMZ and the colonies. (Never mind the fact it was a Starfleet ship that was stolen to begin with.)
It's not defending your homes when all of those targets were outside your systems and actually well within the territory of others.
Last edited:
That makes two of us. I've always been very "meh" on it. Same for The Inner Light.
I know it completely upends the feeling here, but personally I'm immediately reminded of the scene in Galaxy Quest.
"And then it exploded."
Similar threads
- Locked
