• 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!

Would a Transporter work for Clark Kent?

UncleRogi

Fleet Captain
Fleet Captain
Would a Transporter work for Clark Kent?

My opinion would be no.

If one is Invulnerable, one wouldn't be fundamentally torn apart by the amount of energy needed for transport. I think that even antimatter can't generate enough power to effect Clark.

I'd like to hear others views; It something strange to think about every once in a while :wtf:
 
On the other hand, transporters are basically magic. They've been shown to be capable of beaming up entire shuttlecraft, which are no doubt made of extremely durable materials (one of which is actually called "duranium"), without any excessive power demands. I agree with the premise of your post, that it should be harder for transporters to dematerialize substances with particularly strong interatomic bonds, but canon has never portrayed them in that way, just giving them the ability to transport anything effortlessly unless the story requires a dramatic malfunction. (And yet somehow this universal disintegration capability is never repurposed as the truly devastating weapon it could logically become.)
 
On Smallville Alicia Baker was able to transport/teleport Clark. It seem to be the same thing.
 
A transporter would be great for Smallville!

They can instantly transport the characters from Metropolis:

infamoust.jpg


To Smallville:

infamoust.jpg


To Detroit:

infamoust.jpg


Even to Los Angeles:

infamoust.jpg
 
Would a Transporter work for Clark Kent?

My opinion would be no.

If one is Invulnerable, one wouldn't be fundamentally torn apart by the amount of energy needed for transport. I think that even antimatter can't generate enough power to effect Clark.

I'd like to hear others views; It something strange to think about every once in a while :wtf:

An incredibly dense molecular structure has often been the explanation of his invulnerability. Whether Superman has ever been denser than the densest stuff we've seen transported though isn't very easy to determine.
 
Clark Kent doesn't even need a transporter though, considering how fast he can run and fly.
 
Clark Kent doesn't even need a transporter though, considering how fast he can run and fly.
what if he was for some reason trapped in a cave full of Kypronite, and needed to be transported to safety. Obviously being surrounded by Kypronite he would be too weak to move himself.

I think transporting Superman could make for some "the transporter gone wrong again Captain" comics / episodes / fanfic / fanfilm (they make Superman fanfilms right?)

the most obvious being that Superman is split into two by the transporter, one being Clark Kent & one being Superman, done before of course.

and god help us if Superman was ever merged with Lex Luthor.
 
There have been plenty of stories where Superman has been teleported to other planets, dimensions, or what-have-you.
 
I always wondered why there wasn't a Kryptonian like race on Star Trek? That would seem golden. :techman:
 
There have been plenty of stories where Superman has been teleported to other planets, dimensions, or what-have-you.

Yeah, but it seems to be a have-your-cake-and-eat-it too kind of thing.

If Kryptonians are truly invulnerable under a yellow sun, the transort effect should not work. Ever.
 
Last edited:
^
Unless they can get kryptonite in the stream...that might explain how Alicia was able to do it...cause she broke down in little parts...and so did Clark when she teleported him.
 
The Justice League has transporters and I'm sure Superman's been through those.


Exactly. You beat me to the punch. Back when the JLA had their satellite headquarters, the team routinely used transporter beams to beam back and forth.

I don't recall Superman ever saying anything like "You folks take the transporters. I'll meet you there."

The JLA transporters were seen as recently as FINAL CRISIS, when Black Canary and others used them to escape from the Justifiers . . ..
 
When I saw the title of this thread, my first thought was, "...but why would Clark need to hire Jason Statham?"
 
it should be harder for transporters to dematerialize substances with particularly strong interatomic bonds, but canon has never portrayed them in that way, just giving them the ability to transport anything effortlessly unless the story requires a dramatic malfunction.

Perhaps this is why Transporters are said the work on a sub-atomic level, bypassing the too strong atomic bonds problem. This could also explain the existence of non-replicable substances, since replicators only work on the atomic or perhaps molecular level.
 
If Kryptonians are truly invulnerable under a yellow sun, the transort effect should not work. Ever.

Depends on your iteration of the Superman mythos and how literally you're using the word "invulnerable." In many incarnations -- the original comics, the Fleischer shorts, the John Byrne reboot, the DC Animated Universe -- Superman wasn't "truly invulnerable," but had limitations on his strength and durability. He could be overpowered, he could be hurt, he could potentially be killed by a sufficiently devastating force. He was a superman, not a god.
 
A transporter doesn't have to work by disintigration/reintigration, that's just how it's explained in Trek. It can also work by "wormhole" like in Stargate. The visual effect could be a "wormhole-field" limited in size and shape to a human body, that opens a path between two locations. This would probably more like how Alicia did it in Smallville.

So I think Clark could be teleported, the writers just have to remember the ramifications of the disintigration method vs his density/invulnerability. Most times we really aren't told how the teleport works, we are just told it's teleportation, so we can just move on with the story.

It's a good question applied to a story like The Changling in TOS. Nomad could withstand the full power of the ship's phasers, but the transporters could work on it.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top