• 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!

Wouldn't Earth Teleportation Be Too Disruptive?

There's a scene in "Explorers" where Sisko tells Jake a story about how homesick he was when he first left home to attend Starfleet Academy in San Francisco, and how he would transport back to New Orleans for dinner. He says he would materialize in the living room every night at first, and his parents would act as if he'd just walked downstairs from his bedroom. Jake responds "you must have used up a month of transporter credits!"

I would think he could only do that because he was in Starfleet and that transporter credits would be something like leave off base passes or something.
 
The civilian system could be highly automated, the system would have emergency operators ready to jump in if a problem occurs, but they're not usual part of most transports.

Starfleet occasionally beams into unusual situations and so requires a operator, also Starfleet might be using highly specialized version of the transporter.

The transporter in Mr. Lurry's office (Tribbles) didn't appear to possess a operator.
 
The Sisko story led me to believe that, even though perhaps it's not technology everyone has in his home, it's not that difficult to gain access to a transporter service. As for individuals having a transporter at their disposal, Alt-Paris had one in non sequitur.

On the one hand, he says that it comes in handy with his kind of friends, so that sounds like the device is not something everybody would have. Though he probably was talking about his portable site-to-site transporter there, and not about transporters in general.

On the other hand, alt-Paris doesn't look like he has been in a lot of luck the last few years, so that would mean that such a device is not out of reach for someone who really, really wants it, even if it means to perhaps evade some rules.
 
Last edited:
It would be handy for 911 situations, getting someone to a hospital asap. It would be great for avoiding icy roads or bad storms.
 
Transporters are like most everything else in GR's Utopian future: on close examination it only works if you rule out the possibility of people behaving like human beings.
I do believe that was part of his whole point of view. That the "Roddenberry Box" required a major shift in humanity's behavior and thinking. He was even annoyed by "No smoking on the Bridge" sign in TWOK.
 
I do believe that was part of his whole point of view. That the "Roddenberry Box" required a major shift in humanity's behavior and thinking. He was even annoyed by "No smoking on the Bridge" sign in TWOK.

And quite right. Look at how well we've managed to get rid of smoking in the 30 years since then. There aren't any no smoking signs in my workplace, why would there need to be, you'd only need it in areas where smoking might be acceptable. Likewise, "do not flush in spacedock" implies that toilet waste is jettisoned out into space. We certainly don't do that on the space station, or planes or trains. A cheep laugh that doesn't stand the test of time.

Kirk can read a book, fine, (it's amazing how many of our protaganists are interested in a period 300-400 years earlier, but not 500-600 or 100-200). Riker's into jazz - but not other music, Paris watches TV, on a 4:3 CRT - a fad that lasted 100 years (1940-2040) of which only the first half was 4:3 CRTs), NuKirk loves the Beastie Boys and nokia (remember them?) phones, but glasses? Really?
 
I do believe that was part of his whole point of view. That the "Roddenberry Box" required a major shift in humanity's behavior and thinking. He was even annoyed by "No smoking on the Bridge" sign in TWOK.
Well we have 'love instructors' (sex therapists) in our real world :biggrin: who knows what else we will get in real life.
 
, NuKirk loves the Beastie Boys and nokia (remember them?) phones, but glasses? Really?
And how many ten year old boys in 2017 love music that is over 300 years old today...That scene failed my leap of imagination test. Or maybe little boys in 2017 from Iowa play Mozart while speeding down the road in their dad's car???
 
And how many ten year old boys in 2017 love music that is over 300 years old today...That scene failed my leap of imagination test. Or maybe little boys in 2017 from Iowa play Mozart while speeding down the road in their dad's car???
Wait, you didn't do that? I love Beethoven, Bach, Handel and several others, and would often enjoy them at loud volumes cruising to high school. Granted, I was a total nerd, and that might just be me, but yeah I did something similar.
 
Kirk can read a book, fine, (it's amazing how many of our protaganists are interested in a period 300-400 years earlier, but not 500-600 or 100-200). Riker's into jazz - but not other music, Paris watches TV, on a 4:3 CRT - a fad that lasted 100 years (1940-2040) of which only the first half was 4:3 CRTs), NuKirk loves the Beastie Boys and nokia (remember them?) phones, but glasses? Really?

There are various lines indicating interest in the 20th to 22nd centuries, but naturally only the 20th century ones stand out because you recognize them as part of the real world. For example, the "classic novelist" from the 21st century Kirk talks about in City on the Edge. We've also seen various characters enjoy holodeck settings earlier than the 20th century, as well as books and music.
 
The obvious answer is that there are more 20th (and early 21st) century references because the thing is written by and for 20th (and early 21st) century people.

But if you want to try to come up with a fictional justification, it isn't that far fetched that one historical century would draw more interest than many others in the future. I'd argue that today, in America, there's more interest in the English Renaissance (late 16th-early 17th century, Tudors, Shakespeare, age of exploration, etc.) than any other time period. One could mount a good case for the middle ages, but that's a much less defined, longer period of time, and many of its casual enthusiasts have only a fanciful understanding of it (even by contrast with something as historically inaccurate as a Renaissance fair).
 
There are various lines indicating interest in the 20th to 22nd centuries, but naturally only the 20th century ones stand out because you recognize them as part of the real world.

20th to 21st, sure, but I honestly can't think of a single reference to 22nd century culture outside Erika Hernandez mentioning contemporary movies in "Home". Even Enterprise's movie night never had anything "modern", it was all stuff from the 20th or 21st centuries. What lines indicating interest in the 22nd century are you referring to?
 
Last edited:
20th to 21st, sure, but I honestly can't think of a single reference to 22nd century culture outside Erika Hernandez mentioning contemporary movies in "Home". Even Enterprise's movie night never had anything "modern", it was all stuff from the 20th or 21st centuries. What lines indicating interest in the 22nd century are you referring to?

Maybe there wasn't anything from the 22nd century specifically, but there definitely were things from "100 to 200 years ago" from the characters' perspective. This is from DS9 Crossover:
BASHIR: Computer, play us a little something by Tor Jolan.
KIRA: You know Tor's work?
BASHIR: I've made it a point to listen to Bajoran music ever since I arrived.
KIRA: Really.
BASHIR: Tor strikes me as the best of the lot, really. Slightly derivative of the Boldaric masters of the last century but pleasantly diverting.
 
Maybe there wasn't anything from the 22nd century specifically, but there definitely were things from "100 to 200 years ago" from the characters' perspective. This is from DS9 Crossover:

Yeah, but whenever culture from our future is mentioned, it's always alien culture. Virtually all of the human art, music, or entertainment that gets mentioned is from our own past. The characters are fans of classical music or jazz or noir mystery stories or Westerns or '30s movie serials or what-have-you, but we never see a regular character who's a fan of, say, the literature of the early Martian Colonies, or the music of post-First Contact Earth.
 
Yeah, but whenever culture from our future is mentioned, it's always alien culture. Virtually all of the human art, music, or entertainment that gets mentioned is from our own past. The characters are fans of classical music or jazz or noir mystery stories or Westerns or '30s movie serials or what-have-you, but we never see a regular character who's a fan of, say, the literature of the early Martian Colonies, or the music of post-First Contact Earth.
Yes, I can only think of one reference to uniquely human art post-First Contact...Anbo-jyutsu, the ultimate evolution of the martial arts! But if Earth has become mostly a melting pot of alien cultures, that could explain an affinity toward the pre-contact period being considered more "authentic" Human culture.
 
There are scene parts from TWOK that might apply here.

The first was when Spock and Kirk part ways at the end of the Kobyashi Maru test

TANNOY VOICE: Captain Spock, Captain Spock, space shuttle leaving in fifteen minutes.
KIRK: Where are you off to, now?
SPOCK: The Enterprise. I must check in before your inspection. And you?
KIRK: Home.

Interesting that Spock did not beam straight to the Enterprise. Why did he choose to take a shuttle? Was it choice?

The other scene was the very next one when McCoy stopped by Kirk's apartment with the Romulan Ale

KIRK: Why! Bless me, Doctor! What beams you into this neck of the woods?
McCOY: 'Beware Romulans bearing gifts.' Happy Birthday, Jim.

Was Kirk just being funny? Was this just an expression? Did McCoy beam over?
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top