Transporter (Star Trek)
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In the Star Trek fictional universe, transporters are teleportation machines. The devices convert a person or object into an energy pattern (a process called dematerialization), then "beam" it to a target, where it is reconverted into matter (rematerialization). The term transporter accident is a catch-all term for when a person using a transporter is somehow not rematerialized correctly.
According to the book "The Making of Star Trek", Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's original plan did not include transporters, instead calling for characters to land the starship itself. However, this would have required unfeasible and unaffordable sets and model filming; transporters were devised as a less expensive alternative. Transporters first appear in the original pilot episode "The Cage".
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[edit] History
The transporter was invented in the early 22nd century by Dr. Emory Erickson, who also became the first human to be successfully transported (Ent: "Daedalus"). Although the Enterprise (NX-01) has a transporter, the crew uses shuttlepods or other means of transportation before falling back on the transporter. The crew aboard the 23rd century USS Enterprise frequently use the transporter. By the 24th century, transporter travel was very reliable and the "the safest way to travel" (TNG: "Realm of Fear").
In the 24th century, Starfleet Academy cadets receive transporter rations (DS9: "Homefront") and transporters are used for such everyday purposes as moving furniture into a new home (DS9: "Homefront").
Despite its frequent use, characters such as Leonard McCoy and Katherine Pulaski are reluctant to use the transporter (TOS, TNG: "Unnatural Selection"). Reginald Barclay is outright afraid of transporting (TNG: "Realm of Fear").
[edit] Capabilities and limitations
The shows and movie do not go into great detail about transport technology. The Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual claims that the devices transport objects in real time, accurate to the quantum level. Heisenberg compensators remove uncertainty from the subatomic measurements, making transporter travel feasible. Further technology involved in transportation include a computer pattern buffer to enable a degree of leeway in the process.
Since The Original Series, transporters' effective range is 40,000 kilometers[citation needed], although thick layers or rock can reduce this range (TNG: "Legacy"). Transporter operations have been disrupted or prevented by dense metals (TNG: "Contagion"), solar flares (TNG: "Symbiosis"), and other forms of radiation, including electromagnetic (TNG: "The Enemy" & TNG: "Power Play") and nucleonic (TNG: "Schisms"). Transporters have also been stopped by telekinetic powers (TNG: "Skin of Evil") and by brute strength (TNG: "The Hunted"). The TNG episode "Bloodlines" features a dangerous and experimental "subspace transporter" capable of interstellar distances.
Starfleet transporters include a device that can detect and disable an active weapon (TNG: "The Most Toys"), and a bio-filter to remove contagious microbes or viruses from an individual in transport (TNG: "Shades of Gray"). The transporter can also serve a tactical purpose, such as beaming a photon grenade or photon torpedo to detonate at remote locations (TNG: "Legacy", Voy: "Dark Frontier").
While several characters have asserted that transporters cannot transport through a ship's shields, there are instances of this "rule" being broken through a technobabble solution (TNG: "The Wounded") or disregarded by the show's writers (Voy: "Caretaker", Star Trek: First Contact).
In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Vice Admiral James T. Kirk and Lieutenant Saavik carry on a conversation during rematerialization. In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Dr. Gillian Taylor jumps into Kirk's transporter beam during dematerialization, and rematerializes without any apparent ill effects.
People tend to face an appropriate direction when they rematerialize, although in "Manhunt" Lwaxana Troi rematerializes facing the back of the transporter platform. There is no canon explanation for how people maintain their footing when transporting from the evenly surfaced transporter platform to an uneven surface.
The "Mark VII" transporter is capable of handling unstable biomatter (DS9).
According to the TNG Technical Manual, the transporter cannot move antimatter, but this rule has been broken a few times[citation needed].
It remains unclear why the transporter rooms exist. On numerous occasions, characters have been transported to and from various locations, such as the bridge or cargo holds of the ship, or any location on a planet or other vessel. This implies that there is no need for the transporter room, and also raises the question of why people on the ship must first walk to the transporter room instead of simplying being transported from where they are. In addition, the 6 circles on the platform are generally used as targets for the subjects to stand on, but they do not appear to represent any limitation of the hardware to six or less people. People have been transported carrying others, in a coffin style transport, and once even with a slew of animals, hay, and other inanimate objects.
Due to special effects reasons, in TOS, people generally appear immobilized during transport, with the exception of Kirk in the episode That Which Survives. However, by TNG, characters can move within the confines of the transporter beam while being transported.
[edit] Notable uses
Notable transporter uses, malfunctions, and abuses include:
- "Vanishing Point": Hoshi Sato "experiences" the passage of several days during the few seconds she is in the pattern buffer.
- "Daedalus": The transporter's creator comes aboard Enterprise to try to recover his son, who had been turned into an energy being during a transporter accident.
- "The Enemy Within": A transporter makes two nearly identical copies of James T. Kirk: one good, one evil.
- "Mirror, Mirror": A transporter swaps a returning landing party with their counterparts from the Mirror Universe.
- Star Trek: The Motion Picture: Two Starfleet officers are killed when the Enterprise's transporter malfunctions.
- "Unnatural Selection": The transporter is used to help cure a disease afflicting Dr. Katherine Pulaski and the residents of a science outpost.
- "Relics": Montgomery Scott is recovered in the 24th century after spending seventy years stored in a transporter pattern buffer.
- "Rascals": Interference from a spatial anomaly causes four characters to physically but not mentally regress into children when they beam from a shuttlecraft.
- "Second Chances": A transporter-created duplicate of William Riker is discovered on an isolated outpost.
- "Realm of Fear": Lieutenant Reginald Barclay discovers "creatures" in the transporter's matter stream. This is the only appearance of a first-person perspective during the transport process.
- "The Next Phase": Interaction between the transporter and a Romulan cloaking experiment render Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge and Ensign Ro Laren invisible.
- "Our Man Bashir": A transporter accident transforms the crew into characters in a holodeck adventure.
- "Deadlock": A baby is delivered via transporter.
- "Tuvix": A transporter accident melds Tuvok and Neelix into Tuvix.
- "Drone": A transporter creates a Borg super-drone.
- "Scorpion, Part I": After a conventional signal lock fails during an emergency beam-out, chief engineer B'Elanna Torres successfully transports an away team back to the ship by locking onto their bones. This becomes known as a skeletal lock.
[edit] Transporter psychosis
Transporter psychosis is caused by a break down of neurological chemicals during transport. There were cases of transporter psychosis reported as early as the mid 22nd century, however it wasn't officially diagnosed until 2209 in Delinia II. The invention of multiplex pattern buffers all but eliminated the condition. (TNG: "Realm of Fear")
Transporter psychosis affects the body's motor functions, autonomic systems and the higher reasoning centers of the brain. As a result, the victim suffers from paranoid delusions, multi-infarct dementia, hallucinations (somatic, tactile, and visual), and psychogenic hysteria. Peripheral symptoms include sleeplessness, accelerated heart rate, diminished eyesight leading to acute myopia, painful spasms in the extremities, and in most cases dehydration. (TNG: "Realm of Fear")
[edit] Philosophical questions
The discontinuity of the transported object causes theoretical problems in the metaphysical field of identity. This is akin to the Ship of Theseus problem. If Captain Kirk, for example, is beamed to a planet from the Enterprise, he is dissassembled, and later molecules are reassembled to create a "new" Kirk. Is this version the "real" Kirk or merely a copy? If the latter, what happens to the real Kirk? On the other hand, if the molecules reassembled are the original molecules that were disassembled in the first place, it would be hard to consider the rematerialised Kirk a copy.
[edit] Trivia
The transporter special effect, before being done using computer animation, was created by mixing sparkles with water, then agitating the solution.
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