Transporter

The transporter is a device which allows for the movement of people or objects from one location to another via teleportation. It has seen usage in every generation of Star Trek, though not without some changes.

Nature

There are several seemingly-conflicted accounts of how exactly the transporter functions. The basic theory as to the function of a transporter is something like this:

1. Determine the target object's location using sensors or manually specified coordinates.
2. Scan the object to obtain a "pattern" (see below).
3. Disassemble the object into its constituent particles. This occurs at the quantum level.
4. Transmit the particles to a destination.
5. Using the pattern obtained earlier, re-construct the object from the constituent particles "at the quantum level".
6. The re-formed object is functionally identical to the original.

There is some doubt as to the second step in this process; some events suggests that a pattern is not needed. In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and in Star Trek: Voyager on numerous occasions, a complete scan of an object is not possible, but the co-ordinates of the object have been isolated and the beaming process could proceed from there. This seems to invalidate the need for a scan before transport, particularly since in the case of Star Trek 2, the item being beamed was the Genesis Device - for which a complete schematic or pattern was not known.

However, in TNG's "Elementary, my Dear Data", when trying to beam a holographic object off of the grid, Geordi and Data indicated that the pattern-signal was not strong enough, and for this reason they tried to employ pattern-enhancers to aid with the beaming process.

Popular Acceptance

An important implication of the nature of transporters is that the original object/person is destroyed in the process, with the "transported" subject at the destination being an exact copy of the original. Evidence of this can be seen in the fact that transporter accidents have created extra replicas of their affected "targets"-- such as James T. Kirk and William Riker. Consequently, a whole host of ethical questions can be raised as to whether or not the transporter in effect murders its subjects.

In Star Trek: Enterprise, Captain Jonathan Archer expressed his dislike of the transport system. Although it did exist and function at that time, it was not considered safe, quite like the first boiler-cars. Archer said that he wouldn't trust it with his life or the lives of his men. This was perhaps a justified position, as more than one attempted transport produced horrific results, such as blending a man and his surroundings.

In the next chronological generation, Star Trek: The Original Series, the prevailing attitude has changed significantly. Though there are still cynics - among them the prominent Dr. McCoy - who insisted that it was a "Crazy way to travel, spreading a man's molecules all over the universe", but the transporter was used widely, and we never heard mention of the ethical dilemmas involved in its use.

By the time of Star Trek: The Next Generation, transporters -- like warp-drive -- are considered to be a "proven technology". Commander William Riker even describes it as "the safest way to travel." It is notable that this same person was personally involved in the afore-mentioned transporter accident, which clearly showed that the transporter had in fact destroyed and copied him.

Limitations

Numerous natural and artificial phenomena interfere with transporter function. Electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic fields, severe weather, dense metals, defensive shields, "inhibitor" fields, exotic radiation, natural minerals, and various other conditions have all prevented transporter use, sometimes merely by their presence in the general vicinity.

In the TOS-era, transporters were much safer to use for ship-to-planet or planet-to-ship transports than ship-to-ship transports or transports to another location within the same ship. Why it would be easier to transport someone from orbit to a location on the ground than from the ship's transporter pad to a compartment in the same ship was never clearly explained.

By the TNG-era, transporter targeting has progressed to the point that transporting from one location to another on a starship is no longer considered hazardous, and transporters are routinely used to transport people and objects from one location to another without materializing the subject on a transporter pad in between. Nonetheless, under particularly hazardous conditions (such as in the presence of heavy interference), the safest course is to transport subjects directly from one transporter pad to another transporter pad at the destination (indicating that transporter systems can interact with each other to boost performance). Portable devices called "pattern enhancers" can also be used to improve transporter function.

Combat Use

Defensive shields block transporter function, but once an enemy's shields have been dropped with weapon fire, boarding parties routinely transport themselves onto enemy starships, indicating that transporting alert, unwilling opponents away from their ship would be so much more difficult as to not be worth attempting.

Transporters can be used to capture unwary opponents, and Federation transporter systems are capable of deactivating any weapons carried by individuals undergoing transport, even if those weapons are actively discharging.

Alternative Uses

• Medical Applications
  • The Enterprise crew once used a sample of Dr. Pulaski's DNA recovered from a hairbrush as a template with which to counteract changes induced by a disease of the week using the ship's transporter.
  • When a transporter malfunction during beam-up transforms several crew members into children (albeit with adult minds), the transporter is able to use patterns from previous transports to restore them to their adult forms.
• Cloning
  • A transporter accident once created a duplicate of William Riker. This event raises the possibility that transporters could rapidly generate copies of fully-trained personnel, but Starfleet has made no effort to duplicate the event.

Trekkie Arguments

In spite of all the things that can stop transporters, trekkies often argue that they represent a huge advantage in battles, using the idiotic idea that an opponent that doesn't have transporter technology can't stop them. This idiotic thinking leads to claims that Starfleet easily defeat opposing factions from Babylon 5 and Star Wars, even though relatively primitive civilizations without transporter technology have blocked transporters in Star Trek itself.