MovieChat Forums > Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) Discussion > Transporter (etc) makes no sense

Transporter (etc) makes no sense

posted 7 months ago by avortac4 (3744)
4 replies | jump to latest

All this 'holographic energy stuff' makes no sense, really. I have written a bit about how replicators and the holodeck would change the attitudes, minds, lifestyles of people so much, this kind of space travel probably would never happen, but the one BIG problem in all the Star Trek shows and movies is the transporter.

I am all for 'materializing' things from pure energy using some kind of higher-level 'blueprint', so you can tell the computer go give you Earl Grey Tea (though I would rather go for Green Tea or Maccha - and I refuse to write it 'Matcha', because it makes no sense in hiragana). No problem with that.

However, when you take something that already exists, then disassemble them on atomic level, then recompile the atoms, we run into massive, MASSIVE problems and implications that ripple throughout all existence.

Just off the top of my head; what would happen, if the computer malfunctioned, and suddenly transported Q somewhere, but failed to reassemble him? Of course, an omniscient entity would see it coming because they can 'see the future', but what would technically happen there?

People of this planet, especially writers of TV shows, have not yet figured out how a human being REALLY works, what life REALLY is and so on. They think a soulless fetus is 'human', they think removing a lifeless blob from a womb is somehow 'murder' and so on. Sigh.

A human being is not the physical, bipedal entity you see in front of you. It's the soul that INHABITS the physical body, not the body. You have a body, you are not a body. This kind of super BASIC info seems to be lost in this world for some reason.

But we can disregard ALL the deeper knowledge about chakras, meridians, akupoints, the etheric body, the astral body, the silver cord, mental body, causal body, the soul, energy vibrations and so on - how ALL that would work with a mechanical 'transporter', is quite puzzling to think about, but fine, let's SHOVE it all aside.

My point this time has to do with the age-old, puzzling question; if an entity is disassembled completely into atoms, into a 'pattern' (I am trying hard to not ask where the soul is when this happens), and then reassembled again into EXACTLY what they were, including their clothing, weapons, etc., then..

01) ..shouldn't it be 100% impossible to sneak any kind of weapon or bomb into Enterprise? This seems to happen, and 'mystery objects' are 'transported', but the TRANSPORTER COMPUTER should know EXACTLY what is in the box, or it could not reassemble the atoms, now could it?

02) ..shouldn't the reassembled version of ANYTHING be 100% pristine, clean, healthy, perfect? Why would they take a faulty heart and reassemble it EXACTLY as a faulty heart, when they could reassemble it as a healthy heart? Why would ANY illness exist, why would anyone get older, when they would be reassembled as their optimal, most healthy, virile, youthful 'self' every single time they use this thing?

This realization makes it hard to swallow things like 'beaming up injured parties' why would the transporter reassemble someone injured, EXACTLY as 'injured', instead of 'completely healthy'? Why would it EVER do this? There should at the very least be a confirmation dialogue, as in 'This bipedal entity has a face scar - are you sure you want to reassemble them as injured in the face? Y / N?' or something.

It also makes you think about so many things, like Riker's beard. How easy would it be to never have to shave, and always being able to 'grow' a full beard instantly, because that 'pattern' exists in the transporter and you can customize your look to bearded or non-bearded every single time you use the transporter? You could have a 'default setting' and then perhaps a planetary customization, so you'd have blue skin if you materialize in planet Goosbane and so on.

Cosplaying would be super easy this way, and it, of course, could, and realistically, WOULD eventually (if not immediately) manifest towards people wanting to customize their physical body more and more, until we'd have TRUE 'furries' and My Little Ponies and all kinds of weird, odd-sized, animal-, and other creature-shaped people running all over the place!

WHy would anyone ever WANT to be in a dull, samey, predictable bipedal entity body if they could be a different creature form every time they transport? Why would they want to do a dull 'space exploration' (which amounts to bringing medicines to different planets or boringly try to push some moon to a different orbit.. the title lies so much, 'explore different civilizations', 'go boldly where no MAN has gone' MY A55! All they do is 'side quests', the interesting stuff happens as a coincidence every time!)..

..when they could play around with this form-changing stuff and even duplicate themselves as some kind of half-transparent, rainbow-colored squirrel-trees and marry themselves as such?

It's MIND-BOGGLING, how many absolutely massive implications this transporter stuff has..

[–] avortac4 (3744) 7 months ago

.. that the writers obviously did not think about. They just needed a quick way to go from spaceship to planet and back, and they did not have the budget to do it any other way, or so I heard.

But this kind of quick decision just happens to have ridiculously MASSIVE implications they should have addressed.

So when I watch these shows, I just can't wrap my head around why anyone would just remain looking like Picard, when they could look like ANYTHING they want every second of their existence and never grow old, bald, injured, wrinkly, etc.

It boggles the mind people do this dull job when they could just live their BEST, optimal life in holodeck all day long.

There should never be any medical problems, when you can just beam someone into health almost instantly. No one should need any medicine, because you can become 100% healthy with perfect immune system for all eternity and never even grow old, just by beaming a little bit.

It's hard for me to feel the immersion or understand why anyone would be 'dying' or why Beverly Crusher is even needed, or why the transport would REASSEMBLE SOME FACE INJURY EXACTLY AS FACE INJURY instead of healthy face, so it takes me away from the story instantly.

Of course a lot of this show is like that - if you take Q, for example.. this show BEGINS with Q, it ENDS with Q... has a lot of Q inbetween. This means, the whole show, EVERYTHING that happens, could be simply a dream Q had, or completely orchestrated, created, etc. by Q. There's nothing indicating it couldn't be, and there is NO problem in ANY episode that could not be solved by Q - you know, the entity that KNOWS everything and IS everywhere and can see the future and has the power to change anything and everything!

In other words, there is NO problem the Enterprise and its crew face that Q even CAN be unaware of. This means, even in non-Q-episodes, Q's presence exists, because Q is all-knowing, and Enterprise is his 'favorite toy'. He knows every episode.

[–] avortac4 (3744) 7 months ago

Q does not want some other entity or problem destroying Enterprise or killing his 'favorite crew', so this means that even when Q does not officially exist in the episode, we know nothing too bad can happen, because Q would simply PREVENT it, because he knows everything, including the future and past of the whole Enterprise and its crew in all the detail that ever has, does and will happen to it.

This means, we KNOW there simply are no high stakes, because Q would intervene, if something truly bad were to happen. Q is like an omnipotent, ever-present force that spoils every episode by killing the stakes.

The implications of Q and the stupidity of Borg, the implications of transporters - I would say those are the biggest problems of this show that made it much worse than it had to be. Had Q not existed, there had been stakes. Without transporters, you could take 'injuries' seriously. Without Borg, you could actually take the 'other civilizations' and mystery of destroyed outposts seriously.

I mean, the transporter problem goes even further - they can disassemble anything into atoms and reassemble them. Why can't they do that on a large scale? Just disassemble the whole borg ship, game over for Borg. But nope.. we just shoot 'photon torpedoes' insted. Sigh.

How can you have transporter and replicator tech, but no cloaking ability? Just capture all the photons around your ship and bend them accordingly, there, now you are invisible.

Can't you ask Q for stuff like that? Hey, could you tell us how to cloak the Enterprise? Hey, Q, could you please remove Borg from existence or at least wipe their memory of The Enterprise and confuse where Earth is so they can never find it? Cloak Earth from the Borg? Freeze all Borg until other civilizations can fight them?

Wouldn't Borg be more intimidating with a less stupid name, more interesting ship design and if they could actually work on a more etheric or spiritual level, taking over people by possession?

[–] strntz (12254) 7 months ago

Flash news Chatters! Avortac is working on a "Winnebago as spaceship in Spaceballs makes no sense"!

Stand by!

[–] cv1cv (470) 7 months ago

BEWARE! Avortac4 is a troll trying to waste everyone's time with such idiotic comments. Look at his posts. He doesn't think anything in any film makes sense. His post may seem like it makes sense in the first sentence or two. But he always quickly wanders off into a completely idiotic idea, and then writes a wall of text that makes no sense. And his sole purpose is to waste your time, thinking he's cute for doing so. Don't feed the troll. If you write a comment, you're giving this troll EXACTLY what he wants. Don't comment after my comment.