24th century technology

[Lynn stryker]

Transporter There is some evidence that the transporter was invented not too long before "The Cage". The TOS transporter was slow and complicated to handle. Some people, like Dr. McCoy, were still afraid of being beamed, which may be taken as evidence that the device was fairly new. On the other hand, Dr. Pulaski was still opposed to using the transporter a hundred years later, as was Lwaxana Troi (TNG: "Manhunt"). As stated in TNG: "Realm of Fear", transporter psychosis is known since 2209. It is obvious that this illness should have first been found quite soon after the transporter has come into general use. Finally, the most definite evidence can be found in TNG: "The Masterpiece Society" where the leader of the forgotten colony on Moab IV has no idea that something like the transporter exists. Since there have always been many scientists and engineers in the colony, it is very unlikely that the inhabitants have forgotten about the transporter. The colony was founded in 2168. We may assume that the travel to this remote star system has taken several years and maybe even decades. Anyway, when they left Earth, the transporter must have been completely unknown and not even a project to develop one should have existed. Furthermore, this clearly indicates that the transporter can't be a technology that the Vulcans brought to Earth. Even if they kept secret how exactly it worked, its basic principle should have become public.

The transporter on Enterprise NX-01 is the first one to be approved for transport of living beings (ENT: "Broken Bow"). But it must not be something that was developed out of thin air. It would be woefully implausible to build such a delicate and power-consuming device for the first time and already install it on a starship. We have to assume that its development has taken several years or even decades, and that cargo transporters or small-scale prototypes were already familiar at that time, probably dating back to around 2100. This is hard to reconcile with TNG: "The Masterpiece Society", and now that the transporter exists almost a century sooner than previously assumed, the least realistic regular technology of Star Trek is rendered even less likely. On the other hand, maybe the peace period following First Contact has really given science and technology a boost.

The most obvious problem of the NX-01 transporter is that it is significantly faster than the transporter in TOS. The total time from the beginning of de-materialization to the completion of the re-materialization (ENT: "Broken Bow", "Strange New World") of up to three persons at once ("The Andorian Incident") and also of the voluminous reactor ("Civilization") is about five seconds, just like in TNG (as also confirmed by the TNGTM). In DS9: "The Search" a duration of six seconds is mentioned. Since everyone familiar with the internet knows that transfer speed is a matter of the available bandwidth and therefore of the technology, this leads to the conclusion that the 22nd century transporter is indeed more advanced than 100 years later. I am unable to make up an explanation for this technological regress. The addition of a biofilter or an anti-transporter psychosis routine may require additional time, but I wouldn't expect the fully-fledged transporter of the 23rd century to be slower than the still flawed prototype. Concerning the biofilter, the transporter was considered an option, but was not used in "Extinction", because there was no possibility to contain the virus. In other words, there was no biofilter yet. More about the consistency of transporter use.

The separate procedures of beaming up the reactor and then beaming it into space in "Civilization" deserves a honorable mention. At latest since TNG it was possible to beam someone or something from any location to any other location without intermediate materialization on the transporter platform. Intraship beaming is another issue to be considered. In TOS: "Day of the Dove" it was deemed dangerous to beam someone to another location inside the ship, whereas Archer had no problem doing so in ENT: "Chosen Realm". We may excuse this considering that the transporter would likely use certain channels toward the ship's outer hull (see the transporter emitters on 24th century ships) to beam someone out or in. Maybe beaming along these channels within the ship is possible with little danger, whilst the transport in "Day of the Dove" may have crossed half the ship - although this still wouldn't be a general restriction.

The 22nd century transporter is supposed to have a range of 1,000km (as opposed to the 40,000km range in TNG), according to the writer's guide. However, it was 10,000km as stated in ENT: "Rajiin". The range won't make a difference story-wise, since we can assume that Enterprise will usually occupy a low orbit, so that beaming will always be an option like in all other Star Trek series too.

The Klingons have transporters too (ENT: "Marauders"), and they seem to use it routinely, even on a freighter. In ENT: "Divergence" it is even possible to beam the canister with the virus through two shields (of the colony and of the battlecruiser). There is no obvious explanation, except that the attacking Klingons were careless enough to leave a weak spot in their shields that the Klingons in the colony could find.


Note: From ex-astris-scientia.org