Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
We got a bit off-topic in Rev's fed hopper thread so I'm starting a thread about it here ;P
Is it silly that transporters are never used as a weapon in Trek? Would it be banned by treaty? Would the Romulans ever abide by that? Would the Breen even sign it? The Dominion probably wouldn't give a shit. Neither would the Cardassians. The Klingons would probably consider it dishonorable and wouldn't engage in it (except for rogue agents like the Duras sisters or Kruge...).
There are a *lot* of things the transporter could do that they never use it for. It's a truly post-singularity technology and they're just using it as a quick version of the number four bus. You could use it against unshielded enemies (aboard ship or planetside) in a number of ways - beam them into space; scramble them up like Picard did to the Tox Uthat; beam out their bones; beam all the atmosphere off their ship; beam out key components of their ship or bodies; etc (these are a mix of my own suggestions and things other people put forth in Rev's thread).
As for non-weapon uses, you could beam people's waste right out of their bladders and rectums. Goodbye, crew head (except emergency installations I suppose). Also I recall reading some TOS-era novel where the sickbay beds had transporter arrays in them and could beam things in and out of a patient like debris, shrapnel, etc. and which could project forcefields to, for example, keep a major artery closed or halt internal bleeding.
So can you think of any more interesting uses for the transporter, and any more plausible reasons why the galaxy at large in the Trek universe wouldn't use transporters that way?
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Simply, they can't be use against shielded targets... which is most of the time. And I don't think that unshielded targets are worth it because you can just fire a torpedo or phaser and do your damage or destruction. However, Harry Kim did transport a torpedo onto a Borg ship and detonate it thereby destroying it despite just wanting to only disable the ship,
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Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
This is the Treknology 'magic' that I find annoying.
They never bother to properly define the limits of the technology and every time they run into a moderately sticky problem, a solution is made up so the transporter can be used, thereby exacerbating the lameness of it.
So, for many fans, it's become a magic wand.
Registered: Nov 2001
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posted
UG! Dont get me started on the stupidity of esper stuff in Trek- SOMEHOW Troi can "feel" a peson's emotional state even though she's only viewing an image on a screen of a pperson tens of thousands of miles away.
Well, there's a ton of medical uses- skin grafting (with replicator assist), shrapnel/foreign object removal, tumor removal (very slowly- layr of cells at a time to prevent abcess), etc.
Ship repairs should use transporters and replicators to patch the hull as soon as the emergency forcefield kicks in- possibly completely repairing it good as new.
Weapons uses are extreme- just hop-scotching your torpedos to the target instead of launching them is a major leap ahead....at minimum it would increase their range.
Defenses could include de-materializing inbound torpedos/fighters and replacing the deflector array with something that collects useable raw materials for replicator processing while discarding the undesired molecules.
Or you could just transport your logo with OWND!LOL! onto their ship.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Dat: Simply, they can't be use against shielded targets... which is most of the time. And I don't think that unshielded targets are worth it because you can just fire a torpedo or phaser and do your damage or destruction. However, Harry Kim did transport a torpedo onto a Borg ship and detonate it thereby destroying it despite just wanting to only disable the ship,
Well, you could beam ordinance into the space right outside the enemy ship, too close for it to maneuver away from them. Perhaps a volley of small high yeild mines impacting and detonating against the sheilds all at once in a syncronized pattern could overload the sheilds. Then, blowing them up with a photon torpedo won't be that hard.
Also, didn't the crew of the Equinox use the transporter to beam some key component out of Voyager? At least someone thought to use it in that way.
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Registered: Jul 2007
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Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
Jason - it's been pointed out on-screen that replicators can't produce living matter, so your idea of replicating skin grafts is out, but with a proper culture of stem cells or something, you could certainly transport layers of new skin very precisely to avoid scarring.
I think the computer is a magic wand, too. Is it sentient or isn't it? It seems to be fine with commands like "take us to speed this at bearing that, match velocities with the third pirate ship from the left, fire a torpedo, beam me aboard the other runabout, and then return to DS9" yet if you mutter something to yourself it often comically thinks you're talking to it. It's simultaneously incredibly stupid and smarter than Data (it managed to create a sentient holoprogram, for example, just because it was asked to), and it never seems to mishear anyone.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
They did a half-assed TNG episode wherein the computer became (sorta) self-aware.
The skin grafting could be acomplished by the transporter transporting minute amounts of skin cells from a person's undamaged body areas to the wound site- small grafts would probably be unabtrusive.
If the computer memory increases (and I mean drasticly) they could ressurect deceased people, return injured people to health...even do a "Tom Riker" and whip up some combat troops: screw cloning! All you'd need is a person's exact transporter pattern.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
There was that season 7 episode of DS9 with the transporter firearm. The TR-116
Imagine that at the starship weapon level. The enemy vessel has weakened shields on one side but they've turned them away from you. You fire a volley of torpedoes and instantly beam them to the vector that will hit the enemy's ship on its vulnerable side.
Registered: Oct 2007
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Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
I remember the emergent lifeform episode. I've just watched it about a week ago actually. It actually goes to prove my point: The computer is [at least capable of becoming] sentient, so why is it considered "just" a computer and not a person as Data is?
I wonder what kind of fine control they have with the transporter. Can they transport individual molecules? Could they beam drugs directly into the bloodstream, remove harmful toxins from the body, or beam anesthetic gas into an intruder's brain? Granted they have stun settings for that, but the ship doesn't seem to have any automated anti-intruder phaser emplacements in the corridors. Which is pretty stupid, really.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Probably one of those ethical grey areas, like at what point does a collection of cells stop being an embryo become a baby. In the case of AI, after M5 I imagine there are program blocks in place to prevent the computer from becoming self aware, so it exists in potentia. Though it sometimes inadvertently "leaks" out in secondary programs like Moriarty and the EMH.
quote:As for non-weapon uses, you could beam people's waste right out of their bladders and rectums. Goodbye, crew head (except emergency installations I suppose).
I vaguely recall reading a suggestion from DS9's writers that this was what "waste extraction" (DS9's version of the restroom) was supposed to be. It was probably half in jest, though.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
To paraphrase the baddie from Robocop; just because they can do it, doesn't mean that they must do it. Allot of these applications just sound needlessly wasteful and inefficient, even for a civilisation with access to near limitless energy.
quote:Originally posted by Reverend: To paraphrase the baddie from Robocop; just because they can do it, doesn't mean that they must do it.
I thought that was the Federation President in Star Trek VI.
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
Registered: Nov 2000
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