Star Trek: The Next Generation : Why are there transporter rooms ?

Why are there transporter rooms ?

Rather should be why do people have to report to transporter rooms ? they can transport people to other areas that transporter bases aren't in so why report to them?

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

Because Original Star Trek didn't have "site-to-site" transports, it was all done from the transporter rooms. TNG and all of the other Trek spin-offs have simply carried on the tradition. And perhaps people feel comfortable leaving or boarding the ship from specific areas, rather than being beamed in or out from anywhere on it. Site-to-site, I think, is normally used for emergencies anyway, as perhaps it takes more power than usual.

Why are you here if you haven't seen the movie yet?

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

It didn't make any sense for Original Trek, either. They could easily transport from planets, which would be hugely more difficult than site-to-site aboard a ship.

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

Here is another question.
Let's say they transport in a lot of people 1 time per month. Other times mayb 1 or 2 people per week, maybe.
So what does the person that has to work in the transporter room do all day?
Is it a permanent job or rotated? O'Brien is there all the time so it seems as though it is permanent.
Seems a little boring to me.
There isn't even a chair. So he stands there all day checking and rechecking the system to make sure it is functioning. It would be important of course to have it functioning perfectly of course, but it seems like a boring job doesn't it?

Or how about the guy in the brig job.
Or do they just have someone go over there when they are sending a prisoner? That seems more logical. But they never addressed it that way on the show.

She deleted 33,000 e-mails AFTER congress' subpoena for them !

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

Most jobs on the Enterprise seem boring, even the helmsman just sits there for hours and days on end after blessing a few buttons to laying in a course but at least he has a seat to do it.

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?


So what does the person that has to work in the transporter room do all day?


Probably just stay there and do regular maintenance of the system. There are situations where they have had to transport people in a hurry, so they probably need the transporter room manned at all times, even if there isn't much to do most of the time. It might be something like emergency workers who might be sitting around most of the time, yet have to be ready to go at a moment's notice.

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

There is a chair with matching ottoman in the transporter room. O'Brien merely rigged the existing sensors in the hallway to let him know when someone is approaching. When those sensors go off, he jumps up, pushes the chair and ottoman under the console and assumes a pose that will make it look like he's been at the ready for his whole shift.



Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

The heisenberg compensators and pattern buffers have to be kept somewhere.

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

Because they added that site to site transport later. Originally the designer of the D wanted to have it right off the bridge but Roddenberry wanted them to have it elsewhere so they could have conversations en route and give the illusion that the ship is huge.

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

You are correct, Mem.

Movie Theater: Young Frankenstein 10/10. RIP Gene Wilder. One of the funniest people of all time.

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

I think this was already asked before, butt...

Why do they still have bathrooms? Can't they just beam your bodily wastes off of you???

(hopefully straight out into space...)

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

HAhAHa, they probably want 2 restrict beaming 2 essential activities.

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?



Why do they still have bathrooms? Can't they just beam your bodily wastes off of you???


I remember reading somewhere that if they did that, it would lead to disuse of the muscles down there which could cause problems if they ever have to go the "natural" way (such as on away missions, etc.).

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

Okay... then about a Dune suit on away missions? Then you don't even need to take nourishment!!!


Either way, how bad can some incontinence be???

(BTW - astronauts wear diapers)

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

I'd be more worried about the transport accidentally taking things you wanted to keep inside you. Oh, I didn't really need that length of intestinal lining...

Jake Meridius Conhale, at your service!
"Old Man" of the BSG (RDM) boards.

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

To save money it's easier and cheaper to have a spotlight where glitter is poured down as a SFX than to build a shuttle and a stage, shoot scenes using models in space and landing on various types of alien planets(you get the idea).Plus a large chunk of an episode would have been about flying up and down the planets they come across.

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

Better performance, I imagine.

Ideally, all transports would be pad-to-pad, in that the local equipment would provide optimal performance than remote projection. The outgoing signal would have greater accuracy, the incoming signal would have reduced chance of transcription errors due to the local equipment, along with signal checks, checksum verification.

(Which is odd, Barclay mentions in one episode that one molecule out of place and poof, you're gone, which sounds like the signal fails a checksum validation test, but it seems rather extreme to delete a person based on a single error, and as an engineer he should know better if that's not the case, unless he means in a more philosophical sense, such as "I'm not the same person here that I was when I started beaming - my mind is different" or some such).

There are four kinds of transports - pad-to-pad, pad-to-site, site-to-pad, and site-to-site.

The last one, site-to-site, is the worst of them all, as it involves remote deconstruction and remote reassembly of the signal. Greatest probability of error in both entering and exiting the pattern.

There's a few other, practical benefits to using a pad.

For outgoing signals, it isolates the transported person so that only what they want to transport is included, you don't have to worry about accidentally taking part of the wall next to them or the floor beneath them. You also don't have to worry about transporting the wrong person. Commbadges help with that, but you don't always have them.

For arriving signals, it allows a formal greeting, you don't have to worry about accidentally beaming inside a pre-existing object, security isolation, and a dedicated receiving area. (Passports, documentation, step this way for your medical exams...)

In short, transporter rooms increase the reliably of the equipment while adding the benefit of a controlled environment for the signals.

As a matter of shipboard security, arriving site transports should be massively discouraged and there's likely some form of electronic warfare defense, which will predictably fail depending on how plot relevant the intrusion is.

Transporters could be a first-strike weapon in that case, particularly with cloaked ships. A torpedo materializes next to the warp core with 1 second to detonation, good bye starship.

Though, there are some odd cases. Take Star Trek III - when the Klingons board the enterprise, they do so on the Enterprise's transporter pad. It seems a massive risk, in that if they were materializing using the Enterprise's equipment, the Enterprise crew would have the ability to disrupt the patterns and destroy anything mid-transport. Yes, it worked cinematically, but it still seems a massive risk, particularly in that the boarding party was most of the Klingon crew.

(And you'd need standardized transporter protocols, algorithms, the transporters would have to speak the same language so-to-speak, in order to properly interpret the signals. For example, if each particle being transported has an X-Y-Z coordinate, what if different species record it in a different sequence? Best case would be you materialize in mid air and fall to the ground, worst case you end up, in the terms of a certain Vulcan Ambassador "anatomically inverted".

Jake Meridius Conhale, at your service!
"Old Man" of the BSG (RDM) boards.

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?


by jakeconhale
Transporters could be a first-strike weapon

You can bet if humans find or invent a technology, we'll be the first ones to weaponize it. You could not only beam warheads over to enemy ships, but also dematerialize important components, like their warp core....

not to mention beam in assault teams, or beam out unsuspecting victims...

😱

"He's dusted, busted and disgusted, but he's ok"

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

Jake, are you sure you covered everything there?
😆😆
She deleted 33,000 e-mails AFTER congress' subpoena for them !

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

I was thinking the same thing, Nak. Lol.

Movie Theater: Young Frankenstein 10/10. RIP Gene Wilder. One of the funniest people of all time.

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

I didn't quite get it maybe he could explain it again?

But at least he explained the whole thing thoroughly and with good arguments CJ so keep up the good posts Jake! 👍

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

Sure. Conhale is one of our more quality posters.

Movie Theater: Young Frankenstein 10/10. RIP Gene Wilder. One of the funniest people of all time.

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

Great post dude. Love coming on here and reading this stuff. I'm just a casual trek fan but glad to know this board is here

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

It's the busiest board because it's the best Trek.

RIP Gene Wilder. RIP Barbara Hale. You were great in Perry Mason. RIP William Christopher.

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

And now it's gone just when I show up

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

I think mainly it's the same reason they have a Bridge, to organize work stations as necessary. Because, in theory, with the technology they have they could conceivably be able to control the ship's functions from just about anywhere aboard.

Having dedicated transporter rooms keeps things nice and organized in the event they need to be directly accessed, repaired, and other things.

I'd suggest there's a security component to this, but since when has Starfleet been concerned about that? I mean, since the original Enterprise was taken over, rather easily, by a bunch of space hippies, you'd think they'd take better steps to secure their ships and their systems from subversion.

Re: Why are there transporter rooms ?

But those space hippies conquered the Enterprise with the power of love and music Wylde.And since Interstellar we know that love is the strongest force in the universe(lol)🎶
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