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Transporter

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Constitution II -class transporter room

Defiant -class transporter room

The transporter was a type of teleportation machine, or simply teleporter . It was a subspace device capable of almost instantaneously transporting an object from one location to another , by using matter-energy conversion to transform matter into energy , then beam it to or from a chamber , where it was reconverted back or materialize into its original pattern. ( TOS : " The Squire of Gothos ", " The Savage Curtain "; PRO : " First Con-tact ")

Alternate names for the transporter included matter stream converter , energy-matter scrambler , or transporting device . ( TOS : " The Savage Curtain ", " The Empath "; ENT : " Broken Bow ", " Vanishing Point "; TNG : " Ship In A Bottle "; VOY : " Ex Post Facto "; SNW : " The Broken Circle ") The Organians referred to Klingon transporters as material transmission units . ( TOS : " Errand of Mercy ") The Ferengi referred to theirs as a matter-energy device . ( TNG : " The Last Outpost ") Spock determined that the device used by the Vians that beamed himself, Leonard McCoy , and James T. Kirk to an underground location on the planet Minara II , was what he described as a matter-energy scrambler . ( TOS : " The Empath ")

Someone who was transported by a transporter beam was known as a transportee . ( TOS : " Day of the Dove ")

• 1.1 20th century
• 1.2 21st century
• 1.3 22nd century
• 1.4 23rd century
• 1.5 24th century
• 1.6 25th century
• 2.1 Safety features, protocols, and components
• 2.3 Diagnostic and maintenance tools
• 2.4 System components
• 3.1 Personnel
• 3.3 Portable
• 3.4 Emergency
• 3.6 Micro-transporters
• 3.7 Non-"beam" transporters
• 3.8.1 See also
• 4.1 Accidents
• 4.3 Shields
• 4.4 Warp speed
• 4.5 Faster-than-warp speeds
• 4.6 Radiation and substances
• 4.7 Devices
• 4.8 Transporting the injured
• 5.1 Automatic return
• 5.2 Disabling active weapons
• 5.3 Falsifying disintegration by a phaser
• 5.4 Connecting two transporters
• 5.5 Intraship beaming
• 5.6 "Site-to-site" transport
• 5.7 Transporter trace
• 5.8 Deflecting the transporter beam
• 5.9 Single-person transport
• 5.10 Faking a transporter accident
• 5.11 Emergency mass beaming
• 5.12 Narrow confinement beam
• 5.13 Skeletal lock
• 5.14 Offensive use
• 5.15 Medical transports
• 5.16 Rematerialization without clothes
• 5.17 Other operations
• 6.1.1 Origins
• 6.1.2 Sets and props
• 6.1.3 Special effects
• 6.1.4 Legacy
• 6.2 Apocrypha
• 6.3 External links

History [ ]

20th century [ ].

The Vulcans had teleporter technology since at least as early as the late 20th century . This might have been an early version of the standard transporters that were later used in the Federation . ( PIC : " Mercy ")

21st century [ ]

Circa 2069 , the planet Terra 10 was colonized by a group of Humans from Earth . They were considered a lost colony as they had lost communication contact with United Earth until the 23rd century , when they were re-discovered by the crew of the USS Enterprise .

During this period, the Terratins either retained prior knowledge of transporter technologies or developed their own. It might have predated development of the technology on Earth. ( TAS : " The Terratin Incident ")

22nd century [ ]

Emory Erickson, the inventor of the transporter, with daughter, Danica Erickson

Although transporters had been used by many civilizations throughout history , the first transporter to be made on Earth was invented sometime prior to 2121 , originated by Emory Erickson , who was revered as the " Father of the Transporter". The first operable transporter was developed around 2124 .

Erickson later recalled his experience as the first person to go through a transporter, which he was terrified to attempt. According to Erickson, " that original transporter took a full minute and a half to cycle through. Felt like a year . You could actually feel yourself being taken apart and put back together. When I materialized, first thing I did was lose my lunch . Second thing I did was get stone drunk . " Years later, Erickson lamented that " during the initial tests for the transporter, some brave men and women were lost, " adding, " not a day goes by that I don't think about them. " Though his vision was a success, he could never recapture his past glory, as his follow up efforts with sub-quantum teleportation were never realized, an effort that ultimately led to the loss of his son, Quinn . ( ENT : " Daedalus ")

In an illusion created during Hoshi Sato 's eight seconds in the pattern buffer , her mind created a fictional story of a man named Cyrus Ramsey . In this apparent ghost story , as told through an illusion of Trip Tucker , an event occurred in Madison , Wisconsin in May 2146 , where " Ramsey was a test subject for the first long-range transport. Just one hundred meters . Something went wrong with the pattern buffer. He never rematerialized. " Malcolm Reed , who couldn't believe that Sato had never heard the story before, since one could not " go on a survival overnight without hearing a story about someone seeing Ramsey's molecules rematerializing on a foggy night . " ( ENT : " Vanishing Point ")

Early Starfleet efforts in the application of transporter technology were similar to 24th century transporters used by the Ligonians , but Ligonian transporters used the Heglenian shift method to convert matter and energy. ( TNG : " Code of Honor ")

Enterprise NX-01 was one of the first Starfleet starships to be equipped with a transporter authorized for transporting biological objects. Initially, however, it was utilized only sparingly, due to a general distrust of the technology held by Enterprise crew members. (The captain himself refused to put his dog through the system.) Its use became much more common during Enterprise 's search of the Delphic Expanse . ( ENT : " Broken Bow ", " Strange New World ", " The Andorian Incident ", " Fortunate Son ", " Hatchery "; " Countdown ", et al. )

These early transporters were not very reliable, and, even after Enterprise 's mission, most were authorized for non-biological transports only. Even when transporter use became commonplace, most Humans and other races at a similar stage of technological development preferred traditional methods of travel. ( ENT : " Strange New World ", " The Andorian Incident ", " Daedalus ")

As Starfleet continued its exploration of space, dependence on transporters grew significantly. Transporters could simplify away missions considerably by eliminating the need for a shuttlecraft . In case of emergencies (medical or otherwise), the time saved could mean the difference between life or death. ( ENT : " Strange New World ")

Before 2164 , on at least Freedom -class starships , the transporters were only meant for cargo and not organic matter. However, they could be modified to transport organic matter with some risk. ( Star Trek Beyond )

23rd century [ ]

With the advent of safer transporters, biological transport became increasingly common, which led to the appearance of the first transporter-related diseases. The best-known disease was transporter psychosis , which was diagnosed in 2209 on Delinia II . Following the perfection of the multiplex pattern buffers , such cases were virtually eliminated. ( TNG : " Realm Of Fear ")

A Lateral Vector Transporter in use in 2249

By 2249 , further advancements were made in perfecting the technology, this time by reducing power consumption. Older units, such as lateral vector transporters had been discarded on Vulcan due to the massive amount of power they required. Starfleet had also phased them out, but some older ships, such as the Walker -class USS Shenzhou , still had them installed. ( DIS : " Battle at the Binary Stars ")

24th century [ ]

Transporters became the most reliable form of short-range transport by the 24th century . ( TNG : " Realm Of Fear ")

Most space-faring civilizations of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants employed transporter technology for short-range transport of personnel and equipment, however the technology was still rather unknown in the far reaches of the Delta Quadrant . To these species, the many advantages to utilizing transporters and replicators made the technology a point of contention, especially between the Kazon and the crew USS Voyager . ( VOY : " Caretaker ", " Maneuvers ", et al.)

Traveling by transporter was essentially instantaneous and an individual's sense of time while transporting was effectively non-existent. Benjamin Sisko and Harry Kim , while training at Starfleet Academy in San Francisco , frequently transported to New Orleans and South Carolina , respectively, to see their parents. ( DS9 : " Explorers "; VOY : " Non Sequitur ")

Innovations in transporter technology around this time included safer site-to-site transport , which allowed for transport between two locations without first returning to a transporter room . ( TNG : " The Game ", et al.)

25th century [ ]

In 2401, Starfleet's transporter systems were tampered with by rogue Changelings allied with the Borg . They infiltrated Starfleet and implanted Jean-Luc Picard 's Borg-altered DNA into the transporter system as 'common biology' that would only manifest in those whose brains had yet to finish development (in humans under 25). The result was that every Starfleet officer within those criteria had been given Picard's 'receiver' gene, which would render them susceptible to Jack Crusher 's transmitter gene. The Borg Queen assimilated Jack and exploited this to assimilate all affected Starfleet personnel on Frontier Day . ( PIC : " Võx "). Following the defeat of the Borg, Doctor Beverly Crusher devised a method of using the transporters to remove the Borg-altered DNA and to uncover disguised Changelings. ( PIC : " The Last Generation ")

By the 29th century , Starfleet had developed temporal transporter technology that allowed travel through time in a very similar manner to standard transporters of earlier centuries. ( VOY : " Relativity ")

Operations [ ]

Transporter chief Wyatt

In general, a transporter chief was responsible for the operational readiness, maintenance and repair of a ship or station's transporter systems.

A typical transport sequence, generally initiated by the request to "energize", began from the transporter console with transporter pre-sequencing that, once complete, transporter coordinates were established on the object or destination by the targeting scanners , which thereafter a transporter lock was made. ( VOY : " Jetrel ", " Initiations ", " Twisted ")

Simultaneously, the object was broken down into a stream of subatomic particles, also called the matter stream . ( TNG : " Datalore ") The transporter signal was then transferred to the pattern buffer, then again transferring to the emitter array . ( VOY : " Eye of the Needle ", " Twisted ") The matter stream was then transmitted to its destination across a subspace domain . ( TNG : " The Best of Both Worlds, Part II ") When used, a transporter left residual ionization in the air . ( TNG : " The High Ground ")

Of this whole process, one did not feel a thing. ( TNG : " The Dauphin ")

Transporter effect of the alternate reality 's USS Enterprise

In 2258 of the alternate reality , the transporter operation process included the use of the annular confinement beam, followed by electromagnetic focusing and the use of a gravitational compensator . The transporter operator then applied a temporal differential and engaged a particle lock . ( Star Trek )

23rd century Klingon transporter systems shared the same basic technology as Federation transporter systems. Even though the transporter systems of an Intrepid -class were much more sophisticated than those of a D7 class , the targeting scanners worked on the same principles. With exception of the more advanced systems having had the ability to expand transporter buffer capacity, they really were not all that different. ( VOY : " Prophecy ")

As of 2368 , Cardassian transporting systems still operated with active feed pattern buffers. ( TNG : " The Wounded ")

Also during this time frame, Romulan transporters were known to operate on a similar subspace frequency to those used aboard Federation starships, and with only a few minor adjustments, they could be made to simulate the transporter carrier waves used by their Federation counterparts. ( TNG : " Data's Day ")

From its earliest incarnations until the 2270s , transporters generally immobilized the subject being beamed during dematerialization and rematerialization. Advances in transporter technology after that point allowed a person being transported to move or converse, during the process, in a limited fashion. ( Star Trek: The Motion Picture , Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan )

By the 24th century, emergency transporter armbands , transponders and combadges could be programmed to remotely activate a transporter. Normally, remote transporter activation was limited to emergencies or when the crew of a vessel was not on board. ( TNG : " The Best of Both Worlds ", " Realm Of Fear "; DS9 : " The Jem'Hadar ")

Safety features, protocols, and components [ ]

As with other Starfleet technology, the transporter had its own set of safety features, protocols, and procedures. In an emergency, many of these safety systems could be modified or circumvented.

Early versions of the transporter in the 22nd century appeared to have no protection against external incursions into an active transport. "Foreign matter," such as blowing debris, could get caught up in the transport and become embedded or integrated into the subject. ( ENT : " Strange New World ") Energy weapons fire would also affect the subject, unless it was sufficiently far into the transport that the fire passed through it harmlessly. ( ENT : " Broken Bow ", " Countdown ") By the late 23rd century , however, transporters shielded the subject from these external incursions. ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country ; TNG : " A Matter of Perspective ") They could even neutralize particle weapon fire initiated during transport. ( TNG : " The Most Toys ")

Seven of Nine's transporter data

Biofilters were uniformly used on all Federation transporters by the 24th century. These filters functioned to decontaminate transported objects and prevent harmful substances, pathogens, and even certain forms of radiation (including theta radiation ), from contaminating the rest of the ship or station. This process replaced earlier systems that required the subject to be fully rematerialized on the transport platform before applying an energy-based process to topically decontaminate the transportee. ( VOY : " Macrocosm ", " Night "; TOS : " The Naked Time ")

Though the biofilters performed a general contaminant removal with each transport, they were far from perfect; previously unknown infections or viruses occasionally failed to register, requiring the filters to be recalibrated to recognize the new threat. As such, biofilters were incapable of filtering out certain types of substances and pathogens, most notably psychic energy. ( TNG : " Lonely Among Us ", " Power Play ")

Biofilters were also unable to detect and filter certain types of phased reality lifeforms without prior calibration. Biofilters also functioned to detect and disable weapons and explosives ( remat detonators , for example). ( TNG : " Realm Of Fear ", " The Schizoid Man ", " The Most Toys ")

The transporter also saved biological data of the individuals transported. In 2374 , The Doctor was able to give a diagnosis on Seven of Nine 's irrational behavior after studying her last recorded transporter data. ( VOY : " The Raven ")

When knowingly transporting material considered a biohazard , such as a virus , a bio-transport authorization was used to document the material's nature and approve the transport. ( TNG : " The Child ")

Except in cases of extreme emergency, protocols prohibited transporting objects while traveling at warp speed. ( TNG : " The Schizoid Man ") Such transports are possible, however, if the two vessels match warp velocities. ( TNG : " The Best of Both Worlds "; VOY : " Maneuvers ")

During the 22nd century, standard Earth transporter systems had a range of ten thousand kilometers ; however, by the 24th century, the maximum range of standard transporter systems was about forty thousand kilometers, though a special type of transport, called subspace transport , could beam over several light years . ( ENT : " Rajiin "; TNG : " A Matter Of Honor ", " Bloodlines ") Many 24th century starships were equipped with an emergency transporter system, but these only had a range of, at best, ten kilometers. ( VOY : " Future's End ")

Although having a maximum range of about forty thousand kilometers, some conditions adversely affected the effective range. In at least one instance – due to missing components of Voyager 's primary computer systems – the starship Voyager had to be within five hundred kilometers of a planet's surface to use transporters on Kathryn Janeway and a hologram of Leonardo da Vinci . ( VOY : " Concerning Flight ")

The maximum range of a transporter differed by species, depending on what kind of technologies they used to build it. The transporter with the longest known range was that of the Sikarians , with a range of about forty thousand light years; however, this was due to their planet 's large quartz mantle, which amplified their transporter signal. Because of this, Sikarian transporter technology worked only on their homeworld . ( VOY : " Prime Factors ")

The Traveler's of Tau Alpha C possessed transporter technology with a range of at least a thousand light years, according to Spock . Montgomery Scott later noted that Seven's beam was so powerful it fused all recording circuits, and therefore he could not say exactly how far it transported Seven, or even whether it transported him through time. Exactly how they achieved this effect remains unknown, since there has been no subsequent contact with them, and they hide their entire homeworld in some fashion. There were, however, other indications that their technology was considerably advanced beyond that of the 23rd century Federation. ( TOS : " Assignment: Earth ")

The Vedala , one of the oldest space-faring races, also possessed transporter technology capable of beaming people and equipment to and from other planets (presumably in different star systems). ( TAS : " The Jihad ") Dominion transporter technology, enhanced with a homing transponder , was said to have had a range of at least three light years. ( DS9 : " Covenant ")

Diagnostic and maintenance tools [ ]

• Magneton scanner
• Micro-resonator
• Parametric scanner
• Synchronic meter
• Test cylinder

System components [ ]

A level 4 diagnostic listing several key components

• Annular confinement beam
• Biofilter assembly
• Emitter array
• Gravitational compensator
• Heisenberg compensator
• Imaging scanner
• Inducer module
• Materializer
• Molecular imaging scanner
• Particle lock
• Pattern buffer
• Phase discriminator
• Phase inducer
• Phase transition coil
• Primary energizing coil
• Rematerialization subroutine
• Rotational compensation
• Site-to-site transport interlock
• Targeting scanner
• Transporter console

Transporter types [ ]

Almost all Starfleet facilities and starships were equipped with at least one transporter device. The number of transporter devices differed; for example, most shuttlecraft had one transporter while Galaxy -class starships had twenty. ( TNG : " 11001001 ")

On ships where cargo bays were present, cargo transporters could often be found, as well.

Production of Mark V transporters was halted in 2356 . By 2371 , Mark VI transporters were considered outdated. Mark VII transporters were able to transport unstable biomatter , as long as the phase transition inhibitor was adjusted. ( DS9 : " Family Business ")

Personnel [ ]

Transporter console, 2254

Standard duotronic transporter console (ca. 2260s )

Transporter console in the alternate reality 's 2258

The most commonly used type of transporter was the personnel transporter, designed primarily for personnel.

Personnel transporter rooms usually consisted of a transporter console , a transporter platform with an overhead molecular imaging scanner , primary energizing coils , and phase transition coils .

A pattern buffer with a biofilter was typically located on the deck below the transporter room. The outer hull of a starship incorporated a number of emitter pads for the transporter beam. ( TNG : " Realm Of Fear "; VOY : " Macrocosm ")

Personnel transporters worked on the quantum level to enable secure transport of lifeforms. Biofilters built into the transporter systems prevented dangerous microorganisms from boarding the ship.

Transporter platforms had a variable number of pads, arranged in various layouts (by model and by manufacturing race).

The transporters installed on Earth's NX-class starships featured one large circular pad that took up the entire platform. It was large enough to transport two to three people, provided they stood close together.

By the 23rd century, Federation transporter platforms featured multiple independent pads, typically six in a hexagonal configuration. One- and two-pad platforms were also available.

This became something of a standard layout for Federation transporters well into the next century. As an example, the platforms used on board Galaxy -class starships had the familiar six individual pads, with an over-sized pad (in the center of the platform) that could handle small cargo.

The model of transporter installed on board Defiant -class starships featured a ¾ circular platform and three personnel pads in a triangular formation.

Some 23rd century Klingon platforms featured six hexagonal pads in a straight line. Others, such as those on Birds-of-Prey , featured a small number of platforms in a tight group. ( Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home ; Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country )

Cardassian transporter platforms in the 24th century featured three to five triangular pads placed close together, such as those installed on Deep Space 9 .

The personnel transporter was a reliable but sometimes fragile piece of equipment. The phase coils , in particular, were vulnerable to feedback patterns and could be severely damaged as result of power surges or low-level phaser fire. ( TNG : " Brothers ")

A cargo transporter aboard a Galaxy -class starship

Cargo transporters were larger-scale versions of personnel transporters and were optimized for the transport of inanimate objects. These transporters were adapted to handle massive quantities of material. ( TNG : " Symbiosis ", " The Hunted ", " Power Play ")

In case of an emergency, cargo transporters could be reset to quantum-level mode, making lifeform transport possible. One reason for such a reconfiguration was to expedite an evacuation of personnel. ( TNG : " 11001001 ")

Cargo transporters were mostly found inside the cargo bay of a starship or space station . On Level 97-C of the Spacedock -type Starbase 74 , there were four cargo transporters. ( TNG : " 11001001 ")

Dedicated cargo transporter platforms used by Starfleet in the 24th century typically featured one large circular or oblong pad. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation )

A transporter aboard the USS Franklin

In the alternate reality , the USS Franklin was only equipped with cargo transporters. After the discovery of the Franklin 's wreckage, Montgomery Scott was able to modify the transporters to beam lifeforms, though he only beamed Spock and Leonard McCoy on board one at a time so as not to risk splicing them together . With aid from Pavel Chekov , Scott was able to further modify the transporters to beam groups of twenty at a time though the transporters needed to recharge after at least two groups of twenty in a row. After Scott's modifications, the transporters were also able to beam two lifeforms and a motorcycle in motion to a destination. ( Star Trek Beyond )

Portable [ ]

Portable transporters were self-contained units capable of direct site-to-site transport . While having the capability to be moved from one place to another, they were known to be rather large and bulky. ( DS9 : " Visionary ")

In 2372 of an alternate timeline , Tom Paris owned an advanced, portable, site-to-site transporter device capable of transporting itself along with its payload. This device was small enough to be carried easily on a person. ( VOY : " Non Sequitur ")

Emergency [ ]

An emergency transport unit

Emergency transporters were a special type that had a low power requirement; in case of a ship-wide power failure, the crew could use these transporters for emergency evacuation. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual ; VOY : " Future's End ")

By the late 24th century, emergency transport was further improved through Starfleet's development of a single-person, single-use, one-way emergency transport unit . The device was small enough to be hand-held and could transport to specified coordinates with a single touch. Because of its extreme limitations, this device was not widely deployed and was still considered a prototype in 2379 . ( Star Trek Nemesis )

A public transporter in use

Public transporters were standalone transporter stations available for use by the civilian population of Starbase Yorktown . These automated units featured a selection of pre-programmed destination coordinates available to each user, allowing access to many public locations throughout the starbase. ( Star Trek Beyond )

By 2399 , Starfleet Headquarters had public transporters in a gatelike configuration, which visitors could use to be directly beamed to the premises. ( PIC : " Maps and Legends ")

Micro-transporters [ ]

By 2375 , the Federation had developed a micro-transporter – essentially a scaled-down version of a regular transporter – which was capable of transporting small amounts of material within an almost-imperceptible span of time. When attached to a TR-116 rifle , it could be used to transport the bullet to anywhere within the transporter's range, where it would continue at its original velocity until striking a target. ( DS9 : " Field of Fire ")

Non-"beam" transporters [ ]

The spatial trajector , an example of a non-beam transporter

Certain species experimented with transporters that differed in technology and theory than those used by most species encountered by the Federation.

The Sikarians were known to use a folded-space transporter , relying on dimensional shifting rather than matter-to-energy conversion. Similarly, the Iconians perfected their own form of transport, known as gateways , which were capable of near-instantaneous transport over vast distances. ( VOY : " Prime Factors "; TNG : " Contagion ")

Other transporter technologies [ ]

Gary Seven emerges from the transporter chamber's fog

Gary Seven's office, with the transport chamber hidden in the background

Gary Seven possessed an advanced form of transportation technology that he used to transport around the planet Earth and back to his home planet more than a thousand light years from Earth. When in operation, the chamber produced a cloud of a blue fog-like substance that enveloped the chamber. The chamber was controlled by the Beta 5 computer and was the first known transporter to be in use on Earth, especially given the time period of 1968 .

The transporter beam could be intercepted by another transporter unit. This occurred when Gary Seven was in transit to Earth and his beam was accidentally intercepted by the USS Enterprise commanded by James T. Kirk . This would seem to dictate that both transporter technologies work on similar principles. Seven's device appeared to be more powerful than that of the Enterprise , for it was able to re-direct the transporter beam of the Enterprise back to it, and instead of Gary Seven re-materializing in the transporter room of the Enterprise , he re-materialized in his own device.

When not in use, the chamber door, which resembled that of a safe when it was closed, was hidden behind a shelf holding Martini glasses. The shelf and the brown wood finish surrounding it split down the middle and slid into the adjacent walls, allowing the chamber door to open. This action was achieved by moving the right pen on Gary Seven's desk downward. ( TOS : " Assignment: Earth ")

An Aldean transport device

The Aldeans wore a small device attached to the arm that they used to control their transporter through contact with the Custodian . ( TNG : " When The Bough Breaks ")

See also [ ]

• Folded-space transporter
• Lateral vector transporter
• Matter-energy scrambler
• Molecular transporter
• Multidimensional transporter device
• Sub-quantum teleportation
• Temporal transporter
• Translocator

Limitations [ ]

Accidents [ ].

• See : Transporter accident
• See : Transporter suspension

Shields [ ]

In general, transporters could not be used while the deflector shield of a ship was active, or a deflector shield was in place over the destination. However, it was possible to take advantage of EM "windows" that were created by the normal rotation of shield frequencies. During these periods, a hole opened, through which a transporter beam could pass. To use this window, timing needed to be absolute and usually required substantial computer assistance. This technique was theorized and first practiced in 2367 , by USS Enterprise -D transporter chief Miles O'Brien . He happened to know the shields of the USS Phoenix well, including the timing. ( TNG : " The Wounded ")

Magnetic shields could also be used to prevent beaming. Rura Penthe was protected by such a shield to prevent prisoners from escaping. ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country )

There was a type of shielding that allowed transport, although it had the limitation of not allowing phasers to be fired through it. ( TOS : " A Taste of Armageddon ")

The limitation of transporters versus shields was not universal, however. The Aldeans were able to pass through their own shielding using transporters, though the shielding was impenetrable to other forms of technology and weapons. Similarly, both the Borg and Dominion used transporter technology that was able to penetrate standard Federation shielding. Some adaptations, including rotating shield frequencies, could inhibit this ability but not eliminate it altogether. ( TNG : " Q Who "; DS9 : " The Jem'Hadar ") Voth were able to beam entire starships into a single Voth city ship , despite its shield being raised and running at full capacity. ( VOY : " Distant Origin ")

Warp speed [ ]

Using transporters when a ship was at warp speed was very dangerous because warp fields created severe spatial distortions. ( TNG : " The Schizoid Man ") Therefore, transport at warp generally violated safety regulations. However, at-warp transport was attempted a handful of times, by making a few adjustments. These attempts were usually made under high-stakes combat conditions. ( TNG : " The Best of Both Worlds ", " The Emissary ")

• If both ships maintained exact velocity (that is, the warp field on both vessels must have the same integral value/factor), transport at warp speed was possible. Failure to maintain the same velocities would result in severe loss of the annular confinement beam (ACB) and pattern integrity.
• If the ship was traveling at warp speed and the object to be beamed was stationary, transport was possible by synchronizing the ACB with the warp core frequency. This would cause difficulties in obtaining a good pattern lock. The Maquis were known to have used this method. ( VOY : " Maneuvers ")
• Sometime before 2387 , Montgomery Scott discovered the necessary formulas enabling transwarp beaming . These were passed on to his alternate reality counterpart , but using these to beam onto the USS Enterprise caused him to become stuck in a water pipe leading to a turbine . ( Star Trek )

"Near-warp" transport was also possible, but required extensive adjustments to the transport procedure. It involved the transporting ship energizing its transporters at the same time as it dropped out of warp for just long enough for the matter stream to be transmitted. The ship would then immediately jump back into warp.

Persons who experienced this form of transport subsequently remarked that there had been a brief sensation of being merged with an inanimate object, before the transporter beam reassembled them.

Near-warp transport has also been referred to as "touch-and-go downwarping". ( TNG : " The Schizoid Man ")

Faster-than-warp speeds [ ]

In 2374 , Voyager personnel successfully used Intrepid -class transporters to beam stranded crew members from the USS Dauntless while both ships were traveling within a quantum slipstream . Voyager accelerated on a pursuit course during the transport, bypassing the velocity limitations imposed by warp field dynamics. ( VOY : " Hope and Fear ")

Radiation and substances [ ]

Some forms of radiation and substances, usually minerals such as kelbonite , prevented transporters from working. In most instances, the interference was caused by scattering of the annular confinement beam, or sensor interference preventing a transporter lock. Interference could be natural or artificial and usually occurred during surface-to-starship transport but might also occur between vessels. Examples of other radiation and substance limitations were:

• Thoron radiation
• Dampening field
• Ionic interference (see also Ion storm )
• Hyperonic radiation
• Electromagnetic storm
• Trinimbic interference

Devices [ ]

Over the centuries, numerous devices have been designed to overcome some limitations of transporters, while others were used to intentionally interfere with the operation of transporters.

A transporter tag given to Kira Nerys

By the 24th century, usage of pattern enhancers was common aboard most Starfleet vessels, most often deployed to a planet's surface during emergency situations where transport was critical.

Devices that were specifically designed to block transporter signals or to interfere with them were usually deployed under hostile conditions, thus making use of a transporter impossible or very dangerous and hampering maneuverability of personnel or material. Some of these devices were:

• Transporter scrambler
• Transport inhibitor
• Remat detonator
• Scattering field

In 2375 , Vedek Fala gave a small crystal to Colonel Kira Nerys , as a gift. The device, of unknown origin and design, was actually a transporter tag , which instantly transported her to Empok Nor , several light years distant. ( DS9 : " Covenant ")

Also, in 2293 , Spock used a viridium patch to locate and lock on to Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy on Rura Penthe . While not a transporter device, it was used to locate the subject with the transporter. ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country )

Transporting the injured [ ]

Although someone with minor injuries could be transported, this was not possible when the injuries were extensive. When the brain stem was damaged and autonomic functions were failing, transport was only possible if a volunteer controlled the person's autonomic functions. This was done by placing a neural pad at the base of the skull of both individuals and then connecting both people via a medical tricorder . This way, autonomic functions could be stabilized for a short period of time, making transport possible. ( TNG : " Transfigurations ")

In 2372 , Odo began to experience the effects of an unknown affliction that he had acquired from his fellow Changelings , which caused the destabilization of his molecular structure . When it was proposed that he be ferried aboard the USS Defiant to the Founders' new homeworld , the crew had to wait for Odo to carry himself aboard the ship. When it was questioned why he couldn't go through the transporter, Doctor Julian Bashir explained that " his molecular structure is scrambled enough as it is, " adding, " [t]he last thing he needs is a trip through a transporter buffer . " ( DS9 : " Broken Link ")

Special operations [ ]

Automatic return [ ].

As of 2269 , transporters could be set to automatically beam back an individual after a prearranged amount of time . In 2269 , James T. Kirk asked Montgomery Scott to set automatic return for ten minutes . ( TAS : " The Terratin Incident ")

Disabling active weapons [ ]

By the 24th century, the transporter had the capability to disable any active weapon during transport. This could be accomplished by removing the discharged energy from the transporter signal, or by "deactivating" the weapon itself. The transporter system included weapons deactivation subroutines to control the process. ( TNG : " The Most Toys ", " The Hunted ", " Rascals ")

The transporter was also capable of removing weapons entirely during transport, a setting referred to by Starfleet as "Transport Protocol Five". When the Defiant beamed aboard survivors from a damaged Jem'Hadar ship, the transporter was programmed to remove the crew's disruptors and other weapons. ( DS9 : " To the Death ")

Falsifying disintegration by a phaser [ ]

Although transports usually took several seconds to complete, it was possible to transport an individual to safety a split-second before they were to be struck by a phaser beam, making it appear as though they had been disintegrated. By 2373 , Section 31 had access to such technology and used it to fake the death of operative Luther Sloan in front of the Romulan Continuing Committee . Since William Ross later told Julian Bashir that Tal Shiar chief Koval had fired a phaser at Sloan, rather than a disruptor pistol , it is likely the weapon had been specially modified and was integral to creating the illusion. ( DS9 : " Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges ")

Connecting two transporters [ ]

Two transporters could be bridged together by means of a system interlock to facilitate direct transport between them. Federation vessels could activate other Federation vessels' transporters remotely by means of this. This meant that two transporters could be connected to each other to allow beaming in situations where it would otherwise not be possible due to ionic or some other type of interference. ( TNG : " Symbiosis ", " Realm Of Fear ")

First, a remote link to the other transporter had to be established, then the system interlock needed to be engaged and the pattern buffers of both transporters were synchronized. When the phase transition coils were in stand-by mode, energizing could commence.

A side-effect of using this form of transport to beam through ionic interference was that the person who was beamed might feel a slight tingling, due to static. ( TNG : " Realm Of Fear ")

Intraship beaming [ ]

In the mid- 2260s , beaming from a transporter pad to a location within the same vessel was a very risky proposition. The limitations of the technology at that time made it highly probable that any error would result in the subject rematerializing within a bulkhead, deck, or other structure. As such, the procedure had rarely been attempted. ( TOS : " Day of the Dove ") The first occurrence of this procedure was used without incident, a century earlier. ( ENT : " Chosen Realm ")

In 2364 , Commander William T. Riker and Lieutenant Tasha Yar used intraship beaming during a rescue. When cargo instead of passengers was beamed aboard, Riker ordered Yar to beam the cargo to the hold. ( TNG : " Symbiosis ")

Intraship transport was apparently both safe and commonplace by the 2360s, as, beyond the aforesaid example, the technique was used a number of times aboard the USS Enterprise -D :

• Captain Jean-Luc Picard and First Officer Riker both beamed from a transporter room directly onto the bridge . ( TNG : " 11001001 ")
• When several Bringloidi were beamed aboard, carrying assorted farm animals, Picard ordered them beamed into Cargo Hold 7. ( TNG : " Up The Long Ladder ")
• While escaping a mind-controlled crew, Wesley Crusher engaged a program that beamed him from Deck 36 to Transporter Room 3. ( TNG : " The Game ")
• Ambassador Ves Alkar 's assistant, Liva , was beamed away from her quarters on command from Captain Picard to prevent her being used by Alkar. ( TNG : " Man Of The People ")
• When rogue Ferengi briefly took over the Enterprise , a plan was devised to capture them by beaming them one-by-one onto a transporter pad secured by a force field . ( TNG : " Rascals ")
• Picard, Riker, and several others transported from a shuttle in its bay directly to the observation lounge . ( TNG : " Gambit, Part II ")

"Site-to-site" transport [ ]

Beaming directly to sickbay

• See : Site-to-site transport

The earliest known example of site-to-site transport carried out by Federation personnel occurred in 1986 , though the transporter was on board a vessel that had traveled back in time from 2286 . The craft which possessed site-to-site capabilities was Klingon in origin but had been stolen by the crew of the late starship Enterprise . ( Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home )

By at least 2268 , limitations in pattern buffer and targeting scanner technology had been sufficiently overcome that it was now possible to transport from one location directly to another without the need to re-materialize the subject in between. ( TOS : " A Piece of the Action ") In the 24th century, this operation was enabled and controlled by the site-to-site transport interlocks . ( TNG : " Brothers ")

A Klingon transporter performs a site-to-site transport

Transporter systems had to be manually configured to prepare for site-to-site transport. This included resetting the pattern buffer controls and checking the targeting scanners. ( VOY : " Twisted ")

Site-to-site transport held the matter stream in the pattern buffer while the ACB was re-targeted. Afterward, the matter stream was redirected to the new location and normal re-materialization was carried out.

Using this technique, any computer terminal with access to the main transporter sub-systems, or any applicable subroutine, could be used to control transporter operations, including bridge terminals. This technique could only be utilized when sufficient energy was available to the transporters; all normal transporter limitations would still apply. ( Star Trek Nemesis )

This procedure was particularly useful in emergency medical situations where time was of the essence. Subjects could be beamed directly to sickbay , where treatment could be carried out quickly. ( TNG : " Tapestry "; Star Trek: First Contact )

In 2368 , Ensign Wesley Crusher used this method in an attempt to outrun those (especially Riker and Worf) whose minds had been taken over by a Ktarian game . ( TNG : " The Game ")

Seven of Nine once initiated a site-to-site transport into Chakotay's quarters. Instead of the door chimes sound, the comm tone is heard (not the boatswain whistle.) She thinks it would be inappropriate to be seen carrying flowers to the first officer's quarters ( VOY : " Endgame ").

Transporter trace [ ]

By the 23rd century , it was common practice to store a "transporter trace" (a stored copy of a subject's molecular pattern as scanned during a normal transporter cycle). While it was usually kept for security purposes, in extreme situations, the transporter could be modified to use an older trace pattern in place of the latest scan for the purpose of re-configuring the matter stream during molecular conversion, effectively replacing a subject with a younger version of itself during matter re-construction. The first known use of this technique was in 2270 , when it was used to restore the crew of the USS Enterprise , whose aging had been reversed to their adult versions. ( TAS : " The Counter-Clock Incident ") Another notable use of a transporter trace was in 2364 , to restore Captain Jean-Luc Picard after an unsuccessful attempt by an alien energy being to merge with him. ( TNG : " Lonely Among Us ")

The transporter trace itself was regularly stored for the duration of the person's tour of duty; when that person was reassigned, his or her trace was deleted. ( TNG : " Unnatural Selection ")

When necessary, a person's DNA could be used to create a transporter trace. This technique was utilized by Chief Miles O'Brien and Lieutenant Geordi La Forge during a mission to the Darwin Genetic Research Station in 2365 .

Transporter traces were also used as a medical tool, to help in spotting anomalies at the molecular level. When comparing the transporter ID traces of Deanna Troi , Data and Miles O'Brien before and after they were taken over by Ux-Mal criminals, Doctor Beverly Crusher was able to detect that their nervous systems were generating high levels of synaptic and anionic energy . ( TNG : " Power Play ") Another example of such an application was in 2373 , when The Doctor used Harry Kim 's transporter trace records to determine when he had been infected with Taresian DNA. ( VOY : " Favorite Son ")

Deflecting the transporter beam [ ]

A transporter beam could be deflected to different coordinates by a tractor beam , so that the objects being transported would rematerialize at a point other than the intended target coordinates. Such action could only be detected by examining the transporter log . An unusual amount of antigraviton particles would be present in the emitter coil , as those particles do not occur naturally but are used by tractor beams. Locating the coordinates at which rematerialization took place was not possible; however, it was possible to calculate the point of origin of the tractor beam itself. ( TNG : " Attached ")

Single-person transport [ ]

A transporter could be programmed to only allow one particular person to be transported to and from the transporter pad . Thus programmed, no other persons could use the transporter. If the use of the transporter was further prohibited, by use of an unknown access code, using the transporter was almost impossible.

The only way to circumvent this lock-out was to use the transporter trace from the person who re-programmed the transporter and to input this into the transporter while it was in its testing mode. When in testing mode, a transporter would accept simulated inputs. When the main computer could not be used, several tricorders could be networked together to control the transporter. To circumvent the lock-out, access codes from a few bridge officers were necessary to force it in a recall loop. Consequently, anyone and everyone who transported would be seen by the transporter as the person who had re-programmed it in the first place. ( TNG : " Brothers ")

Faking a transporter accident [ ]

A transporter accident could be faked in such a way that a transporter chief would think a person died during transport. For example, this could be done by adjusting the carrier wave of a second transporter to the carrier wave of the first. The person would then beam off the first transporter while the second transporter beamed in a small amount of genetically identical material.

Only a doctor could determine if this material was really the person in question. The transporter trace could be used to compare the logged DNA pattern "trace" to the "dead" person. Single-bit errors might be detected, if the "dead" material was replicated .

Only transporters that operated on the same subspace frequency as the spoofed transporter can be used for this type of ruse. For example, some Romulan transporters were capable of this.

Another indicator of such a ruse would be a temporary increase of the matter to energy ratio, while transport was in progress. However, this increase could fall within the nominal operational parameters of the transporter in question. Investigation of the transporter logs would be necessary to find evidence of a second transporter signal. ( TNG : " Data's Day ")

Emergency mass beaming [ ]

Some transporters could transport large numbers of people, and either rematerialize them simultaneously or in groups. However, this was not often done, due to safety reasons. In 2268 , the crew of the USS Enterprise used their transporters in this manner to capture members of the crew of a Klingon ship. In 2377 , the USS Voyager transported over two hundred Klingons off a battle cruiser by expanding the transporter's buffer capacity. In 2380 , Ensign Sam Rutherford used a single transporter room on the USS Cerritos , reconfigured with experimental settings, to simultaneously beam the entire crew of the USS Rubidoux on board. The transportees were left with undesirable cosmetic side effects, but which were temporary, and they were otherwise perfectly fine. ( TOS : " Day of the Dove "; VOY : " Prophecy "; LD : " Much Ado About Boimler ")

Narrow confinement beam [ ]

Setting a transporter's annular confinement beam to a narrow width would sometimes allow it to penetrate some types of shielding or other interference. One noteworthy application of this was to penetrate Borg shields, a procedure developed by scientists Magnus and Erin Hansen . ( VOY : " Dark Frontier ")

Skeletal lock [ ]

USS Voyager Chief Engineer B'Elanna Torres invented an emergency measure of locking a transporter beam onto minerals in the target's skeletal system, in order to allow transport when bio-signs could not be detected from transporting origins. This allowed personnel to be transported back to the ship, even if regular means of transporter lock failed. She came up with it after a conventional signal lock failed, during an emergency beam-out from a Borg cube in 2373 . ( VOY : " Scorpion ")

Offensive use [ ]

In 2373 , Nyrians used a long-range transporter to take control of the USS Voyager by beaming aboard the ship one person at a time, replacing a member of the crew in the process. Initially feigning ignorance and confusion, the Nyrians did not raise suspicion until they had already outnumbered the Voyager crew. By then, however, it was too late; the Nyrians commandeered Voyager and incarcerated the crew inside a simulated Earth-like environment aboard a massive prison ship . It was later revealed that this was an often-used Nyrian strategy, as it was far less costly than engaging in open hostilities. ( VOY : " Displaced ")

In 2374 , pirates used transporters to steal the USS Voyager 's main computer and other critical equipment, rendering the ship's weapons, navigation and propulsion inoperable. This led Tom Paris to remark, " I feel like we've just been mugged. " ( VOY : " Concerning Flight ")

The Vulcan Chu'lak modified a projectile weapon by adding a micro-transporter, allowing him to fire bullets through walls into other rooms. ( DS9 : " Field of Fire ")

Medical transports [ ]

• See : Fetal transport

Rematerialization without clothes [ ]

Beamed from their dresses

During Chakotay 's Starfleet career, he was involved in a transporter malfunction. His uniform ended up in a pattern buffer ; he materialized wearing only his combadge . ( VOY : " In the Flesh ")

Removal of clothing using a transporter can also be done deliberately, as a group of Ferengi did to Deanna and Lwaxana Troi in 2366 . ( TNG : " Ménage à Troi ")

Other operations [ ]

• Transporter Code 14
• Near-warp transport

Appendices [ ]

Background information [ ], origins [ ].

The transporter was developed by the production staff of the original series as a solution of how to get crewmen off a planet quickly. The only alternative was to either land a massive ship each week, or regularly use shuttles for landings, both of which would have wreaked havoc on the production budget. ( Star Trek Encyclopedia  (3rd ed., p. 519)) Although both of these were proposed in the initial draft of the series outline Star Trek is... (with regular shuttlecraft landings and rare descents of the ship), a revision of the same document (as reprinted in The Making of Star Trek , pp. 22–30) contained one of the first examples wherein the concept of the transporter was outlined. ( [4] ; The Making of Star Trek , p. 26) The description posited a not-yet-named "energy-matter scrambler which can 'materialize' [landing parties] onto the planet's surface." The outline went on to say, " This requires maximum beam power and is a tremendous drain on the cruiser's power supply. It can be done only across relatively short line-of-sight distances. Materials and supplies can also be moved in this same manner, but require a less critical power expenditure. " ( The Making of Star Trek , p. 26)

Gene Roddenberry considered the invention of the transporter to be highly fortunate and " one of many instances where a compromise forced us into creative thought and actually improved on what we planned to do. " He further explained, " If someone had said, 'We will give you the budget to land the ship,' our stories would have started slow, much too slow [....] Conceiving the transporter device [...] allowed us to be well into the story by script page two. " ( The Making of Star Trek , pp. 43–44)

The script of " The Cage ", the first Star Trek pilot episode, referred to the transporter as consisting of a device that dominated the transporter room and "could be an artist's nightmare-conception of a futuristic x-ray machine," as well as a "glassed-in transporter chamber" that the device hovered over.

The depiction of the transporter in TOS : " The Man Trap " was instrumental to that installment becoming the first to ever be broadcast. Though "The Man Trap" writer George Clayton Johnson was unaware of this at the time, Herb Solow informed him, years afterwards, of the transporter's importance in convincing the executives at NBC to air "The Man Trap" first. Johnson relayed, " He told me, 'By going with yours, we were able to open the series with the crew getting aboard the transporter device and beaming down to the planet. By letting the audience watch the transporter in action, and letting them see the crew materialize and dematerialize, we were saved from having to try to explain it.' " ( George Clayton Johnson – Fictioneer , " Star Trek ")

In an early written version of TOS : " What Are Little Girls Made Of? ", the transporter was described as an "energy matter scrambler" (matching how it had been characterized in the aforementioned revised draft of Star Trek is... ). In a series of research notes (dated 11 May 1966 ), however, Kellam de Forest pointed out, " 'Scramble' implies that objects are mixed in an unorganized fashion. The transporter converts the matter of the body into energy. " As a result, de Forest suggested instead referring to the transporter as an "energy matter converter."

Arthur Singer , the story editor for the third season of TOS, had some uncertainty about the function of the transporter, which he expressed around three months after D.C. Fontana left the series as story editor. Regarding how Singer voiced his confusion about the device, Fontana recalled, " [He] wandered onto the set and asked our set decorator, 'By the way, what does that transporter thing do again?' "

The series writers' guide (third revision, dated 17 April 1967 ) stated about the transporter, " Its range is limited to about 16,000 miles. " [5]

The writers/directors guide for Star Trek: Phase II contained the exact same statement. ( Star Trek Phase II: The Lost Series , p. 96) For that series, a "transporter station" was to have been incorporated into the Enterprise bridge, complete with a working transporter. ( Star Trek Phase II: The Lost Series , p. 20) This was to have served as an equipment transporter, for beaming such things as small tools to the bridge. ( text commentary , Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (The Director's Edition) DVD ) On 13 October 1977 , Gene Roddenberry posited that transporters of Phase II would be able to beam through the Enterprise 's force field when it was fully raised, by opening a section of the force field in order to make it weak or moderate. ( Star Trek Phase II: The Lost Series , p. 50) However, the writers/directors guide for the series clarified that the Enterprise 's transporter could not be operated while the ship's deflector screen was in operation. ( Star Trek Phase II: The Lost Series , p. 97)

Gene Roddenberry briefly considered – early one day, while Star Trek: The Next Generation was in preproduction – vastly increasing the power of the transporter in The Next Generation to such an extent that no main starship was to have been featured in that series. This unusual suggestion was scrapped by the end of lunch on that particular day.( Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Continuing Mission 1st ed., p. 14) David Gerrold argued against it, pointing out that the Enterprise was necessary for Star Trek to be successful because the ship was "the star of the show." Added Gerrold, " He says, 'Okay. Just throwing that out.' " ( Stardate Revisited: The Origin of Star Trek - The Next Generation , Part 1: Inception , TNG Season 1 Blu-ray special features) Also during the development of TNG, some consideration was given to the possibility of featuring a transporter on the Galaxy -class bridge, though this idea was soon dropped in favor of turbolifts. ( Starlog issue #125, p. 46) Since David Gerrold had listed (in his book The World of Star Trek [ page number? • edit ] ) transporter malfunctions as being a too-overused plot device in the original series, Roddenberry intended to correct this in TNG. ( Star Trek - Where No One Has Gone Before paperback ed., p. 110)

The concept sketch of DS9's transporter by Ricardo Delgado

The transporter and the term "beam" were so relatively easy to account for that they were among multiple reasons for Rick Berman and Michael Piller deciding that a new science fiction series they were asked to create, which ultimately became Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , would be in the Star Trek mold, rather than a brand-new show. Since the design parameters of the series were very well defined, putting a Starfleet-usable transporter aboard space station Deep Space 9 turned out to be "not difficult at all," in Production Designer Herman Zimmerman 's words. The transporter in the station's Operations Center was designed by Ricardo F. Delgado and illustrated in a concept sketch by him. ( The Official Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Magazine  issue 3 , p. 6) The creators of the then-new show opted to rely on the fact that transporters had already been established earlier in the Star Trek franchise. " We won't reinvent the transporter – everyone knows how the transporter works, we don't have to explain that any more, " stated Zimmerman. ( Trek: Deepspace Nine , p. 52)

The concept of a long-range transporter was again briefly considered, upon initial development of TNG's final episode, " All Good Things... ". The scene in which it was to be used was soon omitted , though. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion  (3rd ed., p. 301))

A transporter was originally not budgeted for inclusion aboard the Defiant -class , which was introduced at the start of DS9's third season . At one stage, however, Herman Zimmerman expected that, as stories and budgets warranted it, transporter facilities would later be added to the Defiant -class. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 4/5, p. 97) A transporter for that class was indeed created, designed by Jim Martin . ( The Art of Star Trek , p. 112) It debuted in season three's " Past Tense, Part I ".

While Star Trek: Enterprise was in development, Executive Producer Brannon Braga initially wanted there to be no transporter on Enterprise NX-01 , though this idea was disputed by executives at Paramount . " [He] thought transporter technology is in the future, " explained André Bormanis , regarding Braga's viewpoint. " Well [...] this became a point of contention with, you know, the powers that be. The compromise we reached was that, okay, it's got a transporter, but it's experimental technology, and they don't really want to use it unless they absolutely have to. And we thought, in the 22nd century, it ought to be more challenging, or better yet, let's not introduce it in the first season . Maybe the second season , they'll upgrade the ship. " ("To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise , Part I: Countdown", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)

An even earlier transporter had to be depicted in the film Star Trek Beyond , for the 22nd century vessel USS Franklin . Doug Jung , who co-wrote the movie, once commented, " Back then, they didn't actually have Human transporters, you couldn't beam a Human up. So we had to put a line in where Scotty says, 'I made these recalibrations.' " [6]

Sets and props [ ]

The "psychedelic" back wall of the TOS transporter was actually made from reflective, translucent plastic known to musicians as "Drum Wrap" since it's commonly used to adorn the outer cylinders of drum sets. The same plastic later went on to be incorporated into intercoms regularly featured on Star Trek: Enterprise . (" Stigma " text commentary , ENT Season 2 DVD )

The TOS transporter had a "built-in top and bottom lighting setup for the beaming up/down effects," stated Robert H. Justman . ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 17 , p. 13) The transporter pads from TOS were simple Fresnel lens es. John Dwyer , a set decorator who worked on both TOS and TNG, explained, " In the original series, the lights in the platform under the round rings were curved lenses, polished in such a way as to make the light really bright, like you have in lighthouses; but they also use them in the bigger stage lights, and that's what these were. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 12 , p. 25) (See this Flash recreation from a scene deleted from " Mudd's Women " for an indication of the luminosity of a 10,000 watt Fresnel lens.) These components were the only part of the transporter set that remained when the set was redesigned for Star Trek: The Motion Picture . ( audio commentary , Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Blu-ray) ) The Next Generation also used the lenses as the units in the ceiling directly over the pads. ( The Art of Star Trek , p. 78) Dwyer recounted, " [Production Designer] Herman [Zimmerman] said, 'Hey, that's a good idea; let's just keep it!' So we did. " ( Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 2, Issue 12 , p. 25) The same components were additionally included in the transporter of the USS Voyager in Star Trek: Voyager . ( The Art of Star Trek , p. 78) Michael Okuda remembered, " One day during, I think, Voyager , I happened to be working in the catwalks above the set and I was looking at those lenses. Five of them looked yellowed and chipped, so I believe that they were from the original series. One of them looked a lot newer. " (audio commentary, Star Trek: The Motion Picture ( Blu-ray ))

The equipment transporter proposed for the Enterprise bridge of Star Trek: Phase II was actually built. One remnant of its construction, a square arrangement of four green lights, was incorporated into the Enterprise bridge of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan . The Regula I transporter in that film involved spotlights reflecting off a glitter ball behind the set, a simple way of achieving the effect of energy patterns on the transporter chamber's back wall. (text commentary, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (The Director's Edition) DVD)

The faint pattern on the insides of the TNG transporter took its inspiration from a sweater owned by Herman Zimmerman, who created the pattern while prepping TNG. Interested in doing something different from the psychedelic moire patterns of the original series' transporter but not having liked any of the patterns that he or his staff devised for potential use, a frustrated Zimmerman finally took off his sweater and declared, " Here, this is what we'll use! " The pattern was thereafter incorporated into the design of the Enterprise -D's transporter, which was reused as the Enterprise -A's transporter in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . ( text commentary , Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (Special Edition) DVD )

For Star Trek Generations , the transporter of the Enterprise -D was given a new interior lighting scheme that included the addition of amber gels behind some of the upper transporter lenses from TOS. ( The Art of Star Trek , p. 278) Because the original panels from the TNG transporter's back wall had somehow been damaged during preproduction on the film, they were replaced by new but virtually identical panels. ( text commentary , Star Trek Generations  (Special Edition) DVD )

At least one of the floor panels from the Enterprise -D transporter was reused as a serving tray in Quark's Bar, Grill, Gaming House and Holosuite Arcade in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . ( Secrets of Quark's Bar , DS9 Season 1 special features)

The Intrepid -class transporter set being created for Star Trek: Voyager

According to Star Trek: Communicator , the Intrepid -class transporter incorporated "vertical edge-lit Plexiglas and spiky sonic foam lining the walls." ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 111 , p. 52) According to Kim actor Garrett Wang , the Intrepid -class transporter ceiling used on the set of Star Trek: Voyager was the original ceiling used on Star Trek: The Motion Picture . ( E! Inside Star Trek: Voyager , at 21 minutes)

The floor and ceiling of the transporter aboard the NX-class Enterprise were inspired by the fresnel lenses of TOS. (" Broken Bow " text commentary , ENT Season 1 DVD ) Similarly, the sides of the ENT transporter were deliberately evocative of the walls of the TOS Enterprise transporter. ( Broken Bow , paperback ed., p. 268)

Special effects [ ]

• See : Transporter sound and visual effects

The transporter is the only technology which is commonly used in Star Trek productions but which André Bormanis , at least as of 1996 , deemed as "a real stretch" of the imagination. " The Heisenberg uncertainty principle makes it impossible to know the exact location and energy of any particular subatomic particle. Therefore, were you to disassemble a person as the transporter does, it may well be impossible to put them back together again, " he explained. " We have reason to believe that this is because of some very basic physical facts about the universe and there's no way to get around that. " ( Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages , p. 76)

Although the catch phrase " Beam me up, Scotty " has worked its way into pop culture , the exact phrase itself was never uttered in Star Trek: The Original Series . ( Star Trek Encyclopedia  (3rd ed., p. 39)) The closest usage to the phrase came in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , when Kirk requests, " Scotty, beam me up. " Similarly, in " This Side of Paradise ", Kirk states, " Beam me up, Mr. Spock. " Only two other instances have used unqualified references to the phrase " Beam me up " – " The Squire of Gothos " and " Time's Arrow ".

According to Michael DeMeritt , the performers who portrayed persons who were beamed up were frequently thrilled to do so. He stated, " This is every actor's dream, whoever gets on Star Trek . 'Please, beam me up.' " ( ENT : " North Star " audio commentary , ENT Season 3 DVD ) Veteran Star Trek actor Vaughn Armstrong cited the transporter as his "favorite piece of Trek tech" and said, " I can't think of anything better. " Similarly, when Pat Tallman was asked what her favorite technology from the franchise was, she included in her answer the rhetorical question, " Who doesn't wish for the transporter? " ( Star Trek Monthly  issue 90 , pp. 31 & 32)

Initially familiarizing themselves with the workings of the transporter presented a challenge for some of DS9's principal cast members. As a result, one of several questions O'Brien actor Colm Meaney was asked by his fellow DS9 performers, he having had more Star Trek experience than them by having played O'Brien as a recurring character in TNG , was " How does the beam down work? " ( The Official Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Magazine  issue 1 , p. 23)

On one specific early occasion, Jake Sisko actor Cirroc Lofton enjoyed familiarizing himself with not only the transporter but also the sets of TNG and DS9. " No one was there. So, I started fiddling around with things and beaming myself up, " he reminisced. ( The Official Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Magazine  issue 5 , p. 49)

Brannon Braga believed that using a transporter in ENT : " Vanishing Point " to explain a hallucination was "a great twist." However, some fans deemed it "a cop-out," in Braga's words. ( Star Trek: Communicator  issue 145 , p. 26)

In Star Trek Adventure , where volunteers were picked from the audience, there was an optical illusion using lens distortion to simulate the transporter, which was then further edited to video for purchase after the show.

Apocrypha [ ]

In The Worlds of the Federation (p. 16), the first transporting of a Human is said to have taken place in the transporter room of the USS Moscow .

A partial explanation for the difference between transporters between Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation is provided in the Pocket TNG novel Dark Mirror , where the Enterprise -D encounters a mirror universe where the Terran Empire continues into the 24th century; when discussing the original crossover, Chief Miles O'Brien notes that transporters in Kirk's era were essentially more powerful, but a lot less sophisticated, with people lacking knowledge of how some spatial anomalies would affect the system even if its sheer power tended to compensate for those shortcomings.

In the novel adaptation of " Broken Bow ", it is said that, before the verb of "beam" had been accepted for describing the process of transporting, Starfleet had considered the words "scramble", "heat," "disassemble," and "spear," although "beam" had been considered the least frightening term.

In the short story "Our Million-Year Mission" from the anthology book Strange New Worlds VI , the transporter had been replaced by a more advanced system known as the blinkporter that was capable of instantaneously transporting a person to any temporal or spatial destination by the year 1,012,260.

An additional piece of transporter technology was developed in the alternate reality . Known as the "engineering transport tool ( β )", or ETT, it consisted of a rifle that could tag objects or individuals and transport them short distances. In the 2013 video game Star Trek , James T. Kirk and Spock use this tool to bypass areas of the Frontier starbase that have been damaged by the Gorn 's attack.

External links [ ]

• Transporter at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Transporter (Star Trek) at Wikipedia
• Notable Transporter Mishaps (X) at StarTrek.com

Den of Geek

Is the Science Behind Star Trek’s Transporter Plausible?

Star Trek's Transporter is a sci-fi staple... but does it hold up both scientifically and narratively? A new video podcast from Roddenberry Entertainment puts it to the test.

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Editor’s note: Does It Fly? releases new episodes Fridays through Den of Geek , YouTube , Apple Podcasts , and DoesItFlyPod.com .

After pioneering the future of science fiction on television for decades, Roddenberry Entertainment digs into the real-world science behind pop culture’s most iconic conceits, vehicles, and gadgets with the original video podcast series Does It Fly? . Hosted by noted astrophysicist and science educator Hakeem Oluseyi and television host, actor, and pop culture enthusiast Tamara Krinsky, the show examines devices from the most beloved sci-fi movies and shows, explaining the theoretical science behind them and if they’d actually function properly outside of the comforts of fiction.

To commemorate First Contact Day, the pivotal date where humanity first met intelligent life from another world, as depicted in the classic 1996 movie Star Trek: First Contact , the inaugural episode of the podcast focuses on if Star Trek ’s transporter could theoretically work. Speaking from their complementary professional backgrounds, areas of expertise, and Star Trek fandom, Oluseyi brings in the solid scientific theory and Krinsky frames it all with her encyclopedic knowledge of the geekiest pop culture franchises.

The transporter has been a staple for Star Trek ever since The Original Series debuted in 1966. The device is capable of teleporting solid objects and living organisms from one point to another, in most cases, safely and in a matter of seconds. Though the backstory behind the transporter has been revealed in Star Trek: Enterprise , along with its evolving technical limitations of the technology across the different generations of Starfleet explored in the various series and movies, the actual science behind it comes into question on the podcast. 

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Oluseyi packs the discussion with plenty of actual science in how the transporter works but keeps the information accessible for those who might not be as familiar with the math and science involved in calculating its viability. Oluseyi lays out the various technical challenges transporter technology would face, including the potential data storage requirements and how to maintain fidelity in converting living organic matter into energy and back to its normal state. Krinsky draws from her own extensive knowledge of Star Trek , citing specific key instances where further context about the operational capabilities of the transporter are revealed and behind-the-scenes history from the production.

As the two debunk some of the fictional science to make these devices work, Oluseyi and Krinsky make it very clear that the application of real-world science does not diminish their love and appreciation for Star Trek and the other shows and movies they examine on the podcast. And even though Oluseyi has his own skepticism about the viability of creating a functioning transporter, he excitedly declares he would try out the transporter himself – after at least a few other people try it first.

Every episode of Does It Fly? revolves around the title question: Does the pop culture device in question “fly,” in terms of becoming scientifically feasible in the foreseeable future? Krinsky and Oluseyi each lay out the case why they think a given piece of tech, like transporter, should be considered fly-worthy like a parting defense. And though Krinsky and Oluseyi don’t always agree on if something is fly-worthy, the conversation stays brisk, engaging, and fun, with plenty of scientific and pop culture information provided to viewers in every episode.

Does It Fly? marks the latest podcast series produced by Roddenberry Entertainment, the production company founded by the late Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and currently run by his son, CEO Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry, and COO Trevor Roth. In addition to executive producing the numerous new Star Trek series streaming on Paramount+, the two have curated and produced a growing number of original podcast series , each speaking to a different facet of science fiction fandom, often but not exclusively linked to the Star Trek mythos and Roddenberry family legacy.

Roth swung by Den of Geek Studio at SXSW 2024 , speaking about the current state of Star Trek , including the recently launched final season of Star Trek: Discovery . Among the topics Roth also spoke about was Roddenberry Entertainment’s podcast network and how they reflect a thriving frontier for the company as it continues to guide Star Trek to new heights and audiences nearly 60 years since the franchise made its inaugural launch.

“One thing we love about podcasting is we get right to the audience,” Roth tells Den of Geek . “When you look at expanding into that area, for us it’s wonderful and liberating. It’s something we can control so fully. It allows us to hopefully rise to the cream of the crop in regard to the way we do it, which I think has to do with us being very thoughtful about [the topics] and recognizing what we’re trying to achieve and giving that to the audience.”

Does It Fly? releases new episodes Fridays through Den of Geek, YouTube , or on doesitflypod.com , You can listen to the show on Spotify , Apple , and anywhere else you get your podcasts.

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• The brash James T. Kirk tries to live up to his father's legacy with Mr. Spock keeping him in check as a vengeful Romulan from the future creates black holes to destroy the Federation one planet at a time.
• On the day of James T. Kirk's birth, his father dies on his damaged starship in a last stand against a Romulan mining vessel looking for Ambassador Spock, who in this time, has grown on Vulcan disdained by his neighbors for his half-human heritage. 25 years later, James T. Kirk has grown into a young rebellious troublemaker. Challenged by Captain Christopher Pike to realize his potential in Starfleet, he comes to annoy academy instructors like Commander Spock. Suddenly, there is an emergency on Vulcan and the newly-commissioned USS Enterprise is crewed with promising cadets like Nyota Uhura, Hikaru Sulu, Pavel Chekov and even Kirk himself, thanks to Leonard McCoy's medical trickery. Together, this crew will have an adventure in the final frontier where the old legend is altered forever as a new version of the legend begins. — Paramount Pictures
• When a Romulan mining vessel attacks the USS Kelvin, Lt. George Kirk substitutes his captain, who goes to meet the Romulan captain on his vessel to negotiate a ceasefire. He orders the evacuation of the damaged starship, including his wife who goes into labor giving birth to their son James Kirk, and crashes the Kelvin against the vessel. Aboard the USS Enterprise, the most sophisticated starship ever constructed, a novice crew embarks on its maiden voyage. Their path takes them on a collision course with Nero, the Romulan captain from the future whose mission of vengeance threatens the Federation. Once humanity would survive, rebellious young officer James T. Kirk and coolly logical Vulcan officer Spock must move beyond their rivalry and find a way to stop Nero before he destroys Earth. — Blazer346
• In 2233, the Federation star ship USS Kelvin is investigating a "lightning storm" in space. A Romulan ship, Narada, emerges from the storm and attacks the Kelvin leaving it defenseless. Narada's first officer, Ayel (Clifton Collins, Jr.), demands that Kelvin's Captain Robau (Faran Tahir) come aboard to negotiate a truce. Robau is questioned about the current star date and an "Ambassador Spock", whom he does not recognize. Narada's commander, Nero (Eric Bana), kills him, and resumes attacking the Kelvin. George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth), Kelvin's first officer, orders the ship's personnel, including his pregnant wife Winona (Jennifer Morrison), to abandon ship while he pilots the Kelvin on a collision course with Narada. Kirk sacrifices his life to ensure Winona's survival as she gives birth to James Tiberius Kirk (Chris Pine). Seventeen years later on the planet Vulcan, a young Spock (Zachary Quinto) is accepted to join the Vulcan Science Academy. He has always been taunted as a half human, half Vulcan by his peers and dislikes references to his human mother in anyway. Realizing that the Academy views his human mother, Amanda (Winona Ryder), as a "disadvantage", he joins Starfleet instead. On Earth, Kirk becomes a reckless but intelligent young adult. Following a bar fight with Starfleet cadets accompanying Nyota Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Kirk meets Captain Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood), who encourages him to enlist in Starfleet Academy ("Your dad was the captain of a star ship for 12 mins and saved 800 lives. I dare you to do better"), where Kirk meets and befriends Doctor Leonard "Bones" McCoy (Karl Urban) (He lost everything in the divorce, except the bones in his body) Three years later, Commander Spock accuses Kirk of cheating during the Kobayashi Maru simulation. The simulation required cadet captains to face death and protect the crew in a no win scenario, but Kirk cheats and inserts a sub routine to change the scenario and beat it. Kirk argues that cheating was acceptable because the simulation was designed to be unbeatable. Spock argues that Kirk not only cheated but failed to get the most important learning of the simulation that a captain cannot cheat death. The disciplinary hearing is interrupted by a distress signal from Vulcan. With the primary fleet out of range, the cadets are mobilized, with McCoy and Kirk boarding Pike's ship (Kirk is grounded on account of his academic suspension, but McCoy argues that Kirk is his patient and he wont leave for the mission unless he is allowed to bring Kirk along), the Enterprise. Spock considers Uhura as his favorite student and assigns her to the Enterprise. The enterprise is a few minutes late in departing as the new helmsman Pavel Chekov (Anton Yelchin) & Hikaru Sulu had not released the external inertial dampener and hence the warp drive did not engage. Realizing that the "lightning storm" observed near Vulcan (shortly after which Vulcan was attacked by a Romulan ship and sent a distress signal to Earth) is similar to the one that occurred when he was born, Kirk breaks protocol to convince Pike that the distress signal is a trap. When the Enterprise arrives, they find the fleet destroyed and Narada drilling into Vulcan's core. Narada attacks Enterprise and Pike surrenders, delegating command of the ship to Spock and promoting Kirk to first officer. Kirk, Hikaru Sulu (John Cho), and Chief Engineer Olson (Greg Ellis) perform a space jump onto the drilling platform. While Olson is killed mid-jump, Kirk and Sulu successfully reach and disable the drill, but are unable to stop Nero launching "red matter" into Vulcan's core, forming an artificial black hole that destroys Vulcan. The Enterprise manages to rescue Spock's father, Sarek (Ben Cross), and the high council before the planet's destruction, but not his mother Amanda, who falls to her death before the transporter can properly lock onto her. Out of 6 Bn Vulcans only 10,000 are saved. As Narada moves toward Earth, Nero tortures Pike to gain access to Earth's defense codes. Nero declares his intention to destroy all federation planets, starting from Earth. Uhura is shown to have romantic feelings towards Spock. Spock deduces that the Narada is from the future and has used the black hole technology to create a passage through space time. Nero's presence, beginning with the attack on USS Kelvin has altered the flow of history and created an alternate reality. While in pursuit, Spock maroons Kirk on Delta Vega after he attempts mutiny (Kirk wanted to go after Nero and the Narada, while Spock wants to hook up with the rest of Starfleet in the Laurentian system, as per orders from Captain Pike). On the planet, Kirk encounters an older Spock (from the original time line) (Leonard Nimoy), who explains that he and Nero are from 2387. In the future, Romulus was threatened by a supernova, which Spock attempted to stop with an artificial black hole made of "red matter". However, his plan failed, resulting in Nero's family perishing along with Romulus, while both the Narada and Spock's vessel were caught in the black hole and sent back in time. Spock quickly found they were sent back 25 years apart, during which time Nero attacked the Kelvin, thus changing history and creating a parallel universe. After Spock's arrival, Nero stranded him on Delta Vega to watch Vulcan's destruction as revenge. Reaching a Starfleet outpost on Delta Vega, Kirk and the elder Spock meet Montgomery "Scotty" Scott (Simon Pegg), who helps them by devising a trans-warp beam system, allowing both him and Kirk to beam onto Enterprise while it is travelling at warp speed. Following the elder Spock's advice, Kirk provokes younger Spock into attacking him, forcing Spock to recognize himself as emotionally compromised and relinquish command to Kirk. After talking with Sarek, Spock decides to help Kirk. While Enterprise hides itself within the gas clouds of Titan, Kirk and Spock beam aboard Narada (Uhura reveals her first name is Nyota to Spock). Kirk fights with Nero and Ayel, killing the latter and rescuing Pike, while Spock uses the elder Spock's ship to destroy the drill. Spock leads Narada away from Earth and sets his ship to collide with Nero's ship. Enterprise beams Kirk, Pike, and Spock aboard. The older Spock's ship and Narada collide, igniting the "red matter". Kirk offers Nero help to escape, but Nero refuses, prompting Kirk to give the order to fire, dooming Narada to be consumed in a black hole that Enterprise is only barely able to escape. Kirk is promoted to captain and given command of Enterprise, while Pike is promoted to rear admiral. Spock encounters his older self, who persuades his younger self to continue serving in Starfleet, encouraging him to do, for once, what feels right instead of what is logical. Spock remains in Starfleet, becoming first officer under Kirk's command. Enterprise goes to warp as the elder Spock speaks the "where no one has gone before" monologue.

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Star Trek's Use of Transporters, Explained

The transporter is one of Star Trek's most magical and powerful creations, but how does the technology work and where did it come from?

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Why star trek has transporters in the first place, how transporters work in star trek stories, is there any real scientific basis for star trek's transporters, is a star trek character the same person after being transported.

There are many iconic things about Star Trek , from the communicators that inspired flip cell phones to the unmistakable silhouette of the USS Enterprise . However, one of the most iconic elements of Gene Roddenberry's universe are the transporters that "beam" characters from one place to another. This technology is one of the earliest and most high-concept ideas in those early shows. Yet, it was born -- like so much in television production -- out of a need to save money. So, how does the fantastical transporter system work? If someone who wasn't a fan of Star Trek was asked to quote a line of dialogue from the show, they most likely would say, "Beam me up, Scotty."

The chief engineer of the original USS Enterprise was also the one often tasked with overseeing this complicated and sometimes dangerous process. Yet, the phrase never appears in Star Trek: The Original Series . In fact, the closest fans ever got to hearing it was in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home . While saying goodbye to Gillian, their 20th Century marine biologist ally, Kirk says, "Scotty, beam me up." Throughout every future iteration of the franchise, the transporter is a crucial part of the technological armaments used in the stories. While no single science-fiction concept is wholly original, the transporter is one element that's rarely copied by other storytelling universes. Doctor Who uses them, but it's often only the aliens or antagonists who have access to them, and for good reason. While it saved money for production, conceptually it complicates the series' drama.

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Looking back at Star Trek: The Original Series , modern-day viewers can be forgiven for saying it looks "cheap." Yet, during its day, the show was one of the most expensive on television, which is why The Original Series was canceled despite strong fan support. In fact, while still in development, Gene Roddenberry almost blew the budget simply researching starships. From that experience Roddenberry said, "I would blow the whole budget…just in landing the [ship] on a planet," in The Fifty-Year Mission: The First 25 Years by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman. "[T]he transporter idea was conceived, so we could get our people down to the planet fast…and get our story going by page two."

The technology also allowed the characters to only bring the props they could carry like phasers, communicators and tricorders. Anything else they needed could simply be transported to them. Len Wein, a writer on the early Star Trek comics , chided earlier writers for showing the characters with backpacks, because anything they needed was a simple beam-down away. Still, the transporter posed a problem for the production crew. It was one of many visual effects techniques that had to be invented for the series. Sure, the use of composite shots -- which allow figures to appear or disappear -- existed as long as motion picture cameras. But in Star Trek , everything had to be bigger.

In The Fifty-Year Mission , visual effects legend Howard A. Anderson talked about how they achieved the effect. They "used aluminum dust falling through a beam of high-intensity light" photographed separately. Using matte shots, they would shoot the characters, followed by a cut-out of the character with the glitter effect, and then make the effect disappear leaving an empty transporter pad. It was one of the show's simpler shots, but that, along with the sound, became a beloved hallmark of the series. Despite modern advancements, the transporter effect still has elements of the original.

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In most cases, the transporters still work the way they were intended to, namely by getting characters into the action quickly. However, they are also a source of drama. In Captain's Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , also by Gross and Altman, Roddenberry lamented about a cut scene from the (second) pilot where Dr. McCoy gives voice to his concern about using it. The line told fans "one of these days we may see a story about a transporter malfunction." When this eventually happened in The Original Series , for "regular viewers, it comes out of the blue," he said. A transporter malfunction is also how the show introduced Star Trek's infamous "Mirror Universe."

Of course, if the characters could simply be whisked out of dangerous situations with a transporter, it hurts the drama. In The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years , second-wave writer and producer Hans Beimler said they "had to break down the transporter…so that [the characters] could be in trouble." This is why there are so many "ionic storms" or stories set in deep caves. The character of Dr. Pulaski on Star Trek: The Next Generation shared Dr. McCoy's contempt for transporters, too. Yet, it wasn't always a hindrance to the storytelling.

In The Next Generation Season 6, a transporter malfunction created a double of Riker who spent years on a planet waiting for rescue. In Star Trek: Voyager , another malfunction -- in concert with an alien flower -- bonded two characters together into a new being in the episode "Tuvix." As recently as 2023, the transporters were used in Star Trek: Picard as a key element of the Borg's plan to stealthily invade Starfleet by assimilating the officers under the age of 25. This technology is about much more today than getting characters to a planet quickly and cheaply.

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It's surprising how scientifically accurate a show like Star Trek can be, even without its science consultants. In an early The Original Series episode, Captain Kirk makes reference to what sounds like a black hole, a year before the term appeared in scientific literature, according to science consultant and astrophysicist Erin MacDonald on NPR's Science Friday . Regretfully, she said the transporter is not one of those things. Beyond the massive task of disassembling and reassembling seven billion-billion-billion particles, there are the laws of physics to contend with, namely the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

The scientific concept states there is an incalculable measure of uncertainty in measuring and locating a particle at any given time. Star Trek sometimes takes liberties with real physics. MacDonald noted the depiction of gravity waves in Season 4 of Star Trek: Discovery was depicted inaccurately because it was more visually appealing. It is a television series, after all. Still, Star Trek tries to account for these things. In certain episodes when transporter "technobabble" is required, there's an element called a "Heisenberg Compensator." This accounts for the uncertainty, but asked how it works, all MacDonald can say is "very well, thank you."

There are more recent elements that are equally scientifically preposterous, especially the "pattern buffer." This is a memory storage device that holds a transporter "pattern." In The Next Generation , Scotty is found alive decades after his disappearance inside one. Strange New Worlds used the concept, too. Dr. M'Benga used it to store wounded Starfleet officers in the Klingon war and, later, his own daughter who had a degenerative disease. It makes for great fiction, but it's not real science. In fact, there is a massive debate about whether the transporter kills each person who goes through it.

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In Star Trek: Enterprise Season 4 , the inventor of the transporter, Dr. Emory Erickson visits the ship for an experiment that's a secret plan to save his son, lost in a transporter accident. During the episode, he dismisses out-of-hand the idea that the transporter "kills" the people who use it. However, it's not so easy to dismiss. The transporter breaks down the physical structure of a person to the smallest particle and then rebuilds them in a different location. There is an argument to be made that they are not the "same" person who went into the machine. Instead, they are a new being who possesses the same matter and memories, or in Will and Thomas Riker's cases, two people with the same matter and memories.

With this philosophical question, there is no clear answer. Dr. Erickson is convinced the idea is nonsense, but Star Trek: Picard proved it's not so beyond the pale. The Starfleet officers had their DNA rewritten with biological Borg elements they didn't have before. Dr. Crusher notes the "bio-filters" should've caught it. These filters are supposed to be able to remove contaminants and pathogens an away team might pick up on an alien planet.

While the transporter is reassembling a person's particles, it can and does change them when required. This is a fan-debate for which there is no clear answer, nor should there be. For Star Trek's purposes, however, the people who are transported aren't killed in the process. The one exception is the people in Star Trek: The Motion Picture whose molecules were scrambled by beaming aboard the refitted USS Enterprise . Despite Roddeberry's desire for his universe to hew closely to real-world science, Star Trek 's transporters are its most magical technology.

The Star Trek universe encompasses multiple series, each offering a unique lens through which to experience the wonders and perils of space travel. Join Captain Kirk and his crew on the Original Series' voyages of discovery, encounter the utopian vision of the Federation in The Next Generation, or delve into the darker corners of galactic politics in Deep Space Nine. No matter your preference, there's a Star Trek adventure waiting to ignite your imagination.

The Untold Truth About Star Trek Transporters

According to Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), "transporting really is the safest way to travel" in the "Star Trek" universe. Having your atoms disassembled by a computer, beamed to another location, and then reassembled certainly does sound like an efficient (albeit terrifying) mode of transportation and practically everyone in the 24th century gets around with transporters.

La Forge even claims there have only been two or three transporter accidents in the past 10 years — but if that's true, then the 24th century must have a very different definition of the word "accidents." From age regression to accidental cloning, the U.S.S. Enterprise alone has had multiple bizarre transporter malfunctions in just its first seven years of service.

The problems get even weirder when you look at all the transporter accidents in the original " Star Trek ," " Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ," " Star Trek: Voyager ," and other "Trek" TV shows and movies. While some of these effects can actually be beneficial, you may want to read this article on the untold truths behind "Star Trek" transporters before calling out that old refrain: "Beam me up, Scotty." Because after your journey, there's a good chance you won't like how you get put back together.

Transporters Exist Because of Low FX Budgets

According to "The Making of Star Trek," franchise mastermind Gene Roddenberry originally wanted to shoot scenes of the Enterprise landing on alien planets, but this proved too expensive. Even building models of shuttlecrafts was too time consuming, and the crew needed an alternative when filming began.

To get around the problem, the special effects team created a teleportation effect for the crew to explain how they arrived on a planet's surface in the "Star Trek" pilot episode "The Cage." The transporter became very popular and influenced many episodes, causing all the later TV shows and movies to use it even as their FX budgets increased substantially. Thus, a special effect created for budgetary reasons ended up having a major real-world effect on pop culture.

Transporters Run on Glitter and Alka Seltzer

Ask a Trekkie how transporters work, and you might receive a technical explanation of the physics involved in disassembling and reassembling a person.

Well, guess what? In reality, transporters can run on anything from glitter to Alka Seltzer. According to " Inside Star Trek: The Real Story ," the special effects team created the first transporter effect by turning a slow-motion camera upside down, filming grains of aluminum powder dropping in front of a black background, and using the footage to create the "shimmer" effect between shots of the actors and the clean background. In later episodes, they created different transporter effects by filming  dissolving Alka Seltzer tablets and later glitter swizzled in a jar full of water.

More recent "Trek" movies and TV shows use computer effects. Today, practically  anyone can create their own Star Trek transporter effect with basic video editing software and some computer-generated effects. Even so, it's telling that one of the most iconic special effects in science fiction history was accomplished using materials anyone could buy at their local drug store.

People Suffer From Transporter Phobia

By the 24th century, millions of people travel by transporter every year. Even so, there are plenty of people who hate this mode of travel and do everything they can to avoid stepping onto a transporter pad.

In "The Next Generation" Season 6 episode "Realm of Fear,"  Lieutenant Reginald Barclay (Dwight Schultz) confesses he suffers from "transporter phobia" and suffers a panic attack when asked to beam down to a planet while plasma field disturbances adversely affect the transporter. As it turns out, his fears are justified, and he sees worm-like creatures in the transporter's matter stream that turn out to be human beings trapped in mid-transport.

People with transporter phobia may be ridiculed in the 24th century, but Barclay's actually in good company. Doctor Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) famously hated transporters and insisted on using shuttlecrafts whenever possible. 

During the "Star Trek: Enterprise” television series, the original Enterprise crew also preferred using shuttles and only allowed themselves to be beamed up during emergencies. Considering all the horrible transporter malfunctions that would occur over the next two hundred years, this was very smart behavior.

Transporters May Technically Kill You Every Time You Beam Down

Transporter accidents have killed people in many gruesome ways. In " Star Trek: The Motion Picture ” (1979), memorably, some new officers experience a transporter malfunction and re-materialize as a semi-living mass of flesh that mercifully doesn't live for very long.

When you get down to it though, "Star Trek" transporters may very well murder every single person who uses one. According to multiple official explanations, including the one found in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual," transporters scan a person's body, convert said body into a matter stream, store those particles in a pattern buffer, send them to their destination via an energy beam, and then put those particles back together in the original configuration.

Many fans argue that this basically means a transporter kills you and only reassembles a copy of your body and mind. This idea is given credence by the fact that transporters don't have to use your original atoms to reassemble you, but can use any available atoms, leaving your original atoms floating somewhere in space.

This is similar to the " Ship of Theseus " thought experiment (famously  referenced in "Wandavision" ), which questions whether a person or object is still themselves once all the original components are replaced. The Star Trek graphic novel "Forgiveness" does claim that transporters manage to send your soul via the energy stream, which would indicate that transporters don't really kill you. That being said ... they kind of do.

Transporters Make Death Irrelevant

Transporters may or may not kill you, but having a computer advanced enough to scan and store a complete pattern of your body, mind, and memories actually makes death irrelevant. In the episode "Lonely Among Us" from Season 1 of "Next Generation," for instance,  Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) merges with an alien entity and beams off the ship, apparently destroying himself.

However, the Enterprise crew later realize that they can get Picard back by reversing the transport and reconstituting Picard as he was before the alien possessed him. This Picard is the same person in every respect, although he lacks the memories of when he and the alien entity were one, indicating he's an earlier version of Picard built from new atoms.

Oddly, this means a transporter can bring back anyone who dies from a mission just by saving their physical and mental patterns in the pattern buffer and reconstituting them after the original dies. The new version would lack the memories of that mission (including the memory of dying), but this would be a small price to pay for getting a chance to bring people back from the dead on demand. The only downside might be accidentally duplicating someone who isn't dead yet — which actually happened to one hapless crewman on "Next Generation."

Transporters Are Cloning Machines

Season 1 of the original "Star Trek" produced one of the show's weirder episodes with "The Enemy Within," where a transporter accident splits Captain Kirk (William Shatner) into a "good" but weak-willed Kirk and an  "evil" Kirk prone to overacting  (or at least, more overacting than Shatner normally did). As it turned out, both sides of Kirk needed to merge back together to form a whole personality, and Spock and Scotty were able to re-integrate them.

At least Kirk managed to pull himself together. A generation later, Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) wasn't so lucky when, on the "Next Generation" Season 6 episode "Second Chances," he learned he was unknowingly split into two exact duplicates thanks to a transporter accident while he was a lieutenant. While one Will Riker continued his career in Starfleet and rose to the rank of Commander, the other Riker (also Frakes) was marooned on an alien planet for eight years until the Enterprise rescued him.

From that point, things got even weirder. Lieutenant Riker decided to go by his middle name "Thomas" and start a new life. He joined a group of Maquis dissidents, then used his genetic pattern to pose as Will Riker and steal the U.S.S. Defiant in the "Deep Space Nine" Season 3 episode "Defiant." Later, he got caught and sentenced to life imprisonment in a Cardassian labor camp. Meanwhile, Commander William Riker continued to advance in his career and eventually became captain of the U.S.S. Titan. Wow, talk about an identity crisis.

Transporters Are Gene Splicers

David Cronenberg's classic 1986 remake of "The Fly"  showed how an early transporter (or "telepod") could accidentally splice someone's genetic code with an insect if it happened to be inside. By the 24th century, transporter gene splicing accidents have become somewhat prettier, but no less ethically disturbing.

In the "Voyager" Season 2 episode "Tuvix," Lieutenant Commander Tuvok (Tim Russ), Neelix (Ethan Phillips), and an alien plant get merged together in a transporter accident thanks to the plant's enzymes. The resulting hybrid being (played by actor Tom Wright) possessed their memories and called himself "Tuvix." Over time, Tuvix formed  relationships with the crew and came to see himself as a unique being (and looked at Tuvok and Neelix as his parents), resisting attempts to reverse the fusing process. However,  Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) forced him to go through the process anyway, effectively destroying him .

While the moral dilemma of forcing Tuvix to revert back to two beings made for some good drama, it almost seemed unnecessary. Since the transporters can effectively clone people, as they did with William Thomas Riker, why couldn't Voyager have simply made a copy of Tuvix and then separated one of them back into Tuvok and Neelix? Tuvix would have probably been more amenable to that idea.

Transporters Are A Fountain of Youth

Transporters might be able to reassemble you in exactly the same physical condition you were in at the moment of beam out ... but what if you don't want to be put back together as an out-of-shape middle-aged man or a dying woman?

No problem! As multiple "Star Trek” episodes have shown, the transporter can make you any age you want. In the "Next Generation” Season 6 episode "Rascals," a transporter accident removed key sequences in the crew's DNA, causing them to rematerialize as 12-year-olds, albeit with adult minds and memories. Doctor Crusher (Gates McFadden) later restored the missing sequences and returned the kids to adults, but she indicated that the regressed crewmembers could have simply grown up the normal way instead.

Okay, but say you don't want to restart your life as a preteen and go through puberty a second time? That still wouldn't be an issue. In the Season 2 episode "Unnatural Selection," Doctor Pulaski (Diana Muldaur) was stricken with a disease that accelerated her aging. To save her, the Enterprise used the transporter to re-code her DNA back to normal with a previous bio-pattern that put her back to her regular age.

Of course, since you could store bio-patterns of yourself every time you use the transporter, you could restore yourself to any age or physical condition — including how you looked during your twenties after spending months working out at the gym. Who needs a day spa when you've got a transporter?

Transporters Redefine How Childbirth Works

Starfleet doctors are some of the best medical professionals in the business. Not only can these specialists perform delicate surgery on multiple alien species, they're trained to use their advanced medical equipment to improvise in dangerous situations, leading to some ... well, innovative solutions.

In the "Deep Space Nine" Season 4 episode "Body Parts," Doctor Bashir (Alexander Siddig) was on a shuttle with Major Kira (Nana Visitor) and Chief O'Brien's pregnant wife Keiko (Rosalind Chao). When an accident endangered the lives of Keiko and her unborn son, Bashir decided to use the transporter to transfer the fetus into Kira's womb. Kira ended up carrying the infant to term, resulting in some weird moments for the O'Brien family.

This bizarre incident was motivated by  Nana Visitor's real-life pregnancy , which the writers decided to work into the show after Visitor feared her character might need to be written out. Oddly enough, while "Star Trek" science consultant André Bormanis didn't think such an operation would be scientifically possible, he later admitted that fifteen years after the episode aired,  the idea of a fetal transplant was being studied and could become a reality .

Transporters Can Turn You Into A Living Ghost

Why was Geordi La Forge so confident that transporters were safe? Probably because he suffered a transporter accident that should have killed him in the Season 5 "Next Generation" episode "The Next Phase," only to learn he wasn't really dead. The story had La Forge and Ensign Ro (Michelle Forbes) waking up on the Enterprise after a transporter malfunction, only to learn nobody could see or hear them and that they could walk through solid matter.

Ro believed the two of them died while being beamed up, but La Forge was skeptical, and learned a Romulan molecular phase inverter transformed them into "out of phase" versions of themselves. Luckily, he was able to get a message to Data, and the Enterprise reverted them to their solid states.

Ensign Boimler (Jack Quaid) suffered a more embarrassing version of this ghost-transformation in the Season 1 "Star Trek: Lower Decks" episode "Much Ado About Boimler." While helping an engineer test the transporter, Boimler was turned into a transparent, glowing version of himself that gave off a "transporter" sound. 

When his crew found him too distracting, they shipped him to "The Farm," a medical spa where all incurable "Star Trek" victims go. The Farm turned out to be a great place, but when Boimler reverted to normal, he was shipped back. Considering the Farm is basically a day spa with attractive nurses, maybe being a transporter accident victim wasn't such a bad thing after all.

Transporters Can Replace Cryogenic Freezing

There's been a lot of cinematic speculation about how cryogenics freeze a person into stasis, possibly allowing them to be revived years or even centuries later. In the movies, everyone from  Austin Powers to  Captain America to  Doctor Evil have attempted it, with varying success.

Well, guess what? In the "Trek” universe, you don't have to bother with messy cold storage. Just store your pattern in the transporter buffer of your ship and wait for someone to re-materialize you. 

That's what Montgomery Scott (James Doohan) did for himself and his crewmate when their ship crashed on a Dyson sphere in the "Next Generation” Season 6 episode "Relics." While his friend's pattern degraded too much for him to be revived (guess Scotty wasn't that much of a miracle worker), Scotty was taken out of storage 75 years later by the crew of the Enterprise-D.

Oddly enough, in the rebooted Kelvin timeline, an alternate Scotty lost Admiral Archer's beagle Porthos in a transwarp beaming experiment. However, in the IDW comic book "Star Trek" #12, Scotty brought Porthos back, showing that animals can also be kept in stasis for extended periods of time. Undoubtedly, this technology will someday revolutionize how our kennels operate.

Transporters Are Time Machines

"Trek" time travel is usually a dramatic event. In "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," Kirk and his crew went back to the 20th century by getting a stolen Klingon Bird-of-Prey to perform a "slingshot" maneuver around the sun, creating a time warp. The effort nearly destroyed the ship, but it got the job done.

Of course, if you don't have the movie budget — er, starship — to perform such a feat, just use the transporter. In the "Deep Space Nine" Season 3 two-part storyline "Past Tense," a transporter accident involving temporal altering chroniton particles sent Captain Sisko (Avery Brooks), Doctor Bashir, and Lieutenant Commander Dax (Terry Farrell) to the 21st century where they accidentally interfered with a key historical event, threatening to erase their future.

Meanwhile,  Chief O'Brien (Colm Meany) and Major Kira managed to use a limited supply of chronitons to travel through time and locate their missing crew members. They ended up briefly visiting 1930, and even swung by 1967 to get flowers from some hippies, before finally hitting the right date. 

Such tech would be greatly refined by the 29th century, when the Federation included fleets of "timeships" in Starfleet that possessed temporal displacement drives and temporal rifts to travel through time, allowing them to  essentially beam people to any point in history.

Transporters Can Take You to Alternate Realities

As if ending up in the wrong place isn't bad enough, some transporter accidents can place you in an entirely different universe — and not a very fun one at that. 

In the classic Season 2 "Star Trek” episode, "Mirror, Mirror," Kirk and several other crew members re-materialized in a " Mirror Universe " where the benevolent Federation was the planet-conquering "Terran Empire." Kirk and his crew needed to pretend to be their evil counterparts, since any traitors to the empire would be placed in "agony booths" of torture that made folks wish they were dead.

Meanwhile, the Mirror Universe versions of Kirk and his crew appeared in the "Prime" Star Trek universe and were thrown into the Enterprise's brig. Fortunately, the two crews managed to switch places, with the "Prime" Kirk making the "Mirror" Spock consider reforming the Terran Empire.

While this appeared to be a random transporter accident, by the 24th century, Mirror Universe engineers managed to upgrade their transporters to allow people to crossover to the "Prime" universe at will. This led to multiple episodes in "Deep Space Nine" where mainstream characters visited the alternate reality and even formed friendships with some of their Mirror Universe counterparts.

People Have Faked Their Deaths via Transporter Accidents

Want to know how common transporter accidents really are? As it turns out, one Romulan spy felt this sort of death was so prevalent in Starfleet that she staged her own transporter death.

In the "Next Generation" Season 4 episode " Data's Day ," a Vulcan ambassador (Sierra Pecheur) apparently died in a transporter accident even though the equipment appeared to be functioning perfectly. Data (Brent Spiner) investigated, discovering bits of organic matter that arrived in transport were replicated, leading him to deduce that the "Vulcan" ambassador was actually a Romulan spy who used the Enterprise to rendezvous with her people and had the replicated material of her "dead body" beamed onto their ship to fake her cover identity's death.

While the spy's deception was discovered, not every Starfleet crew has people like Data or Doctor Crusher who can investigate so thoroughly. Given this, maybe transporter accidents really aren't so common. Perhaps, most of them are perpetrated by people who just want to start a new life.

Star Trek’s Transporter Technology, Explained

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Chris Pine Gives Uninspiring (and Unsurprising) Update on Star Trek 4

Instagram unveils two new lightsabers from star wars: the acolyte, beau demayo trolled x-men '97 fans again on social media after episode 9 cliffhanger.

Ever since its creation in the late 1960s, Star Trek has been a pinnacle of positive science fiction, envisioning a non-dystopian future where technology has become so advanced that problems that irk mankind today are no longer an issue . World hunger is solved by the unlimited source of food created by a replicator , complex medical diagnostics can take place in a matter of seconds using a tricorder. However, nothing has become such a cornerstone of the many iterations into the franchise as the iconic transporter.

Teleportation has long been a dream of mankind, replacing arduous long-haul flights with a simple matter transportation device. With this gizmo, journeys that would typically take hours can take only seconds. The transporters are used throughout the many iterations into the franchise, from the revolutionary Original Series to the newest addition to the universe, Strange New Worlds . So fundamental are these transporters as a narrative beat that they appear in almost every episode, bar the occasional few. What's more, they often play a key role in solving whatever problem the intrepid adventures of Starfleet face.

RELATED: How Star Trek: The Next Generation Explored Blindness & Accessibility With Geordi LaForge

While there have been a few gizmos and gadgets from the show that have wiggled their way into non-fictional technological creations , unfortunately the transporter is not one of them. Real-world scientists have poured considerable research into it, with successful experiments having already been carried out on a molecular scale, but sadly we are nowhere close to the transporter technology portrayed in the show.

The biggest problem with achieving teleportation is largely down to how advanced and complex most organisms and objects are. Star Trek transporter tech works by breaking down matter such as living organisms, cargo, even gas or liquid-based matter into an energy pattern, in a process that the show calls “dematerialization.” Once each atom is broken down into this pattern, it is “beamed” across to another transporter pad, where it is converted back into matter. This is aptly named “rematerialization.” Interestingly, the famous quote “Beam me up, Scotty”, in reference to the Original Series transporter operator and chord of engineering Montgomery Scott, is actually a misquote, never uttered in the Original Series . The closest occasion was the one time Kirk said “Scotty, beam me up,” years later in the film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

Within the Star Trek universe, there are some limitations to the miraculous technology, such as distance restriction and often an inability to penetrate through shields. There are of course exceptions to these rules, but they are often connected specifically to a particular episodes plot. Writers, as is often the case in long-running TV shows such as this, often break or bend the rules on transporter specifics, so it’s often hard to canonically understand their limitations. In the Original Series it’s noted that it is only possible to transport from one transporter bay to another. However, this rule has been broken multiple times, showing crew members transported from any random location to another, all without the bay. This raises the question as to why they have the designated transporter room to begin with, other than to make grand entrances and create memorable transitions.

While the process sounds simple enough on paper, like sending an email over, the process is riddled with complex problems and potential dangers. It’s no wonder that transporter operators are so highly trained within Starfleet, as the idea of breaking down matter and then reconstructing it in exactly the same way is a daunting task. It is comparable to smashing a vase into tiny pieces, then trying to glue it all back together. Of course, with the wonders of Star Trek technology, this process is vastly automated, but there are still a myriad of problems that can occur.

There have been various episodes devoted to these issues, potentially most notably the Voyager episode “Tuvix”. Tuvok and Neelix, two crew members under the controversial Capt. Janeway, are on an away mission. Upon beaming back to the ship their energy pattern was disrupted, causing it to merge into one pattern and thus rematerialize into one living organism: Tuvix. There kinds of issues are scarily common, and thus there are various characters whom audiences meet across the franchise that are hesitant or even refuse to use transporters.

Transporters are potentially one of the most fascinating technological advancements present within the show, and are often the envy of even modern day audiences. Technology has come ridiculously far since The Original Series first graced televisions, with touch screens, smartphones, and virtual reality all appearing in the real world, and making the old shows feel dated. Transporters, however, along with warp engines and replicators, make even the oldest episodes feel futuristic, setting a standard that has remained relevant more than 50 years later.

MORE: Star Trek: Deep Space 9's Most Heart Wrenching Moment

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The Trouble with Star Trek Transporters

By chris higgins | mar 12, 2016.

In the world of Star Trek , the transporter is used to move people and objects from one place to another, "beaming" them around. Various characters on the show (notably Dr. McCoy and Lieutenant Barclay) hate the transporter . So, yes, the transporter is fictional, but that doesn't mean we can't nerd out on it.

One of the core philosophical problems surrounding Trek 's transporter is an issue of consciousness and identity: If the transporter takes all the atoms that make up a person, encodes them, beams them somewhere else, and then reassembles them, how can we know that the resulting "person" is the same person who went in? It's easy to argue that the transporter is effectively killing the first person, then creating an identical copy of that person with identical memories in the new location. This brings us to the Ship of Theseus paradox —if you replace all the components in a ship over time, is it still the "same" ship? (In other words, if you replace all the atoms in a person, is it still the same person?)

So it gets messy. In the video below , CGP Grey walks us through the various philosophical (and fictional-technological) problems of the transporter using fun, peppy animation. Set aside five minutes and be prepared to change your perception of how Star Trek really works:

Check out this Reddit thread for a bit more discussion of this stuff.

Side note: This also happens to be an excellent instance of parallel creation , as Jake from the YouTube channel Vsauce3 was working on an extremely similar concept at the same time (right down to the Ship of Theseus business)...but for an entirely different reason. Here's Jake's video:

Screen Rant

Doctor who wants to crossover with star trek, but could it happen.

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Doctor Who Subtly Proves A Matt Smith Sci-Fi Crossover Is Proper Canon In RTD's New Era

Star trek’s leonard nimoy almost directed a doctor who movie, who is ruby's mother in doctor who 10 biggest theories.

• Doctor Who teases potential Star Trek crossover in new season, blurring lines between sci-fi universes.
• Ncuti Gatwa hints at Eleventh Doctor adventure in a different universe, sparking fan theories and excitement.
• Previous attempts at Doctor Who/Star Trek crossover never materialized, but new hints suggest it could happen now.

Doctor Who wants to do a crossover with the Star Trek franchise, leading fans of both franchises to ponder whether it could ever happen. As the two longest-running science fiction franchises in the world, there have been various Star Trek crossovers with Doctor Who and vice versa over the years. However, outside expanded media and cute references, Doctor Who and Star Trek have never officially crossed paths on screen. This could finally be about to change, as a revelation in Doctor Who season 14, episode 1, "Space Babies" blurs the boundaries between each show's fictional universe.

An Easter egg in Doctor Who season 14, episode 1 heavily suggests that Starfleet and the starship Enterprise exist in the same universe as the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson). Doctor Who has referenced Star Trek multiple times before, but strictly as a TV show . For example, Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) wished the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) was more like Spock (Leonard Nimoy) in Steven Moffat's "The Empty Child". Now, Doctor Who changes the game by suggesting Star Trek is real, setting up a potential crossover in the future.

Ncuti Gatwa makes a comment in "Space Babies" that refers to an off-screen adventure that took the Eleventh Doctor into another sci-fi universe.

Doctor Who Confirms It’s Set In The Same Universe As Star Trek

But which star trek universe is it.

In Doctor Who season 14, episode 1, "Space Babies", the Doctor takes Ruby Sunday on her first trip in the TARDIS, arriving aboard a space station. As Ruby tries to wrap her head around the intricacies of TARDIS travel, she asks if it's a matter transporter " like in Star Trek ", to which the Doctor grins, laughs, and replies " We've gotta visit them one day. " While the Doctor is prone to bending the truth and outright lying to wind up his companions, his statement heavily implies that Doctor Who and Star Trek share a fictional universe .

Between 2012 and 2013, IDW published an eight-issue limited-run comic book called Assimilation² , which paired up Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor with the characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation .

However, if that is the case, then it's unclear which Star Trek timeline that Doctor Who is set in; Kelvin or Prime? While Doctor Who and Star Trek have alternating movie and TV universes, it's most likely that writer Russell T Davies is referring to the prime universe, populated by legends like Captains James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). To further emphasize the connection between Doctor Who and Star Trek in "Space Babies", the costumes worn by the baby farm staff mirror the Starfleet uniforms worn during the Star Trek: The Next Generation era.

Doctor Who Almost Crossed Over With Star Trek Before

Doctor who returned just as star trek: enterprise ended..

"Space Babies" isn't the first time that the Doctor Who showrunner has broached the subject of doing a Star Trek crossover episode . In 2009, as he prepared to hand Doctor Who over to his successor, Steven Moffat, RTD revealed that he had planned to do a crossover with Star Trek: Enterprise back in 2005. However, due to Enterprise being canceled that year, the proposed episode never went anywhere. However, in The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter , co-written with Benjamin Cook, RTD revealed he wanted one of David Tennant's last episodes to be heavily influenced by Star Trek :

The Doctor on board the Enterprise, puncturing Starfleet pomposity with his sheer Doctor-ness. This is my favourite idea. (So long as it’s not a simple Star Trek parody. That would be too easy.) If you give it a good story, and make the captain, the science officer and everyone real [...] then we'll get the joke and get involved.

RTD's Star Trek crossover never came together in the end, with "Planet of the Dead" taking its place as Doctor Who 's 2009 Easter special. This means that Ncuti Gatwa's throwaway Star Trek gag is RTD's third attempt to set up a crossover between the two longest-running sci-fi franchises . It remains to be seen if it will be third time lucky for the Doctor Who showrunner, but in a streaming landscape dominated by big IPs, it may be more likely than ever for the TARDIS to finally land inside the starship Enterprise.

The 1996 Doctor Who TV movie could have been very different - it seems Leonard Nimoy (of Star Trek fame) was almost brought in as director!

RTD Still Wants Doctor Who To Crossover With Star Trek

In the lead up to season 14, Russell T Davies has been very vocal about how Star Trek has influenced Doctor Who 's Disney+ era . RTD has been watching all the modern Star Trek shows from Star Trek: Discovery to Star Trek: Picard . Hilariously, Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers) utters the line " space babies " in Star Trek: Picard season 3, episode 4, "No Win Scenario", a coincidence that greatly amused RTD back in 2023. In an interview with Collider to promote Doctor Who season 14, RTD affirmed his intention for both franchises to coexist, while hinting at a hilarious inspiration for wanting to do a Star Trek crossover:

Frankly, the fact that I'm not married to Captain Pike is a major problem in my life, and I look to you, Collider, to put this right, frankly. It’s a wrong that needs righting...

RTD tells Collider that he hopes his revelation that Star Trek is real in Doctor Who will create " excited ripples around the world. " The concept of the Doctor meeting Starfleet is definitely an exciting prospect. There's a strict professionalism to the life of a Starfleet officer that is at odds with the Doctor's more ramshackle, gadabout approach to exploring strange new worlds. The prospect of Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor causing chaos on the bridge of the starship Enterprise is hugely enticing, just as long as there's a good story to justify the crossover.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

A spin-off of Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a television series that takes place before the events of the original series and follows Captain Christopher Pike as he mans the helm of the U.S.S. Enterprise. The show focuses on this previous crew of the Enterprise as they explore the galaxy with returning characters from Discovery.

Star Trek: Picard

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After starring in Star Trek: The Next Generation for seven seasons and various other Star Trek projects, Patrick Stewart is back as Jean-Luc Picard. Star Trek: Picard focuses on a retired Picard who is living on his family vineyard as he struggles to cope with the death of Data and the destruction of Romulus. But before too long, Picard is pulled back into the action. The series also brings back fan-favorite characters from the Star Trek franchise, such as Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), Worf (Michael Dorn), and William Riker (Jonathan Frakes).

How Would A Doctor Who Crossover Episode Of Star Trek Work?

Do you bring the enterprise to cardiff or the tardis to toronto.

One of the first things that would need to be decided about a Doctor Who and Star Trek crossover is in which show it would take place . Do the cast of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds head to Cardiff to film an episode of Doctor Who , or do Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson head to Pinewood Toronto Studios to film an episode of Star Trek ? Even before those discussions take place, there would need to be an agreement made between the BBC, Disney, CBS, and Paramount Studios over whether such a crossover could, or should exist.

The 1996 Doctor Who TV Movie, starring Paul McGann, was filmed in Vancouver, making it the only time that the show has filmed in Canada.

Such discussions could take a long time, as it's likely that Russell T Davies and Alex Kurtzman would have very particular ideas about how they would want their respective shows represented. Star Trek is the larger global brand, meaning that those in charge of it will be highly protective of its reputation . The last thing they would want would be for Russell T Davies to write a Doctor Who script that sent up Star Trek , or did something that went against the core ethos established by Gene Roddenberry and his successors.

However, recent industry developments could make things easier for a potential crossover between Star Trek and Doctor Who . Paramount Global was recently put up for sale (via Los Angeles Times ), and while Disney hasn't been mentioned as a potential buyer, they could be tempted to add the one huge franchise they don 't own, Star Trek to their portfolio. A crossover between two Disney properties would make a Doctor Who and Star Trek crossover a simpler thing to achieve. However, given Disney's recent cost-cutting measures, this is unlikely, meaning that fans are unlikely to see Doctor Who and Star Trek crossover in either franchise's immediate future.

Originally premiered in 1963, Doctor Who is a sci-fi series that follows a powerful being known as a Time Lord, referred to as the Doctor. Using an interdimensional time-traveling ship known as the TARDIS, the Doctor travels time and space with various companions as they solve multiple problems and help avert catastrophe as much as they almost cause it. Though the Doctor is always the same character, they experience regenerations, allowing them to be recast every few seasons as a unique immortal being with new personality traits.

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Latitude varies from −90° to 90°. The latitude of the Equator is 0°; the latitude of the South Pole is −90°; the latitude of the North Pole is 90°. Positive latitude values correspond to the geographic locations north of the Equator (abbrev. N). Negative latitude values correspond to the geographic locations south of the Equator (abbrev. S).

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