transporter accident star trek

Why Star Trek: The Motion Picture's Horrifying Transporter Accident May Be The Director's Edition's Most Important Scene

Producer David Fein explained its significance to CinemaBlend.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s Edition changed a lot about the original film. And for many, it vastly improved upon that original project, which was rushed to theaters in an incomplete state (and we have it pretty low on our Trek movies ranking list ). Many of the improvements remove “bad laughs” and update the visual effects. One of them, however, turned an already upsetting transporter accident into straight-up nightmare fuel by making a horrifying tweak to the sound. Ironically, it also may be the most important scene of the Director’s Edition , and the reason for that may not be so clear to viewers right away.

CinemaBlend had the pleasure of speaking with producer David C. Fein about the latest 4K edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s Edition , and I, of course, needed some answers about the changes made to the transporter scene. Fein noted that during his discussions with director Robert Wise, it was decided that the scene needed to be more powerful but also have another purpose. The producer explained that it was part of sending a message to the audience that the director’s cut was a different movie from the original: 

We wanted to also tell people this was a better film and a different film, a mature film. And we realized that the G rating that they gave, time had changed from a G just being something that wasn’t as harsh for audiences, to G [means a] kids film. And we knew that if I was able to send the film back in for re-rating, it would and it could get a PG. And that would spark people’s interest in the film and [they'd be] like, ‘What could possibly have been done to that film at the time to gain a PG rating.’

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a lot of things, but few would accuse it of being a movie that’s full of frightening moments and scares that raise a rating (it did almost feature a fist fight between Captain Kirk and Jesus , though). Of course, the one scene that features the gruesome and unimaginable death, thanks to a malfunction in a refitted transporter, goes a long way.

For those who don’t remember, Science Officer Commander Sonak and a female officer became stuck midway through and are briefly seen in a deformed state. Viewers don’t see much else but hear a frightening and almost otherworldly guttural gasp. David Fein talked about instructing the updated scream for the Director’s Cut, and what it needed to sound in order for the rating to be changed:

I’ll tell you exactly what I told my sound department… ’It should definitely be a nails on a chalkboard level of tension,’ but I also said, ‘Imagine if you were in the most horrible pain of your life and you needed to scream just to get it out, but you had no way, no orifice, to even scream. What would it sound like if, finally, you could make some sound, what would that sound be?' It’s funny, I talk about it, and the hairs on the back of my neck still stand up… So I said to the sound department, ‘We’re not G. You really want to make people nervous from this, and you need to scare them to the point of really making it the realistic fear of what was happening. Because it really is one of the most horrible deaths in the history of Star Trek, but it also got us a PG rating.

When it comes down to it, the transporter accident might truly be the most important scene in Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s Cut . Had it not been for the rating change, some of the franchise's fans might not have even given the movie a second look and assumed they had their fill of Trek villain V’Ger . Now, we’re blessed with a finished and re-edited version of the movie that elevates it to the level of respect it should’ve had if Robert Wise (who is the force behind amazing films like haunted house movie The Haunting ) was able to properly do everything he needed the first time around. 

Of course, all of the work on the transporter accident would’ve gone to waste had the director’s cut not removed Captain Kirk’s reaction to it. In the original cut, Kirk responded to the accident with a shocked face and said, “Oh my god,” which became a “bad laugh” with audiences and completely killed the tension of the accident. Kirk’s reaction was edited to appear more solemn in regard to what he'd just witnessed, a move that definitely helps the scene more than it hurts it. It’s a great show of one of the many changes made and helps to exemplify why this director’s cut so important to the Star Trek franchise. 

The 4K remaster of Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s Edition is now available non Blu-ray and can be streamed if you have a Paramount+ subscription . Watch it now for the horrific transporter accident, or check out The Next Generation to see some of the WTF moments that keep us up at night.

CINEMABLEND NEWSLETTER

Your Daily Blend of Entertainment News

Mick Joest is a Content Producer for CinemaBlend with his hand in an eclectic mix of television goodness. Star Trek is his main jam, but he also regularly reports on happenings in the world of Star Trek, WWE, Doctor Who, 90 Day Fiancé, Quantum Leap, and Big Brother. He graduated from the University of Southern Indiana with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Radio and Television. He's great at hosting panels and appearing on podcasts if given the chance as well.

With Star Trek: Discovery Over, Doug Jones Shared With Us What He Envisions For Saru After The Series Finale, And It’s So On Point

‘Holy F–k, He's Back:’ Mayor Of Kingstown’s Hugh Dillon Recalls The On-Set Moment He Knew Jeremy Renner Was Fully Back In Action

Bob Gurr: Celebrating The LGBTQ+ Disney Imagineer Who Worked For The Studio Since The 1950s

Most Popular

• 2 I Liked Ishana Night Shyamalan's The Watchers, But Cannot Get These Unanswered Questions Out Of My Head
• 3 90 Day Fiancé's Big Reveal For Michael Ilesanmi And Angela Deem Might Explain Why They're Not Currently Living Happily Ever After
• 4 4 Reasons Why Every Comic Book Fan Should Watch Oliver Stone's Early Horror Movie, The Hand
• 5 The Acolyte Has Star Wars Fans Complaining Online About One Thing, But It Literally Happens In The Franchise All The Time

• Accidents with the Transporter
• Times Scotty Saved the Day
• Secrets from the Wardrobe Dept.
• The Greatest Star Trek Insults
• Exasperated Picard
• Celebrating Spock and Bones McCoy
• Episodes That Get You Hooked
• 'Make It So' - Picard
• Interesting Characters
• The Best ‘Star Trek’ Villains Who Give Starflee...
• Store-Bought Items Used as Props
• The Best Series and Movies, Ranked
• Fun Facts About the New Film Series
• Every 'Star Trek' Captain, Ranked By True Trekkies
• Original Series Trivia

The Most Surreal And Horrifying Transporter Accidents On Star Trek

Gene Roddenberry and the other ingenious minds behind Star Trek have come up with some brilliant technology for the Star Trek universe: warp drive, food replicators, the Holodeck, and one of the most fantastical of all:  Star Trek transporters.

Imagine a world where commuting to work doesn't exist; you just beam yourself over. A world where you never have to worry about being late to a movie or business meeting. Where you can travel great distances in a matter of seconds. Sounds great, right? Well, maybe you'll reconsider when you think about all the things that can go wrong. Transporter malfunctions happen, and they're not pretty. Below, you'll find a veritable cornucopia of horrifying Star Trek transporter accidents. Vote up the ones that will make you rethink ever wanting to step on a transporter pad.

75 Years in Stasis

• CBS Television Distribution
• Series: Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Episode: Season 6, Episode 4, "Relics"

The Enterprise receives a distress call from the USS Jenolan, a ship that has been missing for seventy-five years. After investigating, the crew finds no survivors, but LaForge notices that the transporters had been reconfigured in a strange manner. Amazingly, a pattern is still in the system's buffer and had suffered no degradation. He rematerializes the stored pattern, beaming Original Series character Montgomery "Scotty" Scott onto the transporter pad.

Mirror Universe

• Series: Star Trek: The Original Series
• Episode: Season 2, Episode 4, "Mirror, Mirror"

In "Mirror, Mirror," Kirk, McCoy, Uhura, and Scotty are sent to a mirror universe after a transporter accident during an ion storm. In this alternate reality, the Enterprise is a warship for the malevolent Terran Empire. The only way Kirk and crew can return back home is by impersonating their mirror-universe duplicates and outsmarting an evil, goatee-sporting Spock.

LaForge and Ro in Limbo

• Episode: Season 5, Episode 24, "The Next Phase"

A faulty generator causes a transporter failure, leaving the crew of the Enterprise to believe Lt. Comm. LaForge and Ensign Ro were killed. But Geordi and Ro survived; they just beamed into a different phase than everyone else, free to wander the ship, but unseen and unheard by the rest of the crew. They observe their own funeral preparations before purposely causing a disruptor overload, which tips Data off to their whereabouts, allowing him to re-cloak them.

Thomas Riker

• Episode: Season 6, Episode 24, "Second Chances"

On an away mission, Commander William Riker came face to face with... himself! As it turns out, eight years ago, while serving on the USS Potemkin, a transporter malfunction caused the creation of a duplicate Riker (dubbed Lt. Thomas Riker). Thomas was brought aboard the ship, butted heads with William, and rekindled his relationship with Deanna Troi before ultimately being reassigned to the USS Gandhi where he could continue his Starfleet career.

• Film: Star Trek: The Motion Picture

A transporter malfunction results in the horrific deaths of two crew members. Science officer Sonak and another crew member arrive on the transporter platform with their internal organs outside their bodies. The fleshy, disfigured masses didn't survive long.

Traveling Back in Time

• Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
• Episode: Season 3, Episode 11 & 12, "Past Tense" 

Sisko, Bashir, and Dax are sent back in time to 2024 San Francisco after a transporter accident. They inadvertently change history by allowing Gabriel Bell, a key figure and activist during a period of rioting, to be killed. It's on them to restore history before they can travel back home.

Star Trek: Kids!

• Episode: Season 6, Episode 7, "Rascals"

Captain Picard, Ensign Ro Laren, Guinan, and Keiko O'Brien are returning from a botanical and archaeological expedition when their shuttlecraft is enveloped by an energy anomaly. An emergency transport to the Enterprise yields unusual results: Picard, Ro, Guinan, and Keiko reemerge on the transport pad as 12-year-old children!

Two Captain Kirks

• Episode: Season 1, Episode 5, "The Enemy Within"

The crew of Star Trek: the Original Series learned the hard way - don't have magnetic dust on your suit when beaming back up to the ship. The result? Two separate Captain Kirks, one good but incompetent, the other... pure evil.

Trapped in the Holodeck

• Episode: Season 4, Episode 10, "Our Man Bashir"

An explosion prevents Captain Sisko, Worf, Kira, Dax, and O'Brien from materializing on the transport pad. To save them, the transporter chief is forced to download their physical forms to the holodeck... right in the middle of Dr. Bashir's James Bond -inspired holodeck program. To further complicate things, the crew doesn't have their own memories and believe themselves to be the characters from the program. It's up to Bashir to keep his fellow crewmen alive in the game, because if he can't, they'll die in real life.

• Series: Star Trek: Voyager
• Episode: Season 2, Episode 24, "Tuvix"

Tuvok and Neelix beam back aboard after an excursion to an alien planet to retrieve some plant samples. Unfortunately, one of the orchids they brought back with them is the cause of a disturbing transporter accident that ultimately merges Tuvok and Neelix into one being - Tuvix. The crew accepts Tuvix for what he is (after all, they are on a journey to seek out new life forms), but things get complicated when the Doctor finds a way to reverse the process. By Captain Janeway's orders, Tuvok and Neelix are both restored, but Janeway has to live with the moral consequences of destroying the being known as Tuvix.

• Series: S tar Trek: The Next Generation
• Episode: Season 6, Episode 2, "Realm of Fear"

Reginald Barclay faces his fear of transporters only to find his phobia is more than warranted. During transport, Barclay sees a worm-like creature swimming around in the matter stream and touching his arm. He steps off the transporter pad more paranoid than ever, diagnosing himself with transporter psychosis. He suffers from debilitating pain and blue flashes randomly light up throughout his body. After some tests, the crew discovers quasi-energy microbes infiltrated Barclay's system during transport, which is the cause of all his issues. He's ultimately cured of his ailments, but his phobia of transporters is only worsened.

The Borg Drone

• Series: Star Trek: Voyager
• Episode: Season 5, Episode 6, "Drone"

A transporter mishap when Seven-of-Nine and the Doctor are beamed aboard led to the creation of a Borg drone! Seven's nanoprobes interacted with the Doctor's mobile emitter to bring this being to life, but the drone (given the designation "One") proves more powerful than anyone expected, accidentally alerting Borg forces to the location of the Voyager ship.

• Star Trek Universe

Live long, and prosper.

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.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

The Enemy Within

• Episode aired Oct 6, 1966

A transporter malfunction splits Captain Kirk into two halves: one meek and indecisive, the other violent and ill tempered. The remaining crew members stranded on the planet cannot be beamed... Read all A transporter malfunction splits Captain Kirk into two halves: one meek and indecisive, the other violent and ill tempered. The remaining crew members stranded on the planet cannot be beamed up to the ship until a problem is fixed. A transporter malfunction splits Captain Kirk into two halves: one meek and indecisive, the other violent and ill tempered. The remaining crew members stranded on the planet cannot be beamed up to the ship until a problem is fixed.

• Richard Matheson
• Gene Roddenberry
• William Shatner
• Leonard Nimoy
• DeForest Kelley
• 47 User reviews
• 14 Critic reviews

• Captain James Tiberius 'Jim' Kirk

• Mister Spock

• Yeoman Rand

• (as Edward Madden)

• Lieutenant Nyota Uhura
• (uncredited)

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia The original script called for Spock to karate chop Kirk to subdue him. Leonard Nimoy felt that this would be an uncharacteristically violent act for a peace-loving species like the Vulcans so he came up with a pincer-like grasp on the neck that has since become known as the Vulcan Nerve Pinch and become one of the character's most famous gimmicks.
• Goofs During the showdown between Good Kirk and Evil Kirk on the bridge, Evil Kirk's scratch marks are suddenly shown on the right cheek instead of the left as they had been throughout the episode.

Lt. Cmdr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy, M.D. : He's dead, Jim.

• Alternate versions Special Enhanced version Digitally Remastered with new exterior shots and remade opening theme song
• Connections Featured in Star Trek Logs: An MTV Big Picture Special Edition (1991)
• Soundtracks Theme From Star Trek Written by and credited to Alexander Courage

User reviews 47

• Feb 14, 2022
• October 6, 1966 (United States)
• United States
• Official Facebook
• Desilu Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA
• Desilu Productions
• Norway Corporation
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 50 minutes

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• IMDb Answers: Help fill gaps in our data
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed.

Is the Star Trek Transporter Killing Someone Each Time They Use It?

For over 50 years, from the original Star Trek  to the current Star Trek: Picard, the fantastical future articulated by Gene Roddenberry has allowed us to imagine going not just where but how  no man has gone before.

Forget the morning commute: being stuck in traffic or in a mechanical delivery tube full of the bacteria and odors of a hundred fellow drones. Step right here, onto the obliteration pad! Feel yourself embraced by a beam of energy that completely immobilizes you, penetrates your skin and, over several seconds, disintegrates every molecule in your body into subatomic dust. Don’t worry, the manufacturer assures that you’ll probably be fine! We can even filter out that nasty cough while we’re at it. In a few seconds, “you” will find yourself standing in your office, or in central Paris; definitely not irretrievably scattered across space and time.

Convenient, right? So why are you sweating?

Not everyone in the  Star Trek  universe is completely comfortable with “beaming up”, but is transporter phobia really justified? Do they technically die during transport? Are they rematerialized as the same person they always were, or are they somehow fundamentally changed? These are some of the oldest ongoing Trekkie debates; wrestled with for decades across the fan forums of yore without clear or satisfactory conclusions. So today, we’re taking a laser drill to this Gordian knot.

Transporter Phobia

Phobia or general mistrust of transporter technology has plagued officers through every generation of Starfleet — from Captain Archer to Doctor McCoy and Lt. Barclay . Originally employed for exclusively non-biological cargo, once Transporters began to see more extensive use on living subjects in the late 22nd century, problems did materialize. Transporter Psychosis was one such incurable condition caused by neurochemicals being broken down and improperly reconstructed; leading to paranoid delusions, hallucinations, hysteria and no small amount of pain. Transporter efficiency and failsafes have improved over the centuries since its inception, to the point whereby the mid-24th century accidents were almost unheard of.

“Reg, how many transporter accidents have there been in the last ten years? Two? Three? There are millions of people who transport safely every day without a problem.” – Geordi La Forge , 2369 (“ Realm of Fear “)

This is some pretty serious dissonance, though. Despite guarantees to their efficacy, transporter malfunction (and sabotage) serves as one of the most common narrative fulcrums in any given Star Trek series. Maybe Geordi hadn’t been paying attention, but O’Brien could likely list two or three Transporter accidents in an average week — fatalities , reverse-aging , split and merged individuals, time-travel , even interdimensional breaches .

Let’s put these concerns aside for now and embrace La Forge’s optimism. In uncharted space, many strange and unknown phenomena can interfere with ship functions — transportation in more typical, predictable environments is probably as safe as he claims.

Still; even in the best-case scenario, users are literally being obliterated — and then what? Reconstructed? Copied? They must feel some pretty serious existential and ontological concerns.

Are they the same person after transport, or just a copy? Does the transporter not destroy them, then recreate their bodies out of newly collected matter at the destination? Or is their original matter directly transmitted across space? Is there more to man or woman than matter, something that can’t be contained and quantified, something that will inevitably be lost?

To resolve this quandary without needless speculation, we really need to understand how exactly the transporter works. Easier said than done.

Energy, or Matter?

When we blow past the smokescreen of technobabble to the inner workings of Star Trek ’s physics, often we find that the actual explanations offered seem a little scrappy. The Transporter is no exception.

Diegetically, transporter technology is usually described as involving matter/energy scrambling or conversion. Characters across every series and generation describe the beaming process in this way. Commander Data explains that the body’s molecules are converted into energy and then reverted at the destination. Picard, too, tells a holographic Moriarty that by the 24th century, mankind has discovered energy and matter to be interchangeable.

Strangely, this kind of dialogue seems to contradict canon established by internal production material — specifically the  TNG Season 4 Writers’ Technical Manual . This manual and its externally-published progeny offer a consistent and detailed outline of the transportation process. Prior to dematerialization, the subject’s molecular structure and neural patterns are scanned and stored in the computer’s active memory. Next, the subject is reduced to a cloud of subatomic particles known as a “matter stream” and transferred to a cylindrical tank or “pattern buffer”. The matter stream, neural energy and coded instructions for reassembly are then directed through various subsystems to the emitter array and transmitted to the destination, where they are reconfigured. So in truth, both matter and energy are transferred in packets together.

We shouldn’t be surprised to learn that the Writers’ Technical Manual was not actually required reading for the TNG writing staff. As a reference material, it was supposed to ensure consistency where technical explanations became necessary; but evidently it was in most cases given only the most cursory skim. Is it a sad consequence that the ostensibly best and brightest Starfleet officers aboard the Federation flagship also failed to study their technical manuals? Or is there some way we can reconcile the inconsistencies?

Like Picard says, energy and matter are interchangeable. Special relativity demonstrates that they’re two sides of the same coin — it must be that at the subatomic scale to which a transporter reduces a person’s atoms, there is no distinction between energy and matter. Some will say “matter stream”, others will say “energy beam”; it’s all the same.

In any case, it’s clear the stuff we were made of at the beginning of our trip is basically the same stuff in the same places at the other end; the post-transport self is not just a copy. If your arms and legs are removed from your torso to better package your body for transport and then successfully reattached, none of the “self” is really lost, right? Being broken down into infinitesimally smaller pieces than this shouldn’t make any difference, assuming (for now) that we didn’t accidentally leave anything behind.

Being alive at the end of the process, however, doesn’t mean we didn’t die somewhere along the way.

What Kind of Death?

Curiously, we humans don’t consider death to be a black-and-white affair. Death occurs in a matter of degrees; you can be “dead” and you can be dead . If your respiration and circulation have ceased, you are clinically dead. When brain activity ceases, you are biologically dead, or “brain dead”. Even when these states are reversed and the patient revived, we still consider some approximation of death to have occurred. Good luck finding a heartbeat or neocortical activity in a cloud of atoms suspended in a transporter’s pattern buffer.

There is a window of approximately six minutes under most conditions following clinical death before brain death begins to occur — a six-minute window where without an EEG, no life-signs can be found but within which declaring the true death of a self would be spurious.

In a transporter cycle, the pattern buffer can hold someone’s matter in suspension for eight minutes until it starts to degrade and soon becomes irreparable; is this not basically the same? In either case, we have a short window during which no life-signs can be confirmed with instruments on hand, during which the subject is kinda-but-not-really dead before we can say for sure one way or the other.

The diagnosis of biological or brain death, in particular, is centered on the belief that electrical activity in the brain constitutes the substance of consciousness — once it is permanently lost (or has departed from the substance and phenomena of the body, depending on your beliefs), so lost is the patient’s life. Yet the body of a brain dead patient on life-support can still continue many biological functions, including carrying a successful pregnancy to term. Furthermore, there is a myriad of what we consider life which exhibits no signs of consciousness whatsoever. Starfleet is even more liberal on what constitutes a life-form.

Consciousness

Consciousness is nevertheless the key. Even if not all life is conscious, the presence of consciousness must be demonstrative of a living mind. To put it simply: not all life is conscious, but all consciousness is alive. Perhaps the one tenet closest to incontrovertible in all of western philosophy is that consciousness affirms the existence of self , of being and of a mind.

Having a conscious person materialise at the conclusion of transport doesn’t preclude the possibility that they have died and been revived, if their consciousness is broken at any point. More disturbing is the thought that their mind or soul is composed of some noumenal substance beyond the “neural activity” which the transporter can’t observe or capture (assuming we believe in souls). If there is a break in consciousness, perhaps a new soul has been created or inhabited this same body. Perhaps this person is made of the same matter but ultimately a copy all the same, with memories reconstructed from the data accompanying the matter stream. Perhaps successful transportees have no soul whatsoever.

How can we be sure?

We can agree by now that consciousness is both the essence of self and the most certain contradiction of death. If a subject maintains consciousness throughout the transport cycle and if that consciousness remains tethered to the constituent matter of the body (i.e. the mind hasn’t been left behind or scattered across space), we should agree that neither a cessation of self nor a non-semantic, actual death could have occurred. Simple, right?

So are we conscious during transport?

Yes! Well, sometimes.

“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”. – Emory Erickson , 2154  (“ Daedelus ”)

Many characters have been able to recount the conscious experience of transportation. Sure, this doesn’t preclude the possibility that this is some kind of false memory or other psychological compensation for a lapse (or annihilation) of consciousness; but there is one case in which we can be quite certain. An episode from season 6 of TNG offers us a rare, real-time first-person perspective of a disassembled Lt. Barclay in the matter stream. Incredibly, he is not only fully conscious but able to exercise will and somehow “grab” another dematerialized person, allowing him to rematerialize with and subsequently rescue a crewmember from the USS Yosemite whom had been trapped in the transporter.

In cases like this, we can say with reasonable certainty that consciousness is not broken at any point of the cycle — the subject has not been killed. That’s reassuring, but we can’t say for sure whether this is a typical transport cycle, or something more extraordinary. All we have demonstrated is that it is at least possible to cycle the entire self intact.

That is the best-case scenario, but we mentioned earlier the apparent incongruence between reported transport accidents and the actual disasters we see in basically every other episode. Ignoring the more pedestrian deaths from incorrect or incomplete rematerialization, coordinate calculation errors or signal loss resulting in one’s atoms being scattered across space; there are some uniquely ontological risks involved in transportation. Sometimes the person that steps off the transport pad is definitely not the same one who first entered the buffer.

Critical Error

An ion storm once caused crewmembers from the Enterprise  to switch places with their parallel universe-selves. An Enterprise D transporter  suffered a malfunction which caused the deletion of DNA sequences from the patterns of Captain Picard and several of his colleagues. They rematerialized as children and had to be restored with backup data from their previously-scanned patterns.

Members of the Defiant  were even transported back in time where Captain Sisko caused the accidental death of a significant historical figure, forced to claim his identity and instigate a revolution in order to preserve the timeline.

In 2266 , a transporter accident split Captain Kirk into two distinct bodies possessing different parts of the original’s personality in a kind of physical manifestation of Dissociative Identity Disorder. After their successful reintegration, you could at least argue that no discrete person had been created or destroyed.

In 2361 , a similar accident befell then-Lieutenant William Riker  whilst attempting to evacuate from a planet’s surface. In this case, however, the subject was not split, but copied. It seems here that the transporter’s computer falsely reported an incomplete cycle — in which case the data packet of Riker’s neural and molecular blueprint was transmitted a second time. This second transmission was reflected back to the planet by the same phenomenon which caused the initial false reading. Ultimately, one Riker successfully boarded the USS Potemkin ; another identical man was left behind. Each shared the same memories, personality and physical attributes, unaware of the other’s existence.

Given that both Rikers had the same physical mass as the original, it must be the case that one of them was reconstructed from a supplementary reserve of matter (like a replicator) and the molecular and neural scans in the transporter’s physical memory — not the same stuff as the original. One Riker is completely artificial. Someone may or may not have died here, but someone (and quite unbeknownst to them) had just been born.

Then there’s Tuvix — two members of the USS Voyager spliced together by the catalyst of an alien orchid in transport. Although a melding of the patterns and DNA of Tuvok and Neelix, Tuvix considered himself a distinct person and thought of the original crewmen as something akin to his parents. Once a means to reverse the accident was discovered and proposed, Tuvix fought desperately against what was in essence a plan to murder him. Through one transporter malfunction: one creation of an entirely new individual and two temporary deaths reversed only through one fairly unequivocal murder.

The Verdict

Ultimately, you probably won’t die in a Star Trek  transporter. Depending on your standards of death, you might — but with a Starfleet education you’re going to have a pretty broad and flexible definition of what constitutes being alive.

The statistics might show that beaming is safer than driving, but isn’t the irrepressible existential dread of transporter phobia still justified? We’re pretty sure it is. Motor vehicle accidents might be far more common, but they’re relatively predictable. They definitely will not spawn an evil doppelganger to murder your family, leave you forever uncertain that you are not, in fact, a poor simulacrum of your original self, or send you cartwheeling centuries back through time with nothing but your space pajamas.

Star Trek's Use of Transporters, Explained

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Quick Links

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.

Best Star Trek Episodes of 2023

Star Trek had a big year in 2023, and that means there were far more excellent episodes than could fit on anyone's list. These were some of the best.

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.

Star Trek's Renaissance Is So Strong, It Has Its Own Awards Show

After decades of being ignored by the Emmys and Golden Globes, the Virtual Trek Con has the LLAPys, an awards show just for the Star Trek franchise.

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.

Star Trek's 'Other Gene' Is an Unsung Original Series Pioneer

Creator Gene Roddenberry was the visionary behind Star Trek: The Original series, but much of what fans love came from the franchise's other Gene.

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.

This Underrated Star Trek Series Has the Franchise's Best Pilot

The first episode of any series starts the story without being fully formed, yet the pilot episode of Star Trek: Enterprise is the franchise's best.

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.

Screen Rant

Star trek: every new life created by a transporter accident.

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

11 LGBTQ+ Characters New Star Trek Shows Gave Canon

After star trek iii, spock’s mind was saved by…his mirror universe counterpart, star trek officially confirms [spoiler] is a scotty-level engineer.

The transporter is a piece of Star Trek technology that has it has been responsible for more than one strange incident over the course of the franchise, including on occasion the creation of new life. The ability to transport from one location to another by converting matter to energy and then back to matter is something that those in the Star Trek universe seem to take for granted as safe. However, the franchise is littered with episodes whose main storylines revolve around a transporter accident of some kind.

The transporter is like the future equivalent of driving a car in more ways than one. It is something everybody in Star Trek uses on a daily basis, but because it is so ubiquitous, people sometimes forget how dangerous it can be. There have been numerous deaths in Star Trek associated with transporter accidents, and even more incidents where a transporter malfunction caused something else to go wrong. Time travel, crossing to another universe, and even incidents of people phasing out of their usual plane of existence have all been caused by a transporter malfunction.

Related: Star Trek: How Time Travel Works In Each TV Show & Movie

Perhaps the most interesting malfunctions however have occurred when the transporter is responsible for creating an entirely new being. This is usually achieved either through duplication of a character into two separate people or by splicing two characters together. While this kind of thing has happened rarely, there have been 4 significant incidents of it in Star Trek history.

The Two Captain Kirks

The first incident happened in Star Trek: The Original Series , in the season 1 episode "The Enemy Within." In the episode, a strange ore found by the Enterprise crew on the planet Alfa 177 affects the transporter circuits and causes them to malfunction, meaning that when Captain Kirk beams back to the ship, he is inadvertently split into two different people. The split occurs in such a way that Kirk is separated into the good and the bad sides of his personality; one Kirk is reasonable and compassionate, while the other is aggressive and violent. The evil Kirk proceeds to wreak havoc, attacking crew members and attempting to impersonate the good Kirk so that he can take control of the ship. The crew must find a way to stop him and attempt to repair the transporter so that they can beam the remaining away team back to the ship.

Like many Original Series episodes, "The Enemy Within" grapples with a moral question; in this case, the dichotomy of good and evil in an individual's personality. While the good Captain Kirk is a reasonable and fair man, he struggles throughout the episode with being assertive, slowly losing grip on his concentration and his ability to command the ship. Meanwhile, the evil Kirk declines in health and sanity, allowing fear and rage to take him over. The episode makes it clear that, while Kirk is repulsed by the darker sides of himself, he ultimately cannot live without them. In the end, the two Kirks are fused back together when the transporter is repaired, although not before evil Kirk makes an impassioned plea to be allowed to live separately from his better half.

Thomas Riker

Star Trek: The Next Generation contained many episodes whose plots hinged on transporter accidents. One of the best-remembered was the season 6 episode "Second Chances," where the crew of the Enterprise-D discovered a second version of Commander William Riker on a planet where he undertook a rescue mission eight years prior. While helping to evacuate a science outpost on Nervala IV, a transporter accident caused a copy of Riker to be left on the surface, while the real Riker beamed back to his ship. Because of a distortion field around Nervala IV, the surface was only accessible every eight years for a small window of time when the planet was close enough to its sun to disrupt the field. As a result, the copy of Riker was trapped on the planet for eight years until he was discovered and rescued by the Enterprise-D.

Related: Star Trek TNG Wanted To Replace Will Riker With His Doppelganger

Unlike Kirk and his counterpart, the two versions of Riker are exactly the same, both possessing the same personality and even the same memories prior to their split. Also unlike Kirk, the two are never reintegrated with each other, and the copy is allowed to continue living as his own person. He decides to take on the name Thomas Riker and continue his career in Starfleet, and while he and Commander Riker start off on rocky footing, by the end of the episode the two are beginning to develop a relationship similar to that of siblings. Thomas Riker even appears a second time in the Star Trek franchise, in an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine where he attempts to steal the USS Defiant in support of the Maquis cause.

In addition to splitting people apart, another common transporter accident is the splicing of two people together to create one new being. Tuvix is one such splice, created in  Star Trek: Voyager in an eponymous season 1 episode. Beaming back from an away team mission with some alien orchids, Neelix and Lieutenant Tuvok are combined with some of the orchid DNA in the transporter beam. As a result, they return to the ship as one being who has the memories and personality traits of both of them. While Voyager's crew attempts to find out what happened with the transporter, as well as a way to split Neelix and Tuvok up again, the new being begins calling himself Tuvix and tries to integrate back into the rest of the crew, a feat the proves difficult for him and those around him.

When a solution for splitting Tuvix up is found, Captain Janeway is faced with a moral dilemma when Tuvix makes it clear that he doesn't want to die. Not unlike evil Kirk in "The Enemy Within," Tuvix makes the case that as a sentient being, he should be allowed to continue living and form his own life aboard Voyager. Captain Janeway struggles with the decision of what to do, before ultimately ordering Tuvix to undergo the procedure to bring Tuvok and Neelix back. Tuvix initially refuses, but after seeing that no one else on the crew will back his continued existence he sadly acquiesces. The procedure is successful, but Captain Janeway is left with her guilt at having essentially committed murder. The moral implications of Janeway's decision are something that Star Trek:  Voyager  fans still enjoy debating.

The season 5 Star Trek:  Voyager episode "Drone" contains another instance of splicing, although in a more unique way than "Tuvix". Because of a transporter malfunction, nanoprobes from Seven of Nine are integrated into the holographic Doctor's mobile emitter when their patterns are briefly merged during transport. The emitter subsequently begins to sprout Borg technology and assimilates DNA from another member of the crew, Ensign Mulchaey, to create an entirely new Borg drone. Captain Janway is hesitant to kill the drone, even though it is highly advanced and could be dangerous because the Doctor's mobile emitter is 29th-century technology. At Janeway's request, Seven helps the drone learn about individuality and even choose a name: One.

Related: Star Trek Hints At Seven of Nine's Borg Future Post-Picard

One is curious about the Borg, but Seven and Janeway are hesitant to provide him with information in case he decides he wants to join them, which would give the Collective a huge tactical advantage and be highly dangerous. However, when One unwittingly sends a signal to the Borg, Voyager is put in a perilous position when a Borg sphere comes to assimilate One and the entire crew. Wanting to save Voyager's crew, One destroys the sphere but is critically injured in the process. When the Doctor and Seven attempt to help him, One refuses, stating that it is better if he dies so that his presence on Voyager does not put the crew in jeopardy again. One ultimately succumbs to his injuries, leaving Seven heartbroken. His death means that out of the four new life forms created by transporter accidents, Thomas Riker is the only one to survive past the end of an episode.

Related Incidents

While there are only four examples of a completely new life being created by a transporter accident, transporter malfunction plays a significant role in numerous episodes and there are a few where the definition of "new life" could still apply. All take place in season 6 of Star Trek: The Next Generation , beginning with the episode "Realm of Fear" in which Lieutenant Barclay faces his fear of transporters and subsequently becomes convinced he is being attacked by a being living in the transporter beam. While "Realm of Fear" is not an instance of the transporter creating life, the episode does deal with microbes that are able to live inside the matter stream and is also an instance of humans becoming trapped there and needing to be saved by Barclay and the Enterprise crew.

The episode "Relics" is also not a direct instance of the transporter creating new life, but it does give a classic Star Trek character a new lease on life. While exploring a Dyson Sphere, the Enterprise-D discovers a ship, the USS Jenolan, crash-landed on the sphere's surface, with a single surviving crew member, Captain Montgomery Scott , trapped in the transporter's pattern buffer. Scotty is a popular character from Star Trek: The Original Series, and the episode deals with him attempting to figure out where he belongs in the new future he finds himself in.

Finally, the episode "Rascals" depicts Captain Picard, Ensign Ro Laren, Guinan, and Keiko O'Brien involved in a transporter accident while returning from an away mission that turns them into twelve-year-old children. The transporter removes some key genetic sequences from the four characters, causing them to de-age. While technically the four of them are not different people, and still possess the mental faculties of their true ages, the episode forces them to confront their lives in a different light while they appear as children.

The new life forms created by transporter accidents are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to transporter-related episodes. Over the years, the transporter has proved to be an extremely useful storytelling device for the Star Trek franchise. Whether through allowing characters to travel to parallel universes, facilitating time travel, or causing accidents that change characters' physical and mental states, most episodes involving a transporter have become immediate Star Trek classics.

More: Star Trek: Every Captain's First Ship (& How They Earned Command)

• SR Originals

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.

• Share on Facebook (opens in a new tab)
• Share on Twitter (opens in a new tab)
• Share on Linkedin (opens in a new tab)
• Share on email (opens in a new tab)

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. 

Ad – content continues below

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.

Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!

Transporter

• View history

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 unknown alien world on which Gary Seven was raised 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 lenses . 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
• 1 Daniels (Crewman)
• 2 Jamaharon

Who did Alan Scarfe play in Star Trek? Veteran actor dies of cancer aged 77

W ell-known actor Alan Scarfe, 77, unexpectedly passed away on April 28, 2024. An obituary posted on Dignity Memorial stated that Alan died from colon cancer at his Longueuil, Quebec-based residence.

Scarfe gained recognition for his performances in two projects in the Star Trek franchise. He was seen as Romulans Tokath and Admiral Mendak in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and he appeared as Magistrate Augris in Star Trek: Voyager.

Alan Scarfe started his career on stage and later shifted his focus towards films and television. He also developed an interest in writing, leading to the release of a few books, including The Carnivore Trilogy . He tied the knot with Barbara March, who was also an actress and passed away back in 2019.

Scarfe had several credits under his name over the years, including successful projects such as Double Impact, Lethal Weapon III, and Seven Days.

Alan Scarfe appeared for a brief period in the Star Trek projects: Characters and other details explained

As mentioned, Alan Scarfe played important roles in two projects of the successful franchise. It started as Romulans Tokath, which was featured in Star Trek: The Next Generation. The character served in the Romulan military as a commander and was put in charge of the secret prison camp on Carraya IV.

The camp had many Klingons, and Tokath tied the knot with one of them, Gi'ral. The duo welcomed a child named Ba'el. However, things took a different turn with the arrival of Worf, who did not let Tokath leave the camp, and after Worf and Ba'el fell in love, Tokath ordered the execution of Worf.

Scarfe then appeared as Admiral Mendak in the same show, who was known for his plan to hire a Romulan spy in the Federation. He eventually found Sub-Commander Selok for the job, and she managed to bring a lot of information outside the Federation.

Mendak later made a different plan to save Selok by arranging a meeting inside the USS Enterprise-D. He seemingly began negotiations between the Federation and the Romulans, and while beaming T'Pel to the ship, he organized a fake transporter accident so that everyone would think that she was dead.

Alan Scarfe was also cast as Magistrate Augris in Star Trek: Voyager , who was given a lot of powers during his time in the Delta Quadrant. He imprisoned two Starfleet officers in 2372 after suspecting them of being part of the resistance movement.

While Commander Chakotay tried to convince Augris that his officers were innocent, the Mokra Order magistrate did not provide any details about the missing crew members. Augris later ordered that the Voyager would not participate in any rescue operations and would be fired upon if they did so.

Alan Scarfe had a successful career in films and TV

The Harpenden, England, native had two siblings among his family members , Colin and Brian. The entire family settled in Vancouver during Scarfe's childhood days, and he later enrolled at Lord Byng Secondary School, where he obtained his graduation.

Alan Scarfe then joined the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in England and slowly began appearing on stage. He even participated in the Stratford Festival and was praised for his performances.

Scarfe later launched a career in films and TV, where he was cast in many successful projects. The list includes titles such as Overnight, The Wrong Guy, The Hamster Cage, and The Bay Boy. While his appearance in Star Trek projects helped him to accumulate a huge fanbase, he told The Scifi World in 2007:

"I don't really think of film and television as the impressive part of my career. But of the films it is mostly the small, independent ones of which I am most proud. Films like Deserters and The Portrait and the recent Hamster Cage."

Alan Scarfe is survived by his brother Colin, son Jonathan, daughter Tosia, son-in-law Austin, and grandchildren Kai and Hunter.

• More to Explore
• Series & Movies

Published Jul 21, 2023

RECAP | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 206 - 'Lost in Translation'

It helps to have friends.

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains story details and plot points for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

StarTrek.com

Previously on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , the U.S.S. Enterprise suffered a tragic loss when their landing party is stranded on the barren planet of Valeo Beta V. Hemmer, the ship's chief engineer, sacrificed himself after being infected with Gorn eggs, in order to give his friends and colleagues an opportunity to escape. Following Hemmer's sacrifice, Spock was unable to control his emotions, allowing his anger and pain to spill out. Acknowledging his human half, Spock begins to explore the feelings he was trying to suppress.

Meanwhile, La'An Noonien-Singh, the ship's head of security, lands in another timeline with events that were never supposed to play out. Worse yet, an agent from the Department of Temporal Investigations strongly requests she not share any details of what she experienced with anyone else.

Uhura reminds us that "the people you love the most can cause you the most pain, but it's the people you love that can mend your heart when you feel broken."

In " Lost in Translation ," Uhura seems to be the only one who can hear a strange sound. When the noise triggers terrifying hallucinations, she enlists an unlikely assistant to help her track down the source.

• Christopher Pike
• Nyota Uhura
• Una Chin-Riley (Number One)
• Erica Ortegas
• Dr. Joseph M'Benga
• James T. Kirk
• Christine Chapel
• La’An Noonien-Singh

• U.S.S. Enterprise
• Bannon's Nebula
• Bavali Station

At Bannon's Nebula on the edge of explored space, the U.S.S. Enterprise enters a stellar nursery rich in deuterium — starship fuel — where the Federation is building an outpost to collect and refine the invaluable resource. Captain Christopher Pike stares out at the sprawling facility and its surrounding beauty from the Bridge, waxing poetic until he notices Ensign Nyota Uhura’s fatigue is distracting her from his speech. He jovially advises her not to burn the candle at both ends.

Commander Una Chin-Riley enters and congratulates Pike on his temporary promotion to Fleet Captain, as he now commands the Enterprise , U.S.S. Farragut , and the Bavali Station until the refinery is brought online. Lt. Erica Ortegas turns from the helm and remarks that it is the shiniest gas station she’s ever seen. Ever the explorer, Pike emphasizes that the facility will unlock half the quadrant and be the jumping off point for the next great age of exploration. Lt. Spock notes the nursery’s proximity to Gorn Space, and the captain sadly acknowledges the Gorn’s growing presence factored into Starfleet’s plans. At Spock’s suggestion, Pike orders Ortegas to find a dense pocket of deuterium. The helm officer prepares to “rip some donuts” and begins refueling the Enterprise by activating the Bussard collectors on the ship’s nacelles.

"Lost in Translation"

A sharp metallic distortion reverberates in Uhura’s ear, but no signal has been recorded. Pike attributes it to a glitch, but the dedicated officer resolves to run a full diagnostic. She heads to a compartment within a nacelle, where she replays a video of Chief Engineer Hemmer demonstrating how to recalibrate the communications array. Commander Pelia, Hemmer’s successor, stumbles upon Uhura and listens as she recollects that, since the antenna assembly goes through the nacelles and she often requested recalibrations, Hemmer provided her with instructions on how to perform the procedure herself. Pelia nods, stating that the Aenar had been one of her best students — well, actually he was “just okay,” but he made something of himself nonetheless. The awkwardness intensifies when Pelia asks why Uhura has never spoken to her before, but the engineer leaves once Uhura welcomes her to the Enterprise . Uhura resumes Hemmer’s file, smiling wistfully as she watches him play a practical joke on her.*

Wearing his Fleet Captain delta badge, Pike patrols the corridors with Number One and comments on the refinery being two months behind schedule. Starfleet attributed the trouble to “organization difficulties,” so Pike believes the facility requires Una’s signature brand of managerial fervor to get it back on track. Elsewhere in the hallways, Uhura boards a turbolift and hears the strange, metallic ringing again. Out of nowhere, she spots a grotesque, zombie-like version of Hemmer and staggers back in fear.

In Sickbay, Doctor M’Benga runs a neurological analysis on Uhura and determines she was hallucinating. While working in the nacelle, she had been exposed to a small amount of refined deuterium. Coupled with her rewatch of Hemmer’s file, the mild case of deuterium poisoning seems to explain why she hallucinated. M’Benga gives her medicine to deal with the symptoms, but quickly notices that her serotonin and cortisone levels indicate she has not been sleeping. The doctor prescribes that Uhura get much-needed rest before going back on duty.

On the Federation outpost, Una oversees repairs in the dimly lit facility. Pelia approaches, diagnosing the situation as even worse than it appears. According to the maintenance logs, the refinery has been breaking down faster than anyone can fix it. Pelia suspects an underlying issue, but Number One resists her input.

Attempting to follow M’Benga’s orders, Uhura struggles to fall asleep in her quarters aboard the Enterprise . As she sits up in bed, she immediately finds herself standing outdoors in an open field with thick smoke billowing in the distance. The auditory distortion returns until she awakes back in her room.

Lt. James T. Kirk beams over from the Farragut and is greeted by his brother, Lt. George Samuel Kirk. Sam welcomes “Jimmy,” and the two proceed to the bar in the Enterprise ’s forward lounge. Sharing a drink, James asks about Sam’s work in xenoanthropology, but Sam senses the question is merely a polite prelude for James’ own news. Newly promoted, James will become the Farragut ’s first officer in a few months.

Clearly displeased, Sam notes that the previous person to hold the record for being the youngest first officer in Starfleet history was their father, George Kirk, aboard the U.S.S. Kelvin .** Irritated by Sam’s demeanor, James points out that their father gave Sam his first name — though Sam chooses not to use it — so he had to do something to keep up. Frustrated by James’ ambition, Sam believes his father isn’t proud of him. Sam downs his drink and walks off.

Back on the station, Una rejoices as life support is stabilized and power is restored — at least temporarily. The lights brighten only to cut out once again, and Pelia’s team has found something in the fuel distribution system. The engineer had disobeyed Number One’s orders, opting to dig around the functioning systems and discovering evidence of sabotage.

Nurse Christine Chapel contemplates a chess move in the Enterprise ’s lounge. Across from her, Spock raises a concern — he wishes to inform Starfleet about their fraternization. Chapel pauses in thought then describes human relationships as being like Schrödinger's cat. They exist or they don’t depending on who is observing them. Spock interrupts, intending to state that is not how quantum superposition actually works. Chapel admits it is a messy metaphor, theorizing that if they told anyone about their relationship, their “quantum cat” might disappear. Uhura approaches and confides in the duo. She first heard the disturbing sound on the Bridge, before her deuterium exposure, yet Spock and Chapel doubt anything is amiss.

Feeling defeated, Uhura departs their table and takes a seat at the bar, where James T. Kirk voices his opinion that her Vulcan buddy should protect his queen. Kirk introduces himself, but Uhura has heard of James’ reputation from Sam and believes he is hitting on her. James assures her he merely thinks she looks like she needs a friend. Uhura respectfully declines the friendship and withdraws from the conversation. Strolling through the corridors, the metallic ringing reemerges, and Uhura turns to find a darkened hallway littered with bloody corpses. She sees a disturbing doppelgänger of herself gripping a knife and reacts with a defensive punch. The hallucination ends, and she looks down to the floor to find that she has actually punched James T. Kirk.***

His nose bloodied, Kirk gets to his feet. Uhura is apologetic, but James refuses her offer to bring him to Sickbay. Having witnessed her experiencing the hallucination, he knows she has bigger things to worry about than being written up for striking a superior officer. The two travel to Uhura’s quarters, where she employs a dermal regenerator to repair his nose. Despite their rough start, Kirk believes Uhura’s assessment of her condition. He wishes to help, and the first step is checking with the Farragut ’s doctor to see if any similar cases have been reported there.

With the refinery’s lighting grid and internal sensors offline, Una and Pelia maneuver through the facility’s shadowy depths. They locate their saboteur — a terrified Starfleet officer who frantically questions whether his new visitors are real. Una places a hand on his shoulder, asking the lieutenant, who relays his name to be Saul Ramon, why he sabotaged the station. Ramon is still seeking to discern hallucinations from reality, so Number One flips open her communicator and notifies the Enterprise of the medical emergency.

Curled up on the floor of her quarters, Uhura is startled by the sounds of explosions and the ship’s Red Alert klaxons. She hurries to the Bridge as Pike bellows that they are under attack. The viewscreen cracks and buckles, the change in atmosphere sucking the crew into space. Uhura comes to her senses, now sitting at her station, the bridge intact and free of any alarms. Pike observes that she is supposed to be on medical leave, but the ensign is speechless. The conversation between the two resumes in the Ready Room, where they are soon joined by James Kirk. The Farragut ’s first officer expresses his appreciation for finally meeting Pike.**** Apparently, his vessel’s doctor received a call the previous day about Lt. Saul Ramon seeing things that weren’t there.

The three visit Ramon in Sickbay, and M’Benga highlights the damage to the speech and language centers of the lieutenant’s brain. Ramon experiences an intense auditory episode, prompting him to grab one of the doctor’s medical instruments. He slashes M’Benga’s chest, causing a minor wound, and speeds out of the room. Kirk reassures Uhura that this is a real event and follows Pike out the door in pursuit of Ramon. Phasers drawn, Pike and a security officer proceed down a corridor as the lights lose power. Rounding a corner, they find an unconscious crew member with a severe gash outside of Astrometrics. Pike calls for M’Benga, while Lt. La’An Noonien-Singh marches to the scene and indicates Ramon cut the power conduits. The captain and La’An continue toward Engineering.

Meanwhile, Uhura and James Kirk search another darkened hallway. The ensign endures a brief hallucination, momentarily unable to find Kirk. He reappears, but Uhura is shaken and chooses to return to Sickbay. Kirk proceeds on his own, eventually running into Pike and La’An. The security chief calls him by his first name, a fact which does not go unnoticed by Pike. Ramon must have found a place to hide, so the two parties double back. La’An watches Kirk retreat for a moment before joining her captain.

Alone in the halls, Uhura spots blood on the access tunnel to the port nacelle and reports the update. James isn’t far, but the ensign opts not to wait. Entering the nacelle compartment, Uhura notices Ramon jostling with circuitry and details that she has been dealing with similar hallucinations. She lowers her phaser and tries grounding him in reality by mentioning her name and rank, her home in Kenya, her cat Kamili, and the memory of her dad playing the piano. Ramon initially stares at her unresponsively, then suddenly moves to a console and initiates the fuel pod ejection sequence. The two fight hand-to-hand as explosions ripple through the nacelle. James appears behind Uhura, holding on to her and calling for an emergency transport. Kirk and Uhura are beamed out, but an expanding eruption tears through the hull and pulls Ramon to his death in the cold of space.

Standing in Sickbay, Captain Pike is contemplative as Chapel covers up the crew member who was injured outside of Astrometrics — she did not survive. The captain sits next to Uhura on a biobed, promising that they will come up with a solution for her hallucinations. After displaying his confidence in Uhura, Pike leaves to confer with Chin-Riley about the repairs to the refinery and decrypt Ramon’s files.

James Kirk leans against the wall in the hallway near Sickbay, perusing a PADD until La’An says hello. Remembering La’An from her recent transmission about Sam’s personnel file, Kirk divulges that he’s been waiting there to help Uhura. He then recounts how his family chased his father around from one Starfleet posting to another, yet he still barely saw his dad during his childhood. James’ mother explained that George Kirk was helping people that really needed it. La’An understands that, as a kid, James interpreted this as his father caring more for strangers than he did his son. This gave young James the impression that helping total strangers must be important. As someone aided by Starfleet, La’An agrees. With a smirk, Kirk reminds her that he hasn’t forgotten that she owes him a drink.

Chin-Riley and Pelia assess the routing system aboard the outpost, and the chief engineer interrogates Number One as to why she has a problem with her. Describing Una’s dismissal of the notion as malarkey, Pelia presses the issue. The first officer slams down her PADD and opines that Pelia is sloppy, doesn’t respect protocols, is too loose with discipline, doesn’t follow orders unless she agrees with them, and has crumbs on her uniform! In Una’s eyes, Pelia is a space hippie. The engineer accuses Number One of hiding behind order and discipline because it kills her when someone has the nerve to question her decisions. Una retaliates, stating she outranks Pelia despite the engineer having joined Starfleet before she had been born. Pelia shakes her head and reports she will have the station online soon.

In the ensign’s quarters, Uhura and James Kirk review a log in which Ramon recalls having the same kind of visual and auditory hallucinations as the communications officer. Based on the dates of the logs, Uhura estimates she has a day and a half until she loses her mind. Kirk encourages her to take a break, reminding her that the mess is serving real cookies which have not been prepared in the matter synthesizer. Unamused, the ensign shares that this isn’t the first time she has imagined someone who wasn’t there.

After her parents and brother died in a shuttle accident, Uhura thought she could see the crash site whenever she closed her eyes, despite not being present at the time. Hemmer’s death reopened the old wound for Uhura, who can’t comprehend how other people are able to face death. Rather than tell her a comforting fairytale, Kirk maintains that their Starfleet jobs put them up against death often. They may not like it, but they must face it. Kirk urges Uhura not to let death win, encouraging her to fight back and not let it prevent her from holding onto the memories of Hemmer and her family. Tears stream down Uhura’s cheeks, and James breaks the tension by offering to go get her a cookie from the mess.

Emboldened, Uhura retrieves her PADD and watches Hemmer’s pre-recorded lesson, a smile emerging through the pain. On-screen, Hemmer warns her not to burn out the receiver, and the comment catches her attention in the present. Uhura crosses paths with James on his voyage back from the mess — cookie in hand — and presents a startling theory. Ramon and Uhura experienced increased activity in their brains’ language center, so what if someone had been trying to communicate with them? If their signal was too strong, it might have burned out his brain entirely.

Uhura goes with James to visit Sam in his lab. Sam recalls a fringe theory which proposes that extra-dimensional lifeforms could poke into our space and attach themselves to atoms from our dimension. James puts the information into his own terms, wryly asking Uhura if invisible aliens are using her brain as a universal translator. Uhura believes her mind interprets the simple messages through her thoughts and memories. The visions are essentially a vocabulary, and the ensign reflects on their potential meanings. The walls closing in on her symbolized feeling trapped, and she attacked herself with a knife because the Enterprise ’s crew is responsible. Factoring in her visions about the Bridge’s destruction, the dead bodies in the hall, and a zombie-like Hemmer, Uhura realizes that the unknown beings are trying to escape and that the Enterprise is somehow killing the ones they love. The Kirk brothers add that, if the lifeforms live in the nebula and — in a way — are the deuterium, refining the substance is basically torturing them. Uhura immediately contacts Pike to prevent the outpost from going online, but the captain responds that it became functional five minutes ago.

Chin-Riley and Pelia tackle the problem from the station itself, but none of its automated systems will respond. Uhura and James sprint into the turbolift, and the ensign finds herself in the middle of an open field once again. This time around, she spots a crashed shuttle and stands inside of it, summoning the courage to walk forward... and she reappears on the Bridge alongside James. Uhura briefs Pike, expressing that they’re killing the creatures living in the nebula’s deuterium by pulling them into their fuel pods. Ramon died trying to save the beings. The refinery can’t be shut down, so Uhura declares they need to destroy it.

Uhura and James assure Pike that they are certain they are correct. The captain orders an emergency evacuation of the station, and the Enterprise and Farragut vent the deuterium from their fuel pods. Shuttles and escape craft flee the facility until no lifesigns remain. At Uhura’s command, La’An launches a volley of photon torpedoes that rip apart the refinery. The ensign hallucinates a healthy, smiling, and nodding image of Hemmer. Uhura confirms that the beings are safe, and the vision slowly fades. She laments the facility’s destruction, but Pike promises to take any blowback from Starfleet. He admits he could also say someone’s brash influence — he gives James T. Kirk a good-humored glance — had rubbed off on Uhura. Pike outlines the next steps — recover the escape pods, get out of the nebula, contact Admiral Nagawa, and then take a nap.

En route back to the Enterprise , Una confronts Pelia with the truth — the engineer had been her professor when she took the Starship Maintenance 307 course at Starfleet Academy and gave her a “C” in the course. Pelia already knows and insists Number One deserved that “C” grade due to her sloppy final paper. She sees through Una’s facade, arguing that the underlying reason for the first officer’s unease with her is Hemmer. Pelia replaced him, so the sadness returns every time Una glimpses her. Given her lifetimes of experience, Pelia empathizes and smiles, offering not to contradict Una if she wishes to continue believing the “C” is the root cause.

A live band entertains the audience in the Enterprise ’s lounge, and Uhura shows pictures of her family to James Kirk. Pondering why the beings communicated with her, James announces they found the perfect person — a good listener. Sam approaches, mending fences by sharing that he is proud of his brother’s promotion. Expecting a similar apology from James, Sam lingers until he realizes James is not taking the bait. Annoyed, Sam tells his brother to have fun on his stupid little ship while he remains assigned to the Federation’s flagship.

James eyes Sam as he walks off, declaring his brother to be — a voice completes the sentence for him — “frustrating.” The Enterprise ’s science officer stands next to their table, and Uhura introduces James T. Kirk to Spock. Uhura grins as the two shake hands. James invites the Vulcan to join them, so Spock takes a seat. The three begin to engage in quiet conversation as the band’s music fills the lounge.

* " All Who Wander " - While on Valeo Beta V, the Enterprise 's landing party resolves to recover the U.S.S. Peregrine and its crew after receiving their distress call. The Peregrine had rescued survivors from a Gorn breeding planet, but unfortunately, some of them had already been infected with Gorn eggs. As the landing party fights for survival against their ravenous enemy, Hemmer too becomes infected. Remarking on a life well lived, the chief engineer lures another Gorn youngling into a trap, in order to protect his friends. The loss of Hemmer deeply affects the crew.

** Star Trek (2009) - Aboard the U.S.S. Kelvin , George Samuel Kirk, Sr. served as the first officer under the command of Captain Robau. After an incident with the Romulan Nero and the Narada , the timeline split, deviating from the Prime Universe timeline. Following Nero's attack and the death of Robau, George Kirk became captain of the Kelvin , just as his wife was giving birth to James T. Kirk elsewhere on the ship. In his 12 minutes of command, George sacrificed himself and saved 800 lives aboard the Kelvin .

*** " Night Terrors " - In this Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, the Enterprise-D 's crew discovers the U.S.S. Brattain , adrift in space, with its entire crew, except for the ship's Betazoid officer, dead. Stuck in the Tyken's Rift, as the Brattain was, the Enterprise 's crew is unable to dream, and experience waking hallucinations. Like the Brattain 's Betazoid officer, Counselor Deanna Troi is dreaming; unfortunately, all she sees are nightmares. However, Troi discovers these nightmares are attempts at communication from another ship trapped on the other side of the rift.

**** " The Menagerie, Part I " - Established in this Star Trek : The Original Series episode, James T. Kirk and Christopher Pike met when the latter was "promoted to Fleet Captain."

• Written by Onitra Johnson & David Reed
• Directed by Dan Liu

Get Updates By Email

Jay Stobie (he/him) is a freelance writer, author, and consultant who has contributed articles to StarTrek.com, Star Trek Explorer, and Star Trek Magazine, as well as to Star Wars Insider and StarWars.com. Learn more about Jay by visiting JayStobie.com or finding him on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms at @StobiesGalaxy.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Latin America, Brazil, South Korea, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In addition, the series airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave in Canada and on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Central and Eastern Europe. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.