Why does the transporter have to be manually calibrated with every use?
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Posted May 26, 2022, 7:25 PM UTC · locked
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It's not just Kyle. Did you notice that Spock looks different? And Pike? And Uhura? Almost as if they were different people? The thing about the computer doing the transports is that they can't let the computer decide where on the planet they want to beam down. It would of course be more practical to just type in a set of three-dimensional coordinates but the sliders are traditional.
11
I don't think they're really for calibration. I think at some point they were implied to be the technician's way of controlling the progress of materialization. There are a few occasions (I think on TNG) where the tech's hand is holding the sliders at the top and when they lose signal, the indicators drop to a lower level, indicating that the cycle of materialization is less complete. They then have to move their hand back to the start and slide them up again to reactivate the cycle.
Ultimately, I think the original intent of those sliders was lost over time, and it's 100% a throwback to the old control panel from TOS and is totally cosmetic now.
Note that the "original" transporter console from the TOS pilot didn't have the sliders. They actually used the helm/navigation console from the bridge as the transporter console. The sliders didn't appear until the Corbomite Maneuver (3rd in filming order). The original pilot and the 2nd pilot (Where No Man Has Gone Before) still used the helm console.
As far as calibration and targeting, the central area (looks like a big circle that rotates) was used for targeting. The controls on the right side of the console, sometimes occupied by a 2nd technician, were for calibration.
After TOS, the panels were updated, and I'm sure they had calibration controls separate from the "energize" controls.
6
The transporter operator in the pilot is Asian so I figured the new guy is an homage to that guy. If his name is the same as some later guy's name, I say it's coincidence.
The sliders are more like a go button once everything else is set.
6
Hello u/ekolis,
Your question about the transporter is totally reasonable and appropriate. However, this is not:
Also, why is Mr. Kyle suddenly Asian in SNW when he was white in TOS? Is this a sneaky hint that this is an alternate timeline?
We in Daystrom recognize that Star Trek is fiction. Characters being played by different actors is not something that can or should be explained in-universe, it's an inevitable result of episodes being shot over 50 years apart.
Further, theories about some perceived inconsistency indicating an alternate timeline are not appropriate here either. Such theories rarely produce good discussion, and regardless of intent tend to be seen as an attempt to delegitimize whichever show the alleged inconsistency appeared in.
I encourage you to make a new post with only the question about the transporter. If you have any further questions, please message modmail.
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As complex as the human brain is, it stretches the limits of credulity as it is to believe that it can be broken down to the subatomic level, “beamed” to another location very far away, and re-assembled completely in tact to the point where the person being transported doesn’t feel like anything has happened other than a strange tingly sensation, when in fact he/she has actually been basically killed and resurrected in a matter of seconds. Since every person is different, it makes sense to me that the transporter would need to be adjusted each time to account for the most minute details of every person’s DNA, physical characteristics, brain patterns, and cellular structure. Frankly, a computer would probably be much more reliable than any human in operating it. Why trust a fallible organic mind with your subatomic structure and your very consciousness itself with a device that has the potential to split you in half, merge you with another person, create a duplicate of you, turn you into a child, send you back in time, send you into a parallel universe, make you invisible, screw up your mind so much that you begin having vivid hallucinations and suffer a psychotic break, or just incinerate you on the spot? I certainly cannot blame McCoy for never wanting to go near the thing.
As for Mr. Kyle…well, that’s the kind of question that we’re just not supposed to ask nowadays, isn’t it?
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Nobody dies. This is clearly shown in "Realm of Fear."
5
Not in the sense that their physical existence and consciousness ceases, no, but the question is raised on the show, in that very episode if I’m not mistaken. And transporter accidents have literally killed people before.
1
There could always be two people named Kyle.
We don't really know what the sliders do, but the consequences of a transporter malfunction are really high. I imagine that if there were a problem with the ship's computer during transport, that's exactly when you would want someone physically handling the controls rather than trusting the already malfunctioning computer to finish the job. The sliders could also provide some subtle feedback clues to the state of the beam to help the operator make quicker adjustments than they would if they were relying on a visual readout.
That would work if they used them properly on SNW. On the other shows they use the sliders slowly, but on SNW they just slam them. The way they do it, it might as well be computer controlled.
Maybe that transporter chief is just rough with it?
Alternatively, the slider is for if you need to slow down/hold the transport at particular points in the cycle. You usually don't need to do more than just push it all the way up and down.
Number One slammed it too. I don't know - your comment makes sense.