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Doesn't Scotty's transporter tech negate much of the need for spaceships?

posted 4 years ago by Clouseau2 (152)
8 replies | jump to latest

So Scotty has a way of beaming off a planet in the middle of nowhere right into the Enterprise which is at warp (faster than light) and light years away.

If this is possible, then why bother using spaceships at all? You can just beam from planet to planet. If it's possible to beam into a ship traveling at warp, it should be far simpler to beam from one planet to another.

Another advantage is that the people beaming would not age during the journey and would arrive instantaneously from their point of view.

[–] Otter (24464) 4 years ago

It's not clear what kind of distance is involved, and I presume there's going to be a distance of may light-years between habitable planets. So transporting from ship to ship or planet to ship may involve a shorter distance than would be needed to transport between planets.

And presumably it would take years or decades to make the tech safe enough for general use. So... maybe it'd make spaceships obsolete by Picard's day?

[–] Clouseau2 (152) 4 years ago

We do know what kind of distance was involved because the Enterprise dumped Kirk on the frozen ice planet close to Vulcan and then traveled for quite some time (hours) before the beaming began.

I mean, this is only one of the many issues with this -- how could Scotty possibly know where the Enterprise was in the first place?

[–] Otter (24464) 4 years ago

Well, several hours by warp speed from a given planet is still a much smaller distance than inhabited-planet-to-inhabited-planet, for what that's worth. And it's possible that transporter station have some sort of code like a phone number, so he could send a signal to station #4267424 rather than to a specific location. And come to think of it, it would be necessary for transporter stations to have some sort of designation, because aren't people transport to and from moving ships, and from planets to ships in orbit?

Anyway, the original question isn't really answerable, not enough data.

[–] Forky (1739) 4 years ago

but it is answerable, in STID, khan used the exact same process to beam from earth all the way to the klingon homeworld

[–] FootOfDavros (6719) 4 years ago

Ha ha, good point!

That's a JJ lack of logic checkmate for me...

[–] Forky (1739) 4 years ago

👍

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

It's PURE RUBBISH, because Abrams doesn't understand space and thinks that starships are totally unnecessary.

[–] MisterE (704) 4 years ago

I wonder if Scotty could plot a transporter slingshot around a sun and send someone back in time?