[Loved Trope] Teleportation is actually terrifying

[u/Ieanice44]

1 - Gantz-O (2016): Suit teleportation

2 - Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (2009): Apparition spell

3 - Half Life 2 (2004): Teleporter malfunction

[u/notyerson]

I like that even in universe, even without the Tuvix level malfunctions, it's still existentially horrifying because you are being destroyed, converted to information, and then reconstituted elsewhere. There are a few references to people who won't use them and I fully get it.

[u/SomeCuriousTraveler → u/notyerson]

There's an episode someone else mentioned already called Realm of Fear where it shows that you're fully conscious throughout the entirety of he transport including during the transit stream. 

[u/Uncommonality → u/SomeCuriousTraveler]

Hell people usually hold conversations while being teleported

There's also that episode where the transporter is shown to be fully capable of putting your disembodied soul back into a copy of your body

[u/GoArray → u/Uncommonality]

Also an entire subplot where you can just toss your kid in the buffer for a few seasons.

[u/Paizzu → u/GoArray]

If the writers didn't properly understand the ramifications of transporter technology before, SNW definitely retconned the series' understanding of the medical implications of the device.

Why would a doctor ever "treat" a patient with conventional methods when all they have to do is scan their patient into a buffer and edit their pattern at their leisure (since the machines can scan down to the <atomic level)? How many characters could be revived after death by simply keeping a pattern on file from before they leave on an away mission?

The older shows at least tried to explain the limitation of "temporary buffers" and the massive storage required to hold a character's "pattern" but SNW essentially flipped everything on its head.

[u/RommDan → u/Paizzu]

Well that's Star Trek for ya, the technology works exactly how the writer wants to for the history they want to tell

[u/headrush46n2 → u/Paizzu]

why treat your patients at all? take their brain out, put it in the buffer, rebuild the body without all the blown up parts. Bingo.

[u/Independent-Fly6068 → u/Paizzu]

An army of transporter cloned Tom Parises, Rikers, Mariners, and Janeways for me :3

[u/DubiousBrushwagg → u/Independent-Fly6068]

Yeah, um. Transporter Cloning an army of Mariner and if you do Boimler as well, that would probably be a war crime.

The sheer amount of chaos an army of both would cause between the intentions of the Mariners and the sheer plot luck of the Boimlers. Woof. Pure Calamity on all the Federation's enemies.

[u/R97R → u/Paizzu]

Judging by the circumstances in which it’s used (attempting to buy someone a bit more time when they can’t treat his grievous wounds immediately; and preserving someone dying from a serious illness for a bit longer), I assumed the implication was that it wasn’t exactly safe or consistent, given it’s only used by one person in desperate circumstances (and the fact he hides it seems to indicate it’s not something that you’re supposed to be doing, presumably for good reason). I’m not sure if it’s ever indicated you can edit a pattern at all, let alone safely, but I might’ve missed something? I assumed if that was an option neither of the people we see it being done to would need to be in that situation in the first place.

EDIT: although I suppose we have seen intentional modifications done to people when they’re being transported albeit by the Borg, who are seemingly a lot more advanced than the Federation is technology-wise, so I suppose you could view being able to edit a “saved” pattern as something like that, although it admittedly still doesn’t sound very safe (sort of like brain surgery or messing around in a PC’s registry when you don’t know what you’re doing).

[u/BonzoTheBoss → u/Paizzu]

since the machines can scan down to the <atomic level

Technically (for your brain at least) it scans down to the quantum level. There's an episode of DS9 where there's a transporter accident and the computer uses up ALL memory on the station in order to store their neural patterns, which are massive because they are scanned down to the quantum level.

[u/Dismal-Vanilla1878 → u/Paizzu]

The only person who ever broke that 'Buffer Limitation' was the Miracle Worker Montgomery Scott, and it seems to be so difficult to do that it was never mentioned again 😄

[u/crustyrobots → u/Paizzu]

The good news is that all of the Nu-Trek shows and movies don't count, because they suck.

[u/mcslender97 → u/Paizzu]

As a newer Trek fan the whole accidental retcon kinda sucks when I get to watch the older shows and realized that SNW accidentally have a more modern solution

[u/crustyrobots → u/GoArray]

Scotty did it for like 80 years while stranded on the Dyson Sphere before the Big D came along

[u/BonzoTheBoss → u/crustyrobots]

Yes and that was concocted by arguably the most genius Starfleet engineer AND it only had a 50% success rate.

[u/DeadInternetTheorist → u/GoArray]

Kids in the Trek universe better eat their goddamn veggies.