Transporter Question

[Richard S. Ta]

Apologies if this has been done before. It probably has. I was watching The Phage (VOY) earlier in which Janeway orders Neelix to be directly transported to sickbay… I know that’s not an unusual thing in itself, but it got me thinking.

So, in TOS, they beam from the pads in the transporter room and then back to the same pads.

By TNG, that’s changed up and it’s apparently possible to beam crew up to sickbay directly, so…

Can they be beamed directly anywhere on the ship? Could Picard ask to be directly beamed to the bridge? If you’ve got an away team member drunken and disorderly on shore leave, could he be beamed directly to his quarters? Or into a cold shower? Or even the Brig?

And if it’s possible to do this (beam someone up not a transporter pad I mean) then what’s the point in the transporter room full stop by TNG times?

Apologies, I’m not really hardcore enough to know how the tech ‘works’ but I was just curious.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Can they be beamed directly anywhere on the ship?

Yes

Could Picard ask to be directly beamed to the bridge?

Yes

If you’ve got an away team member drunk on disorderly on shore leave, could he be beamed directly to his quarters?

Yes

Or into a cold shower?

Yes

Or even the Brig?

Yes

And if it’s possible to do this (beam someone up not a transporter pad I mean) then what’s the point in the transporter room full stop by TNG times?

It costs extra energy to beam them to a place that isn't the Transporter Pad.

During that time, when you beam from Outside the ship (Assuming they're Planet-side, on a StarBase, or on another Vessel) to inside the ship, you have to route them to the Transporter Pad first.
If you try to route them somewhere else, they still have to go through the Transporter Pad, then get shunted to the target destination on the vessel.

That will obviously change sometime in the future post 24th century, but during that time, that's the limitation & the penalty for doing so.

The vast majority of the time, if there is no pressing need to go directly to "Some where on the ship", then the crew member can walk there from the Transporter Pad/Room and/or take the Turbo Lift to get there.

Apologies, I’m not really hardcore enough to know how the tech ‘works’ but I was just curious.

No Apologies, not everybody has read the ST:TNG Tech Manual.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

If you try to route them somewhere else, they still have to go through the Transporter Pad, then get shunted to the target destination on the vessel.

That's really helpful and makes lots of sense.

So in effect, they beam a person's pattern to the transporter buffer itself briefly before beaming it again to another location on the ship?

Now you've spelt it out for me, I regret even starting the thread. It's so obvious.

 

[Tosk]

So, in TOS, they beam from the pads in the transporter room and then back to the same pads.

They were able to beam from one place to another without using the pads at one end of the journey in TOS, it was just barely shown/used.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

They were able to beam from one place to another without the pads in TOS, it just wasn't used/shown much.

I don't recall any examples at all.

As one example of what I do recall, in "The Cloud Minders," the TOS version of site-to-site was not so much that as it was a double-beaming, up onto a pad and then immediately down, [transcript]:

KIRK: Hold on these co-ordinates. Locate the High Advisor and beam him to these co-ordinates immediately. Without advance communication. Repeat, without advance communication. Have you got that, Spock?​

​

[Bridge]​

​

SPOCK: Instructions clear. I shall carry them out immediately. Spock out.​

​

[...]​

​

[Transporter room]​

​

SCOTT: Energising.​

​

[Bridge]​

​

SPOCK: How are you doing, Mister Scott?​

​

[Transporter room]​

​

SCOTT: Fine, Mister Spock. The High Advisor's materialising on the platform.​

​

[Bridge]​

​

SPOCK: Beam him down to Captain Kirk immediately.​

SCOTT [OC]: Energising, sir. He's on his way to the captain.​

SPOCK: Good work, Mister Scott.​

SCOTT [OC]: The Advisor looked mighty angry. I hope he doesn't give the captain too much trouble.​

SPOCK: The captain will employ his usual diplomatic balm.​

Site-to-site is explained in the TNG tech manual, section 9.3:

• Site-to-site transport. This refers to a double¬​

beaming procedure in which a subject is dematerialized at a​

remote site and routed to a transporter chamber. Instead of​

being materialized in the normal beam-up process, however,​

the matter stream is then shunted to a second pattern buffer​

and then to a second emitter array, which directs the subject​

to the final destination. Such direct transport consumes​

nearly twice the energy of normal transport and is not gener¬​

ally employed except during emergency situations. Site-to-​

site transport is not employed during emergency situations​

that require the transport of large numbers of individuals be¬​

cause this procedure effectively halves the total system​

capacity due to minimum duty cycle requirements (See: 9.4).​

There's no mention of using pads, just pattern buffers. It seems the intent is to bypass the pads altogether for the TNG version. Not using the pads at all makes sense, since there is no materialization or dematerialization in the middle of the process, unlike in the TOS version.

From Memory Alpha:

The transporter platform or transporter pad was a raised area in the transporter room; it was located within the transporter chamber. The platform had transporter pads, where the individual or object that was being transported had to be placed in order to be successfully transported. Some transporter systems supported site-to-site transport and did not require the use of the transporter pad at all.​

 

[Tosk]

I don't recall any examples at all.

Scotty beams Tepo directly from his joint to Okmyx's in A Piece of the Action.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Scotty beams Tepo directly from his joint to Oxmyx's in A Piece of the Action.

Thank you. I won't quibble; IIRC, the transporter room is offscreen at that particular moment, so we can never prove he was materialized onto a pad, even if only for an instant.

 

[Tosk]

Also technically TOS, Scotty beams the away team from the hospital to the ground outside the Bird of Prey in Star Trek 4.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Also technically TOS, Scotty beams the away team from the hospital to the ground outside the Bird of Prey in Star Trek 4.

True, dat. I always thought it was weird!

 

[1001001]

Moving to Trek Tech.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Moving to Trek Tech.

Thanks and apologies!

 

[blssdwlf]

Thank you. I won't quibble; IIRC, the transporter room is offscreen at that particular moment, so we can never prove he was materialized onto a pad, even if only for an instant.

One more, in "Assignment Earth" Kirk tells Scotty to "beam us directly to Seven's apartment" from the mission control room. It happens offscreen also so we don't know for sure if they had to materialize on the pad as an inbetween step.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

One more, in "Assignment Earth" Kirk tells Scotty to "beam us directly to Seven's apartment" from the mission control room. It happens offscreen also so we don't know for sure if they had to materialize on the pad as an inbetween step.

Thanks for that, as well.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Now you've spelt it out for me, I regret even starting the thread. It's so obvious.

As my high school woodshop teacher put it, the only dumb question is the one that doesn't get asked.

 

[Nerys Myk]

MA discusses Intra-ship Beaming and Site-to-site Beaming.

 

[B.J.]

MA discusses Intra-ship Beaming and Sit-to-site Beaming.

"Sit-to-site"? So they're going to beam you right off the captain's chair, or God forbid, the porcelain "captain's chair"?

 

[blssdwlf]

"Sit-to-site"? So they're going to beam you right off the captain's chair, or God forbid, the porcelain "captain's chair"?

Captain Christopher from "Tomorrow is Yesterday" did "Sit-to-site" and also "Site-to-sit"

 

[Tosk]

There's another off-screen implied site-to-site transport in TOS, when Scotty beamed every tribble to the Klingon ship.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

There's another off-screen implied site-to-site transport in TOS, when Scotty beamed every tribble to the Klingon ship.

That's truly the greatest "In-Direct Weapon" that I've ever heard of.