Sfdebris.net

I was thinking about how the transporter was introduced into Star Trek as a convenient way to avoid the expense of portraying shuttlecraft landings, and only as a consequence did all of those teleportation tropes get added into the show. (Incidentally, the classic episode doesn't involve Kirk being split into good and evil selves, but impulsive and executive functions. The 'good' Kirk wasn't any better at interacting with people or being captain as the 'evil' one.)

Then I had a sudden vision of landing pods being shot out of the ship, descending to a planet, and opening to reveal a transporter pad, which the crew then materializes on.

Many of the problems of the transporter, from the perspective of people trying to write interesting stories in the Star Trek universe, arise from its immense flexibility. Would it have been better for the franchise, from a SF perspective, if the transporter had been limited to teleportation only between specialized apparatuses which themselves had to be shipped to the destination in the old-fashioned way?

Well then you're back to the same problem as landing craft shots, except you replace "landing craft" with "transporter pod". You still need to drag a set piece to location, you still need an effect shot of the pod being deployed, the only difference being that there's no reason to show more than one transporter pod being launched an episode, while there might be need to launch multiple shuttles. But on the other hand you could avoid multiple shuttle maneuvers by careful editing. Like if Kirk is on the surface, and then after a ship establishing shot, he's on the ship, the viewer can fill the gap.

After one episode in which pods are established, I don't see that they ever need to show footage of their depositing. And a simple platform seems easier to set up than a shuttlecraft set.

I was thinking more of the worldbuilding advantages than real-world cinematographic edges.

Frustration wrote: ↑Sat Sep 10, 2022 8:06 pm After one episode in which pods are established, I don't see that they ever need to show footage of their depositing. And a simple platform seems easier to set up than a shuttlecraft set.

I was thinking more of the worldbuilding advantages than real-world cinematographic edges.

It would solve a lot of the "why don't they just beam them out?" type of plot problems, but if you're going that far then IMO it would be better to just not have transporters at all.

Or maybe make something like what we saw in Gary 7 where it's more like a portal. Just, you need to be able to establish and maintain a stable end. It would essentially be the same as the transporter in terms of production, create a visual effect, only the actors would step into and out of it.

I'm all for a long space slide.