ENT: Countdown/MACOs

[clearspira]

I loved the MACOs. This is the only time, really in Star Trek history, where a ship has had decent security. They move like soldiers, they wear camo, they carry supplies, they have pockets, they have a rapid fire rifle with a pop-out scope AND a sniper variant AND a phase pistol AND a hand-to-hand weapon AND stun grenades. They're also actually trained in what appears to be real life martial arts as opposed to the normal ''axe handle to the face instant knock-out'' BS we got in every series before this.

Contrast this to what we normally get. Guys in bright multi-coloured outfits, no supplies, one gun that fires slowly, piss-poor training, and sometimes even catsuits, miniskirts, and high-heels.

I love them. They're awesome. Say what you like about ENT, but when they got it right, they got it RIGHT. We finally have a team that could probably take on SG-1 AKA a team based on reality.

And as an aside, I thought Major Hayes did nothing wrong. Lt Reed was just being a jealous bitch who was incredibly precious about his position on-board Enterprise. Hayes just wanted to do his job and make sure that everyone else was doing theirs. I don't think he wanted Reed's job - he was a MACO and loved it. But in hindsight, Reed was right to be scared of his job, Hayes is easily one of the most competent guys in Starfleet period. People like Yar and TNG Worf are rank amateurs compared to him. And his death BTW was complete BS. Getting killed in a transporter beam goes against everything we ever see from transporter beams... proof I guess that when ENT got it wrong, it got it WRONG.

[stryke]

Getting killed in a transporter beam goes against everything we ever see from transporter beams...

But is it more unlikely than say that-totally-not-Rambo super soldier being able to resist being beamed through sheer force of will or Barclay being able to grab onto someone mid-beam. Getting killed seems pretty vanilla Trek compared to those two.

[hypocratus]

There is also the season one episode where they beam up someone and he had leaves and other debris embedded in his skin. The transporter in the NX-01 had just been cleared for biological use. It doesn't surprise me that all the safeties haven't even been invented yet.

[clearspira]

Getting killed in a transporter beam goes against everything we ever see from transporter beams...

But is it more unlikely than say that-totally-not-Rambo super soldier being able to resist being beamed through sheer force of will or Barclay being able to grab onto someone mid-beam. Getting killed seems pretty vanilla Trek compared to those two.

Yeah, fair enough. The transporter is a quagmire of shitty continuity. But if we are going to look at this even semi-realistically, the transporter breaks you down into particles and reforms you at the other end from different particles. The idea that somehow it is bringing up your component parts exactly as they were and cobbling back together again is ludicrous - this is why so many people believe that the transporter in fact murders you and clones you at the other end.

My point is, it was the ORIGINAL particles that were shot. His NEW particles should be just fine. As mentioned above, the NX-01 is brand new and could have issues that the later one's do not, but perfectly replicating a wound that happens mid-transport is a pretty huge design flaw. The computer would actually have to actively apply that state to you after the initial transporter lock.

[RobbyB1982]

Well, Thomas Riker pretty much confirms the "cloning" theory. Not to mention all the other times there's an accident like turning them into children, or merging two people together, or putting their brain patterns into the holodeck... it's making a copy and sometimes it screws up in the transfer.

[Fianna]

My take on the Thomas Riker situation is that it was less cloning and more mitosis: Riker was turned into energy and beamed up, but halfway to the starship they split in two, like an amoeba; one continued on to the starship, while the other went back down to the planet.

[Mabus]

Regarding the killed mid-transport thing, it could be either due to the transporter still being a new technology, or the Reptilian guns, given how exotic they are, could actually damage matter during mid-transport.

I feel like the second half of the season is by far the best story arc of the entire show, only Demons/Terra Prime is better, and that's only because it doesn't rely solely on a doomsday weapon to drive the story.

[Sir Will]

It's a pity nobody requested the season finale. Ah well.

[TheGreenMan]

Every time I see "MACOs" I think to myself: "Self, why is everyone talking about MacOS?"

[Riedquat]

Yeah, fair enough. The transporter is a quagmire of shitty continuity. But if we are going to look at this even semi-realistically, the transporter breaks you down into particles and reforms you at the other end from different particles. The idea that somehow it is bringing up your component parts exactly as they were and cobbling back together again is ludicrous - this is why so many people believe that the transporter in fact murders you and clones you at the other end.

My point is, it was the ORIGINAL particles that were shot. His NEW particles should be just fine. As mentioned above, the NX-01 is brand new and could have issues that the later one's do not, but perfectly replicating a wound that happens mid-transport is a pretty huge design flaw. The computer would actually have to actively apply that state to you after the initial transporter lock.

Don't see why the idea that the transporter is effectively a photocopy of whatever was on the other end is that absurd. Or if it somehow moves the particles (a less problematic concept than destroying a recreating). Either way what appears on the transporter pad is what was on the ground - it has to be doing some sort of either shift or copy, it moves everything you're carrying with you after all, in whatever pose you happened to be in at the time.

It may be programmed to filter out anything doing you harm; if the weapon was a bullet-firing gun (easier to imagine example) it may leave the bullet behind if it was fired in to the beam after it started, but that might be an improvement that came later.