note One of the numerous problems with it is Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, which puts limits on the accuracy with which the speed and position of a particle, let alone quadrillions of them, can be identified. This puts it among the crown jewels of Weird Science. The Star Trek-style turn-you-into-energy-and-back-again transporter is perhaps the single most physically impossible piece of Phlebotinum in all of Science Fiction, for a large number of different reasons, including enormous temperature and data storage requirements, computational time (many times the age of the universe), massive energy output (more energy than is available in the entire universe), and unachievable transmission focusing resolution (all explained by physicist Lawrence Krauss in The Physics of Star Trek). Non-technological teleportation accomplished by psychic power is often called "Jaunting", after Alfred Bester's science fiction classic, The Stars My Destination. The ability to accomplish the same thing without technological means also crops up from time to time, either by "magic", or as a kind of superpower. (See: Plot-Sensitive Items, Phlebotinum Breakdown, and Teleporter Accident.) This technology has the potential to short-circuit the drama of a story, so all examples have limitations built in to cause the transporter/teleporter/disintegrator/whateverator to fail whenever it is needed most. You still need a Cool Starship to get between stars. With very few exceptions ( The Tomorrow People (1973), Stargate SG-1), such devices are capable only of comparatively short-range transport. However, years later, Gene Roddenberry admitted they could have just handled things with a jump-cut between "Launch a shuttle!" and "Here we are on the surface.", as evidenced in Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, where they don't generally have transporters, but do have very fast, rarely seen shuttles. ![]() Star Trek only has them because the cost of landing craft effects proved to be too much for the budget of the original series. There is also the question of whether the effect is technological or inherent to an individual if it's some manner of device, expect it to break down at plot-critical moments.Ĭonsiderably cheaper than a shuttlecraft, from a special effects point of view. There are several ways this can be managed, from dematerialization/rematerialization, wormholes, bending space, and other more exotic means. Disappearing from one location and reappearing in another.
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