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Enterprise Inconsistencies

Shuttle Trouble - Use of the Transporter

Shuttle Trouble

Enterprise NX-01 comes with no more than two(!) shuttles, as mentioned in ENT: "Terra Nova" and implicitly in "Impulse". This is unbelievably short-sighted on a starship built without a transporter as a regular means of transportation. We need to bear in mind that the transporter is only "experimental" and the crew is afraid of it. Realistically, Enterprise would have to rely even more heavily on the shuttle pods than seen in the show. But each of them can transport only six persons. And what about the cargo? I doubt that they would or could beam large amounts of food supplies. So what happens if one shuttle is defunct and the other one is on the way, just like it exactly happened in "Impulse"? Earth is several months away most of the time. Doug Drexler, designer of NX-01, has acknowledged the problem. He suggests: "In my opinion we have two pods that are on 'hot standby,' and two more that are 'mothballed' and can be made good to go in two days working normal shifts, one day working double shifts."

Enterprise shuttlepod
(Star Trek: The Magazine)

But the situation worsens again since we know that several times shuttles have been damaged, and may even have been a total loss:

Considering that Shuttlepod One reappeared briefly after it had been left behind on the moon in ENT: "Dawn", I'm not taking into account the shuttle numbers. Maybe the registry on another shuttle (if there was any left intact) was simply repainted.

The frequency of shuttle accidents unpleasantly reminds us of Voyager's shuttle losses (up to 17 altogether). But unlike the 24th century ship Enterprise doesn't have replicator technology (unless shuttles were replaced or repaired at the station in "Dead Stop"). With at least one shuttle lost and likely the rest more or less damaged towards the end of season two, it is about time for Enterprise to return to Earth for resupply. This has probably happened in "The Expanse". But the short-sightedness of first giving the ship too few shuttles and then crash them frequently sheds a bad light on the authors and producers who seem to have learned nothing since Voyager in terms of consistency. Not to mention the lack of creativity in all the shuttle accident stories.

Use of the Transporter

The question whether Enterprise could already have a transporter in the first place is discussed here.

Now that we obviously have to accept that the technology exists that early and is "approved of for biomatter transport", we should expect that the transporter would be more than just decoration and would be used frequently -- at least in case of an emergency when a shuttle could not be used or was too slow.

Transporter used Here are the episodes with transporter activity and how and why it was used.

"Broken Bow": Archer was beamed off the Suliban Helix although it was considered extremely unsafe; a shuttle would have been too slow.

"Strange New World": The transporter was used to beam up Novakovich because a shuttle was unable to lift off or land during a storm.

"The Andorian Incident": Three security officers were beamed to the monastery to free the hostages, for a shuttle would have been detected too easily.

"Civilization": The Malurian reactor was beamed up from the surface, and then beamed into space. No beaming of personnel.

"Detained": The transporter was used to send a communicator to Archer in the prison and to beam down Reed, disguised as a Suliban.

"Vanishing Point": The transporter was utilized after a long time to rescue Tucker and Hoshi from a polaric storm. Hoshi is the victim of the first transporter accident.

"Anomaly": The stolen cargo was beamed back to the ship. No visible beaming of personnel.

"Extinction": Tucker and some MACOs were beamed down to rescue the mutated crew members.

"Impulse": Trellium was beamed aboard. No beaming of personnel.

"The Shipment": A tube with kemocite is beamed to and from the ship. No beaming of personnel.

"North Star": Archer and Bethany are beamed up to escape the sheriff's gun.

"Chosen Realm": Pretending that the transporter is used for waste disposal, Archer fabricates his own execution.

"Hatchery": The transporter is used to overwhelm Archer in the hatchery.

"Damage": The boarding party is beamed over to the alien ship to steal the "warp coil".

"E²": No personnel transport, just the beam-over of power conduits of E2.

"Countdown": Five crew members, two at a time, are beamed out with the damaged transporter from the Insectoid vessel. Hayes is shot into his chest while he is being beamed out and dies later.

"Storm Front": The transporter is consequently and frequently used to beam down and beam up personnel.

"Borderland": Crew members are rescued from the Orion slave market after they have been located. Soong disables his transponder and can't be simply beamed up.

"Cold Station 12": A boarding party is beamed to Cold Station 12. How this could be accomplished with Enterprise staying out of the system (Soong could monitor the ship when it was still millions of miles away) remains a mystery though.

"The Augments": The radiation from the station's core did not allow to use the transporter to rescue Archer, so he was beamed out from space after decompressing the maintenance shaft.

"The Forge": The transporter is used for the emergency beam-out of Malcolm and Travis from the destroyed Federation Embassy.

"Babel One": Trip, Malcolm and the MACOs are beamed over to the Romulan marauder.

"In a Mirror, Darkly": Just for the sake of completeness, in this Mirror Universe episode the transporter is consequently used in tactical operations.

Transporter not used, with a reason These are the episodes in which the transporter was not used, and either a reason was explicitly mentioned, or we may easily make up one.

"Shadows of P'Jem": Rescue of Archer and T'Pol from the Coridan rebels. Tucker and Reed didn't have clear lifeform readings when they went down with the shuttlepod, so the transporter was obviously no option.

"Sleeping Dogs": Emergency beam-out of Hoshi, T'Pol and Malcolm from the Klingon ship. Mayweather mentioned that no transporter lock was possible because of the heavy interference.

"Desert Crossing": Rescue of Archer and Tucker from the desert. There was an "orbital dispersion field" field present, and they couldn't be found.

"Shockwave, Part 1": Infiltration of the Suliban stealth cruiser using the transporter after taking down the cloak. We may make up a few reasons why using the shuttle was safer or easier, although Reed always had quite detailed scans of its interior.

"Cease Fire": It would have been an option to rescue the hostages with the transporter. No reason was mentioned why this wasn't possible, but the Andorians may have blocked the transporter.

"Dawn": The isotopes in the atmosphere of the planet obstructed the simple emergency transmitter, whereas the incredibly more complex transporter would have been able to beam up Trip and the Arkonian pilot. The transporter was not used, however, because the sudden temperature change would have killed the Arkonian who was in an extremely dehydrated state on the hot surface on the planet. We only have to wonder if the inside of the shuttle that brought him back was extremely heated up in order to avert the imminent temperature shock.

"Canamar": Reed managed to get Archer's and Tucker's biosigns on the prisoner transport, but the Enaran official objected he couldn't use the transporter because the ship was heavily shielded.

"Extinction": The transporter was considered an option, but was not used because there was no possibility to contain the virus. In other words, there was no biofilter yet.

"Divergence": When Archer and Reed discuss how to get Trip onto the ship at warp, the possibility of beaming him over is expressly ruled out.

Transporter not used, without a reason These are the episodes in which the transporter was not used and was not even considered an option, although an emergency situation would have required it.

"Terra Nova": Rescue of Reed from the caves of Terra Nova. It was not evident if and how the transporter could have been disabled. Maybe it was because the transporter was not (yet) capable of penetrating solid rock, but then someone ought to have mentioned that.

"Breaking the Ice": Rescue of Reed and Mayweather from the crashed shuttle prior to the risky salvage of the shuttle itself. There was nothing in the simple asteroid that should have blocked the transporter. The grappler was not safe considering the ice coating on the shuttle hull, but they kept trying which looked very risky even compared to the "unsafe" transporter. They should have beamed out at least Travis who was injured.

"Fortunate Son": Beam-out of the Nausicaan hostage from the E.C.S. Fortunate. This would have resolved the conflict much easier.

"Detained": Rescue of Archer and Mayweather from the Tandaran prison. This should have been possible, since Reed managed to beam down with ease, and it would have been less risky than letting Tucker land with the shuttle to retrieve them. The Suliban prisoners were left to themselves and used their own shuttles anyway. The only half-way reasonable explanation is that Enterprise had to pull back to a higher orbit when Trip attacked the prison with the shuttle.

"Minefield": Rescue of Reed whose leg had been penetrated by the mine's tentacle. This would have set off the detonation. On the other hand, it should have been possible to beam Archer and Reed aboard immediately after the explosion, instead of trying to "fish" them from space, which was awfully unrealistic. Well, the transporter may have been offline after the detonation of the first mine.

"Marauders": Using the transporter against the Klingon marauders. At some point, it must have been advantageous to beam down a security squad to surprise the Klingons, rather than engaging in possibly lethal hand-to-hand combat with them. But fortune favors the fools. The Klingons were stupid enough to fall for the crude tricks prepared to overpower them.

"The Communicator": Rescue of Archer and Reed who were facing their execution. There was absolutely no reason not to use the transporter, especially since the low technology on the planet wouldn't have provided any counter-measures.

"Regeneration": Rescue of the Tarkaleans from their damaged vessel. Although time was pressing because of the "minimal life support" on the ship and because Enterprise needed to continue pursuit of the Borgified transport, nobody considered to use the transporter.

"The Xindi": Rescue of Archer, Tucker and the Xindi. Reed and the MACO major never thought of using the transporter either to beam up the hostages or to beam down the rescue team.

"Observer Effect": It would have been easier to beam out Hoshi and Trip from the quarantine area than going there in spacesuits, possible losing precious time to save them. Well, unless the quarantine area is shielded against the transporter which was not hinted at, though.

Summarizing, considering that it would have been better to use the "unsafe" transporter instead of letting someone die, there are a few cases of careless writing. Fortunately, the tendency is not yet strong enough to allow the interpretation that the producers or episode authors intentionally "forgot" the transporter out of a strange feeling of remorse because they introduced the technology prematurely.

Credits

Thanks to Keith Ichinaga for the suggestion to care about shuttle crashes, to Graham Kennedy for reminding me of the crash in "Desert Crossing" and the repair station in "Dead Stop", to Christian for a correction about "Dawn", to Jason Bullock for another necessary correction, to Mark Johnson for another transporter use and to Tim Smith for trying to find rationales for the non-use of the transporter.

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	Last modified: 18.09.07
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