Trek and the old "I'm pointing a gun at your dudes"

sunnyside · Post by **sunnyside** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:12 pm

It's a staple of modern writing when even a smattering of action/adventure is involved. So of course it shows up in Trek.

However in Trek there are transporters that in previous episodes have demonstrated

1. They are fast enough "grabbing" someone that they could even snatch a weapon partway through it's firing procedure (that one time with Data). More than fast enough to grab someone before they could fire.

2. They seem to "grab" someone instantly such that you can shoot through all the glitter and sparkle and the shot will just go through. (A couple times we've seen this for dramatic effect).

Now if there are anti teleport fields up, or you're far away, or you're being threatened on some other guys ship OK. But I'm pretty sure they've used it a whole lot beyond that. (The Jem'Hadar kid on DS9 from a recent episode. For example).

Post by **Mikey** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 5:57 pm

Good question. My guess is that Starfleet is so inundated with "white hat syndrome" that there is a standing protocol to avoid any nominally risky action when lives are at stake.

sunnyside · Post by **sunnyside** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 8:05 pm

Mikey wrote:Good question. My guess is that Starfleet is so inundated with "white hat syndrome" that there is a standing protocol to avoid any nominally risky action when lives are at stake.

White hat syndrome?

Blackstar the Chakat · Thu Feb 28, 2008 8:22 pm

sunnyside wrote:
Mikey wrote:Good question. My guess is that Starfleet is so inundated with "white hat syndrome" that there is a standing protocol to avoid any nominally risky action when lives are at stake.
White hat syndrome?

Good guys where white hats.

Post by **Graham Kennedy** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 8:36 pm

We have also seen people killed when they were shot whilst beaming out; i think Major Hayes went out that way.

I suspect that it's a matter of how far into the transport cycle you are when you get hit; there's probably a short window where if you get hit early enough you die and/or can fire yourself. A second or two later and you can't. So not something you want to risk in a hostage type situation.

mwhittington · Post by **mwhittington** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 3:05 am

They've also shown they were able to beam up and deactivate a weapon that had been discharged, as in the episode where Data was stolen/kidnapped by that intergalactic collector and put on display as one of his nick-nacks. Data took that weapon from him after he used it on his girlfriend, then was in the process of firing the weapon when O'Brian beamed him up and deactivated the weapon while he was still in the buffers.