This question is for fans of The Original Series of Star Trek. On the bridge of the Enterprise, what (supposedly) is the blue-lighted device Spock is looking into? Also, what is that pulsing quacking noise heard in many episodes, a rubber duck? Last, why are two people needed to operate the transporter? If the TV show does not explain, do any books try and explain like they attempt to explain the logic to star dates?
Spock’s device is a “sensor hood” (which I think is from one of the non-canon books). It’s a readout/display of incoming sensor data. The pulsing quacking I always took to represent sensors in action, the furturistic equivalent of sonar pulses. Two people are required to operate the transporter because the transporter techs have a hell of a union.
I agree that the device at the science/library computer console served to display incoming sensor data, presumably in a format that would allow the the officer on duty (usually Spock or Chekov) to view it without distraction. As for the dual operators at the transporter, you’re wrong about the union; typically, in the early series, it was Spock and Scott there, and the station was not manned all the time anyway. The impression I got was that, in the early days of TOS, the transporter was a complex enough operation that 4 hands were needed.
I recall plenty of instances of the transporter console being operated by one person (the most obvious example: Kirk beams up Spock in “This Side Of Paradise”; there is nobody else on board to assist).
I agree with the answers given so far. I’d add that, by the time of DS9, transporter technology had advanced to the point where the machine could be set to work automatically, or when signaled by communicator (done frequently when people were beaming to and from Runabouts).
Correct; in the days of TOS, they hadn’t yet invented the Plot Contrivance Modulator, which allowed them to shift from Stories where We Take Their Toys Away (“what will we do without our communicators/phasers/working transporters?”) to Stories where People are Immune to Their Toys (“If somebody could manage to come up with the correct phaser frequency to disable Mr. Data, I would appreciate it. You have two minutes. Go!”), not that I’m bitter.
“Maximum setting.”
“Er…Mr. Worf… wouldn’t that totally disintegrate him?”
“Captain, we are speaking of the only member of the command crew who can be reprogrammed or deactivated at will. Also, he insists on trying to expand his understanding of humanity through humor.”
Picard (after a brief pause): “Make it so, Mr. Worf.”