# Has "Star Trek" ever convicingly explained the plotholes created by the transporter and replicator? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, star-trek-paramount\ **Created:** [July 5, 2021, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-star-trek-ever-convicingly-explained-the-plotholes-created-by-the-transporter-and-replicator/945733 "2021-07-05T11:34:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-star-trek-ever-convicingly-explained-the-plotholes-created-by-the-transporter-and-replicator/945733/41 "2021-07-07T02:54:43Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > I remember that episode. You forgot how Scotty saved the day by reversing the polarity on one of the plasma conduits so the dilithium crystals woudn’t destabilize and cause the warp core to breach. - That only cuts the number of possible episodes by 32%. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-star-trek-ever-convicingly-explained-the-plotholes-created-by-the-transporter-and-replicator/945733/42 "2021-07-07T03:06:04Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > I remember that episode. You forgot how Scotty saved the day by reversing the polarity on one of the plasma conduits so the dilithium crystals woudn’t destabilize and cause the warp core to breach. I think you are confusing that with “Who Mourns For The Ultimate Computer?” where Kirk had to challenge an alien computer to a logic contest only to defeat it with a tongue twister about Romulan woodchucks. Of course, since this was in the ‘lost’ fourth season that was a mix of live action, animation, and Supermarionation with the rights inextricable divided between Paramount, Filmation, and Gerry Anderson, we’ll never again see the splendorous narrative heights of that that era. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-star-trek-ever-convicingly-explained-the-plotholes-created-by-the-transporter-and-replicator/945733/43 "2021-07-07T21:11:27Z")
Are you kiddin’ me? Like _Highlander II_ the (in)famous TSG 4th season never happened. Nope, nope, nope. ---
**Author:** ![dougrb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@dougrb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougrb)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-star-trek-ever-convicingly-explained-the-plotholes-created-by-the-transporter-and-replicator/945733/44 "2022-10-04T00:06:33Z")
This is good. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ANDqwtAd1aY/maxresdefault.jpg "Quantum Teleportation and the Star Trek Transporter") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANDqwtAd1aY) ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-star-trek-ever-convicingly-explained-the-plotholes-created-by-the-transporter-and-replicator/945733/45 "2022-10-04T15:30:23Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > …a major plot element in the many episodes where a transporter accident causes things to go wrong. But they… cause major plotholes and inconsistencies. I noticed that on _The Orville_ (Seth MacFarlane’s PleasePleasePleaseCanIDoMyOwnStarTrek?), they’re always using shuttlecraft. Then it hit me: in this future, nobody ever invented a transporter. Avoiding a lot of questions and dodgy physics… But they still have a holodeck, which someone claimed would be “Mankind’s Last Invention.” ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-star-trek-ever-convicingly-explained-the-plotholes-created-by-the-transporter-and-replicator/945733/46 "2022-10-04T16:30:59Z")
One plot hole that always bothered me was how they didn’t use the transporter for medical purposes. All you have to do is break someone down, then rebuild them free of disease. It’d be like the movie elysium, just rebuild them on a chemical level w/o the disease. ---
**Author:** ![ambushed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3bc359/32.png) [@ambushed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ambushed)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-star-trek-ever-convicingly-explained-the-plotholes-created-by-the-transporter-and-replicator/945733/47 "2022-10-04T16:44:53Z")
Forget the tech details, few concepts could be more impossible to implement than teleportation. A good old thought experiment should demonstrate why… Place transmission platform at the bottom of a mountain. Place the receiver platform at the top. After the first load of enough water to power the two devices has been sent skyward, let it all fall back down on the transmit station. Turn the external transmit power off and marvel at your perpetual motion machine! ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-star-trek-ever-convicingly-explained-the-plotholes-created-by-the-transporter-and-replicator/945733/48 "2022-10-04T17:14:00Z")
I’m only an amateur physicist, but as I understand it there’s no violation of the law of thermodynamics here. Gravity acts on electromagnetic waves (that’s what makes gravitational lensing possible), so I would think that if you convert the water at the bottom into electromagnetic waves and send those upwards to the top of the mountain for conversion back into matter, then the waves will, once they reach the top of the mountain, be less energetic than before. The loss is small compared to the overall amount of energy involved, because we’re talking about a complete conversion of mass into energy and vice versa, but it corresponds to the difference in potential energy between the top and the bottom of the mountain. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-star-trek-ever-convicingly-explained-the-plotholes-created-by-the-transporter-and-replicator/945733/49 "2022-10-04T18:03:04Z")
> [@ambushed](#): > > A good old thought experiment should demonstrate why… Seriously, that’s no argument. The process of teleporting the water uphill takes more power than the energy taken from the waterfall turbine. Why would it not? Star Trek powers the transporters from the main power supply. Niven-teleporters use external power. They aren’t energy-free. The benefit of transporters isn’t that they take no power, but that they are near-instantaneous. Now, this is a perfect reason why stable wormholes can’t exist, unless both ends are at the same gravitational potential. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-star-trek-ever-convicingly-explained-the-plotholes-created-by-the-transporter-and-replicator/945733/50 "2022-10-04T18:10:53Z")
I believe they did something similar with the transporters to reverse Dr Pulaski’s advanced aging in TNG’s “Unnatural Selection” and in “Rascals” to “age” four crewmembers who had been “de-aged” in a transporter mishap. Of course the ramifications of both these incidents are completely ignored after these episodes. The first episode mentioned here implies the transporters can reverse the aging process and everyone in the Federation could live for ever ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-star-trek-ever-convicingly-explained-the-plotholes-created-by-the-transporter-and-replicator/945733/51 "2022-10-04T21:27:31Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > Of course the ramifications of both these incidents are completely ignored after these episodes. That’s true of pretty much everything done technologically in every Star Trek episode ever. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-star-trek-ever-convicingly-explained-the-plotholes-created-by-the-transporter-and-replicator/945733.md?page=2)