MovieChat Forums > Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) Discussion > Always don't get this part... after the ...

Always don't get this part... after the transporter accident...


STTMP - is the Biggest and Best of all the Star Trek movies period. The part that always bothers is after a terrible transporter accident, of course the next passenger would be wary and may refuse to get on the pad.

This is of course is McCoy's wonderful moment and a nod to fans (McCoy, a long time hater of the transporter from the original series), but anybody including McCoy would refuse to transport which in my opinion always detracts from this. Is it even funnier and more dangerous that it is McCoy after the accident?

Also, where do you stand on the long standing debate philosophical debate- do transporters clone/kill everyone on each transport cycle and are we all watching re-assembled facsimiles of everyone episode to episode?

reply

It’s funny how all these debates are simply because the TOS production crew wanted a cheaper and faster way to show crew members traveling to and from a planet. 😊

reply

> STTMP - is the Biggest and Best of all the Star Trek movies period

You spelled Wrath of Khan wrong.

reply

Yeah, right. TWOK ranks with the least of the movies in the franchise, filled with glaring plot holes, such as: Starfleet and their cartographers (including trained navigator Chekov) not realizing that an entire planet was missing in the Ceti Alpha system; Chekov not realizing that this system was the one in which Khan & his clan were marooned by his former captain; Scotty melodramatically bringing his wounded nephew to the Bridge instead of Sickbay (which is one of the lamest scenes in Trek history); the ear slug simply leaving Chekov instead of killing him as the creatures did to twenty of Khan’s people; Kirk not noticing that his right-hand man, Spock, had left the Bridge; etc.

reply

Well Chekov may or may not have been on the Enterprise when they first encountered him. This was in Season 1 of TOS and he certainly was not on the bridge crew - maybe on the lower decks working his way up! Walter Koenig aka Chekov joined the show in Seasons 2 and 3. So we can forgive him for not remembering...what is weird is that they didn't know Ceti Alpha V from VI. Yes a weird plot hole. Why not beam everyone up in the Genesis Cave... anyhow a really fun and entertaining movie.

reply

Remember, Khan plainly recognized Chekov on the planet at the beginning of TWOK, which means he must've seen Chekov on the Enterprise in "Space Seed," even though it's not shown in the episode.

But, let's assume Chekov wasn’t aboard the Enterprise during the 1st Season, he would have certainly gotten word from the rest of the crew, in particular from his Helmsman buddy Sulu. After all, it's not like the encounter with the genetically-advanced Khan & his people was a routine day on the Enterprise.

TWOK has its highlights, no doubt (e.g. the Genesis Project), but it's my least favorite of the franchise.

reply

Great points about Chekov! Well Khan, knows Chekov so he apparently met him or studied the crew manifest in sickbay so Chekov was onboard somehow.

If TWOK is your least favorite...which do you consider the best????

I consider TWOK a very close #2 overall. TMP is a cerebral and epic Trek and the best in my books.
Consider Wrath of Khan had:
A sexy female Vulcan! Kirstie Alley (What nerd did not fall in love with her!)
Amazing film score by James Horner
One of the first every CGI sequences with Genesis

reply

> Yeah, right. TWOK ranks with the least of the movies in the franchise

Maybe in your fantasies but Khan consistently ranks at the top of every Best Trek list and TMP is always lower.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/g2654/every-star-trek-movie-ranked

https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/star-trek-movies-ranked-from-worst-to-best

https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/best-star-trek-movies-ranked

https://screenrant.com/star-trek-movies-ranked-worst-best

reply

Okay, I can understand how the system copies physical matter, but what about memories?

How would it copy those?

reply

Not copies. Disassembles and reassembles.

reply

I guess if you can imagine some part of your brain having cells in a certain formation equating to a hard disk's memory; and memories themselves being equivalent to rows of binary 0s and 1s, that our mind's "software" reassembles whenever we want to access them. Then, if you can buy the transporter given "science" of being able to dissemble then reassemble our physical structure exactly at a molecular level, it still works out as believable that our memories could be preserved.

reply

They live in time when matter and energy are interchangeable...INTERESTED?

reply

Not sure if you meant to reply to the OP...

reply

I am the original poster. I found the reference...Picard says humans have discovered that matter and energy are interchangeable - he is explaining to Dr. Moriarty in Elementary My Dear Data episode.

reply

Oh right! Sorry didn't realise...

But did you mean to reply to me then? I was giving a suggestion specifically on how memories could be reassembled to the poster above me...

reply

A Star Trek transporter will never exist, so thankfully I don't have to weight in on this debate. I remember as a teen reading a Star Trek book titled "Spock Must Die" based on this debate. Cannot remember anything about it except the cover was red.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/718M0yYL19L._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg

reply