Atoz 77
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Post by Atoz 77 on Sept 14, 2009 7:22:17 GMT -6
A transporter malfunction splits Kirk into two people -- one which has all his "positive" traits of kindness and compassion, and another which has all his "negative" traits, aggression and impulsiveness.
As Spock said, this was an interesting lesson in the conflicts which go on within all of us all the time, although we don't usually see them so graphically. The drawback of course is that it violates the First Law of Thermodynamics, also known as the Law of Conservation of Energy. Presumably the transporter converts matter into energy, beams it to the pad, and converts it back to matter. But where does the matter to create the extra Kirk come from? The only possible source is the ship's engines. But changing that much energy into matter must have been a significant drain, and surely it showed up in Engineering somewhere. Is it possible this was the reason they had so much trouble repairing the transporters?
Another puzzling thing is that Sulu and his away team are trapped on the planet as the temperature plunges to below zero. Now, Scott did mention that they had beamed down portable heaters, but the duplication process somehow rendered them inoperative. The question remains Why did they not use the shuttlecraft?
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Star Cat
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Post by Star Cat on Sept 14, 2009 9:44:33 GMT -6
Maybe they didn't have any suttlecrafts, which could cope at the time, the shuttlecrafts may not of had enough power, or they may have had insuficiant pilots. I think it could be the reason why they had so much trouble repairing them.
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Luke
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Post by Luke on Sept 15, 2009 10:01:22 GMT -6
*But where does the matter to create the extra Kirk come from?*
That did seem a little strange. It would have had to come from the power reserves. Maybe thats why there wasnt fuel available for the shuttlecraft!
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Atoz 77
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Post by Atoz 77 on Sept 18, 2009 7:40:38 GMT -6
That's a good idea. If the shuttlecraft were charged from the ship's power reserves, that might be why they weren't used.
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Atoz 77
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Post by Atoz 77 on Sept 28, 2009 7:20:05 GMT -6
This is one of those episodes which doesn't make much sense if taken literally (unless you believe in mind/body dualism), but it makes enough metaphorical sense to make up for it. The brain is made up of a complex interactive network of synapses. How could a transporter malfunction sort through these synapses and separate out the ones for "negative" thoughts and "positive" thoughts? But that's not really the point. The "positive" Kirk had the logic, but he didn't have the ability to make firm decisions. The "negative" Kirk could make decisions, they were just bad ones.
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Post by andrewlee on Sept 28, 2009 9:00:01 GMT -6
Good point Atoz. I wonder how Kirk could be so selectively split like this. It does seem far fetched, but does make a good story not considering unlikeness of this happening.
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JADIS
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Post by JADIS on Mar 17, 2011 22:53:56 GMT -6
As I watched this I thought about the shuttle craft issue too...and then it got me thinking about transporters; did the original Enterprise only have 1 transporter room? I can't remember if more than one was ever mentioned in other episodes.
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Atoz 77
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Post by Atoz 77 on Mar 18, 2011 7:30:34 GMT -6
They only refer to "the transporter room", but if you pay attention from one episode to the next to the layout of the room (where the entrance is in relation to the corridor outside for example), you notice that it's not always in the same. So there must be more than one.
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JADIS
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Post by JADIS on Mar 22, 2011 19:18:23 GMT -6
I'm watching season 1 right now and am going to make a conscious decision to listen to any mention of the transporter room...and check out the layout too, because if there was another one then why didn't they use that one to beam up the landing party? Unless the "mineral" substance somehow affected all of them.
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Arkroyal
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Post by Arkroyal on Mar 31, 2011 20:13:10 GMT -6
Hmm, that's a good point. Potentially it did affect all of them because they beamed stuff up in all of them to save time?
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