Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Prodigy Episode 7 – “First Con-tact”.
Although it’s a Star Trek technology in widespread use, Star Trek: Prodigy brought back Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy’s (DeForest Kelley) fear of the transporter. Now that the USS Protostar has activated its Proto Engine, the fastest Starfleet ship warped over 4,000 lightyears away from the Delta Quadrant and into the Gamma Quadrant, the home of the Dominion from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. However, the young alien teenagers who are the Protostar’s new crew are still learning about the starship’s technology and they just discovered the transporter in Star Trek: Prodigy episode 7, “First Con-tact.”
The transporter is one of Star Trek’s signature pieces of technology but in the real world, it was invented out of practical necessity. The transporter was a quick and easy way to show Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and his crew beaming from the Enterprise onto a planet that required minimal visual effects. When Star Trek: The Original Series was first being produced in the 1960s, it was too cost-prohibitive to show the Starship Enterprise landing on a planet every week. Of course, Star Trek is now unimaginable without the transporter and the phrase “beam me up” is part of pop culture’s lexicon. In Star Trek canon, the transporter was invented in the 22nd century and it was still relatively new technology in Star Trek: Enterprise. Several crew members of the USS Enterprise NX-01 like Ensign Hoshi Sato (Linda Park) were wary of using the transporters and placing their bodies through its matter-energy conversion.
However, no one in Star Trek was more infamously terrified of the transporter than Dr. Leonard McCoy, and Star Trek: Prodigy echoed Bones’ fear when the crew of the Protostar finally learned the starship has a transporter. At first, Dal R’El (Brett Gray), Gwyn (Ella Purnell), and the other kids played games with the transporter, like using it to teleport pieces of pie around the Protostar. Once they understood the matter-energy conversion science behind the transporter, the teens finally decided to test it on living creatures. They chose Murf (Dee Bradley Baker) as their guinea pig since the adorable gelatinous alien is “indestructible.” But after the Protostar made contact with a Ferengi ship captained by Dal’s former mentor, Daimon Nandi (Grey Griffin), the young heroes beamed over. It was Jankom Pog (Jason Mantzoukas) who worried like Dr. McCoy when he checked himself over and hoped, “Please let everything be in the right place!”
By Star Trek’s 24th century, fearing the transporter is generally uncommon since it was long since proven safe to use. But Bones McCoy’s fears were more pertinent during his 23rd-century era because all manner of horrifying transporter accidents happened in Star Trek: TOS, like a malfunction creating an evil duplicate of Captain Kirk in the TOS episode, “The Enemy Within.” In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Dr. McCoy refused to use the transporter and he had good reason to be afraid since an accident had just killed the Vulcan Commander Sonak (Jon Rashad Kamal). And when Admiral McCoy visited the USS Enterprise-D in Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s pilot, “Encounter at Farpoint,” he still hated the transporter and preferred to use shuttles.
Besides Bones, transporter phobia afflicted Lt. Barclay (Dwight Shultz) on TNG and he had to seek treatment from Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis). But there are also many instances of the transporter saving lives. In Star Trek: Discovery season 4, episode 6, “Stormy Weather,” the entire crew of the USS Discovery was safely stored in the transporter’s pattern buffer while Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Zora (Anabelle Wallis) piloted the starship out of a dangerous subspace rift. There’s really little reason to be apprehensive about using the transporter in Star Trek: Prodigy’s 24th century and now that they’re aware of beaming, it may mean the Protostar can stop landing on planets. Meanwhile, Jankom Pog worrying about whether he still had all of his body parts after beaming to the Ferengi ship was a fun callback to Dr. Leonard McCoy’s biggest fear.
Star Trek: Prodigy streams Thursdays on Paramount+.
