Cant wait for the page where its just him in borg outfit doing the same job.
They have him running on his own network transponder so the other borg don’t have to hear his thoughts
“My designation is one of one. Sigh.”
Spoiler for a later strip
The Borg don’t want him
I get the joke, and ha ha.
However: it’s been a long time since I’ve watched through TNG, but in TOS operating a transporter was a bit of an art, requiring skill. Like piloting the ship. It wasn’t a “push a button” exercise; it was reading meters, adjusting variables, acquiring locks… and frequently, something would interfere that required real work on the transporter operator which could result in loss of the transported persons. You wanted a skilled transporter operator if you were the one being transported. I don’t recall it having changed much by TNG; transporting was skilled labor, and experience counted. It wasn’t a fully automated “push a button” operation.
Not always, but often it was a senior engineer operating the transporter when bridge crew were being transported, especially in hostile situations.
I can appreciate the premise of this series; they’re funny and creative. When it gets to this level, the dissonance distracts me from the humor :shrug:.
Edit: no, really. Like, operating a transporter was always portrayed a little like playing a musical instrument. It makes less sense than Picard being able to raise shields or set alert levels from his chair with one of his buttons, than having to tell someone to “go to red alert.” Why didn’t Picard have an “evasive maneuvers” button? Transporting has to be at least as complicated as targeting phasers or torpedoes, right?
It’s much the same in TNG, there are lists of scenes with transporter difficulties, notably the one where Riker gets framed for murder.
Why didn’t Picard have an “evasive maneuvers” button?
My parents recently purchased a new Volva XC40. It has lane detention when on cruise control or highways which is nice of you happen to drift lanes because it’ll put some resistance on the steering wheel. Where it is not helpful is when there’s a lane merge from an on ramp or “left lane ends” and it detects the hashes and you need to push through it…or if a semi sways/changes lanes without seeing you and you genuinely have to fight the wheel not to get sideswiped.
Now imagine you’re at the helm during battle, piloting to avoid fire or ship debris and Picard pushed the button on his arm rest for Evasive Maneuvers or Attack Pattern Sierra-2.
But in an emergency, him being able to stab that button would save 2-4 seconds, which could save the ship. It sends the ship into a series of maneuvers, and the pilot takes over as soon as he can.
Anyway, I’m just saying, if transporting things could be automated to a single button push, there are a ton of other things that could be, too.
I think with the transporting, there are elements of automation that can be done in perfect conditions, but if the shields were up, the infinite forms of interference, or on-the-fly adjustments a computer can’t do
