10 Amazing Futuristic Technologies Utterly Wasted In Their Own Movies

6. Star Trek (2009) €“ Scotty€™s Beaming Formula

ScottyThe Technology In J.J Abrams€™ reboot of the Stark Trek universe, it is established at film opening that you cannot beam up a moving object or beam onto an object which is moving. Tragically, this leads to the death of Spock€™s mother during the destruction of Vulcan when a ridge collapses beneath her before the transporter can work. Yet with the help/cheat of Spock Prime€™s formula, Captain Kirk figures out a way to get back on board a moving Enterprise with Scotty in tow. This beaming allows for later use to save moving individuals on Into Darkness. What They Should Have Done With It If you€™re able to beam matter everywhere and anywhere, then what€™s the point of conventional warfare? All ships are capable of firing torpedoes but because they take a while to get to their destination, there is always the possibility that the target might have moved or dodged the onslaught. Yet if you were to just beam the torpedoes aboard, then surely you could do a whole lot more damage in a whole lot less time. For that matter, why do you even need ships anymore? When Kirk and Scotty were beamed aboard the Enterprise, the Enterprise was travelling at warp in the other direction. Now, bear in mind it doesn€™t take much to travel anywhere by warp at all €“ they made it to Vulcan in the original and to John Harrison€™s far-off hiding space in the sequel incredibly quickly. I€™m sure that where the Enterprise got to before it marooned Kirk was a hell of a distance away €“ after all, Kirk was on that planet for quite a long time while the ship was warping in the other direction €“ and in that space there were lots of habitable planets you could just beam to akin to a transport system€™s stations. Hell, even if there weren€™t, they could travel via pods that only have to sustain life inside while being teleported about. As long as you teleported into a wide-open space you€™d have no problem at all, and you could save Starfleet a hell of a lot of money on space-faring.
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Durham University graduate and qualified sports journalist. Very good at sitting down and watching things. Can multi-task this with playing computer games. Football Manager addict who has taken Shrewsbury Town to the summit of the Premier League. You can follow me at @Ed_OwenUK, if you like ramblings about Newcastle United and A Place in the Sun. If you don't, I don't know what I can do for you.