Communicator (Star Trek)
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Communicators are devices in the Star Trek fictional universe which are used for voice communication, either directly between two people with communicators, or via a ship's communication system.
Although many people assume that current mobile phone technology has reached or even surpassed that in the Star Trek communicator, especially the ones that appeared in the original series (TOS), the communicator in the Star Trek universe is vastly more advanced because it allowed crew members to contact starships in orbit, without any artificial satellite to relay the signal. Communicators use subspace transmissions that do not conform to normal rules of physics and allow for signals to bypass EM interference, as well as provide nearly instantaneous communication at distances that regular transmissions would require more time to traverse.
In the original series, communicators were introduced primarily as a plot device to strand characters in challenging situations by malfunctioning, being lost or stolen, or out of range. This was needed because the "transporter", introduced to eliminate landing the ship each episode (a prohibitively expensive special effect at the time), would otherwise allow characters to beam back up at the first sign of trouble, ending the storyline prematurely.[1]
[edit] Development of communicators
Throughout Star Trek: Enterprise and TOS, communication on-ship is done via communicator panels on desks and walls, and sometimes through the use of videophones. When on away missions, the crew carry hand-held communicators which 'flip open,' resembling small mobile phones in general appearance and function. The top flip-up part contained a transceiver antenna and the bottom, hand-held portion contained user controls, speaker and microphone.
In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, wrist-worn communicators are used, and were still in use by some Starfleet installations and vessels by the time of The Wrath of Khan. But the traditional hand held communicator with a flip top staged a comeback in the later films based on the original series. The reason for the switch back to the flip-top units has not been explained on screen. While non-canon, the Mister Scott's Guide to the Enterprise offered the explanation that the wrist worn model of communicator was found to have been prone to failure after a series of minor impacts, and Starfleet decided to discontinue use of such communicators.
In Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) and later series, the crew wear communicator badges (combadges), small devices in the shape of the Starfleet insignia and typically worn on a user's left breast, which are activated with a light tap. There have been two versions of the combadge. The original badge was used throughout the TNG series and in the first two seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9). The second was used in later seasons of DS9, Star Trek: Voyager, and the TNG films. The combadge was in use since at least the time of the Enterprise-C - Lt. Richard Castillo is shown using his combadge at one point in the episode Yesterday's Enterprise.
In Starfleet vessels and installations, communication was also accomplished through telling the computer to initiate communications with another person. While wall and desk panels are still available for use when necessary, with the advent of the communicator pins, officers and crew primarily consider them a secondary system. Viewscreens were used for visual communications.
[edit] Relation to current technology
Dr. Martin Cooper, inventor of the modern cell phone, directly credits the ST:TOS communicator as his inspiration for the invention. Although the first "brick" portable phones were much larger, modern flip phones strongly resemble the original series communicator.[2]
Though no real-world equivalent to subspace communication has been conceived or even thought possible, many other aspects of Starfleet communications technology are commonplace -- locator technology, for example (with such examples as GPS, LoJack, RFID, and old-fashioned radio direction finder functionality).
[edit] External link
- Communicator article at Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki.
- ^ "The Making of Star Trek", Roddenbery, G., and Whitfield, S.E., Ballentine, 1968
- ^ http://www.editinternational.com/index.php?pag=stories.php?cat=3f550e67b9540
