I realized I just upvoted this before I opened the post. I see O'Brian, I press the up button.
this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2025
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I'd concocted a long-form concept wherein O'Brien's penchant for buffering was for the sake of saving everyone from some galaxy wide catastrophe. He'd use a subspace channel to remotely activate any and all transporter buffers to house all nearby people.
It was a fun thought experiment, but without any meaningful comedic payoff. Had to let that one go.
Is O’Brien is faking transporter mishaps so he can sacrifice them to the void and keep the writhing eldritch horrors from swallowing the galaxy? I want to say yes.
I've pondered an O'Brien and Ghostbusters mashup with the Ghost trap being a Transporter buffer. Not sure what to do with it either.
Like tears in the rain
Over the years I have found transporters to be the most annoying plot device in all of Star Trek. I don't think there's any situation that couldn't be solved with a transporter with some creative writing (or create so many paradoxes).
They're the Star Trek equivalent of Rian Johnson's Holdo maneuver (ramming other ships when going to hyperspace).
Fair, but let's not go dragging Star Wars' writing weaknesses into Trek just because of JJ's connection. By all means, that was the opportunity to write off Carrie Fisher's unfortunate and untimely passing.
That said, you have a solid point concerning the use of the transporter as a narrative device.