Apart from cloning and philosophical issues with the Transporter, there is one little device in there that is never used to it's full potential. The Heisenberg Compensator! A device, that switches off the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle locally. But the Uncertainty Principle not only disallows the re-creation of a particle with the exact same location and momentum as before (which is why it has to be switched off for the Transporter and Replicators to work). It also is the one natural law that allows tunneling and thereby molecular binding and things like nuclear fusion and so on. So every civilization that has the capability of beaming has also a device that would not only be a perfect disintegrator weapon, but would also be able to switch off stars. We know that the compensation effect can be projected (otherwise beaming to the surface of some planet wouldn't be feasible). So why not project it into the core of a star? Fusion stops immediately. The star starts to collapse. And when you switch the compensation off and fusion is possible again, the core density of the star has increased so far that the sudden flash fusion happening everywhere at once turns the star into a Nova. In other words: the innocent transporter is really a star-system destroying super-weapon! The Death Star has nothing on that! It can only destroy planets. The Enterprise can destroy entire suns and an entire planetary system at once!

... oh, and with the 'infinite reach trans-warp beaming' they don't even have to be in the system they destroy. The Federation can just switch off any star they don't like and obliterate entire civilizations without them having any possibility to fight back.

I'm sure there's some reason it wouldn't work. I mean, there must be a reason we never saw anyone beam down onto the surface of a sun, did we?

Well, beaming down onto a sun might hurt a bit.

But the real reason why the Heisenberg Compensator is never used as super weapon is of course the same as with all other inconsistencies: it's a plot device that wasn't fully thought through at the time it was introduced. It was introduced on the fly when fans complained that beaming would be impossible because of the Uncertainty Principle. I think Roddenberry wasn't aware at the time that such a device would also make an unstoppable super-weapon.

I know, I was just making a joke. Well, half-joke. I also was trying to suggest that given how often transporters are prevented from working becuase of some rocks or weird science storms, it's likely that reaching the core of a star with a transporter would be out of the question.

But looking at the Trek wiki entry now (I never really questioned how the compensators worked before), it says that "The compensator worked around the problems caused by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, allowing the transporter sensors to compensate for their inability to determine both the position and momentum of the target particles to the same degree of accuracy."

So it doesn't "switch off" the Uncertainty Principle, but "works around it", sort of like Warp drive working around the speed of light limit, rather than negating it. No, I don't know how that would work in this case (apparently "When asked by Time magazine in 1994, "How do the Heisenberg compensators work?" Michael Okuda replied, "They work just fine, thank you."), but it would mean that your super weapon plan wouldn't work.

Maybe we'd better not question this any further, or someone will come up with another Compensator, which will only introduce even more questions and a possible way to turn planets into ham sandwiches :D Apparently that's what happens when fans dig to deep.

Something that's bothering me about Star Trek... is how does the holodeck system deal with bodily fluids?

You know, things like; spit, vapour, sperm/semen, blood, urine etc.

I can get past the technical aspect of running a system that's turning light into matter (which both are proven to be connected in reality, derived from Einstein’s equation energy = mass x C²), however, for a long time now I just can't get my head around this... F.ex. In several episodes we're introduced to the condition known as "Holodeck obsession" or something. Like Ltd. Barcleys condition, or during pan-far with Vulcans if there's no mate, or getting constantly bloody like Worf... or just random fun / medical / educational use.

Imagine you bleed on a table or a weapon - does it just fall on the floor for some cleaning robots/lazers to clean up? (if the safety is turned off, of course!).

What happens if you sleep on the holodeck and you dream that you either are peeing, or getting scared half to death that you actually shit yourself? Also: Can't imagine that running out the holodeck every single time you need a toilet would be especially efficient use of ones time.

Or imagine you had sex with a character on the holodeck - does this character carry the sperm around until the system turns off, and it just splats on the floor? I mean, for a woman this has to be the best way to safe sex ;-)

The mind just loves to over-think on stuff XD

EDIT: It's mass not matter...

I never understood why they couldn't replicate anything ie: latinum. If you can transport it, the replicator is the same tech basically. And don't get me started with the holodeck.

Hyperinflation?

Probably there is inbuilt advanced DRM into the replicators. Something like Denuvo of the 24th century.

I never noticed that before. Although I guess it fits with Riker's tendency to turn a chair around, then sit.

The main reason is that the sonic screwdriver doesn't do wood.

Latinum is liquid platinum in a gold shell, which is too hard to replicate, is the handwave.