There are any number of original series episodes where transporters are, arguably, nullified because the Enterprise is somewhere else, it's in range but has to keep shields up, or the people on the Enterprise can't find our heroes on the ground to communicate with them. However, that strikes me as less a matter of specifically nullifying the transporter and more as a way of keeping the Enterprise from providing any aid at all (frex, beaming down a bunch of armed redshirts), thereby keeping the focus on how Kirk is going to fix everything on the end.
However, for the most part, the transporter remains entirely functional but irrelevant to the situation. Glancing over a list of first season episodes, the vast majority of them take place on board ship (for example, Man Trap, Charlie X, Naked Time, Corbomite Maneuver, Balance of Terror, Space Seed) or on a planet where there's a problem which can't be solved by running away (frex, This Side of Paradise, Devil in the Dark, The Alternative Factor). The transporter doesn't work in Enemy Within, but leaving people on a fast-becoming-uninhabitable planetside is a side issue to add tension to the main issue of solving the "transporter splits people into good and evil halves" problem.
So, as you say, the stories aren't about personal danger. The problems are threats to the ship, political and diplomatic stability, populations outside the ship, and so on.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-09-05 01:05 pm (UTC)However, for the most part, the transporter remains entirely functional but irrelevant to the situation. Glancing over a list of first season episodes, the vast majority of them take place on board ship (for example, Man Trap, Charlie X, Naked Time, Corbomite Maneuver, Balance of Terror, Space Seed) or on a planet where there's a problem which can't be solved by running away (frex, This Side of Paradise, Devil in the Dark, The Alternative Factor). The transporter doesn't work in Enemy Within, but leaving people on a fast-becoming-uninhabitable planetside is a side issue to add tension to the main issue of solving the "transporter splits people into good and evil halves" problem.
So, as you say, the stories aren't about personal danger. The problems are threats to the ship, political and diplomatic stability, populations outside the ship, and so on.