Why Did Scotty Not Go Insane?

Question

On the question about the transporters in Star Trek on whether the original person dies in the transporter, I provided this answer based on the text of the Writer's Guide for the series Star Trek: The Next Generation. Much of the material in the Writer's Guide and Writer's Technical Manual from the series was later published as a technical guide to the Enterprise (NCC-1701-D).

One point I reference is that the episode Realm of Fear shows us the transport process from the point of view of a person being transported, in this case, Lt. Barclay. During the entire process, Barclay stays conscious and sees other people trapped in the pattern buffer. These people in the buffer approach Barclay, again showing that someone in the beaming process is aware and able to think and act.

In the episode Relics the crew of the Enterprise (1701-D) rescues Scotty after he has been trapped in a pattern buffer for 75 years. From what we see in Realm of Fear, people are conscious during that process, meaning Scotty was in a buffer, with nothing to do, and nobody to talk to for 75 years.

(While Scotty had also placed another person in the pattern buffer, he wasn't aware if that person survived or not, indicating there was either no interaction or that Scotty had no way to be aware when that person was no longer conscious.)

Seventy five years is a long time to be alone and with no other human interaction.

How did he survive this without losing his sanity or showing other serious ill effects mentally?

Answer 1

Another explanation is that Scotty (being a genius engineer!) knew this would happen and modified the transporter so he would not be concious until freed. He did not anticipate for himself to be in there for 75 years, but he expected it to be a while (I think at least days, if not even weeks).

Answer 2

While within the pattern buffer, time is not perceived. Barclay was experiencing the glowy part when dematerializing/rematerializing. Since Scotty was fully within the pattern buffer the entire time, he did not perceive any passage of time.

I give you ENT 2x10, Vanishing Point, as a reference. Hoshi was trapped within the pattern buffer for about 8.3 seconds, and according to Malcom, her consciousness was only active for final couple of seconds while it was being fixed. And at neither end of the transport was her experience interrupted significantly enough to suspect something went wrong while being put in/taken out of the pattern buffer, which explains why Barclay experienced one continuous event.

Answer 3

Another factor to keep in mind: Scotty had rigged the transporter to repeatedly cycle his pattern through the buffer, to keep his pattern intact - i.e unchanged - while he was suspended in transport. The state of his mind as a brain-state was part of that pattern. Therefore the transporter would have continually reset his mind to its state from the moment transport began. He would have been unable to perceive the passage of time because his thought processes would have been unable to progress.

Answer 4

It seems highly likely that Scotty activated the transporter's 'Neural Paralyzer Control'. This would have the effect of rendering him unconscious during the transport process and preventing him from going doolally while waiting around to get untransported.

Answer 5

The most likely cause I can think of is that while the transport process seems contiguous from the perspective of the person being transported, it is very likely that during at least one stage of the transport process the person is suspended and unaware. It is most probably this stage that Scotty locked the transporter system in when he attempted to save himself in Relics.

Answer 6

In addition to the other answers, keep in mind that the transporter used on the Jenolen is at least 75 years older than the one on the Enterprise. Perhaps remaining conscious during transport is an improvement that was made at some point between the two time periods.

We know from Scotty's confusion when he comes out of the transporter that he has no idea how much time has passed. He believes that Kirk may pulled the Enterprise out of mothballs to rescue him. This alone should indicate that Scotty wasn't aware of the passage of time while trapped in the buffer.

Answer 7

I see two possible explanations: One possible explanation is that what we see in Realm of Fear is exaggerated or changed for dramatic effect in the episode and a human does in fact not experience the transportation process in the way Barclay did. Note that they actually stated that his experience differs from normal beams due to the special conditions the transporter system was exposed to. This allows room to interpret the fact that he seems concious to be one of the side effects.

Answer 8

Perhaps Mr. Scott just has amazing mental constitution. After all that time, he still remembered the English language -- assuming he was in fact conscious, which I doubt.

Answer 9

I don't know if he went insane as such, but he was a bit mixed up. He knew Kirk had been lost on the Enterprise B,he'd been there with Chekov, but said " I bet it was Jim Kirk himself who got the old girl outta mothballs to rescue me!" Realistically, he'd have known that was impossible, wouldn't he?

Answer 10

Let’s say he was conscious. There would be no physical changes, such as chemical imbalance. Therefore, he would always have the same state of mind. I’m surprised that he didn’t invent a ton of stuff in theory.

Answer 11

I think there is a lot of evidence that in real life our perception of time (and in fact all perception) is based on electrochemical processes. How those processes proceed if one is in a pattern buffer is anyone's guess - how Scotty would have been conscious as a pattern even is impossible to understand.

But it is doubtful that he would have perceived the years passing in the pattern buffer as he would have had he been simply imprisoned for all those years in a physical body.