star trek online replicator

How Are The Replicators Supposed To Work On Star Trek?

Coffee, black, or Earl Grey, hot? If you're a "Star Trek"  fan, you've probably heard a character or two say these words. You might think of Captain Kathryn Janeway of "Star Trek: Voyager" and Captain Jean-Luc Picard from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and "Picard" are just big breakfast drink fans, and they are, but they're also busy leaders of working space starships. They needed a way to get their favored drinks fast. So they turn to their replicators.

Replicators are essential machines in the "Star Trek" universe. This device can reproduce food, tools, and sometimes even random viruses. Depending on the writer's imagination, it can make almost anything. In times of need, the replicator is the only thing that can feed the crew. And being so far from Federation ports and basses, replicators were their best bet in getting that one part they need to fix their warp core containment.

While the replicator has made many appearances on the shows — Janeway even took hers apart in one episode — it's remains a tool of mystery to many. It acts a lot like a transporter, because it kind of beams food. So how are these things imagined to work in the first place? Of course, this is a starship, and the explanation is very sci-fi.

It's kinda gross, really

According to the  "Star Trek" website , the reason some people see replicators as mini-transporters is because, well, it technically is one. In "Star Trek," transporters "beam" people and items to different places. They dematerialize matter and reconstitute it somewhere else. The replicator essentially acts the same way. So what matter does it work with? Comic Book  reported the not exactly appetizing news. An episode of "Star Trek: Discovery" explained the material comes from fecal matter.

Replicators cannot make new matter because physics simply doesn't allow for that. In the "Trek" universe, scientists had developed a mixture of different materials specifically for food replicators, but it was a finite resource. And so the resource-poor Federation of Planets used something humanity never runs out of: Its own waste. The episode suggests that this sacrifice doesn't come at a human cost, which means the Federation can still claim the moral high ground against their enemies.

Replicators have been in use since the 24th century in the "Trek" universe , though very little has changed around the technology. No matter how advanced, a replicator will only make food programmed into its system. Even so, it beats having to sacrifice a lot of cargo space just to bring thousands of boxes of popcorn. Replicated food will taste mostly the same as the food it mimicked and will also have the same nutritional density. However, that has never stopped intrepid starship captains from bringing the real thing.

Real-life version

Having a replicator certainly means an ability to reproduce just about anything you can think of, provided it's programmed into the machine. So it's very easy to fall into the trap of featuring it in every episode. Bleeding Cool wrote that "Star Trek" writer and producer Ron D. Moore hated the replicator, and so did most people in the writer's room.

Moore said the replicators made everything too easy. If they were stuck somewhere, a character could just replicate something to get them out of a jam. So the writers sometimes avoided using replicators altogether in their episodes.

Fine, in a narrative sense, replicators may make things too easy. But imagine if there was a real-life replicator available. Then, we'd maybe get rid of food deserts once and for all. Fortunately for us, scientists have been working on recreating replicator technology. Per SyFy , researchers at the University of California, Berkeley invented a machine that projects light onto resin to produce an object in minutes. It doesn't re-materialize matter from subatomic particles, but it sure beats waiting hours watching a 3D printer squeeze out plastic.

The technology is based on computed technology, the kind of thing used in medical 3D imaging. The scientists call their new process computed axial lithography. It's not yet fully commercially available, so until then, we're stuck watching our favorite characters eat food replicated from poop.

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Published Mar 23, 2013

Trek Class Blog: Inventing The Replicator

Inventing the Replicator by Professor Anthony Rotolo

Star Trek ’s replicator is an amazing technology concept that has fascinated us for decades. Working at the molecular level to synthesize materials, the replicator is able to instantly produce nearly any object, food or medicine on demand. It is easy to imagine how the replicator would quickly change the world. Such a device could dramatically reduce or even eliminate the cost of most products. Hunger and poverty would be stamped out worldwide, and much of the time and energy spent working for a living could be used instead for pursuits of education, exploration and the advancement of society.

Star Trek envisions the future of humanity to be one of incredible achievements made possible by evolved philosophies as well as technologies. This hopeful view of tomorrow is perhaps the reason so many have dreamed of inventing real-life versions of Star Trek tech --  from the transporter to the tricorder -- and the replicator is one of the most coveted.From a scientific perspective, aspects of the replicator are theoretically uncertain. Researchers have made slow progress working in this area, but a true breakthrough on the scale of a Star Trek replicator seems centuries away. The day when we will prepare dinner or produce complex equipment at the push of a button (or with a voice command) could be as far away as our own 24th Century.

Even if the full vision of the replicator remains beyond our capabilities, perhaps some version of this technology is possible today. After all, the real appeal of the replicator is not in its molecule-synthesizing abilities, but in the value of instant, custom objects made on demand. This is a reality that some are working toward right now using new technologies that could eventually bring us much closer to making the replicator a reality.A process called “additive manufacturing,” or its more popular nickname, “3D Printing,” has captured the imagination of the tech industry. These machines work much like the two-dimensional printer you may have on your desk, but instead of printing a layer of ink, a 3D printer extrudes many layers of melted plastic to form a physical object. You can imagine this as similar to a hot glue gun, where the heated glue stick is carefully extruded from a nozzle. In the case of a 3D printer, that nozzle is controlled by software and digital design files that tells it how to form a shape.

Some have compared 3D printers to modern-day replicators, and it’s easy to see how. Watching one in action is a wondrous experience, with objects that once had to be produced on a factory line fabricated in minutes by a machine not much larger than a microwave. Even complex objects with moving parts can be designed and created one-by-one with a little knowhow. It hardly seems like a coincidence that one of the more popular 3D printer models currently available is actually named the Replicator.The comparisons between 3D Printing and the Star Trek replicator don’t end with plastic. Other materials like wood, metal and even some foods are now being extruded in similar ways to make on-demand creations. This has led to excited speculation that soon we may see the beginnings of a new era of manufacturing in America and around the world, where small-scale production is possible at very low costs. We may even “print” biotechnologies and human organs one day.

______________Anthony Rotolo is a professor at Syracuse University where he teaches “Trek Class.” He is also the founder and “Captain” of the “Starship NEXIS,” a lab that explores new and emerging technologies.

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Science News Explores

Could star trek replicators exist.

Experts break down what’s possible and what’s not for this sci-fi invention

It’s not quite a replicator, but maybe future space travelers will be able to 3-D print dinner on demand.

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By Deborah Balthazar

September 5, 2023 at 6:30 am

Let’s say you’re hungry. Wouldn’t it be great to walk up to an appliance, tell it what food you want and have that food appear magically in front of your eyes? In the TV franchise Star Trek , this is possible with a piece of technology known as a “replicator.” Getting to a future where this tech exists, though, might take a bit of imagination and invention.

The Star Trek replicator is used to make all kinds of objects, from a hot cup of Earl Grey tea to spare parts for spaceships. Biowaste and other recycled material is broken down into basic parts: water, carbon and other molecules , explains Erin Macdonald. She’s an astrophysicist and science advisor for the Star Trek franchise. Those molecules are then fed into the replicator. When a person asks for an item, lasers reassemble the bits according to a recipe in the computer until it looks like that cup of tea, a dish of mint-chocolate-chip ice cream or a piece of a warp coil.

What, exactly, is the biowaste that goes into the machine? It will probably include poop, says Macdonald. “We don’t want to think about that too much.”

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The replicator’s superfast lasers convert incoming matter into energy. Then, they change it back into matter . “On a fundamental level, there is nothing that prevents you from building a replicator-like machine,” says Gianluca Sarri. He’s a quantum physicist who works with lasers at Queen’s University Belfast in the United Kingdom.

But a replicator is just not a top priority at the moment, he says. All that conversion of matter to energy back to matter again would require a lot of energy. Plus, there’s no way to currently make an object appear within seconds. What’s more: Right now food can be generated in a much simpler way — by cooking.

Let’s print a meal

For now, astronauts eat food sent up from Earth. To make sure they get the food they need, future space tourists and crews might rely on hydroponics — growing plants without soil. Cooking that food in space like you do at home might be an option. But it might not always be practical inside the tight fit of a spaceship. So spacefarers might instead print that meal with a 3-D printer.

Today’s 3-D printers are similar to regular printers, notes Jonathan Blutinger. Just as normal printers must be fed cartridges of ink, 3-D printers must be fed cartridges of printing material. Blutinger is a design engineer.

While at the Creative Machines Lab at Columbia University in New York City, he helped create a 3-D printer that acts like a digital chef. “The printer will not allow you to make something from nothing,” he says. “You need to start with the right base ingredients.”

Blutinger’s group recently started with ingredients for a “cake.” They put graham-cracker paste, strawberry jam, peanut butter, Nutella, cherry drizzle, banana puree and frosting into the food printer. The printer assembled and cooked the ingredients with lasers to make a slice of cake.

The cake tasted great, Blutinger says, but it was definitely a unique experience because the flavors came in “waves.” The group’s paper about the cake appeared March 21 in npj Science of Food .

Appetizing or off-putting?

The 3-D printing robot chef can only assemble the ingredients it’s given and then add heat to cook the food. It cannot create foods from pure energy made from biowaste, like the fictional Star Wars replicator does. But people may not yet be comfortable eating even this relatively simple version of machine-made meals, Blutinger says.

Most people are comfortable with items like flour and peanut butter because we know where they come from. As science moves food away from the source, though, people could get grossed out. That 3-D printed cake might be easier for some to eat than 3-D printed meat, for instance. And people who did not grow up with 3-D printers in the kitchen might prefer food from the grocery store, Blutinger says.

“But pretty soon…kids will be growing up with these kinds of food robots in their kitchen,” he predicts. “Then that’s all they’re going to know.”

Macdonald agrees. “It’s just one of those things that people will have to come to terms with.”

Food printers might be on our kitchen counters within the next 10 to 20 years, Sarri says. These printers could be like “having a personal chef and nutritionist all in one,” Blutinger adds. The machine could someday recommend and create healthier food that’s customized to your diet.

A Star Trek replicator might be possible, but not nearly as soon, says Sarri — maybe 100 years down the line. Those replicators of the future could be useful in areas in beyond outer space. They could provide food in places where putting a chef might be dangerous, such as a war zone.

“There’s a feedback loop,” Macdonald says, “of scientists being inspired by Star Trek and then making that science. And then that continues to feed into the science fiction of, ‘Well this is what we can do now, so what’s next?’”

The next tech to materialize might just be a replicator.

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• View history

A food replicator aboard a Galaxy -class starship

A replicated martini materializes

A replicator , replicator system , replication system , or molecular synthesizer was a device that used matter-energy conversion technology similar to a transporter to produce almost anything from a ship's replicator reserves. ( TNG : " Lonely Among Us ", " Deja Q "; DS9 : " Visionary "; VOY : " Virtuoso "; ENT : " Dead Stop ") It was also capable of inverting its function, thus recycling the item. ( DS9 : " Hard Time ", " The Assignment ", " The Ascent ", " Prophet Motive ", " Nor the Battle to the Strong "; VOY : " Memorial ", " Fair Haven ", " Mortal Coil ") Items thus disposed of served to fuel the replicator and could potentially become other items in turn. ( VOY : " Year of Hell ") A replicator that was installed primarily for the purpose of replicating food was referred to as a food replicator , food synthesizer , food dispenser , or food slot , while one installed for replicating beverages was referred to as a drink replicator .

Replicators were one of the technologies used in holodecks and holosuites , as well as in exocomps and self-replicating mines . ( VOY : " The Cloud ", " Twisted ", " Dark Frontier ", " Pathfinder ", " Human Error "; TNG : " The Quality of Life "; DS9 : " Call to Arms ") They were commonplace among advanced Alpha Quadrant cultures like the United Federation of Planets , the Cardassian Union , and the Ferengi Alliance , but were largely unheard of in the Delta Quadrant , although a few species did possess them. ( VOY : " False Profits ", " State of Flux ", " Caretaker ", " Think Tank ")

Replicators were capable of producing food as fresh and tasty as non-replicated foodstuffs, inorganically materialized out of patterns used by the transporters . ( TNG : " Lonely Among Us ") Most people found replicated foods and drinks to taste exactly the same as "real" food, although some people claimed to be able to tell the difference. Furthermore, Federation replicators could be programmed to produce foodstuffs of acceptable "nutritional value" despite resembling more indulgent items. ( TNG : " The Price ", " Sins of The Father ", " The Wounded ", " Relics "; DS9 : " In the Pale Moonlight ", " You Are Cordially Invited ") Some people didn't learn to cook without a replicator. ( TNG : " Family ", " In Theory ", " The Wounded "; VOY : " Human Error ") Some smaller ships didn't bother to carry food or water, preferring to rely on their replicators to synthsize what they needed, which saved on space but caused problems if the replicator was damaged. ( TNG : " Final Mission ")

Once a meal was finished, the used dishes, utensils, and uneaten/inedible portions could be placed back inside the replicator to be automatically recycled .

Federation replicators often recycled waste produced by living beings – including fecal material – to provide the raw material for replicators. Such material was deconstructed down to the atomic level, and then recombined as needed into foodstuffs and other products. ( DIS : " There Is A Tide... ")

In addition to foodstuffs, replicators could be used for replicating an almost limitless range of other objects. Complex devices ( TNG : " The Game ", " The Child "; DS9 : " Rivals ", " Captive Pursuit "; VOY : " Phage ", " The Killing Game ", " Dark Frontier ", " Tsunkatse "), weapons ( DS9 : " Civil Defense ", " Inquisition ", " Call to Arms "; VOY : " Counterpoint ", " Flesh and Blood "), machine components ( DS9 : " Distant Voices ", " Image in the Sand "; VOY : " Extreme Risk ", " One Small Step ", " Latent Image "), clothing ( TNG : " The Survivors "; DS9 : " Distant Voices ", " Paradise "; VOY : " Caretaker ", " Vis à Vis ", " Someone to Watch Over Me ", " Flesh and Blood "), medication ( VOY : " Latent Image ", " Fury ", " Body and Soul "), coins ( TNG : " The Game ", " The Perfect Mate "), musical instruments ( TNG : " The Neutral Zone ", " Inheritance "), antique furniture ( VOY : " Lineage "), photographs ( VOY : " Human Error "), and a wide range of other items. Industrial replicators could even be used to replicate heavier machine parts, to help build factories, power plants etc. ( DS9 : " For the Cause ")

Users could program their own replication patterns into the replicator, such as a particular recipe for soup, a larger duplicate of a complex item, or an unusual device such as a wheelchair . Worf programmed an approximation of bloodwine into the USS Enterprise -D 's replicators. ( TNG : " The Outcast ", " Lessons ", " Gambit, Part II "; DS9 : " Rivals ", " Melora ", " Destiny "; VOY : " Fury ", " The Voyager Conspiracy ", " Once Upon a Time ") Elim Garak would program replicator patterns for clothing as he designed it. ( DS9 : " Distant Voices ") Replicators included built-in scanners, allowing someone to make copies of an item without understanding its internal workings. ( DS9 : " Rivals ")

Starfleet replicators kept logs of their use. ( TNG : " Remember Me ")

On some Starfleet vessels, the full range of meals programmed into replicators was limited to senior officers (at least Lieutenants and upwards) through the use of an access card, or certain areas only frequented by senior officers would have a replicator that could freely dispense higher quality recipes to anyone. Some types of meals were simply limited by volume, such as producing only one slice of pizza at a time. Limited recipes included gnocchi , fritters , lobster ravioli , macaroni and cheese with a breaded top, pasta with pesto , and lobster mac and cheese . ( LD : " Moist Vessel ", " I, Excretus ")

Starfleet replicator technology was theoretically capable of creating artificial substitutes for natural organs for use in certain transplants, such as eyes or lungs . ( TNG : " Loud As A Whisper "; VOY : " Phage ") A genetronic replicator could extrapolate actual organs for use in medical transplants from a DNA sample, though this device was experimental. ( TNG : " Ethics ")

Some alien replication technology was able to create living organic material, such as when the D'Arsay archive created living snakes . The abductor aliens were also able to create living things, as in the case of Jean-Luc Picard 's impostor , for which the replicators were even able to recreate the dendritic connections where memory was stored. ( TNG : " Masks ", " Allegiance ")

• 1.1 Safety Limits
• 3.1 Replicators in the Delta Quadrant
• 5.1 Background information
• 5.2 External link

Replicators had limits to their functionality. If the object desired contained a certain degree of complexity in its molecular structure, it could not be replicated. ( TNG : " The Enemy "; VOY : " Imperfection ") Talaxian lungs were considered too complex to replicate, as Talaxian physiology included a complex series of neural links between the lungs and the rest of the body that replicators were unable to duplicate exactly. ( VOY : " Phage ") Certain medicatical compounds could not be replicated, nor could Cardassian plasma distribution manifolds (or rather the beta-matrix compositor used in making them), Borg cortical nodes , or bio-neural gel packs . ( TNG : " Code of Honor "; DS9 : " The Abandoned ", " Empok Nor "; VOY : " Learning Curve ", " Imperfection ")

Certain materials, such as tricyanate and polyduranide , were considered difficult to replicate. ( TNG : " The Most Toys "; VOY : " Scorpion ", " Vis à Vis ") For some reason, it took a long time to replicate nanoprobes . ( VOY : " Scorpion ", " In the Flesh ") Latinum was not able to be replicated at all, leading to the long term use of Gold-Pressed Latinum as currency by many species, due to its commodity nature. (" Who Mourns for Morn? (episode) ")

Some citizens of the Federation , such as Robert Picard , refused to use replicators. Picard was opposed to their use and would not allow them on his property, complaining that they were destroying people's ability to cook, among other issues. ( TNG : " Family ") Similar but less extreme mindsets were not uncommon, and both Miles O'Brien's mother as well as Joseph Sisko raised their respective children believing that replicated food was less nutritious or generally "lacking". ( TNG : " The Wounded "; DS9 : " Homefront ")

Some people claimed to be able to tell the difference between replicated and "real" food. Jean-Luc Picard admitted that their replicator did not do "justice" to caviar , so he kept some cases of it for special occasions. ( TNG : " Sins of The Father ") Worf claimed they did not do justice to Klingon Warnog . ( TNG : " Rightful Heir ") Aquiel Uhnari complained the Muskan seed punch she could replicate didn't match the sort her mother made for her. ( TNG : " Aquiel ") Eddington claimed that he could taste the fact his "curried chicken" was in reality "replicated protein molecules". ( DS9 : " Blaze of Glory ") In 2366 , Deanna Troi expressed her desire to the computer to have a "real" chocolate sundae . The computer wished for her to define "real in context", to which Troi explained, " Real. Not one of your perfectly synthesized, ingeniously enhanced imitations. I would like real chocolate ice cream , real whipped cream ... " before she was interrupted by the computer explained that " [t]his unit is programmed to provide sources of acceptable nutritional value . Your request does not fall within current guidelines. Please indicate whether you wish to override the specified program? " ( TNG : " The Price ") In 2399 , Troi and William T. Riker lived on Nepenthe , hunting and harvesting their own food, which matched well with Riker's interest in cooking. When Troi provided Soji Asha a ripe tomato from their garden, Soji was surprised by how "real" it tasted in the comparison to the replicated food she had eaten all of her life. ( TNG : " Time Squared ", " Remember Me "; PIC : " Nepenthe ") Dr. Bruce Maddox apparently preferred to replicate all the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies , then mix and bake them himself. When Dr. Agnes Jurati asking why he hadn't just replicated the cookies themselves, Maddox explained that he disliked the replicated kind and that there was an "alchemy" to it. ( PIC : " Stardust City Rag ") Zhaban was of the opinion that Madame Arnaud 's handmade terrine d'oie was " far beyond the power of any replicator " to reproduce. ( PIC : " The End is the Beginning ")

However, always having "acceptable nutritional value" apparently did not mean that always consuming replicated food necessarily meant one would have a balanced diet no matter what they ate. Kayshon once stated to Brad Boimler , after the latter accidentally insulted his weight in the Tamarian language , that it was difficult to lose weight when one could replicate any food they wanted. ( LD : " Wej Duj ")

Not all replicators carried the same patterns. Jake Sisko was unable to find a replicator on Earth that carried the pattern for I'danian spice pudding as good as that available from the replicators on DS9. Runabout replicators carried particularly sparse menus. ( DS9 : " The Search, Part I ", " In Purgatory's Shadow ") The replicators on DS9 needed to be specially programmed with Cardassian food whenever Cardassian dignitaries visited. ( DS9 : " Destiny ", " Ties of Blood and Water ") When Geordi La Forge and Worf visited DS9's replimat in 2369 , La Forge ordered pasta al fiorella , one of his favorite meals, for both of them. However, while he considered the replimat's version to taste like liquid polymer , Worf called it delicious. ( TNG : " Birthright, Part I ")

Romulan replicators left distinctive patterns in the molecular structure of items they produced. ( TNG : " The Mind's Eye ")

Replicating large numbers of items could require significant amounts of power to be diverted from the warp core . ( TNG : " The Child ") Complex elements such as anicium and yurium also required large amounts of energy to replicate. ( TNG : " Night Terrors ") During emergency situations, the use the replicators might be restricted to save power for vital systems or because they were unreliable; requiring rations to be replicated instead of more elaborate food ( TNG : " Yesterday's Enterprise "; VOY : " Year of Hell ", " The Killing Game ", " Demon "; DS9 : " The Siege "), rationing of replicator usage ( VOY : " The Cloud ", " Real Life ", " The Void "), or the use of traditionally-prepared food. ( DS9 : " Covenant "; VOY : " The Cloud ") It was sometimes necessary to take the replicators completely offline to conserve power. ( DS9 : " Covenant "; VOY : " Dark Frontier ", " Demon "; PRO : " Terror Firma ")

Replicators, or at least the Cardassian replicators on Deep Space 9 , needed to be shut down weekly for routine maintenance. ( DS9 : " Heart of Stone ")

Safety Limits [ ]

Replicators aboard Starfleet vessels would not produce fatal poisons . ( VOY : " Death Wish ") Furthermore, replicators had biofilters which automatically screened out all contaminants. ( DS9 : " Babel ") Although clothing could be replicated for general wear, they would not allow non-Starfleet crewmembers to replicate official Starfleet uniforms . ( VOY : " Caretaker ") They produced synthehol versions of alcoholic drinks by default, but they could easily be manually readjusted through their control panel to make real alcohol instead. ( TNG : " Up The Long Ladder ")

On Starfleet installations and starships, if a person in custody was confined to quarters, it was standard policy to disable the replicators that the person had access to in order to ensure that a weapon could not be replicated. ( DS9 : " Inquisition "; VOY : " Counterpoint ")

Starfleet replicators made use of the alloy nitrium in their construction. ( TNG : " Cost Of Living ") Components of a replicator included the replicator waveguide , power converter , power supply grid , memory, pattern buffers and the matter-energy conversion matrix . ( TNG : " Cost Of Living "; DS9 : " Defiant ", " Heart of Stone ", " Visionary ", " Our Man Bashir ", " Nor the Battle to the Strong ") A disruptor pistol had some components in common with a replicator. ( DS9 : " The Way of the Warrior ") Voyager's replicator panels made use of bio-neural gel packs , were enhanced using several alien technologies they had acquired, and had their own secondary power supplies. ( VOY : " Macrocosm ", " The Void ", " Fair Haven ", " Warhead ")

History and notable uses [ ]

An advanced 22nd century matter-energy converter

One of the first replicators seen by Humans was the one seen by the crew of Enterprise when they had their ship repaired in a mysterious automated repair station . Prior to this, T'Pol once saw a similar device on a Tarkalean vessel that was capable of replicating almost any inanimate object. Until this time, the most comparable technology aboard 22nd century starships were protein resequencers , which had limited capabilities compared to later technologies. ( ENT : " Dead Stop ", " Fight or Flight ", " Oasis ")

In the 23rd century , the United Federation of Planets had not yet perfected replicator technology for ships, though replicators already existed in industrial sites. Replicator technology was, however, in use by The Traveler's species , and the Beta 5 computer utilized replicator technology to manufacture several false identity cards for use by Gary Seven . ( TOS : " Assignment: Earth ") Starships of this time period were equipped with food synthesizers and other devices for producing clothing and machine parts on demand. This was a step forward, but did not achieve the quality and sophistication of the 24th century replicator. Replicator technology was not yet employed on starships as late as 2293 . ( TOS : " The Naked Time ", " The Trouble with Tribbles "; VOY : " Flashback "; DIS : " Context Is for Kings ", " The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry ", " Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2 ")

Paris using the food service in the mess hall

A portable matter replicator

24th century Federation starships were commonly equipped with replicators because they allowed for a wide variety of foods and beverages to be served to crew members and also allowed for replication of other objects. The selection was limited only by the software and the number of options that had been programmed. ( TNG : " The Neutral Zone ", " The Defector ", " Sins of The Father ", " All Good Things... "; DS9 : " Trials and Tribble-ations "; VOY : " Caretaker ", " Phage ", " Twisted ")

Type 6A shuttlecraft were equipped with a replicator, but did not solely rely on it for emergencies and so also carried a supply of emergency rations . ( LD : " Where Pleasant Fountains Lie ")

Captain Picard beamed down to Rana IV with a portable matter replicator for Kevin and Rishon Uxbridge in 2366 . ( TNG : " The Survivors ")

When Beverly Crusher determined that a captured Romulan needed ribosomes to survive, she noted that the replicator could not be used due to the complexity of the molecular structure. ( TNG : " The Enemy ")

The replicators in Quark's Bar on Deep Space 9

As of 2367 , Galaxy -class starships were equipped with a replicating center that contained several replicator terminals resembling miniature transporter pads , at which crew members could order items. Lieutenant Worf and Lieutenant Commander Data shopped the USS Enterprise -D 's replicating center for a wedding present for Miles and Keiko O'Brien . ( TNG : " Data's Day ")

The Enterprise -D's replicators were used to provide blankets to a Bajoran refugee camp . ( TNG : " Ensign Ro ")

The replicator played a key role in spreading the Ktarian game around the Enterprise -D in 2368 . ( TNG : " The Game ")

On the Promenade of the Federation space station Deep Space 9 , the Replimat provided a casual location for inhabitants to enjoy a meal or beverage courtesy of a bank of replicators located along one of its walls. ( DS9 : " Emissary ")

Replicator technology was apparently scarce or not favored among the Maquis . Michael Eddington described himself as having become a food critic thanks to joining the Maquis and having to eat "real" food that he had grown with his own hands. ( DS9 : " Blaze of Glory ")

Dax repairing Quark's drink replicator

In 2374 , the drink replicator at Quark's experienced a malfunction. To fix it, Quark submitted an emergency maintenance request in the morning , and was assured by Chief Miles O'Brien that Rom would be fixing it right away, however, Rom, in turn, promised Quark that Nog would fix it before the end of the day, however Nog never arrived, but in his place, Jadzia Dax showed up. Quark felt that that task was below her, and fixing a replicator was " work for a mechanic , a repairman , a lowly engineer . " Quark later confessed to Odo that, " those hands weren't meant to be poking around inside a filthy drink replicator, " as they observed her pulling a green goo from the replicator's insides. ( DS9 : " Valiant ")

Replicators in the Delta Quadrant [ ]

A replicator malfunctions and creates a mug – after the coffee

After the USS Voyager was pulled to the Delta Quadrant in 2371 , an energy crisis occurred several weeks into the journey back to the Alpha Quadrant, and Janeway ordered replicator usage to be rationed in order to conserve power for other key systems. These replicator rations became a type of currency among its crew. ( VOY : " The Cloud ")

The Ocampa were provided with food dispensers by the Caretaker in their underground city on Ocampa . ( VOY : " Caretaker ")

Replicator technology was unknown to the indigenous people of the region around Ocampa . The Kazon , in particular, repeatedly tried to obtain this technology, as did other races. Captain Janeway feared that if this technology was acquired by a civilization before it was ready, disastrous consequences could ensue. For this reason, and because of the Prime Directive , Janeway refused to give up this technology at any price. ( VOY : " State of Flux ") By 2377 , however, the crew of Voyager had shared replicators to help people feed and clothe themselves a number of times. ( VOY : " Flesh and Blood ") In contrast, the Ferengi Arridor and Kol used a portable replicator to pass themselves off as the Holy Sages of the Takarians. ( VOY : " False Profits ")

In an alternate 2374 , the replicator system on Voyager was heavily damaged by attacks from Krenim warships , forcing the crew to go to emergency rations . ( VOY : " Year of Hell ") s In 2377, Voyager acquired technology from a race within the Void that had joined The Alliance which tripled the ship's replicator efficiency. ( VOY : " The Void ")

In 2378 , the young Q manipulated a replicator to tell Janeway " Make it yourself " when she asked it for coffee . ( VOY : " Q2 ") Janeway herself had a tense relationship with her personal replicator. After it burned a pot roast , not the first time it had done so, she told Commander Chakotay that she had once referred to it as a "glorified toaster " and it had never forgiven her. ( VOY : " Shattered ")

See also [ ]

• Fabrication device
• Fundamental field replicator
• Class 4 industrial replicator
• Matter-energy conversion matrix
• Matter synthesizer
• Micro-replication system
• Oxygen replication system
• Protein resequencer
• Self-replication
• Vehicle replicator

Appendices [ ]

Background information [ ].

The idea of replicators was unpopular with the writers of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine . Ira Steven Behr commented: " I'd like to lose the replicators. They're my least favorite thing in Star Trek . A society that uses replicators is a doomed, finished society. " ( Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion  (p. ? )) Ronald D. Moore added that " Replicators are the worst thing ever. Destroys storytelling all the time. They mean there's no value to anything. Nothing has value in the universe if you can just replicate everything, so all that goes away. Nothing is unique; if you break something, you can just make another one. If something breaks on the ship, it's "Oh, no big deal, Geordi can just go down to engineering and make another doozywhatsit." Or they go to a planet and that planet needed something: "Oh, hey, let's make them what they need!" We just hated it and tried to forget about it as much as possible. " [1]

Per an odd after-credits scene in the Star Trek: Short Treks episode " The Trouble with Edward ", 23rd century food synthesizers apparently incorporated replicator safety protocols , although it remains unconfirmed that replicators incorporated these as well.

Replicators are considered as Star Trek predicting technology, like 3D printing , in part.

The idea that replicators used fecal material was initially mentioned in the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual , where it stated that replicators on the Enterprise -D extensively sterilized and deconstructed fecal material prior to recombining its component atoms into foodstuffs. The manual also stated that replicators used molecular level resolution instead of the quantum level resolution used in personnel transporters, resulting in replicated food often having single bit errors. The manual explained these errors could account for differences in taste between replicated foodstuffs and "real" food and the tendency of some foods to become toxic if replicated.

External link [ ]

• Replicator at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• 3 Ancient humanoid

Star Trek: What Are The Limitations Of Replicator Technology?

Can these machines of the future really create anything, or are there limitations?

Out of all the amazing, influential technologies present within the Star Trek franchise, one of the most impressive is the replicators . Their ability to conjure almost anything with a simple command has the possibility to end world hunger in the blink of an eye. It can create any tool needed for any task without having to rummage around in endless toolboxes. They can even create material possessions such as clothing or furniture.

However, every piece of technology, no matter how remarkabe, has its constraints. While they may appear limitless, there are in fact a number of things that a replicator can not do. These are the biggest limitations of replicator technology, as shown in the Star Trek shows and movies.

RELATED: Star Trek: Exploring Klingon’s Unique Warp Technology

The first is their inability to create Dilithium crystals, the necessary ingredient for all warp travel in the galaxy ( especially if abiding by what Discovery preaches ). Replicating Dilithium goes against the fundamentals of how this technology works. A replicator does not simply magic up the things it produces. Rather, it takes energy and reconfigures it on a cellular level into whatever is requested. Different things take different amounts of energy based on their complexity. An apple, for example, is fairly simple on an atomic level. Meanwhile, a gold necklace is far more complicated, requiring not just a reconfiguration of atoms but various forms of fusion to combine them. Replicators can create a lot of difficult things, but Dilithium is so complex that there would not be enough power to create it.

The exception might be the use of Dilithium itself to create Dilithium, directly plugging the replicator into the warp core power. However, it is established that replicators still abide by the second law of thermodynamics: As energy is transferred, some will always be wasted. As such, energy will always be lost in the process of replication, no matter how much power is pumped in. This means that even if there was a way to use Dilithium to replicate more Dilithium, the user would end up getting far less than was used up in the process. Attempting to replicate Dilithum would be a waste of time.

This leads on to the second limitation for replicators: that of sustainable food sources. It’s true that the use of these nifty machines would easily eradicate world hunger , but not Quadrant-wide hunger. The Federation still relies on naturally grown food to support its massive population. The amount of energy required to produce ample food for everyone would be far too much to sustainably support. It could be possible, via growing something in abundance, converting that into energy, and using said energy to power replicators en-mass. However, it's much less practical when there are hundreds of vegetation-supporting planets all primed to be able to grow food. On a side note, though, replicators are still great for vegans and vegetarians in this regard. The technology can replicate animal products without ethical issue, converting vegetation into replicated meat.

The next limitation is that a replicator, despite appearances, can only create inanimate matter. There is no way one could be used to create life. Now, life is an interesting topic in this regard, as it is specifically different from organic matter. A vegetable is different from a living, breathing being. The difference is that inanimate things can be replicated by using cellular and molecular reconstruction, taking energy and reassembling it to appear similar, if not identical, to the real thing. What they struggle to do, however, is anything on the quantum level. This is necessary for things relying on neural patterns or pathways to function and ‘live.’ While this is impossible for the majority of replicators, it’s not actually unfeasible. The biggest issue is that of storage potential. Most things take up little to no memory to replicate, their patterns being relatively simple. However, to replicate anything on the quantum level would be so complex that there wouldn’t be enough storage to contain that much information.

It’s not impossible, however, and already these devices started to sneak into canon. TNG featured a special replicator that was able to create and replace Worf's spine ’s spine after a terrible accident. However, this is where the technology seems to have reached its current limit, as it cannot create functional body parts yet. If they struggle to do, this it’s no wonder that the idea of creating sentient life is deep into the realms of impossibility, even with the technology available to those in the 24th and onward centuries. Even without the use of replicators, sentience and ‘life’ is hard to create. Characters such as Data and his evil twin Lore are unique.

Replicators seem to present a duality within the Star Trek universe. On one hand, they are a prime example of possible future technologies. Yet at the same time, they show that there are still massive limitations even to such advanced minds found within the Federation. Even in the far future, there are still some things humanity cannot yet do.

MORE: Star Trek: Why Ezri Dax Was So Unpopular

'Star Trek: Discovery' opens its 5th and final season in unremarkable fashion (Red Directive recap)

Hello smartmatter, my old friend, I've come to watch you once again. Because no item is impossible, it makes the story unbelievable... ♬

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Star Trek: Discovery" season 5, episode 1

Well, here we are. Again. It's the fifth and final time around for "Star Trek: Discovery" and the single biggest question every sci-fan will be asking themselves is, will this season actually be any good. The tragic thing is, no one can really remember what happened in season 4 and that speaks directly to the fact that "Discovery" is not exactly a high-scoring show when it comes to rewatchability.

It's been two years and two weeks, give or take a day, since we last saw the crew of the USS Discovery risk everything to save all life in the universe, again. During that time, we've seen a lot of sci-fi, both awesome and awful, including two seasons of " Picard " and " Strange New Worlds ," the third and final season of " The Orville ," season 1 of " Andor ," "The Book of Boba Fett," "Ahsoka" and the less said about "Obi-Wan Kenobi," the better. If you're wondering where to see all that Trek, check out our Star Trek streaming guide for Paramount Plus and more.

Not to mention, the vastly underrated second season of "Invasion" and "Halo" seasons 1 and 2, plus, the first mind-blowing season of "Silo" the second and sadly last season of " Avenue 5 " and two seasons of " For All Mankind ." The point is that the standard has, for the most part, been refreshingly high. And frankly before we even get into season 5 of "Discovery," it's worth remembering that what executive producers and showrunners Alex Kurtzman  and Michelle Paradise have given us up until now, has not exactly been a consistently high quality of sci-fi writing. In fact, it's been rather disappointing.

Related: 5 things Star Trek: Discovery season 5 needs to fix

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Get all the Star Trek content you can possibly handle with this free trial of Paramount Plus. Watch new shows like Star Trek: Discovery and all the classic Trek movies and TV shows too. Plans start from $4.99/month after the trial ends.

Are we in-store for another cookie-cutter season of what's-in-the-box plot threads that deliver misdirected build ups with unsatisfying pay offs...you know like we have for the past two seasons plus all three seasons of "Picard"..? Even "Andor," despite its peak and trough-style of repetitive set-piece storytelling, was impressive and that was down to how well those set pieces had been fleshed out along with well written character development and dialogue. Less can very easily be so much more. 

Moreover, now we're in the 32nd century and we've seen that transporter technology can be used to replace stairs and even change outfits, so to be perfectly honest, there really isn't a single story idea that cannot be solved by a simple combination of transporter and replicator technology. Not to mention smartmatter. Ah, hello smartmatter, my old friend. Because this is what happens when you throw three seasons of a "Star Trek" series 1,164 years into the future.

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Regardless, it would seem that within the story, between four and six months have passed since the events of last season , where you may remember, the United Federation of Planets was desperately trying to save all life as we know from being accidentally exterminated by species 10-C, all while Ruon Tarka (Shawn Doyle) was still hell bent on using the illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator to destroy the dark matter anomaly. Book (David Ajala) gets killed when his ship explodes then bought back to life before he faces repercussions for siding with Tarka. General Ndoye (Phumzile Sitole) seems to get away scot-free despite sabotaging the Discovery's warp drive and everyone lives happily ever after. 

 —   Watch the bittersweet trailer for 'Star Trek: Discovery's final season (video)

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—  Star Trek's Seven of Nine returns in new novel 'Picard: Firewall' (exclusive)

Coming in at nearly 60 minutes long, the premiere episode is titled "Red Directive" and drops at the same time as the second episode, entitled "Under The Twin Moons." Michelle Paradise wrote the former, which could explain why it's so dull, and Olatunde Osunsanmi directed. The latter was written by Alan B. McElroy and directed by Douglas Aarniokoski, so fingers the second installment might be a bit better. Aarniokoski directed the season 3 premiere episode of "Picard" and while the rest of that was a disappointing, drawn out, nostalgia-fueled, 10-episode long epilogue to another series that ended three decades ago, the premiere installment was actually okay. 

The gang seems mostly all here, including Lt. Tilly (Mary Wiseman) and Adira (Blu del Barrio) and there are some characters who don't seem to have made it back, some of whom will be very much missed, like Grudge, while others won't be. No sign of Zora yet either. It's also entirely likely that the amazing talents of Callum Keith Rennie, who plays a Starfleet Captain named Rayner, will be spectacularly underused, much like Todd Stashwick was in season 3 of "Picard."

Credit to the production team though, as they're are really making the most of their Volume-esque video wall soundstage. There are a couple of interesting choices in terms of editing, much like there were in the second season premiere where Alex Kurtzman showed us what he'd learned in the Vince Gilligan School of Cinematography. It's doubtful we'll ever see them again, just like we didn't before. 

To conclude then, the opening episode of the final season "Star Trek: Discovery" is a far, far cry from strong openings that this show has demonstrated it's capable of in the past. And that's a sentence we've had to write far too many times. The TNG throwback right at the end is...well, disappointing, mostly because of the extent that nostalgic fan service has been dialed up since the first episode of Nu-Trek aired in September 2017. However, it could still provide an interesting story thread — we will just have to wait and see.

The fifth and final season of "Star Trek: Discovery" and every episode of every "Star Trek" show — with the exception of "Star Trek: Prodigy" — currently streams exclusively on Paramount Plus in the US while "Prodigy" has found a new home o n Netflix.  

Internationally, the shows are available on Paramount Plus in Australia, Latin America, the UK and South Korea, as well as on Pluto TV in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland on the Pluto TV Sci-Fi channel. They also stream on Paramount Plus in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. In Canada, they air on Bell Media's CTV Sci-Fi Channel and stream on Crave.

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Component - Industrial Replicator Supplies

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Component - Industrial Replicator Supplies is a common Research and Development component. It can be crafted using 3 [ Magnesite ] and 2 [ Hydrazine Gas ]

Game Description [ | ]

• 2 Playable starship
• 3 Delta Recruitment

• Where to watch in the US
• Where to watch in Canada
• Where to watch in New Zealand
• How to watch from anywhere
• How to watch with a VPN

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Where to watch star trek: discovery free — final season is underway.

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The newest season of Star Trek: Discovery is officially underway. Season 5 marks the final season of the Star Trek spin-off, and it's shaping up to be an action-packed swang song. Whether you're looking to stream the new episodes or get caught up on the past four seasons, we've got everything you need to know about the show, including where to watch Star Trek: Discovery free via a TV channel abroad. 

Star Trek: Discovery premiered in 2017 and follows in the decades-long tradition of Star Trek stories. The series is set about five years before the original Star Trek, which chronicled Captain Kirk's five-year journey. In Star Trek: Discovery, the U.S.S. Discovery travels through space on a mission of exploration. Season 5 sees Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the U.S.S. Discovery crew on the hunt for an ancient power that others are also seeking.

The first three episodes are currently streaming. Keep reading to learn how to watch the series no matter where you are in the world.

• Where to watch American Horror Story | Where to watch 9-1-1 | Where to watch Game of Thrones

Where to watch Star Trek: Discovery in the US

New Season 5 episodes of Star Trek: Discovery land on Paramount+ on Thursdays. The premiere week included two episodes, and now one new episode will drop weekly. Episodes should be available starting at about 3 a.m. ET. All four past seasons are available to stream through the service. Subscriptions start at $5.99 a month and come with a one-week free trial.

Paramount Plus' Essential tier is a steal at this price and only has limited ads. It features tons of on-demand content from Paramount, CBS, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET, and MTV. And you get NFL and Champions League soccer live streaming. There's a 7-day free trial, then it's $6 a month or $60 a year. The only way to ditch the ads is by opting for the Showtime bundle.

Where to watch Star Trek: Discovery in Canada

Paramount+ is also the home to Star Trek: Discovery in Canada. Plans start at CAD$6.99 and come with a one-week free trial. All episodes are available to stream here.

Where to watch Star Trek: Discovery in New Zealand

Star Trek: Discovery is available to stream for free on TVNZ+ . You'll need to create a free account to start streaming. In addition to new season 5 episodes, Seasons 1-4 are also streaming on the site. New episodes are available on Thursdays.

How to watch Star Trek: Discovery from anywhere

If you're not in New Zealand at the moment, you can access streams with a VPN (virtual private network). VPNs alter your electronic device's location so you can use websites that might not be available in certain regions. They're also solid ways to boost your online privacy. We recommend ExpressVPN , a user-friendly option with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Check out our ExpressVPN review for additional details and see below to learn how to use a VPN. 

With its consistent performance, reliable security, and expansive global streaming features, ExpressVPN is the best VPN out there, excelling in every spec and offering many advanced features that makes it exceptional. Better yet, you can save up to 49% and get an extra three months for free today.

How to watch Star Trek: Discovery with a VPN

• Sign up for a VPN if you don't have one.
• Install it on the device you're using to watch Star Trek: Discovery.
• Turn it on and set it to New Zealand.
• Go to TVNZ+ and create a log-in profile.
• Watch Star Trek: Discovery.

If you're sad that this is the final season of Star: Trek Discovery and can't get enough of the franchise, there are multiple other series you can check out. Star Trek: Picard wrapped its third and final season in 2023 and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (a spin-off from Star Trek: Discovery) is slated to release a third season next year. Like Discovery, Picard and Strange New Worlds are Paramount+ originals and are available to watch on the streamer. Paramount+ is also the streaming home to several other older Star Trek series, including the original Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Enterprise, and more. 

Note: The use of VPNs is illegal in certain countries, and using VPNs to access region-locked streaming content might constitute a breach of the terms of use for certain services. Insider does not endorse or condone the illegal use of VPNs.

You can purchase logo and accolade licensing to this story here . Disclosure: Written and researched by the Insider Reviews team. We highlight products and services you might find interesting. If you buy them, we may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our partners. We may receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising team. We welcome your feedback. Email us at [email protected] .

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Star Trek's Best Writer Predicted Voyager's Biggest Weakness

Posted: April 11, 2024 | Last updated: April 11, 2024

Star Trek’s Best Writer Predicted Voyager’s Biggest Weakness

Star Trek: Voyager has a legion of fans, but the show has also had some very fierce criticisms over the past decades. Perhaps the most common criticism is that the show overused the Borg, giving us so many run-ins with these cybernetic villains that they no longer seemed like a nearly unstoppable threat. Ironically enough, one of the best Star Trek writers, future Battlestar Galactica showrunner Ronald D. Moore, predicted this problem while writing on The Next Generation episode “I, Borg,” years before Voyager was created.

The Borg Were a Major Threat

The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “I, Borg” was the first episode to bring these bad guys back since the explosive two-part episode “The Best of Both Worlds.” In those episodes, we saw how the Borg easily obliterated 39 Starfleet vessels at the Battle of Wolf 359, and the only reason the Enterprise was able to stop the Borg Cube before it could attack Earth was by hacking into their Collective through the assimilated Captain Picard. The show’s writers knew they wanted to bring these fan-favorite foes back, but they had to find a way to explain how the Enterprise could survive another encounter.

Hugh Develeoped A Personality Once He Wasn’t Terminally Online

Eventually, the Star Trek writers came up with a clever answer: instead of “I, Borg,” having the ship and crew fighting an entire Borg vessel, they must figure out what to do once they rescue the lone survivor of a crashed Borg ship. That survivor is Hugh, a Borg who develops his own personality once he is separated from the Collective. Captain Picard must then face the moral dilemma of whether to send Hugh back to the Borg with a virus that could wipe out the entire Collective or allow him to seek asylum, something which might put the Enterprise in perpetual danger.

Stop Stopping Unstoppable Villains

That Star Trek episode ends on a bitter note, with Hugh (who appears in a later TNG two-parter as well as the first season of Picard) choosing to return to the Collective to protect the Enterprise and his new bestie, Geordi LaForge. Though he didn’t write this ep, veteran Star Trek writer Ronald D. Moore praised the story as “a real good way to bring the Borg back” instead of having another fight because “we keep saying they’re unstoppable and if we keep stopping them it undercuts how unstoppable they truly are.”

Somehow The Borg Returned

For the most part, Star Trek: The Next Generation stuck closely to Moore’s thoughts about the Borg. The Enterprise crew never fought against the proper Collective again in the series, with their last TNG appearance having our protagonists fighting a splinter group of Borg who were weakened by Hugh’s individuality before being discovered and weaponized by Data’s evil brother Lore. The Enterprise was able to defeat a Borg Cube in First Contact, but only with the help of an entire fleet and Picard’s special knowledge (courtesy of his prior assimilation) about the vessel’s secret weak point.

Fan Favorite Borg

Fast-forward to the third season finale of Star Trek: Voyager, and the Borg (who originated in the Delta Quadrant) made a splashy appearance that ultimately gave us the fan-favorite character Seven of Nine. That two-parter was great, but the show kept returning to these villains. By the time Voyager was over, the Borg would appear (in one form or another) in a whopping 23 episodes.

Even for the biggest fans of Star Trek: Voyager, this led to constant questions of why the Borg didn’t simply destroy Voyager as easily as they destroyed all of the ships at Wolf 359. In fact, it was almost certainly those fan questions that prompted a specific line of dialogue in the series finale “Endgame” where the Borg Queen tells Seven of Nine “You’ve always been my favorite” and that because Seven cares for the Voyager crew, the Collective has “left them alone.”

Voyager Made Sense At The Last Possible Moment

In other words, Star Trek: Voyager did address (albeit at the very end) why the Borg didn’t just assimilate Janeway and her crew, but that doesn’t change the fact that the prophecy of Moore came true: constantly showing our heroes defeating these “unstoppable” foes made them seem like far less of a threat. Unfortunately, the franchise didn’t learn from this lesson, and the Borg honestly seemed less threatening than ever before when they returned (with what I can only hope was a last gasp) in the third season of Picard.

For this viewer, the de-fanged Borg proved one thing: that yawning, like resistance, was completely futile.

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