Star Trek is very good at not leaving loose ends around. The brand has always worked hard to give logic and reasoning behind many of the things fans enjoy, including the logistics of how things operate day-to-day. Nevertheless, the question of just how many transporters are onboard the star ship Enterprise in the original series is oddly up for debate.

Transporters are ubiquitous to Star Trek lore, more than almost any other technology, which is ironic considering they weren't part of the original series blueprints until production costs got in the way. They were created to help increase efficiency between scene transitions. Originally, creator Gene Roddenberry planned to land the Enterprise on the surface of planets. But early on, the production costs to create the scenes showing actors moving from space to the surface – plus the time taken within the episode to get the ships on and off planets – all added up to too much money and too much time wasted that should be used for action on screen. So the transporter solved two production problems and ended up becoming one of the best decisions the series ever made.

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For nearly all of the original series, the term "transporter room" is used. But in one original series episode, "The Galileo Seven," Captain Kirk clearly uses the term “transporters.” The plural reference is specific only to this episode. Every other time, only the singular form of the word transporter is said, which could just be the result of scripting oversights or even a slip of the tongue, rather than a deliberate choice.

From a logistical point of view, it doesn’t make sense to have only one transporter for an entire star ship. It seems woefully impractical, which is why there were probably more. Sharp-eyed observers who comb over the original series will notice clues peppered throughout that hint at there being four different transporter rooms aboard the original Enterprise. At least one is likely for cargo, as seen in the episode “Dagger of the Mind,” when an intruder is beamed aboard inside a freight container into what could be a cargo transporter room. The other possible locations are a little more difficult to pinpoint.

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Placing the remaining three transporter rooms comes down to minor differences, rather than dramatic set overhauls. Every detail could indicate a different transporter, from star-charts on the wall by the control panel in the pilot with Captain Pike, to whether audiences believe the control panels could be on wheels and move around the room or if they are in fixed positions. Again, there are clues in the episodes, but they're never clearly explained – at least on TV.

In a book about the production of the original series, The Making of Star Trek, the show's creators talked about the Enterprise having more than one transporter, with four being the most likely number. When Star Trek rolled into its second season, the main transporter room also got a set upgrade, so again, depending how someone may view the issue, the count remains as blurry as the device looks while in use.

By later Star Trek series, with both newer versions of the Enterprise, like with Star Trek: The Next Generation and other space going vessels in Starfleet, the number of transporters becomes the kind of detail that is no longer left to guess work. Star Trek always took great pains to add specifics and nuance to life in the galaxy. These were the kinds of important, yet seemingly mundane, details Roddenberry always sought to include. He felt that they gave credibility and authenticity to his universe. So, the fact that the number of transporters the Enterprise had was never clearly established, especially for such a mission critical system, is a puzzling omission for such a detail-oriented universe.

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