Just in time, the Enterprise transporter beams Star Trek’s Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy away from the frozen asteroid Rura Penthe. It lets them escape from a hospital elevator on 20th-century Earth. It beams furry Tribbles to a Klingon warship.
Throughout hundreds of TV episodes and various movies, the transporter has dematerialized Star Trek characters and beamed them to their destinations. Why did series creator Gene Roddenberry choose teleportation as a travel device? Not for the reasons you probably think. He had limited money for special effects, and the transporter was a cheap way to get characters from the to their destinations.
