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I been re-watching DS9, and they keep emergency beaming people directly into Ops. When I think about it, other Star trek series have also beamed people directly onto the bridge. In the case of DS9 especially these people are completely unknown.

I realize this has to do with creating the scene/tension/etc... from a security/safety/etc., perspective this makes no sense. Even if the transporter filters most known toxins/disease it doesn't get them all. Same goes for weapons.

  1. Has any reason ever been given? it seems like they're just asking for problems.

  2. why beam to ops if your just going to have to take the injured to medical?

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    Star Trek is full of YOLO. Random suspicious aliens asks for help? Beam over Geordi in his pyjamas. Mysterious spacecraft is about to explode and emits harmful radiation and poison gases? Beam over Riker in his pyjamas.
    – Wabbitseason
    Aug 14, 2017 at 14:03
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    It is always as safe as the story demands it. In the case of DS9, there is a further constraint: It has to be done in the most boring way possible. If beaming them directly onto the bridge avoids an interesting story, this is actually considered not only a safe but also an ideal way within the DS9 universe
    – Raditz_35
    Aug 14, 2017 at 14:57
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    Because they're schmucks?
    – Valorum
    Aug 14, 2017 at 15:36
  • "Same goes for weapons." There was at least one episode (the one with Thomas Riker) that showed the station disables most phasers by default, but I don't remember if that was restricted to Federation weapons or not.
    – JAB
    Aug 14, 2017 at 18:20
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    The United Federation of "hold my beer, I got this"
    – Simon Richter
    Aug 14, 2017 at 23:42

2 Answers 2

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The best answer here is that most of the "functional" areas of DS9 are pretty compact. DS9 isn't a starship, it's a starbase. So your options to beam them somewhere are limited to start with. Consider this diagram

enter image description here

Ops is the best location from a strategic sense. Ops is where you're going to have armed and trained personnel at all times. It's relatively isolated too, being on the top of the center. So let's say you have hostiles or infected. You could seal the whole deck off if need be.

The Infirmary, by contrast, was on the Promenade (as seen on Memory Alpha)

enter image description here

Hostiles or infected there would risk exposing most of the station.

If you beamed them to a cargo bay, you probably don't have personnel there (and possibly unarmed to boot). Worse, you're giving someone a way to get others into the station.

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    Perhaps beaming them into Odo's office would be a good option.
    – Ham Sandwich
    Aug 14, 2017 at 15:41
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    They do have prison cells with a force field.
    – Raditz_35
    Aug 14, 2017 at 16:10
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    Also might be worth pointing out that from my recollection, the vast majority of ne'er-do-wells that beam into ops are beaming in with their own transporters rather than being beamed in by the crew of the station (I'm thinking of the dominion beaming in with transporters that go through shields and people beaming in from the mirror-verse).
    – Shufflepants
    Aug 14, 2017 at 18:18
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    But the reason ops has armed and trained personnel at all times is that it's important that it be kept secure.
    – Ray
    Aug 14, 2017 at 19:19
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    If putting sick people in your infirmary risks exposing the entire station, then you have seriously failed at designing your infirmary and/or station. Half the point of having an infirmary is that it's where you put sick people.
    – anaximander
    Aug 15, 2017 at 8:10
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Don't forget that Cardassians built the station in the first place. Sometimes it's not so much a matter of what you want to do as what your retrofitting will let you do. Another possibility is that they built the station to protect against that very thing, enemy soldiers beaming into empty parts of the station and organizing themselves before their attack. Maybe there's a system that intercepts and diverts transporter signals.

From a practical standpoint, they might have used the Ops set simply because they spent so much time shooting there anyway. It takes time to process an area for a special effect.

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