The communicator is a fictional device used for voice communication in the fictional universe of Star Trek. As seen in at least two instances, the Original Series episodes "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" and "Day of the Dove," it can also serve as an emergency signaling device/beacon, similar to a transponder. The communicator allows direct contact between individuals or via a ship's communication system.
Communicator
The communicator in the Star Trek universe surpasses the capabilities of modern mobile phone technology, the prototypes of which it inspired. It allows crew members to contact starships in orbit without relying on a satellite to relay the signal. Communicators use subspace transmissions that do not conform to normal rules of physics in that signals can bypass EM interference, and the devices allow nearly instantaneous communication at distances that would otherwise require more time to traverse.
In Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS), communicators functioned as a plot device, stranding characters in challenging situations when they malfunctioned, were lost or stolen, or went out of range. Otherwise, the transporter could have allowed characters to return to the ship at the first sign of trouble, ending the storyline prematurely.[2]
Throughout Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: The Original Series, on-ship communication is achieved via communicator panels on desks and walls, and sometimes through the use of videophones. While formed into a landing party, the crew carried hand-held communicators that flip open. The top section contains a transceiver antenna and the bottom contains user controls, a speaker and a microphone. The device was designed and built by Wah Chang, who also built many of the other props used in the series.
Wrist-worn communicators were used in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and remained in use by some Starfleet installations and vessels during the time of The Wrath of Khan. However, the traditional handheld communicator returned in later films. The reason for the switch was not explained, but the non-canon source Mister Scott's Guide to the Enterprise offered the explanation that Starfleet discontinued use of the wrist-worn communicators when they were determined to be prone to repeated failures after suffering minor impacts.
In Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) and later series, Starfleet officers and enlisted personnel wear small communicator badges on their left breast. These devices are in the shape of the Starfleet insignia and are activated with a light tap. They also incorporate the universal translator. There have been four versions of the communicator badge seen on screen. The first was a prototype used by members of Section 31 during the second season of Star Trek: Discovery (DIS). The second was used through TNG and in the first two seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9). The third was used in the last five seasons of DS9, throughout Star Trek: Voyager, the four TNG films, and in flashback scenes in Star Trek: Picard (PIC). The fourth was seen in use in 2399 in Picard. Use of the modern badges dates back at least as far as the time of the Enterprise-C. (Lt. Richard Castillo is shown wearing a communicator badge in the TNG episode "Yesterday's Enterprise," the Starfleet insignia of his TOS movie-era uniform now functioning as a communicator badge.)According to Data in the episode "Time's Arrow, Part One" at a poker game in 1893, the badge is made out of a crystalline composite of silicon, beryllium, carbon 70 and gold.
In Deep Space Nine, Bajoran officers and enlisted personnel also wear a small communicator badge that functions much the same as their Starfleet counterparts. However, Bajorans wear their badges on the right breast of their uniform tunics. Cardassians are shown wearing their communicators on their left wrist.
Literate communicators can express themselves more naturally with a built-in dictionary, word and phrase prediction, stored phrases and access to many high-quality synthetic voice options. It's also possible to record your own voice with message banking, for the ability to say "I love you" with emotion. Whichever voice you choose, you can project it as you type for conversations in real time.
Symbol communicators can develop literacy skills with access to core words, topic-based vocabulary and a keyboard to encourage exploration of letters, words and sounds, with the ability to delete symbols as literacy skills develop.
A communicator was a communications device used by many species for person-to-person, inter-ship communications. A communicator could be either an intercom or a hand-held personal receiver that could be used for person-to-ship comunications. (TOS: "The Conscience of the King", "Journey to Babel") Communicators usually transmitted on subspace frequencies. They were eventually integrated into and replaced by combadges.
Portable communicators were used by Starfleet landing parties and away teams; occasionally, communicators were used in situations where normal intra-ship communications were inaccessible (or inadvisable), during the 22nd and 23rd centuries. (TOS: "Mirror, Mirror", et al.)
Employing a flip-top design, a member of Starfleet spoke directly into the device to give commands and speak with other personnel. (TOS: "The Cage", et al.) Once it was flipped open, it locked onto the originating ship's communications system. (TOS: "A Piece of the Action") The communicator also had a gain control. (TOS: "Shore Leave")
In some cases, communicators served purposes beyond basic communication. By 2152, for instance, the power signature of a Starfleet communicator could be amplified by an inverse carrier wave, making the communicator detectable by sensors. (ENT: "The Communicator") For another example, when accessing a computer, the communicator of the person at the terminal logged in the user information, thereby making it possible to trace back who accessed the computer. (TNG: "The Drumhead") Communicators were also often used to allow transporter locks for beaming, thus acting as homing transponders. When used in tandem, two communicators could produce a sonic disruption by using sound beams to create a sympathetic vibration in an unstable object, such as a cliff face. (TOS: "Friday's Child") Usage of a communicator, while receiving and outputting a signal, could be hidden from sensors by triaxilating the signal. (ENT: "Detained") Communicators could be jammed by a security screen, the like of which was employed at the Tantalus Colony. When the screen was deactivated, the communicator signal was enabled. (TOS: "Dagger of the Mind")
By the 24th century, these communication devices were integrated into the standard uniform badges and became known as combadges. Users no longer had to speak directly into the communicator, but rather could activate and deactivate them with the touch of a finger. (TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint", "Yesterday's Enterprise", et al.)
By the 32nd century, the technology for the communicator had been miniaturized to the point where it could be included with other functions in the tricom badge. Activation and deactivation of the communicator was by hand gestures. (DIS: "Scavengers")
Other species also possessed similar communicator devices. (TOS: "A Taste of Armageddon", "Errand of Mercy", "Elaan of Troyius"; ENT: "Fallen Hero", "Marauders", "Precious Cargo", "The Catwalk", "Extinction", "Rajiin", "Chosen Realm", "Proving Ground", "Storm Front", "Storm Front, Part II", "Borderland", "United", "Affliction", "Bound", "Terra Prime"; Star Trek Beyond) An Enolian communicator, for instance, could double as a remote control for handcuffs. (ENT: "Canamar")
The Vulcans had communicators as early as 1957. Some of these early Vulcan communicators were among equipment owned by the crew of a Vulcan survey ship. After the vessel crash landed on Earth, the surviving members of the crew secretly used the Vulcan communicators in Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania, a nearby small mining town in the United States of America. (ENT: "Carbon Creek")
While the Andorian commander Thy'lek Shran was holding personnel from the NX-class starship Enterprise NX-01 hostage in June of 2151, Captain Jonathan Archer's communicator was, after being used by Shran to threaten Enterprise, crushed by him, using the Stone of J'Kah to smash the device to pieces. The destruction of the communicator caused Enterprise to lose the signal connecting them. The ship then tried to make contact with Sub-commander T'Pol and Commander Trip Tucker, the only other crew members from Enterprise who were being held captive along with Archer. However, their communicators were likewise immediately crushed by Shran. (ENT: "The Andorian Incident")
When Captain Archer and Ensign Travis Mayweather were enduring imprisonment at Tandaran Detention Complex 26 in about late 2151, a communicator was secretly beamed into their cell from Enterprise. The device's usage was masked, due to Enterprise Communications Officer Hoshi Sato triaxilating the signal between the communicator and the ship, though the Tandaran guards subsequently discovered the device in Mayweather's pocket. The Tandarans confiscated the communicator, and because both Mayweather and Archer were resistant to questioning about where they had obtained the device, they were brutalized by the Tandarans. (ENT: "Detained")
In 2152, fears among the Enterprise crew arose regarding how a communicator that Lieutenant Malcolm Reed had accidentally left behind on an inhabited planet might affect the evolution of a pre-warp culture on that planet. In an effort to find the device, the communicator's power signature was boosted by Enterprise. The communicator was finally retrieved, but not without avoiding cultural contamination partly caused by the device. (ENT: "The Communicator")
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