The transporter is one of the most brilliant dramatic concepts in Star 
Trek. It allows our characters to move quickly and cleanly into the midst of a 
story. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, transporter technology is further 
postulated to have been advanced to the point where it can be used to 
replicate objects. This is a nifty idea, but we must be careful to limit the 
ability of the replicator, lest it become able to re-create any rare or valuable 
object, and perhaps even to bring dead people back to life. Such abilities 
would be quite detrimental to dramatic storytelling. The idea of replicated 
objects being stored at Òmolecular resolutionÓ instead of the Òquantum 
resolutionÓ necessary to re-create living beings is a result of this concern. 
(Actually, there have been a couple of occasions where the transporter has 
been improperly used to save the day, but our writers have become more 
careful about such things.)  Æ