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star trek - Do Starfleet communicators require a server?


Do we ever find out, anywhere in Star Trek, whether standard-issue Starfleet communicators (e.g. TOS-era handheld communicators or TNG-era commbadges) require a server to communicate (like a cell phone), or whether they are capable of direct peer-to-peer signaling, without the intervention of any server/trunked system (e.g. based on a starship, satellite, land base station, etc.)?


For example, if two Starfleet officers were stranded an arbirary distance from Federation resources, without anything except the clothes on their backs and their commbadges, could they communicate with each other over a reasonable distance, or would they get "no service" error messages or similar?


If a Starfleet communicator can be reconfigured on the fly to serve as a server/hub for communicator networking, that counts as an answer (e.g. "Our ship just blew up and we are alone, so let's reset our communicators to not depend on our lost ship. Lt. Jones, tap the code onto your communicator to set it to Server Mode, and everyone else sync to his").



Answer



No


If we look at the few times in various series when everyone was far removed from compatible technology, we find that they can work just fine without. Off the top of my head, in TNG episode Time's Arrow (pt 2), while in the hospital ward Dr. Crusher uses her communicator to signal the others- it's not like there was a Federation server kicking around San Francisco in the 1800's.



Beverly Crusher using her communicator in a cute nurse's outfit


There is also ST:IV, where the Enterprise crew uses their communicators while on Earth in the 80's. Yes, while it's true that the Klingon Bird of Prey they had could have acted as a server, given the unfamiliarity of the ship, they probably didn't use it in that capacity.


In the instances when they couldn't use communicators, it's usually due to some other external factor- dampening fields, phase shifting, etc. Probably along the lines if the ship can't scan it or inside it, then communicators are also worthless.


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