A stasis chamber (also called a stasis unit, stasis pod, stasis tube, medical pod, med-pod, bio-pod, hibernation pod, or life support canister) was a device used to preserve life. It was often a coffin-shaped device designed for the preservation of critically injured or terminally ill patients until their conditions could be stabilized in a fully equipped medical facility.
The stasis unit suspended all cellular activity and disease processes, keeping the patient from succumbing to their illness or injury for an indefinite period. The device was not meant for saving a dead patient. However, it could preserve brain activity for a few hours at most. Time was required to get the ailing patient into the unit before they succumbed, presumably so that more time was available as they came out of stasis to effect proper treatment. (TOS: "Space Seed"; TNG: "Reunion", "Tapestry"; Star Trek Into Darkness)
The stasis chamber at Cold Station 12 contained over eighteen thousand stasis globes, each containing an Augment embryo. An access code was required in order to enter the stasis chamber. The chamber was breached by Doctor Arik Soong and the Augment Lokesh in 2154. (ENT: "Cold Station 12")
In the final draft script of "Cold Station 12", this stasis chamber was described with the sentence, "On either side are transparent walls through which we can see thousands of tiny floating spheres – stasis globes."
Stasis units became standard equipment on Starfleet vessels, including Galaxy-class and Defiant-class starships. (citation needed • edit)
The Rakhari Croden held his daughter Yareth in a stasis pod in a cavern on an asteroid in the Chamra Vortex to prevent her being killed by the Rakhari government. (DS9: "Vortex")
The last of the Vaadwaur species placed themselves into underground stasis units, which they called bio-pods, in the 15th century to survive the destruction of their civilization. The pods malfunctioned, and so the Vaadwaur did not awaken until Seven of Nine activated the pods in 2376. The pods were still in working order after they awoke, and Gaul thought about putting Captain Janeway's crew in the pods to see if someone would wake them up.(VOY: "Dragon's Teeth")
The subjects of a failed Cardassian experiment involving psychotropic drugs were left in stasis tubes aboard Empok Nor when the station was abandoned. The soldiers were accidentally reawakened when a salvage team from Deep Space 9 arrived in 2373. (DS9: "Empok Nor")
When Captain Kathryn Janeway and Commander Chakotay were infected with an insect-transmitted virus on a planet in the Delta Quadrant in 2372, The Doctor kept them in stasis chambers while he searched for a cure. After he was unsuccessful, the chambers were sent down to the planet so that the infection would not spread to the rest of the crew. (VOY: "Resolutions")
Danube-class vessels were equipped with stasis chambers. (DS9: "Change of Heart")
In late 2374, the entire crew of the USS Voyager entered stasis units for protection, as the ship was crossing through a Mutara class nebula that emitted lethal levels of subnucleonic radiation. Only The Doctor and Seven of Nine remained awake to operate the ship. (VOY: "One")
The crew of the USS Equinox modified a stasis chamber into a multiphasic chamber in the 2370s to first study, then exploit nucleogenic lifeforms. (VOY: "Equinox")
Lyndsay Ballard reported that after her death in 2374, she woke up in a stasis chamber surrounded by aliens, who had told her they had reanimated her body. (VOY: "Ashes to Ashes")
In 2401, Beverly Crusher made use of a medical pod aboard the SS Eleos XII. (PIC: "The Next Generation")
Related topics[]
Apocrypha[]
Background information[]
The stasis chamber seen in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Vortex" was designed by Rick Sternbach who drew the sketch. (DS9 Season 1 DVD special feature "Deep Space Nine Sketchbook")
External link[]
- Stasis (fiction) at Wikipedia
- Stasis chamber at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works