it turns out that the transporter can actually poof you suddenly like you were just edited into reality, but in the same way that japanese cameras require shutter sounds, it's just good space etiquette to have a warning that someone is appearing. so the episode is just 45 entire minutes of a someone at starfleet command looking at the history of transporter effects and thinking about where they can innovate and maybe people will like a sort of a remix of the robert april era effects that nostalgia cycle is on trend and they have to deal with the bureaucracy of bosses who want the color or the sound of the transporter effect to be more "commanding" or "friendly" or "diplomatic" and it can't be too similar to non federation transporter effects for legal and military reasons and they have a special setup which can simulate the eyes and ears of different species to see how it appears to non humans and they're up all night trying to get the right number of sparkles and they've got gigaquads of files labeled shit like "transporterFXfinalfinalfinal.holo"

