Not routinely. And there's a strict limit on how long a pattern can be held (at least until Strange New Worlds changed that bit of continuity), and a limit on how much "space" is available in the buffers.
With my freezing proposal you just need a bunch of racks in a room somewhere, and people can be easily kept on ice for centuries with very minimal support (TNG S01E26 "The Neutral Zone"). Most starships have plenty of volume to pack frozen corpses.
Heck, keep some spares on ice even when not on an away mission. If you get killed you only lose a few weeks of memories. Or source spare parts from them. That battle Worf lost with a barrel wouldn't have been such a big deal if there was a spare spine just sitting in inventory, or Picard's run-in with those Nausicaans back in the Academy. And in a pinch you could solve staffing issues by thawing a few out to fill some extra shifts.
I begin to suspect perhaps the writers of Star Trek might not be fully exploring all the possibilities their technology provides them.
jana@leminal.space 1 year ago
I don’t recall it ever having been used to bring people back after they’ve been killed; usually it’s only relevant in weird circumstances like when Scotty showed up in TNG