What on Earth is wrong with good old-fashioned electromagnets? (-:

Using photons to move an object is interesting, but photons = radiation. The amount of photons required to capture a fleeing shuttle craft would probably burn a hole through it.

Electromagnets are very strong, of course, but their range is very short.

A more effective tractor beam might use gravitons to manipulate the relative mass of two objects. This would be similar to creating a warp bubble, so the technology would no doubt exist on the Enterprise. And gravity is very effective, even at great distance.

The big challenge, as I see it, is to figure out a way to focus a graviton beam over a distance, so that you do not attract everything in the solar system along with your target object.

Well, plus, we would have to discover gravitons, first, of course. 😉

This was where you indicated and pulled off the reality highway. (-:

Unfortunately graviton is at best an hypothetical particle.

How gravity works is one of the greatest mysteries on which our best brains are working on.

I have the feeling that tractor beam and reactionless drive are those nice things that really can't work but who knows, post-singularity clarcketech will be able to do miracles, unfortunately for us we will not understand how.