Federation Phasers and Pistols in Star Trek - A slightly comprehensive guide
--------
There are four types of standard issue Federation phasers we see handled by our crews throughout the many shows that we get good looks and information on. Phase-pistols, Type I, Type II, and phase rifles. Wanna learn about space guns? Here's the post for you.
PHASE-PISTOL
Distinctly not a phaser, this is our earliest example of weaponry on screen in the Star Trek universe, used only in ENT.
Phase-pistols have two settings and two settings only; stun and kill. Like most phase weapons, stun could be used for tasks like starting fires, but you really had to commit to one or the other. We don't really see them, but the version we see in ENT apparently compensates for particle drift in a way previous versions did not.
MACOs onboard used a modified version of them, but we really don't get much information on exactly what the modifications were. Just that they were modified.
So what's the pros and cons? Pro, useful weapon. Con, everything else. These guys are rudimentary in comparison to the later phasers we have with very little ability beyond tasing or murdering the guy in front of you. It has its uses as a utility tool, but otherwise, I don't recommend picking one of these to defend you in battle.
TYPE I PHASER
These are the small handheld ones we see in TOS and the beginning of TNG.
They have eight settings from stun to disintegrate, very useful. Known for their small profile and easily pocketable design, these guys are the earliest design we've seen on screen when it comes to phasers. They did not use power packs, and instead needed to be recharged. If yours died in the field or you forgot to plug it in, good luck.
Throughout their appearance they get little tweaks here and there. A version of them has a flip up visor for targeting, some coloring is changed between TOS and SNW, though they remain fairly consistent throughout all versions beyond general modernization.
I'm also going to tack on laser/phaser pistols into this section, as they really aren't used much. They're essentially a slightly more powerful version of type I phasers, useful for cutting through materials. You can see it a couple of times throughout TOS but it's a bit rare.
Pros and cons? It's a good weapon with a variety of uses. The settings can be used to heat up dinner or demolish the competition. Beyond that though, it's still limited in its ability to take out multiple opponents, it's easily lost, and when it's out of battery, you have no way to make it work again.
TYPE II PHASER
These are what most people think of when they think Star Trek phaser. They go through a lot of redesigns so I'm only attaching two here.
The first versions of them have type I phasers mounted on top, working as a kind of amplifier for the phaser. They're still limited by the two settings of stun and kill, but these guys have three settings to determine how narrow you want the beam.
Throughout time we see them mess with it. They slowly get a couple more settings to their beam strength, the width module is taken away, they get the ability to cut through materials, gain back changing the width of a beam, overloading is returned. All the way until the most common form of them that we know.
By the time we get them solidified into the second image attached, there is a get a massive update in their everything. The type I is moved inside, strength settings now range sixteen modules, from stun to vaporize, and we get the widest beam yet. We don't see it used a lot but it's incredibly beneficial when it is. They're a very solid utility weapon with a lot of uses throughout their run.
We now get a less gun-like design and a more ergonomic hold. They pack a much heavier punch than older options with improved cutting abilities, the strongest setting able to dust non-organic matter, and a very explosive overload setting that can take out a solid chunk of a ship.
I think of the weapons we get comprehensive knowledge on, this is the best one. A large variety of uses, strengths, an ability to be used as a battery pack but also swappable power cells, there's not many downsides.
As an aside, DIS does have different phasers post jump, however, we get very little information on them that I could find so I have not included anything on them.
PHASE RIFLE
Sometimes called Type III phasers. While we do see them in use a couple times throughout TOS and other shows, they're not used a whole lot until DS9 and VOY. They go through similar changes throughout time as their pistol counterpart, and this post is long enough already, so I'm not going to be overly-explainy.
These guys are nice, mostly.
They recharge entirely on their own when given enough time, though power packs are still needed for instances where you'll be firing repeatedly, like battle settings. They can lock on targets and be modified quite well. They've also generally now got an added strap for ease of carrying.
We actually get the most comprehensive explanation of these through Kira in DS9's 4x14 “Return to Grace” when she’s talking to Ziyal in comparing them to Cardassian rifles, which to paraphrase, she says are simple but effective and keep working no matter what you do to them. Here’s her on Federation rifles.
KIRA: [...] It’s a little less powerful but it’s got a lot more options. Sixteen beam settings, fully autonomous, recharge, multiple target acquisition, gyrostabilized, the works. It’s um, a little more complicated so it’s not as good a field weapon. Too many things can go wrong with it.
The gyroscopic stabilization doesn't.. make a ton of sense, as as far as we know the rifle barrels don't move. Maybe it's some kind of fancy thing in the future that's able to keep the shots on track. Unsure on that one.
Weapons being too complicated is a tale as old as time. Engineers are known for overengineering. I mean, German tanks were perfect precision instruments for WWII that broke down the moment they weren't on a parade route. I don't think phase rifles would have the same issue, but still. For a rebellion, the thing that you can throw off a cliff and still use is better than the technically better version that you need training to fix.
Overall, phase rifles have plenty of pros and cons. They pack a mean punch, and are very advanced, but have some issues. My guess is prepping and reloading takes a hot minute. In "The Siege of AR-558", a character goes around and gives everyone spare power packs. We also see Bashir set up a rifle, which takes a kind of shocking amount of time. It doesn't seem like a quick point and shoot weapon if you're unfamiliar.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
GUYS ITS ME GARAKS-PADDED-BRA i was so moved by being terminated for no reason i wrote a song so beautiful that tumblr would have no choice but to give me access to my wholesome family friendly blog once more. Reblog if you want Gpb RETURN so you may LOOK AT THE PAUL WILLIAMS FANCAM I MADE
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
I think it’s really interesting to think about the differences between the one and twos in the old era of Star Trek (TOS-ENT).
Spock and Kirk were written to be essentially opposites each other that worked perfectly together, as well as working as our introduction into the universe.
Kirk is emotional, courageous, and a leader. Spock is logical, patient, and a right hand man. As we dig deeper into their psyches we see more overlap in Kirk’s conniving nature, Spock’s strong sense of loyalty.
Picard and Riker are written to be opposites to Kirk and Spock. Picard is a diplomat through and through, self-sacrificing, and struggles with the toll of his job. Riker’s a cowboy, he wants to save everyone, wants to have fun, and struggles with the weight of his job.
I mean, we see the continuous thing of Riker being offered command he doesn’t quite feel ready for, and Picard being a teacher to his core (as long as it’s not to children).
Then we get to Sisko and Kira, who are completely and entirely different from the other one and twos we have so far.
Sisko was written to be incredibly separate from the other Starfleet members, and we can tell. He’s more willing to bend rules, strong in his convictions, and he’s the first proper wartime commander we see. Kira’s an ex-revolutionary that actively fights Sisko, she’s someone with an incredibly set moral compass that doesn’t always point in the same direction as him. They actively clash.
When we move on to Janeway and Chakotay, we get a near similar dynamic but it’s changed just enough.
Janeway’s similar to Sisko in her willingness to do what she thinks is right, but due to her circumstances, she prioritizes Starfleet protocol for a sense of normalcy and we see her constantly working against her guilt. Chakotay doesn’t have the same Starfleet loyalty, and that makes both of them work well in saving the crew in different ways.
Then we have Archer and T’Pol.
Archer falls back hard on the cowboy archetype we had from Kirk and T’Pol was originally slotted into a near adversarial role, both of them massively struggling with one another. T’Pol’s character arc exists separate from Archer, but we see her try to accept his emotionality through her own difficulties and him accept her lack of due to their circumstances.
Each one builds on the past but still does a successful job reinventing a dynamic while not losing what it is that’s needed for this kind of dynamic. Your Captain and your First Officer need to be strong or else shit falls apart, and if it does, you gotta have a damn good reason why.
Much has been said of how Andrew J Robinson's performance of Elim Garak in his initial appearance was a spontaneous decision he made the first time he saw Alexander Siddig in costume, but it's fun to bear in mind that this must have been true from an in character perspective as well.
Like, this is Julian Bashir's first posting fresh out of med school; Garak theoretically has access to what's in Julian's academic record, but he has basically zero personal or professional history to go on.
We thus have to imagine Garak asking "all right, what is the best way to go about pumping this person for information?", taking one look at Julian, and making an on-the-spot decision that his best play is to crank up the daddy energy and attempt a good old-fashioned honey trap.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Julian had spent over an hour staring at himself in the mirror one night.
It wasn’t that big of a deal at first. He was fifteen, a few months out from having his entire worldview ripped apart then unsteadily taped back together, and took too long one night in preparation for bed.
He’d been brushing his teeth, and after spitting, caught his reflection by the jaw to examine.
His teeth were straight. Very straight, actually. Well sized. Running his tongue over them, applying a bit of pressure to the tips, made him flinch slightly. Sharp, but not too sharp. Just right.
Perfect. His.. His teeth were perfect. Not in some ego boosting boasting way, no. His teeth were flawless.
It descended slowly from there. Julian struggled to not magnify himself under a microscope with a detachment he was recalling more and more, poking at his bones and pulling at his skin to make it show bruising that never came.
Each look made his brain shake harder and harder, not knowing what the right way to process each strike of new revelation.
His eyes were symmetrical. His brow bone was prominent, but not too much so. His ears took up the appropriate amount of space, his forehead was proportional, his chin sized to the edges of his nose.
Every piece of him he measured, down to the millimeter, and he came to one horrifying, dizzying conclusion. It clicked into place like a drawn dagger.
Julian Bashir was perfect. Uncannily so. Eerily so.
It wasn’t natural. He was a math project. The idea of a man, not the execution of one. Built and tweaked and changed.
He’d been a gangly kid. Too much limb and not enough substance, even at five years old.
He wasn’t anymore. He always assumed it was merely dumb luck, wonders of the draw of life.
Turned out, he was wrong. There was no chance here. Simply weighed dice tossed by the hands of his parents, his commissioners, sleeping peacefully two rooms away.
Violently, he wanted to take a knife to it. Ruin their canvas they claimed responsibility for, pretending they painted and not just bought for display.
Instead, he slunk back to bed like an ashamed cat, shoulders shifted low and head bowed to watch. Going off to hide from what he’d discovered, not face it.
Not tonight.
He put a sheet over the mirror in his bathroom the next day, and hoped his parents never saw.
Props to Star Trek for having such little faith in how hot all of their actors would become as they aged. Just really did them as dirty as possible so that anything slightly better than cartoonishly old man was stunning in comparison.
Tuvok realizing his degenerative disease is getting worse because he got beat at a strategy game is iconic as all hell. Like no fucking way did I just lose, obviously I am losing cognitive efficiency. That’s the only explanation.
I’m still not over how easy it would’ve been to just.. leave t’hyla at friend and brother. You didn’t have to add lover. There was no need to add the potential for homosexuality into this. Nobody would have blamed you for not including the lover line, actually. But nope, we got Spirk canonized instead.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Something I think about a lot with Garak and Bashir is just how incredibly different they are as individuals, and yet they make such a beautiful relationship with each other based on sheer interest in the other person.
The two of them were raised almost entirely differently. Their personalities clash in a million ways. Their ethical and moral standards are so separate. And yet there is a mutual respect and fascination with the other person that allows them to approach with an open mind, and it becomes a truly special experience of two people from truly different worlds connecting on a shared experience.
