TNG without the annoying bits

[Patrick Degan]

In the original, Spock and Tormolen were in suits; the one guy took off his glove to scratch an itch on his nose. While he had his bare skin on the frost, some of the contaminated water got on it. The moron exposed himself and everything followed after. In the half-assed TNG copy of the episode, nobody wore protection on the Tsiolkovsky and Geordi first got infected touching a frosted corpse that fell out of a closet.

[StarSword]

* That's another thing: if I had to choose between an FN P90 (submachine gun used by the SGC off-world teams) and a phaser, I'd take the P90 partly because you don't have to guess what its effect on something is: it puts holes in things, period.

Except Goa'uld shields and glider armor and mothership doors and Kull warriors or Ori prior's barriers or ring transporters.

Oh yeah, and rocks too.

You're missing the point: a submachine gun is not material-dependent in the way phasers are. If a projectile weapon doesn't work on something, that simply means the energy of the projectile isn't enough to penetrate the target, so you either retreat or get out a bigger gun. Same with a SW blaster, BSG lasers, Babylon 5 PPGs, Stargate staff weapons and zats, etc. Hell, even Romulan disruptors would have predictable effects if the writers had any sense: since they supposedly fire antiprotons, they'd do nasty damage to anything they hit. (In atmosphere, however, they would be worthless for anything except suicide.) But with a phaser, if you encounter a new material, you have absolutely no way to guess what effect it will have, if any, because phasers do their damage by creating a chain reaction in the target. It might be that the phaser doesn't work at low power levels (in which case you switch to a higher setting), or it might be that NDF plain doesn't work on it at all (*cough* packing crates *cough cough*).

Frankly, I'm complaining about unnecessary complexity in ST weapons. In the words of Revy in Black Lagoon, "Only one thing matters with guns. You shoot and hit what you aim for." Less-complex weapons are also more effective than phasers against opponents like the Borg. You have to randomize the bolt frequency of a phaser to prevent Borg drones from adapting, but a Thompson submachine gun (a holographic one, no less!) has absolutely no problem.

Far too many of ST's annoying bits can be laid squarely at the feet of lazy writers who think it's better to come up with weird technobabble than to do something that not only doesn't violate physical laws, but makes for a better show.

[StarSword]

Frankly, I'm complaining about unnecessary complexity in ST weapons.

That "complexity" saves lives by being able to adapt to unexpected situations.

Such as?

[Batman]

Actually phasers were used to kill on stun in TUC so 'every time they're used on stun saves lives' is technically incorrect

[StarSword]

<snip list>

Mmm. Okay, you've convinced me that they're useful in the way that a Swiss Army knife or Leatherman is useful. I'm not convinced that being this versatile makes them better weapons, however. I'll grant the stun setting is extremely useful, but I still think the kill setting is needlessly complicated.

[Multiverse]

Set to kill. Point. Shoot. Thing is dead. Doesn't get much simpler than that.

In thinking about phasers recently it occurred to me that the intensity and duration of fire needed to stun or kill someone should vary depending on the species of the target. as such it would make more sense to me for characters to just talk about increasing the intensity of the phaser beam instead of talking about stun settings or kill settings.

[Batman]

Especially as the various numbered settings are as far as I can recall never explained WRT what they actually mean effects-wise.

[Multiverse]

I would assume that you would know the effects of Level 6, or some other level, if it consistently kills humans and only stuns Klingons. Of course, that assumes the effects would be consistent across episodes and not plot dependent.

[Stofsk]

The effects of each level were written out in the tech manual.* The writers were a little consistent with it because in 'Chain of Command part 1' and 'Frame of Mind' level 16 is referenced as the highest setting and is used to burn/dissolve heavy materials (in the former, a big rock, and in the latter, Riker was confident to test the phaser on a building wall to escape the illusion he was under).

It seems sometime in between TOS and TNG the phaser was refined to the point where it had multiple levels. For the most part, TOS phasers generally had two settings, although this had begun to change by TUC when the assassins used phasers on a tight beam but not on the 'destroy whatever it hit' mode but on something like 'punch a hole through whatever you hit'.

* There are several levels of 'stun' in TNG phasers, light, medium and heavy. Several of 'kill' as well. A lot of the kill settings cause nervous system damage which explains why not everyone who dies gets melted or dissolved. You also have the 'disrupt' settings, i.e. someone getting 'vapourised', which appear to start at level 8.

[Darth Tedious]

Yeah, even though the tech manual is in itself non-canon, the writers stuck to it well enough in this case to pretty much canonise what it says.

[Batman]

Even TOS phasers had multiple settings-there were several levels of stun, the cutting torch/heat ray settings, kill and disintegrate.