Patrick Ogaard wrote:We do see one TNG-era low-yield phaser pistol, albeit a nonfunctional one, being held by a Federation civilian. That would be in The Survivors. Sure, the weapon, like the entire small estate, was a Douwd simulation, but one that passed unremarked by Worf and Picard. They accepted the weapon as genuine and apparently not out of place for a colonist to have.
Did you not recognize the prop? That's a TOS-vintage hand phaser from "The Cage". The Douwd was threatening them with an antique.
It looks nothing like the old-style phaser from The Cage. Those weapons had cylindrical barrels with clearly metallic components and no handguard.
Looking at my old tape of The Survivors, the weapon used in that TNG episode is made of dark gray plastic, has a stepped taper to a small rectangular or trapezoidal emitter at the front, and has a hand guard of the same gray plastic material, that runs down from the underside of the weapon and then bends back at a right angle to join with the butt of the pistol. Overall, it actually seems like a practical weapon compared to a Starfleet hand phaser from the TNG, DS9 or Voyager periods.
Patrick Ogaard wrote:We do see one TNG-era low-yield phaser pistol, albeit a nonfunctional one, being held by a Federation civilian. That would be in The Survivors. Sure, the weapon, like the entire small estate, was a Douwd simulation, but one that passed unremarked by Worf and Picard. They accepted the weapon as genuine and apparently not out of place for a colonist to have.
Did you not recognize the prop? That's a TOS-vintage hand phaser from "The Cage". The Douwd was threatening them with an antique.
It looks nothing like the old-style phaser from The Cage. Those weapons had cylindrical barrels with clearly metallic components and no handguard.
Looking at my old tape of The Survivors, the weapon used in that TNG episode is made of dark gray plastic, has a stepped taper to a small rectangular or trapezoidal emitter at the front, and has a hand guard of the same gray plastic material, that runs down from the underside of the weapon and then bends back at a right angle to join with the butt of the pistol. Overall, it actually seems like a practical weapon compared to a Starfleet hand phaser from the TNG, DS9 or Voyager periods.
My mind must be playing tricks on me. I was sure it was an old "Christopher Pike"-era phaser.
"This is supposed to be a happy occasion... Let's not bicker and argue about who killed who."
-- The King of Swamp Castle, Monty Python and the Holy Grail
"Nothing of consequence happened today. " -- Diary of King George III, July 4, 1776
"This is not bad; this is a conspiracy to remove happiness from existence. It seeks to wrap its hedgehog hand around the still beating heart of the personification of good and squeeze until it is stilled."
-- Chuck Sonnenburg on Voyager's "Elogium"
I was surprised myself when I looked at the tape again after so many years. I had a completely different memory of the gun, since I had visualized it in memory as being white, with a large, bowed out handguard, a bulky power unit above the butt and a pronouncedly separate barrel. Old age takes no prisoners, I guess.
I know the weapon your talking about, its in the art of star trek, I'll scan it and up load it sometime in the next 24 hours. Also, in that book is a weapon more poorly designed then a phaser!
