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After studying the FTL demonstrated in the new film, I thought I'd have a look at the effects of the handheld weapons demonstrated there and compare it to older versions.

*The Romulan energy weapons, I think, are capable of blowing through the armor of Nero's drill--I think the first few shots did comparatively little, indicating that they had to chip their way through, so to speak. Either way, this does indicate some moderately impressive AP capability.
*Romulan melee weapons can quite casually cut through flesh and clothing, even when wielded by an average human--Sulu.
*Phasers are...odd. I think they still far continious beams, but for some reason I keep thinking of bolt effects like blasters. When they hit a target, they cause some sort of dissipating light effect on the target, which then collapses. We don't have much to quantify from, but I don't remember them leaving much physical damage.

So, that's what I've got. If I missed anything, please point it out. Now, how does this compare to, say, blasters, and more importantly, previous ST continuity? Of course, we haven't got much, but I still thought it would be interesting.

Damn; can someone move this to the Star Trek forum?

At what point did Sulu use a Romulan melee weapon?

That sword he was using was his own sword.

Ryan Thunder wrote:At what point did Sulu use a Romulan melee weapon?

That sword he was using was his own sword.

I think he used one to stab the one that had Kirk on the ledge.

*Phasers are...odd. I think they still far continious beams, but for some reason I keep thinking of bolt effects like blasters. When they hit a target, they cause some sort of dissipating light effect on the target, which then collapses. We don't have much to quantify from, but I don't remember them leaving much physical damage.

They look and act more like weakish Star Wars blasters than (old) Star Trek phasers. Except that based on the sound effects and some background VFX I think they keep burning the target for a few seconds, like napalm. Hooray for the humane Federation!

Well if I remember the scene with Spock and Kirk aboard the Romulan vessel the pistols had at least the equivalent power of a .45 pistol by they way man sized targets were dropping.

Anguirus wrote:
They look and act more like weakish Star Wars blasters than (old) Star Trek phasers. Except that based on the sound effects and some background VFX I think they keep burning the target for a few seconds, like napalm. Hooray for the humane Federation!

Yes, I thought that sizzling bacon noise they made whenever they hit someone on the kill setting was a nice touch.

*The Romulan energy weapons, I think, are capable of blowing through the armor of Nero's drill--I think the first few shots did comparatively little, indicating that they had to chip their way through, so to speak. Either way, this does indicate some moderately impressive AP capability.

Going by what we see in the movie I doubt they were penetrating armor, more like shooting out the exposed wires/piping/cooling lines and such. Remember we're talking a piece of civilian equipment here, it's not going to be constructed with saboteurs in mind.

Anguirus wrote:

*Phasers are...odd. I think they still far continious beams, but for some reason I keep thinking of bolt effects like blasters. When they hit a target, they cause some sort of dissipating light effect on the target, which then collapses. We don't have much to quantify from, but I don't remember them leaving much physical damage.

They look and act more like weakish Star Wars blasters than (old) Star Trek phasers. Except that based on the sound effects and some background VFX I think they keep burning the target for a few seconds, like napalm. Hooray for the humane Federation!

Well Pike did refer to the Federation being a "Humanitarian and Peacekeeping Armada." I get the feeling that after Nero and whats happened to Vulcan, there's going to be quite a bit of the latter. Feddie ships certainly seem better armed this time around.

It's not like being shot with an ordinary phaser is pianless...

Moving.