Why didn't Lily kill Picard?

[Prometheus Unbound]

[Crazedwraith]

Because she believed him when he said he wasn't her enemy and wanted to help?

Because she's trapped on a spaceship and her only way down is with his help?

Because murder isn't easy? Seriously? What is ambigious about this sene?

[Q99]

She wanted to know what faction he was- even if he was an enemy, like, she had him at gunpointed and wanted information?

Pretty much what Crazedwraith said. Lilly wasn't looking for an excuse to kill him. Once she was uncertain if he was an enemy, even less so.

[Simon_Jester]

Yeah, the only reason someone photoshopped in Lily shooting Picard at the last second is because they thought the "lol" of an unexpected thing happening was worth it.

Turns out most people aren't psychotic ax murderers who actually like to randomly kill strangers. Who knew?

[Prometheus Unbound]

No no , I don't mean why didn't she murder him - the phaser is on full power and she presses the top of it into Picard's palm when she hands it to him. That's where the button to fire is, isn't it?

He's lucky it didn't go off and vape him. Do phasers have a safety?

[Crazedwraith]

The fuck? How did I miss that bit in the video when I watched it this morning?

Anyway, I guess she didn't push it hard enough to depress the button properly? Or there is a grip safety that you have to be holding it correctly to make it fire. (That's actually cool if it's true. Suck it "hurr durr, no safety, no trigger guard!" wankers)

[SpottedKitty]

Anyway, I guess she didn't push it hard enough to depress the button properly? Or there is a grip safety that you have to be holding it correctly to make it fire.

I have a vague memory of something from one of the Tech Manuals. Don't Starfleet hand phasers have biometric locks that can be set to only allow authorised users?

[phred]

He's still worried about the phaser, so I would guess no.

[Lord Revan]

Anyway, I guess she didn't push it hard enough to depress the button properly? Or there is a grip safety that you have to be holding it correctly to make it fire.

I have a vague memory of something from one of the Tech Manuals. Don't Starfleet hand phasers have biometric locks that can be set to only allow authorised users?

any such locks aren't supported in canon were anyone can just pick up a phaser and use it even if they haven't heard of starfleet before that episode.

a grip safety might make some sense, that said, the thing about a trigger guard is that it protects you even when holding the gun properly as you might trip or stumble and press the trigger by accident but if there's a solid piece of material betwen you and trigger that shouldn't happen. (same reason why you shouldn't keep your finger on the trigger unless you want to shoot something right now)

[Prometheus Unbound]

That's the most common phaser designs... I don't see any guard or safety there.

Obviously Picard didn't touch it hard enough for it to fire off a shot in STFC but the way she handles it to him seems to be the most dangerous way you could hand someone a starfleet phaser.

[Sea Skimmer]

...you have to wonder how a single button works for beam intensity control, that's a small button to be a rocker switch, but one would HOPE a means exists to set that to zero! Surely the battery can be taken out to render it safe for storage, given that they explode like grenades on demand it would be rather unsafe to store them charged even compared to normal gun safety. Real small arms ammo won't mass detonate.

As for dangerously handling weapons, people do that all the damn time in real life, and Picard is good at keeping his head cool so its reasonable that he didn't adversely react to the way she handed it to him, in favor of trying to avoid scaring her into accidentally firing it.

[Batman]

It's not like holding down the button until you reach the intensity you like and double-clicking to reset to zero if you overshoot is unheard of in real life.

[Sea Skimmer]

With deadly weapons that scale in power from stun to vaporize to blowup walls? You want to rethink that or cite an example? Cause in real life by the time you get into explosive weapons you usually also have at least two safeties.

This isn't a damn TV remote; imputing the wrong power level is a life or death problem with a small arms for close combat, and in this case its bonus life or death because the higher settings could kill the user by proximity to the resulting explosion, while the lowest settings aren't effective against all humanoid enemies. Using a single button is just stupid like everything else about hand phaser design. And then you have all the bonus problems that could be caused by setting the wrong beam width, and the fact that those two buttons are identical, side by side and TINY.

[SpottedKitty]

And then you have all the bonus problems that could be caused by setting the wrong beam width, and the fact that those two buttons are identical, side by side and TINY.

I remember at least one occasion Riker was going all shooty-shooty on something, he paused to look at his phaser, there was a cut to a closeup of the controls and the lights going up as he jiggled his thumb on the button. That was just intensity, though, I don't remember if we've ever seen phaser shots where the beam width was fiddled with. I agree, it's hardly the most ergonomic or failsafe weapon design.

[Prometheus Unbound]

And then you have all the bonus problems that could be caused by setting the wrong beam width, and the fact that those two buttons are identical, side by side and TINY.

I remember at least one occasion Riker was going all shooty-shooty on something, he paused to look at his phaser, there was a cut to a closeup of the controls and the lights going up as he jiggled his thumb on the button. That was just intensity, though, I don't remember if we've ever seen phaser shots where the beam width was fiddled with. I agree, it's hardly the most ergonomic or failsafe weapon design.

They play with 2-3 button presses to make it go wide beam, but we never see a point of view shot of it, just hearing the beeps. The underside of the phaser can also slide away which reveals more buttons - we see them do this when they're recharging them or setting them to overload or do something it wasn't meant to do before. Wesley uses this method to set a hand phaser on "auto fire" at a forcefield in The Game - set as a distraction so they think he's still there firing at the wall when he's actually long gone.

The Left and Right buttons primarily control the power level - we see this 2-3 times in Trek. A good example is O'Brien in "Hard Time" when he goes to kill himself - he takes a phaser out that's on level 1 in storage and we see him, POV, press the buttons up 7 times as it goes through the green settings, then it starts lighting up red (like the one in Lily's hand) once it gets to setting 9 and beyond.

Lily's was set on level 16 apparently.

[Lord Revan]

Well Picard showed it to her and said "maxium setting if you had shot me you would have vaporized me" or words to that effect. That would make sense against the Borg as you want to go down from 1 shot and not waste a single shot as you got a limited amount before they adapt, also the ENT borg episode seems to imply that higher power shots take longer to adapt to then lower power ones.

[Zor]

I'm going to with "She's not a cold blooded killer".

Zor

[Darth Lucifer]

I remember at least one occasion Riker was going all shooty-shooty on something, he paused to look at his phaser, there was a cut to a closeup of the controls and the lights going up as he jiggled his thumb on the button. That was just intensity, though...

From TNG Season 3, "The Vengeance Factor"

RIKER: The wars are over, Yuta.
YUTA: You cannot understand.
RIKER: You're right, I can't. Because I've seen the part of you that regrets what you've become. Listen to me. You don't have to do this any more.
YUTA: I have no choice.
RIKER: You do.
YUTA: William, I. I'm sorry.
RIKER: Stop.
(The first shot is a mild stun. Yuta staggers, then reaches for Chorgan again. The next shot is higher. Then Riker puts the phaser up to full power)
RIKER: Yuta, don't do this.
(She moves towards Chorgan again, and Riker vapourises her)

I don't remember if we've ever seen phaser shots where the beam width was fiddled with.

I recall this scene from VOY Season 1 "Cathexis" but I don't know if there's video that actually shows if he adjusts the phaser or not prior to stunning the bridge crew, since it was kind of a chaotic scene:

[Bridge]

(The thing is watching from above.)
JANEWAY: I want you all to be aware of something that has happened, something I must assume was due to the alien. The Doctor has been deactivated, and we can't get him back online. I have decided to divide my command protocols.
TUVOK: Captain?
(Janeway hits Tuvok, knocking him down. He draws a phaser but she kicks it out of his hand.)
TUVOK: Stun her! She's the alien!
(Paris obeys. Then Kim pulls his phaser and Paris disarms him. Next to try and shoot Tuvok is Durst, but he misses. Paris hits him then Tuvok stuns all the bridge crew with a wide burst.)

[Prometheus Unbound]

I'm going to with "She's not a cold blooded killer".

Zor

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