Phaser (fictional weapon)
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In the Star Trek fictional universe, a phaser is a beam (or directed-energy) weapon most commonly used by the Federation Starfleet.
Overview
According to The Star Trek Encyclopedia, the term phaser stands for phased energy rectification and describes the general process involved in its energy release (see Mechanics). In the original scripts for (TOS), the energy weapons first used by the crew were lasers. However, this was changed to phaser shortly after the first pilot episode, "The Cage", was filmed (and becoming a weapons innovation in the late 23rd century), on the grounds that a laser could not possibly produce the explosive effects seen in the episode. (Earliest series outlines describe the standard sidearm as a projectile weapon that had a rotating cylinder which held different bullets for different needs, much like the DS Gun from Logan's Run).Phasers are available in a variety of sizes (see Types), ranging from small hand-held units to large phaser banks (in TOS) and collimated phaser arrays (in and after (TNG)) that equip starships and various installations. (As well, a unique pulse phaser system equipped Defiant class warships.) A personnel phaser discharged at its lower settings stuns the victim (similar to the effect caused by a taser). At its highest setting, a personnel phaser kills and vaporises the victim. In between, the various stun settings may have little or no effect on certain lifeforms, forcing the user to set the phaser to progressively higher settings that may simply immobilise, char, or fatally burn a target or completely vaporise a large area. Phasers can also be used to heat rocks for a heat source when necessary and can be adjusted to emit a wide beam to simultaneously stun multiple targets.
Later in TNG, smaller handheld Type I phasers were said to have eight settings while larger Type II and III phasers have sixteen settings. A user could also vary beam width and beam intensity (see TNG personnel phaser power settings).
Mechanics
The prefire chamber is the part of the weapon where energy from the power cell is gathered, amplified, and processed; it is analogous to a capacitor in use today. Once processed in the prefire chamber, the energy is then released through the emitter crystal as a focused beam of collimated energy in the form of subatomic particles called nadions.Phasers can sometimes be set to overload, which results in a large explosion that can incinerate everything in the immediate vicinity. Overloads happen when energy from the weapon's power cell is pumped into the phaser's prefire chamber, but not released through the emitter crystal.
To cause an overload, the user sets the phaser so that more and more energy is forced into the prefire chamber, but not released through the emitter crystal. Eventually, the prefire chamber cannot hold itself together under the pressure and it explodes, dually making the phaser a firearm and (when needed) a bomb. The function's drawbacks are that it produces a distinctive whine that increases in pitch and volume as the weapon reaches critical mass, which can alert any potential victim to allow them to find and stop the weapon, or reach safety, lack of a set time that an overloaded phaser will actually explode, and phasers have varying power of the explosion. Also, it's never a good idea to toss away your weapon in combat, even your backup.
Types
There are many types and variations of phasers. The later series (TNG and after) and semi-canon materials have established at least twelve types of phasers of increasing size and capability: Types I, II, and III are personnel phasers, and Types IV through XII equip ships. In and since TNG (the following is not exhaustive):
- Type I is a very small handheld version, called the "cricket" backstage
- Type II is a larger sidearm-type weapon, originally called the "dustbuster" backstage due to its resemblance to the Black & Decker appliance during the first two seasons. A sleeker and more compact version was introduced at the beginning of the third season of TNG and was further refined throughout ', ', and the movies set in that timeframe.
- Type III is a combat rifle
- Type IV equips auxiliary craft like small shuttlecraft and shuttlepods
- Type V equips larger shuttlecraft
- Type VI equips the Danube class
- Type IX equips the Ambassador class and was later refitted to Deep Space Nine (DS9)
- Type X equips the Galaxy and Nebula classes, and was later refitted as well to DS9
- Type XI equips starbases and are also used for planetary defense
- Type XII equips the Sovereign class
TNG personnel phaser power settings
In TNG, personnel phasers were noted to have up to sixteen power settings: settings 1 to 8 were available to all personnel phasers (including the small Type I phaser), but 9 to 16 were available only to the larger Type II and III phasers. Settings 1 through 3 produced various levels of stun (through disruption of a target's nervous and muscular systems) and thermal effects, settings 5 through 8 produced fatal and (at 8) organic disintegration effects, while the higher settings produced a variety of explosive and nuclear effects.
| Setting | Effect | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | light stun | can cause temporary central nervous system impairment for up to 5 minutes |
| 2 | medium stun | can make base type humanoids unconscious for up to 15 minutes, but resistant humanoids for only 5 minutes |
| 3 | heavy stun | can make base-type humanoids sleep for about 1 hour, but resistant bioforms for up 15 minutes |
| 4 | low thermal effects | can cause extensive central nervous system damage and skin electromagnetic injury to base-type humanoids |
| 5 | high thermal effects | can cause severe burns to base-type humanoids |
| 6 | light disruption | organic tissue begins to show molecular damage and rapid dissociation |
| 7 | moderate disruption | causes immediate death |
| 8 | medium disruption | highest Type I phaser setting; humanoid organisms vaporise due to cascading nuclear disruption forces |
| 9 | high disruption | medium alloys and ceramic structural materials can be vaporised |
| 10 | extreme disruption | heavy materials rebound the energy and are vaporised within 0.55 seconds |
| 11 | slight explosive disruption | causes slight geological displacement; 10 m³ of rock can be decoupled per single discharge |
| 12 | light explosive disruption | causes moderate geological displacement as 50 m³ of rock can be decoupled per single discharge |
| 13 | moderate explosive disruption | causes medium geological displacement as 90 m³ of rock can be decoupled per single discharge |
| 14 | medium explosive disruption | causes heavy geological displacement, as 160 m³ of rock can be decoupled per single discharge |
| 15 | high explosive disruption | causes extreme geological displacement, as 370 m³ of rock can be decoupled per single discharge |
| 16 | extreme explosive disruption | causes catastrophic geological displacement, as 650 m³ of rock can be decoupled per single discharge, shielded matter exhibits fractures |
See also
- Weapons of Star Trek
- Romulan disruptors
- Klingon disruptors
Outside of Star Trek
- Time Lords, who use phase pistols
- Phaser (other uses)
- Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response rifle (PHASR), an actual dazzler (weapon)
External link
article at Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki
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