posted
I recently came across this example of a fan fiction short story based on the TOS episode "Mirror, Mirror".
During the course of the story it is revealed that the ships phasers, not just the handheld units, can be set to stun!
This seems like an incredibly useful feature to have, and a logical one too if a ships phasers are in any way similar to, and operate according to the same principles as,the sidearms of the same name. One could envision using them in this mode for subduing enemy troops on a planets surface, for sneak attacks against other vessels and even for policing duties against unco-operative civilian vessels.
Yet this is mentioned in fan fiction only, it seems. I can't find any references elsewhere to this capability. Anyone know of it?
posted
One might postulate that massed use of the stun setting is likely to leave protected soldiers only mildly dazed or unaffected, while killing the children, the elderly, and the cute puppies.
Kirk could risk localized use of stun phasers at Sigma Iotia, because his targets were all out on the streets, were all burly gangsters wearing nothing but zoot suits and tommy-guns, and needn't all be completely stunned for any tactically meaningful period.
In contrast, trying to use ship stun phasers to resolve a hostage crisis (say, ST5:TFF or TNG "Legacy") would be more or less futile: the villains would be well protected, probably within buildings, while innocents would abound in the open around the target area.
Indeed, we have no proof that the stun setting, at any power level, would work through materials other than human skin. We haven't even seen a spacesuited person stunned by a phaser! So the stun phaser might be a good riot control weapon but a more or less useless tool of war.
posted
"Penpal" E-D used a lower power boring setting.
I think it was "Penpal" anywa.
-------------------- "You are a terrible human, Ritten." Magnus "Urgh, you are a sick sick person..." Austin Powers A leek too, pretty much a negi.....
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posted
In "Peak Performance" the E-D and the Hathaway had their phasers set on very low settings for the wargames.
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
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posted
Reminds me of the TOS novel Rules Of Engagment, wherein Sulu, Chekov, & Uhura talk about an orbital smack-programmable launcher, a conversation that makes them break out in giggles much later as they overhear Kirk & McCoy talking about detuning the phasers to give the local annoying aliens a spanking.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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