Flare Sci-Fi Forums: Color of Quantum

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Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :

This has probably been covered before, but:

What color does a quantum torpedo exhibit?
We see blue ones in ST:FC, "yellowish" ones in "Defiant" (DS9) and "Rules of Engagement", and "orangeish" ones in one other episode which I can't remember. So...? (We know that photons are always red)
And what is the reason (if any) for this?

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"Cry havoc and let's slip the dogs of Evil"

Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :

Photon torpedos are red, orange or yellow, depending on the vintage.

Voyager has always had yellow photons, the Enterprise-D (Galaxy-Class) had red ones, from the first volley in "Encounter at Farpoint" to the last one, in "Generations".
There are two RARE deviations from the Red-Orange-Yellow type. In "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" the Enterprise fires a 'blue' photon torpedo against an asteroid, and in "Star Trek V: The final Frontier" the Enterprise-A fires a green photon torpedo against the alien-claiming-to-be-God.

I haven't heard an explanation for those incidents.

Quantum's vary only between blue and light-purple, there aren't any other kind. I can't imagine where you could have seen the defiant fire yellow torpedos, except maybe in the mirror universe, but that must've been photon's. My screencaps from "Defiant" shows blue ones.

In "Starship Down" a quantum torpedo actually penetrates the Defiant's hull, and gets stuck there, so you get an upclose look, although that's the Dominion type, delivered by the Karemma. The Starfleet kind is probably slightly different.

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Somehow we're going somewhere.

[This message has been edited by Nimrod (edited January 21, 2000).]

Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :

Uhm... Voyager has RED torps as far as I know

And the TOS series doesn't count

BTW, when have you seen yellow photons??? Yellow quantums, maybe (in "Rules of Engagament"!), but... no way there are yellow photons in any other TNG/DS9 ep.

(excuse the general grammar of this message but I'm kinda tired)

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"Cry havoc and let's slip the dogs of Evil"

[This message has been edited by The_Evil_Lord (edited January 21, 2000).]

Posted by Starbuck (Member # 153) on :

AFAIK, the torp in STV wasn't the Enterprise. Spock had taken Klaa's Bird-of-Prey down to the surface and used its forward cannons...

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"Replicate some marmalade, Commander - helm control is toast!"

Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :

Voyager has yellow photon torpedos, like in "Year Of hell", "Night", "Hope and Fear", "Dark Frontier" or any episode of voyager firing.

Old photon torpedos does count, that's what they built the new ones from. And I'm not talking about the sixties series, I'm talking about ST:I & V.

I: Blue
II: Red (Reliant and Ent.)
III: Red
IV: No torps
V: Green
VI: Red
VII: Red
VIII: Blue (Quantum)
IX: Blue

Starbuck: Before the BoP closed in on the "god" with it's disruptors the Enterprise-A fired a green photon torpedo at the big arc where the "god" and Syboc where fighting. You may remember Kirk leaping for cover and the trio (Spock&Bones too) heading for the shuttle.

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Somehow we're going somewhere.

Posted by Marko Latin on :

OK. We know that mostly photon torpedoes are red or yellow (rarely) and quantums are always blue...maybe the writing staff was feeling a little weird when they decided to put the different colored torpedoes somewhere...

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Dream on...in the end...dreams are everything...

Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

Hmm. "The TOS series"? As in, the the original series series? The most recursively named show...ever.

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"20th Century, go to sleep."
--
R.E.M.

Posted by bonecrusher on :

You are all right the torp in ST5 was green fired by the A.
In the DS9 episodes those were probably the Pulse Phaser cannons used to fight the cardassians. They are red-yellow. The Quantums have always been BLUE!

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"I Got two words for you.. S*uck it!"-DeGeneration X
Oh Hell Ya there back!

Bonecrusher
http://members.xoom.com/smartiee

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

Curious... How does "red-yellow" differ from orange? :-)

And the green torp in ST5 was streaking through atmosphere at the time. Perhaps that had some effect. As for the blue one in TMP... Maybe, when the E was upgraded, they gave it some top-of-the-line, experimental torps. Unfortunately, these were alter found to be ineffective, so they went back to the red ones.

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"Voyager is not true. If it were true, the ship would not look spick-and-span every week, after all these battles it goes through. How many times has the bridge been destroyed? How many shuttlecrafts have vanished, and another one just comes out of the oven? That kind of bullshitting the audience I think takes its toll."
-Ronald D. Moore

Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :

Well, the pulse-phaser's are orange-white, but we're talking about the inner and outer body of the projectile, the corona and the core. It's easier to describe different torp's then.

Since the Defiant sometimes like to fire it's phaser's one shot at a time, I guess it can be misinterpreted as torpedos. But the majority of battles it has fought has been with quantum's.

ST-V: I think it's a little far-fetched to blaim it on the atmosphere. Besides, it was green when it hit the ground too, in Kirk's incredible leap of might. Atmospheric rub-off?
Let's just blame it on torpedo-evolution, shall we?

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Somehow we're going somewhere.

Posted by Montgomery (Member # 23) on :

There'd be a little variation in the spectra depending on the fuel used in the torpedo. Some wizard engineer may, to impress his captain, mix up a heady brew of his own fuel. In general though, just say Photon torpedos are either harsh red (the Galaxy's) or a more ubiquitous orangish (Voyager).

Quantum-torps are blue-white, and I'd nominate the E-E's display in the battle in First contact as the canon standard. If only because it turned me on.

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Gene: "I AM Star Trek"
Yvonne: "You can't sum yourself up in so small a package."
Gene: "SMALL?!!"

- Gene Roddenberry: The Last Conversation

Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :

I'm telling you I've seen YELLOW quantums... someone go see "Rules of Engagement" and keep eyes open during the flashback scene where the Defiant battles the Klingons! It cannot be the ship's phasers since they are fire-linked (four pulses/beams) and a pulse-phaser blast looks a LOT different from a torp, period.
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"Cry havoc and let's slip the dogs of Evil"

[This message has been edited by The_Evil_Lord (edited January 22, 2000).]

Posted by Black Knight (Member # 134) on :

Actually, I'm watching Rules of Engagement now. When Worf fires on the Klingon Freighter, he says to fire quantum torpedoes, and they are yellow.

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Navigator-"Heading, Sir?"
Kirk-"Out there...somewhere...out thatta-way."--Star Trek: TMP

Posted by Marko Latin on :

Maybe the torpedoes can be any color...maybe it doesn't matter. I know we have seen torpedoes in lots of different colors. Maybe the producting staff can't make up their minds. I vote for BLUE quantums and YELLOW photons (somehow i don't like the red ones...

Starfleet salesman: Hello captain! How do you do? From our wide range of products i offer you our today's special! The quantum torpedo mark IV! You can get them in a wide range of colors and there is an christmas variant too, for those special occasions... A shipment of one hundred of theese babys would let you whoop dominion ships for a month! What do you say?

Captain: Great! I'll take the christmas variant...the one with all the coloured lights...

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Dream on...in the end...dreams are everything...