In the shows and movies taking place post-TNG, we see so many different phaser rifles! DS9 continues to use the type-III introduced in TNG, while VOY busts out the compression rifles in "Caretaker." Then, we see no fewer than three different kinds of rifles in ST:FC, one of which goes on to be featured in VOY, swapping out with the compression rifles. Why so many rifles? Why didn't VOY just use the type-III from TNG and DS9? Did they each have a different function?
We have a wide variety of guns today, don't we? There are a variety of rifles, shotguns, and pistols. Each offers a different shooting and destructive experience. It makes sense the same would be true of phasers. Plus, as better power sources and other weapon tech comes along, they keep changing to keep giving their soldiers the best there is.
The question I've always wanted answered is how did Voyager acquire the new design of type-II phasers (with the curved handles)? The first style they use (later TNG) worked just fine, so it seems pointless for them to use up precious replicator energy and matter to create a whole new batch. Then again if they were onboard from the beginning, why didn't they use them? Its always made no sense to me.
They may have just had a shipment of the new designs in a cargo bay. As the old models wore out, they started on the new batch. I'm sure that was the "official" reason, anyway...
That works, doesn't require any fanwanking. Good explanation! Same thing can explain why some of the crew wore the standard uniform in Generations and others wore the new black with coloured collars version. After a certain date, whenever they replicated a new uniform, it would be the Voyager style one, but until then they wore whatever they had, which was the one we saw throughout the series. It would also explain why Voyager never used them. They got lost before the update was sent out to put the patterns for the FC style uniform into the replicator's database, so they had to keep using the old style.
I'd rather think both styles of uniform were in use simultaneously - neither was older or newer than the other. It's just that the one that looked more like working coveralls was used for, well, work (DS9, small ships), while the other one was the more pompous style that was worn in official situations (UFP Flagship and other big ships, Starfleet Headquarters). And Picard ran a tight ship for seven years, not allowing the people in the coveralls to expose themselves to the dignitaries visiting the ship, but then let his hair down for ST:GEN. Timo Saloniemi
The DS9 coveralls were always portrayed as the "dress down" version of the standard TNG uniform. In one episode, Sisko goes back to earth and (being in a "proper" Starfleet environement) immediately changes to the TNG uniform. Why Starfleet should later adopt the coveralls as a uniform fleetwide I'll never know. Timo makes an interesting case, but still....
We already have evidence of at least two eras where the "parade" or "Class A" uniform style is accompanied by coveralls: the TNG/DS9/VOY era and the TOS movie era. We might consider the TOS wraparound coveralls as a third such case; we'll see if the rebooted movies introduce a similar parallel style for the alternate 2250s or early 2260s. Neither the "A" nor the "B" style seemed to represent fleetwide standard in those eras - but it did take some time for the "B" style to appear in front of the cameras in the TNG era. I'm sort of hoping somebody will come up with a good-looking "A" style for the ST:FC design, too, and retroactively make it look as if "B" never really was a fleetwide standard in DS9, merely something worn by the working stiffs and those more interested in winning the war than in looking good. For all we know, Picard no longer commanded the Federation Flagship in ST:FC, ST:INS and ST:NEM, and for that reason no longer insisted on everybody wearing the "A" style for the era. It's a bit contrary to that idea, though, that our heroes would be in their best dress uniforms at the beginning of ST:INS, yet the band playing in the background would be wearing humble coveralls... Timo Saloniemi
Regarding phaser rifles, the scene in "Empok Nor" where Nog reports in toting a ST:FC style rifle when the security team carries the older TNG/DS9 rifle type makes me think the ST:FC design is not (merely/at all) newer, but somehow "heavier" than the TNG/DS9 "standard" type. That is, there exists some reason why the ST:FC rifle hasn't superceded the TNG/DS9 style weapon, some difference between the two weapons. And the Nog thing would indicate that the ST:FC one is the "better" gun, at least according to the young Ferengi. Perhaps the "light machine gun" that only one or two people in a squad would carry to complement the more useful and certainly more compact "assault rifles"? A squad from the E-E might also be equipped with, say, seven "standard" rifles and just one of these heavier things. It's just that the Borg in ST:FC were such an exceptional threat that Picard only broke out the heavy weapons and didn't bother with the regular ones... The difference between the two ST:FC rifle types is something I'd very much like to overlook, considering Worf's gun suddenly and inexplicably switches from one model to another as he walks down a corridor. Since the difference between the two is an extra piece of plastic surrounding the barrel, perhaps this piece is removable in-universe - a "silencer" of some sort? The third rifle would of course defend its place in the universe by being a dedicated spacewalk weapon, with extra-clumsy handles for that extra-clumsy spacesuited grip; it may well be a "standard" rifle from the inside. Timo Saloniemi