Question About the Ship's Phasers

Ever since I was a kid, I wondered why the ship's phasers were always a double beam. Whether from a production or in-universe perspective, I don't understand why this was done. It seems if you aim at something very specific, they're going to strike on either side of the target.

Having said that, I do recall one episode where they were shown to converge on a single point when striking.

Am I missing the obvious?

 

Generally, the twin beams are aimed at such big targets that they essentially hit the same spot. Indeed, we never see the two beams individually aimed... But we do see a single-beam firing once, in "The Alternative Factor". Just one beam leaves the ship, just one beam hits Lazarus' little flying saucer.

In the original TOS visuals, there were many problems with how the phasers were depicted. There were color differences that might be interpreted as different settings but don't make complete sense that way. There seemed to be some diverging of the two beams at firing that was no longer evident at the other end of the scene (but that could be just "perspective" / "lens"). And there was the thickness-of-beam issue, the beams always being at least a meter thick next to the starship but hardly thicker than an arm when hitting the target (obviously because targets portrayed by props or locations were small in scale while the starship was big).

But we never did find out why the two beams were needed or preferred. We could argue that the destructive effect came from some sort of a positive-negative pairing, or closing-of-circuit, and that a single beam would in fact have been harmless - but hand phasers always had just one beam, and as said, the ship's phasers fired with a single beam as well, in "The Alternative Factor" and in "The Doomsday Machine" as well (although that was the not-quite-identical Constellation doing the firing). And by the time of ST2, we see Khan's ship using single beams to great destructive effect, while Kirk's uses twin ones to no better effect.

Timo Saloniemi

 

Because it looks cool. I doubt there is any other reason.

Now to explain how the beams radiated out from the ship like this < and yet when the shot cuts, they either converge like this > or hit like this =. I have this bizarre mental image of the shot zooming out and the Enterprise beams having corners.

 

Perhaps Starfleet's idea of ships to ship combat needed a large amount of energy to cause damage. More than their standard phaser emitters could handle alone. But paired, would deliver enough damage to directly engage say a Klingon battlecruiser.

 

This idea of any single emitter being unable to withstand that much use is supported by several things: the regular use of twin beams, the ease at which the phasers break down in "Balance of Terror", and the fact that our heroes have to alternate between emitters (or banks, or whatever) in "Paradise Syndrome" to keep up the fire, and need to specifically rig for simultaneous firing (which still only produces two beams!) for the climax shot.

Now that would be consistent with ST:ID, where the phaser bolts of the Vengeance definitely follow curved paths!

Timo Saloniemi

 

Unless those were weapons other than phasers. I have a feeling those might actually have been photon torpedoes....which would be consistent with previous Trek movie trends where the visual effect of the photorp changed with every movie.

In TMP, the torpedoes were blazing spheres with long spires. In TWOK, the spire effect was reduced a bit in length, but increased in number. In TSFS, the torpedoes were clearly hand drawn/animated, and lacked the Wow factor of the first two movies' torpedoes. In TFF, the seemed to revert back to an original series sort of look. In TUC, they looked like blaster bolts from Star Wars. In GEN, they went back decidedly to the TMP styled torpedo effect....especially noticeable in the Enterprise's coup de grace on the bird of prey. FC's torpedoes looked rather basic. INS went back to the TNG series torpedo style. NEM went back to a cross between TUC and FC.


just an opinion.

 

Guns.


Almost every ship the US and most other navies had twin guns. Phaser guns. I think they were preserving that look.

 

One thing I noticed with the TOS Ships Phasers is that they seem to pulse alternately between each beam. Aside from just looking cool, a possible in universe explanation could be the Phaser emitters have a power spike and cool down cycle. By having two emitters with offset power cycles firing at the same time you have double the high intensity spikes striking the target.

 

This.

When the beams passed through the deflector shields, they were appropriately deflected.

 

I remember after watching TWOK, some players of the StarFleet Battles game began referring to the Enterprise and Reliant as having "gatling phasers". However, as I recall, a gatling phaser was a four-emitter bank on a starship in the game....which of course led to many canon debates...lol.

 

In the WW2 model that would have predominated in people's memories at the time, warships generally fired their guns broadside or at least on an angle from the centerline.

The pairs of beams, firing forward from on the centerline, seems more likely inspired by aerial combat to me, whether consciously or not.

 

I was thinking of turrets, but that's a good point.

 

The single beam in DDM was the result of Scotty having only "one bank recharged".

 

But in episodes where the Enterprise is specifically said to be firing one "phaser" (say, "Paradise Syndrome"), twin beams nevertheless emerge.

So either Scotty only had half a "phaser" recharged when one "bank" was; or the Constellation had single mounts where her near-sister had twins. I'm not too keen on the first option, because I'd much prefer for a "phaser" to be a smaller unit than a "bank" of phasers.

Timo Saloniemi

 

Wow! Lots of interesting theories!

I was just wondering about it for some odd reason, thinking about the cel animation which I assume was farmed out. The animators had to get some kind of instructional 'steer' from the studio, which in turn got me to wondering what the intention was.

 

Starfleet regulations require the captain of a starship threatening to use force must fire a warning shot. Kirk gets around this reg by firing both the warning shot and the kill shot simultaneously.

 

If you look at "The Alternative Factor" and "Balance of Terror", you will see single-gun phasers firing. So apparently, there are varying techniques.

In "The Doomsday Machine", the damaged Starship Constellation did get one shot off with a single phaser gun.

Stereo weapons, especially anti-aircraft and anti-ship guns, are not unheard of. In you go to this World War II history link, you can scroll down to the second photo and see a German anti-aircraft battery that employs 4 guns in one unit.

 

...Although the iconic images about gunfire would probably be the three-gun turrets of the Iowa and South Dakota battleships of the most recent naval war.

I'm sort of happy they didn't go for the "bristling with obvious gun turrets" look, but a bit disappointed they didn't choose the elegant "one beam does it all" look, either.

Timo Saloniemi

 

There was one episode in TAS when both phasers and photon torpedoes were used in combination--with the torp streaking right between the two beams on the way to target.

"Ooh" I said when I was a young lad.

 

To answer the OP question, for the same reason that the turrets of B-17s had two machine guns: to increase the chances of hitting your moving target.