In Star Trek 09, why did Sulu use a fold out sword instead of his phaser against the Romulans when he and Kirk boarded the drill? Kirk had his phaser knocked out of his hand, but Sulu would still have his - why kill the Romulans with his sword, when he could stun them with his phaser? You could argue that the dampening field that was interferring with transporters and communications affected phasers as well, but tge Romulan energy guns seemed to work just fine...
Because it was close quarters combat, Sulu had combat training and, more importantly, he wanted to show everyone his giant fold out sword.
His sword was out to cut the chute lines that were pulling him into one of those fire-belchers. After that, it was already out, and combat was already underway. No time to switch weapons.
More importantly, why didn't Kirk use his phaser as soon as the first romulan popped out of the hatch? Instead of drawing and firing at an easy target, he charges across the platform and attempts to use his helmet as a weapon, resulting in loss of said phaser. Why would anyone trained in basic military tactics do this?
He did it for the same reason that neither Vulcan or Earth had anything available to destroy the drill with.
Shortly after he left the shuttle and was plummeting toward the drill platform Sulu had an awful realisation. When he went to the weapons locker before he boarded the shuttle he accidentally picked up a phaser from the 'malfunctioning pile'. He realised that if he actually pressed fire on this phaser it would overload and blow his hand off, so he left it alone.
I'm inclined to think that phasers have to be turned on when drawn from a holster. Having them turned off when holstered may be akin to them having a safety engaged. Maybe if they didn't have to spacedive, they could have went in with phasers at the ready...
Love the way Sulu with sword in hand, removes his helmet, fits his hair, and then fights the Romulan. [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ArVBL8EgKU[/yt]
^^^ He doesn't fits his hair, but he does remove the black skull cap that he and the others wore under their helmets.
I can't understand the love for these fancy new pulse weapons when a sword can do such a great job sometimes. There's always the place for a good, old-fashioned hand-to-hand combat. It's beautiful, snappier, less messy and the masters will kick your ass even if you have a bazooka.
I'm thinkin' "FIXES" was somewhere in that train of thought, which got lost while traveling between the brain synapses and the finger tips... Regardless of the fact he actually took off a black hoodie.