Are the beams coming back?

[GalaxyX]

Damn I hated those little "spit" phasers in the first movie.

I was hoping they would do what Trek has never done before:

Show a goddamned visible beam hit its target instantaneously at close to the speed of light, like a good energy weapon should.

Surprisingly, Enterprise and Nemesis were the closest to showing this. They were also the worst for everything else

Sadly, I fear the paintball speed "spit" bolt is here to stay

[Kpnuts]

The "paintball speed spit bolt" looked awesome when the ship came out of warp though, even if it was more Wars than Trek.

Didn't the Kelvin fire beams at the Narada? They weren't speed of light, but close enough

[SalvorHardin]

Kpnuts wrote:

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Didn't the Kelvin fire beams at the Narada?

Indeed the Kelvin did have beams.

As for the so called paintball bolts, they were more or less what we saw in TWOK. I'm guessing they will return.

[Timo]

Trek has never showed lightspeed (that is, instantaneous) beams: the ones from TOS generally traveled slowly enough for the eye to see, which is very slowly, even when dialogue suggested they were hitting targets that were moving at FTL speeds themselves (say, "Ultimate Computer").

What is unusual about the beams from the 2258 era of the eleventh movie is that they are fairly short, "Defiant length" pulses, whereas the pulses in ST2:TWoK were rather longer and the beams in TOS and TNG tended to dwell for several seconds and never flaunt their rear ends to the camera much. The pulses from the 2233 era of the movie were quite a bit longer, closer to what we saw in TOS or ST2.

Didn't the Kelvin fire beams at the Narada?

Well, good question. We don't know where Robau or Kirk aimed their red beams, but dialogue indicated that they (like the white bolts) were being used purely defensively, to parry Nero's projectiles. We never saw a beam hit the enemy ship proper, and the first damage experienced by the Narada in terms of dialogue or visuals or storyline was when Kirk rammed the Starfleet ship into her.

Timo Saloniemi

[The Keeper]

I don't know.

However, I am now reminded of Doctor STUBBS asking Troi to "please turn off your beams into my soul." lol

[Nerys Myk]

No. Beams are so last Century.

[R. Star]

FTL weapons don't look good to the audience by virtue of moving faster than the human eye can track.

[GalaxyX]

Kpnuts wrote:

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The "paintball speed spit bolt" looked awesome when the ship came out of warp though, even if it was more Wars than Trek.

Didn't the Kelvin fire beams at the Narada? They weren't speed of light, but close enough

I do remember the Kelvin firing beams. They were a bit like TNG beams.

Personally I think an instantaneous beam of energy that last for as long as you squeeze the trigger would look fuckin' cool as shit.

They just haven't ever tried one on Trek. Enterprise came close though.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ In "Future's End" on VOY, the 29th century phaser (used by one of Starling's lackeys) fired an instantaneous beam.

[Orac]

Mmmmmm. Laser Beans.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Which, despite the sound of the phrase, is not my own recipe for chili.

[Phily B]

The Kelvin looked to be firing the more traditional TNG type beams, but I thought the TOS Enterprise used to fire them closer to the way it was portrayed in 2009.

[C.E. Evans]

I actually like the shorter bolts. That was one aspect of Star Trek II that I was glad to see return in Star Trek XI. And the firefight aboard the Narada seemed more dangerous and intense to me.

[King Daniel Into Darkness]

Phily B wrote:

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The Kelvin looked to be firing the more traditional TNG type beams, but I thought the TOS Enterprise used to fire them closer to the way it was portrayed in 2009.

Kelvin fired TNG-type beams? Try TOS.


Here's a Kelvin pic for comparison: http://img.trekmovie.com/images/st09/trail3/05.jpg

The 2009 movie Enterprise phasers were like those in Wrath of Khan but with all banks firing at once.

[The Mirrorball Man]

<NicolasCage>"Nooo! The beams! Not the beams! Aaaargh!"</NicolasCage>