Whatever happened to Type I phasers

[Enterprise1981]

Given how small they were, they certainly came in handy when someone needed a weapon at a spur of the moment. Beverly Crusher just happened to have one in "Conspiracy" after the parasite-possessed Admiral Quinn managed to incapacitate Riker, LaForge, and Worf. Q seemingly didn't think to disarm the bridge crew the first time he whisked them minus Picard off to some planet in "Hide & Q". After the first season of TNG, they gradually fell into disuse. Riker and Worf occasionally use them in the second and third seasons. Wesley even had one in a fifth season episode. But we never saw them in use beyond that or on DS9 and Voyager.

[Metryq]

First, "assault phasers" were banned. One thing led to another...

[Albertese]

I dunno about in-universe, but the real reason is that the producer's felt the prop was too small and it wasn't obvious on screen that the actors were holding anything. The worry was that an uninitiated audience-member might wonder why destructive energy beams can shoot out of the character's fingers...

--Alex

[Tiberius]

Actually, I think they did appear on Voyager once. Can't remember where though.

[Timo]

Beverly Crusher just happened to have one in "Conspiracy" after the parasite-possessed Admiral Quinn managed to incapacitate Riker, LaForge, and Worf.

Crusher just appears to pick up the gun dropped by LaForge when he flew through the doors. Or at least that gun is nowhere else to be seen, even though Burton was still holding it when hitting the doors...

Actually, I think they did appear on Voyager once. Can't remember where though.

That would be "In the Flesh", where Chakoteya recognizes the concealed-carry potential of the type and takes it with him to the Species 8472 dome.

Timo Saloniemi

[C.E. Evans]

As small as the type-2 phasers had become, I think type-1s really had to be reserved for missions in where concealment of a weapon was preferred over a display of force, IMO.

[blssdwlf]

I think also that the TNG type-1s were no longer black like the TOS ones and more copper or brown which makes it harder to pick out from a distance. That and maybe they wanted to save money by not shooting a close-up insert of the person's hand with a phaser-1?

[Timo]

The gun shows up pretty nicely in wide shots as well, at the sort of resolution we get on our modern big TV screens, especially in the new HD version of TNG:

http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x...acy_hd_382.jpg

Back in the 1990s, this would not yet have been the case, though.

Timo Saloniemi

[CorporalCaptain]

Albertese wrote:

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I dunno about in-universe, but the real reason is that the producer's felt the prop was too small and it wasn't obvious on screen that the actors were holding anything. The worry was that an uninitiated audience-member might wonder why destructive energy beams can shoot out of the character's fingers...

--Alex

Yeah, the TNG type-1's were even smaller than the TOS type-1's, weren't they.

blssdwlf wrote:

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I think also that the TNG type-1s were no longer black like the TOS ones and more copper or brown which makes it harder to pick out from a distance. That and maybe they wanted to save money by not shooting a close-up insert of the person's hand with a phaser-1?

Good points.

I don't recall ever seeing a closeup shot of a type-1 in TNG in someone's hand, unlike the type-2.

[SonicRanger]

There's a clear shot of it in "Mind's Eye"

http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albu...indseye232.jpg

But that's not its original paint scheme:

http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x...int_hd_106.jpg

[CorporalCaptain]

SonicRanger wrote:

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There's a clear shot of it in "Mind's Eye"

http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albu...indseye232.jpg

Thanks.

But blssdwlf, and I, were talking about a closeup of a type-1 in somebody's hand. I've edited my post accordingly.

ETA: I guess Encounter at Farpoint qualifies.

But that's not its original paint scheme:

http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x...int_hd_106.jpg

ETA: But I was thinking more along the lines of this: http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albu...tleWar0144.jpg.

[Enterprise1981]

Timo wrote:

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Crusher just appears to pick up the gun dropped by LaForge when he flew through the doors. Or at least that gun is nowhere else to be seen, even though Burton was still holding it when hitting the doors...

I hadn't thought of that. They all seemed to always be carrying Type-1's on them, if not Type-2's during the first season. For example, Beverly pointed a Type-2 at Lore when he threatened Wesley, but then among those armed with Type-1's after Lore was beamed away.

That would be "In the Flesh", where Chakoteya recognizes the concealed-carry potential of the type and takes it with him to the Species 8472 dome.

I hadn't considered that either. But by then, that seemed like an exception rather than the rule, along with the phaser Neelix used in the pilot.

[Timo]

For example, Beverly pointed a Type-2 at Lore when he threatened Wesley, but then among those armed with Type-1's after Lore was beamed away.

True - and it's another example of the Doctor heading to danger armed, but apparently without calling for, let alone waiting for backup. But at least in "Conspiracy", we can speculate that Quinn used his flag privileges to jam communications so that Security would not arrive, and instead two bridge officers would come in and be disposed of, plus the unarmed CMO would arrive and be given a parasite to control her. In "Datalore", Lore would have no reason to, and no means of, jamming Crusher's communications.

IIRC, the scene in "Datalore" involved Beverly Crusher being the only one out of the initial three heroes to be armed at all, with that Type 2. The initially unarmed Lore then took the gun from her, after which she returned with Yar, Picard and Riker, the first armed with Type 2 and the rest with Type 1.

Which mainly raises the question of where Beverly got the gun in the first place, and why she didn't get one for Data. We know Sickbay has Type 2 in stock (it's a plot element in e.g. "Starship Mine"), but why would our trio go there, or to any other location with available phasers, and only take one rather than two or even three?

We could always argue that Crusher did take two guns, and Data's was of Type 1 and remained unseen in his belt. Perhaps Data did not initially want to use a phaser on his brother (as androids can't be merely stunned) and preferred to wrestle with him instead?

Timo Saloniemi

[Dale Sams]

Every time I see the dinky emergency cel-phone on my desk, I can't help but think of the phaser-1

[Enterprise1981]

^ Same with my flash drive.