What kind of phaser setting was Lore about to use against Wesley in "Datalore"?

[Unimatrix Q]

"LORE: (sees Wesley) Then why this marvellous gift? The troublesome little man-child. Are you prepared for the kind of death you've earned, little man?
(Beverly steps out, with her phaser)
CRUSHER: If you take one step toward my son
LORE: Ah, motherhood.
(Lore grabs Data, pushes him into Crusher and grabs her weapon)
LORE: Back off, or I'll turn your little man into a torch. I promise him exquisite pain unless you obey me too, brother."

Most higher phaser settings, we saw before or after the episode, only cause either small burn injuries or vaporize either parts of the victims or the entire body. So what kind of setting is it, as we never saw a phaser acting as a flame thrower?

And why would such a setting be possible, considering that Varon-T disruptors are banned throughout the entire Federation because of causing relatively slow and excruciating deaths?

 

[Timo]

I'd say the cutting beam that so often "burns" through targets. Or the one that heats up rocks.

We get to see the effect when Lore hits Beverly on the shoulder. She doesn't turn into a torch quite yet, so supposedly that effect requires not just the setting but also extra work such as walking the beam all over the victim. Which takes care of the concern that the Feds disapprove of things that make torture unduly easy.

All things are lethal, painfully so if needed, from guns to cauliflowers. That the Feds have managed to produce something approaching a nonlethal weapon is quite the engineering miracle. Although of course stun still kills...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Unimatrix Q]

I'd say the cutting beam that so often "burns" through targets. Or the one that heats up rocks.

We get to see the effect when Lore hits Beverly on the shoulder. She doesn't turn into a torch quite yet, so supposedly that effect requires not just the setting but also extra work such as walking the beam all over the victim. Which takes care of the concern that the Feds disapprove of things that make torture unduly easy.

All things are lethal, painfully so if needed, from guns to cauliflowers. That the Feds have managed to produce something approaching a nonlethal weapon is quite the engineering miracle. Although of course stun still kills...

Timo Saloniemi

But didn't Lore change the setting before firing at Beverly?

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Had another thought about this a moment ago:

Could being able to produce such a torturous setting, which was proven by Lore and maybe unknown to Starfleet before, be one of the reasons for introducing the cobrahead phasers in Season 3?

Maybe something like this is impossible with the newer models...

 

[Timo]

But didn't Lore change the setting before firing at Beverly?

Had to go and check. But no, he is never shown adjusting the settings.

Which has to mean that we missed at least one adjustment, because otherwise we would need to assume that Beverly Crusher had her phaser set on "turn to torch" to begin with! I can see her skipping "stun" here, but...

There is no time for him to adjust the setting after telling Crusher to stop and get what's coming to her, and before firing. But there is in theory time for him to do that when the camera is on Crusher seconds before. Of course, Data in turn ought to be watching like a hawk for the moment Lore's aim at his victims wavers - but adjustment need not necessarily mean a moment of weakness.

Then again, there does not appear to be any instance after Lore grabs the gun and before he makes the threats of burning where he would be able to bring his right hand to the gun he is holding in his left: if there are adjustments there in the split seconds between cuts, he is doing them quite single-handedly...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tenacity]

The setting that can heat rocks, set Wesley's clothing and maybe body fat on fire.

 

[diankra]

Well, we can assume Beverly had her phaser on a setting whigh would be effective against Lore, given her knowledge of Data.

 

[matthunter]

Apart from the ep with the metaphasic shielding, Bev is usually a step ahead with her phaser settings. Ask Admiral Aaron. Took 3 shots but it didn't do any more damage than was needed and even the first was obviously debilitating.

And she's got a mean roundhouse kick.

Don't fuck with Starfleet Medical personnel. They're all fucking hardcore.

 

[Tenacity]

Bev's a doctor, she knows where all the easily damaged places are.

 

[at Quark's]

Briefly rewatched the final parts of the episode. So, Worf (actually Yar, who delegates it to Worf) is told to check on Lore with a security team, marches to the turbolift with his two aides, the door opens, Worf enters and Lore shouts: 'emergency close!', leaving the other two Starfleet officers in the corridor.

I wonder what these two did after that. Presumably, since we see no security arrive in the cargo bay (where Lore mentioned he'd go) before Beverley had a chance to warn them, they just twiddled their thumbs and thought: "all righty then, we're getting no more instructions so we've done our duty, let's go grab a drink at 10-forward".

Out-of-context quote of the episode (Wesley to his mother): " It's Data, Mom. I heard you know how to turn them on."

 

[Timo]

Lore stated he would go to a cargo bay to beam out a tree, yes. But that was a lie. No trees were ever going to be harmed in the making of that episode.

So wherever Lore went, he most probably did not go to the cargo bay he spoke of. Or at least he would be expected not to. (In which case he actually might!)

The actual issue here nevertheless is that the ship is vast, and is likely to have not just dozens but hundreds of bays like the one we saw. So Lore getting rid of pursuit and then hiding in a cargo bay is fine, natural, and to be expected, nothing wrong with it. Indeed, having access to a cargo transporter might be the easiest way for him to access shield controls, too, and he probably does want to drop the shields. The big problem is... How exactly did Data and the Crushers find Lore?

The entire crew would now be looking for Lore, hopefully having also been made aware that he crossdresses as Data. So our question has two dimensions:

1) What was the extra knowledge that allowed Data and the Crushers to get there first?
2) Why did they not share it with the rest of the crew?

I could easily see Data having decisive intuition here: our ersatz Sherlock Holmes knows Lore better than anybody else, and might be the one to correctly guess that the evil twin is going for a double feint and actually heading for a cargo bay after all. He might also be able to predict which bay Lore would choose, just like he can predict when he will next blink. Soongian androids are predictable like that, after all.

I can't see an easy out for #2 here, though. Keeping the approach of the hunting party secret from Lore would not matter: the ability to surprise him would not be crucial in bringing him down. Was Data confused after having been knocked out? Or bloodlusty and hell-bent on keeping it within the family? In both cases, what about the Crushers? Why wouldn't they point out the weaknesses in the approach in the former case? Why would they be allowed to tag along in the latter?

Out-of-context quote of the episode (Wesley to his mother): " It's Data, Mom. I heard you know how to turn them on."

I can so see Wes listening behind the door now.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[at Quark's]

The big problem is... How exactly did Data and the Crushers find Lore?

I'd say, by tracing the commbadge of Data's uniform of course, which Lore was still wearing....

Perhaps we should assume that Lore deactivated or dampened the signal somehow (which in itself would be a reasonable assumption, except of course that it would have been much quicker to simply leave the commbadge somewhere, yet we clearly see him wearing it in the cargo bay). Or wouldn't this have been a functionality of the commbadge yet, so early in TNG ?

 

[Timo]

In-universe, I surmise Lore could keep on impersonating Data to the ship's computer even after all the heroes became aware of his deception. Which really was when he started talking about beaming out trees - that's when Picard assigned him this escort and shut up Wesley who was trying to blurt out what everybody knew already, thus tipping off Lore. But I digress. Even if every hero knew to look out for an enemy operative pretending to be Data, Lore could still fool voice recognition and the like, until somebody figured out they really ought to lock "Data" out of the system.

It then follows that Lore could run rings around computer-based security and tracking methods, at least initially. He probably had all internal sensors jammed in no time flat after beating up Worf (who knows, perhaps he did it with Data's commbadge from the turbolift already?). Badge tracking, too, no doubt. Eventually the other heroes would unclog their system and rush to help Data, either by spotting the badge or then by spotting the gunfire. But I doubt Data would have been in a position to track Lore's badge initially.

That is, I don't think badge tracking is a good candidate for this mysterious method by which Data could best the other heroes... Jamming or lack thereof ought to hinder or help both equally.

Timo Saloniemi