In several new Voyager books and the latest Titan book the describe the Federation Phasers as being blue??? I thought the 24th century phasers were red/orange.
Blue Phasers?
- Thread starter GalaxyClass1701
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Didn't we already have this thread a couple of months ago? Phasers have been shown in a variety of colors in the various shows and films.
Yes but in the TNG,DS9,VOY, 24th century they were always red/ orange?
Maybe they're using a new batch of crystals in the phaser emitters that tune the energy to a blue wavelength.
Deja vu.
Authors have been getting it wrong since the first Trek novels. Not that it really matters - a phaser is a phaser if it beams, pulses or crackles and in whatever colour.
TV/film Trek isn't entirely consistant - TOS beams were red, yellow and blue. Enterprise's phasers and photons looked exactly the same as they would 200 years later, ignoring the TOS and early movie looks entirely (a little off-topic: It was nice to see TOS red phasers on the Kelvin and TMP photons in the Kobayashi Maru scene and at the end in STXI. No more stupid boring orange beams!)
Authors have been getting it wrong since the first Trek novels. Not that it really matters - a phaser is a phaser if it beams, pulses or crackles and in whatever colour.
TV/film Trek isn't entirely consistant - TOS beams were red, yellow and blue. Enterprise's phasers and photons looked exactly the same as they would 200 years later, ignoring the TOS and early movie looks entirely (a little off-topic: It was nice to see TOS red phasers on the Kelvin and TMP photons in the Kobayashi Maru scene and at the end in STXI. No more stupid boring orange beams!)
Who knows because they do not explain it?
No I am just wondering how they could get something like that wrong.
Dimesdan, I was watching a Babylon 5 yesterday and they actually did explain the colours of the beam weapons. Something about the origin of the metals used in their construction (not Trek I know, but as much a loving tribute as you're ever gonna get)
But why is it wrong?
Weapons evolve and just because the colour of a phaser is blue instead of red, does not make it wrong, just that the tech may have evolved and thus the writers believe that the readers are intelligent enough to know this, instead of a paragraph explaining how the new weapons work and are thus coloured differently.
Well none of the 24th shows had blue and if that is a new type of phaser they should explain it.
What do you mean why? 21 seasons of Trek had red phasers if you are going to change that you should explain.
What do you mean why? 21 seasons of Trek had red phasers if you are going to change that you should explain.
And? So you need every single change, how ever small and to be honest insignificant to be explained to you?
As I said, weapons evolve, maybe some new crystal was used or the like, yes I know a small paragraph would explain it away, but is it needed? no, just go with what ever reason you want and be done with it. Did the change in colour or the lack of explanation destroy your enjoyment of the novels?
But why?
What do you mean why? 21 seasons of Trek had red phasers if you are going to change that you should explain.
And? So you need every single change, how ever small and to be honest insignificant to be explained to you?
As I said, weapons evolve, maybe some new crystal was used or the like, yes I know a small paragraph would explain it away, but is it needed? no, just go with what ever reason you want and be done with it. Did the change in colour or the lack of explanation destroy your enjoyment of the novels?
If it in not explained I just right it off as not happening.
Then your original problem is then null and void and not a problem at all
No, they shouldn't, because it's irrelevant. These are stories, not technical treatises. Stories are about characters and events and themes and ideas and emotions. Unless the color of a phaser beam actually has some significance to the events of the story or the personal journey of a character, it's a waste of time to explain it.
True, I'm not above a little technical discussion for its own sake in my fiction. But we're talking about the color of a beam, something which is profoundly insignificant and probably entirely figurative anyway (since as I explained in exhaustive detail in the previous thread, phaser beams in vacuum would almost certainly be invisible). It's not worth worrying about. If you have a problem with it, just edit it in your head to say "red" instead of "blue." It's not important enough to be worth any more effort than that.
Nope, you are wrong. Blue phasers is a dumb goof and the editor should have caught it. In-universe technical explanations would be boring and aren't really the issue. But people who read Trek books have usually watched actual Star Trek and they notice these things. Then they're ripped out of the narrative because they're suddenly trying to picture Voyager shooting blue lasers, like it never did in the show. A minor detail, but a telling one. I saw a nuBSG comic book recently where the Vipers had FTL and shot lasers. Minor detail? Sure, but it just didn't *feel* like Battlestar Galactica after that. It wasn't authentic to the universe it inhabited. The author didn't even realize his error, I'm sure, but it was sloppy.
And while stories are indeed about characters and ideas and events and emotions, those things are happening in a physical setting, and this setting is a key part of the story. If a character interacts with an object (be it a horse, a computer, a gun, or a spaceship) in a way that goes against my understanding of reality, then it deserves an explanation. But you're a writer, so I don't know why I'm telling you this.
^Okay, maybe it's a goof, but it's a tiny goof and not worth all this sturm und drang. They typed "blue" instead of "red," big fracking deal. Especially since you're reading it in print and can't even see the beam! Just imagine it whatever color you want! Don't just be a sponge and demand the author spoon-feed you every last detail. Interpret what you read. Exercise your imagination. That's what I do when I come across a minor glitch in a Trek novel. I don't go online and scream at the authors, I just do a bit of mental editing. Really, there are more important things to save your energies for.
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