Do you prefer Phaser beams or bolts?

[ED-209]

By beams I mean what we saw from TOS onto ENT (mostly).

Bolts is what was used by the 09 films and everything onwards.

Personally I prefer beams, but I accept that a weapon that pretty much shows your location has a massive disadvantage. Unfortunately I think the bolts are here to stay.

 

[gweeps]

Beams of course.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Beams all the way.

 

[Takeru]

Bolts, the problems with beams was always that it was weird that they aimed at people and missed, just keep shooting and wiggle the phaser around until you hit.

 

[F. King Daniel]

is what was used by the 09 films and everything onwards.

Bolts started in Wrath of Khan. And Discovery has been shooting beams since it's second season.

Best is always the Ori beam weapon from Stargate SG1. Holy shit they made it look like it packed a punch. Amazing CG work. Nothing in Trek looks as devastating.

 

[ED-209]

Bolts started in Wrath of Khan. And Discovery has been shooting beams since it's second season.

I mean hand Phasers, sorry should've specified.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I mean hand Phasers, sorry should've specified.

Ah, fair enough. In that case bolts, since as @Takeru pointed out the beams have never been depicted at all realistically.

 

[valkyrie013]

Well.. You can move the beams.. So you can do a "slash attack"
Phaser rifles were almost always bolts.

 

[F. King Daniel]

In fact I would go so far as to say it would be impossible to create a beam weapon that functions at all the way Trek beam phasers do.

 

[Timofnine]

Beams, for slicing holes in doors and cave walls.

 

[ED-209]

In fact I would go so far as to say it would be impossible to create a beam weapon that functions at all the way Trek beam phasers do.

I think they made them like that as thats how lasers look which is the nearest thing.

 

[Vger23]

I'd vote "neither."

My favorite phasers are the Wrath of Khan long, lancing, dangerous sounding pulses. They always looked and sounded the best to me.

Next would be beams. I like the TOS phaser beams much better than I like the fat, happy looking orange TNG-era beams. The blue throw-back beams the Enterprise fires in "Such Sweet Sorrow pt 2" are pretty damn good too.

Finally, the worst are the bolts. I can't stand Star Trek phasers burping out little impotent round bolts. I hated it in FC and in DS9 (the Defiant phasers) and I hate it even more in the Kelvinverse and in the modern DSC-era Trek. The absolute worst are the phaser bolts from STID that seem to be able to curve and change direction after they're fired. That's all kinds of stupid.

I also can't stand DSC era torpedoes. I don't know why the fx team has dropped the ball so badly on weaponry, but here we are.

TMP/GEN has the best torpedoes, followed by TWOK/TSFS (and really the whole pre-Kelvin movie era otherwise). The torpedoes from BEY are pretty awesome as well. I hate the red balls of nothing from TUC.

 

[JamesRye]

Beams, cause for some reason, bolts imply a recoil, which we never see.

 

[Vger23]

Beams, cause for some reason, bolts imply a recoil, which we never see.

I'd have to go check it again, but I believe the Kelvinverse films have some recoil for their bolts.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I'd have to go check it again, but I believe the Kelvinverse films have some recoil for their bolts.

They did indeed, the props had recoil.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

I've got nothing against Starfleet weapons firing bolts on occasion, especially if they're the weapons on the Defiant, but I prefer the default being beams. I also prefer the guns to not make squeaky high-pitched noises when they're fired.

 

[ED-209]

Yeah the Kelvin phasers did recoil, it makes no sense for an energy weapon to recoil really - no physical projectile.

 

[nightwind1]

Beams, for slicing holes in doors and cave walls.

And heating up rocks.

 

[StarMan]

I mean hand Phasers, sorry should've specified.

Well, you didn't. So I still get to post this GIF.

Win.

And the watermelon exploding in TNG's Conspiracy wouldn't have been nearly as gratifying if it were a pew-pew phaser, IMO.

 

[Qonundrum]

Only II and VIII did beams, as I recall. II did it the best, by far. The only way to have done it better was if the shuttle pod bay was fried and someone was standing there and you'd see them fry like the marshmallows that drop off the stick... Being 1982 and the relative popularity of horror at the time (yay for Fangoria!), it's amazing they didn't think of that. They thought of most other things and, wow, it worked...