Does it hurt to be shot by phaser?

[xvicente]

I dont remember everyone who was shot, be it stunned or disintegrated.

(seems those are the only two settings effectively)

I remember Kruge's gunner and Terrel screaming, they seemed to be having horrible death even if the pain was short.

In TOS people simply vanished. The bum in 1930 (City at the Edge of Forever) probably never knew he was dying.

ANd stunned people? do they simply pass out?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

For the stun setting, it's probably instantaneous - the target has no time to feel pain.

For kill? Probably depends on who made the weapon. I'm sure Klingon disruptors hurt. And so does the VaronT disruptor - it's specifically made to cause as much pain as possible before killing the victim.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

But even if you don't feel pain when stunned you feel like crap when you wake up it seems.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Phasers on low settings have also been used to heat things up. I imagine it burns for a bit.

 

[MacLeod]

Well if you go by the TNG tech manual, I suspect settings 4 thu 6 will sting a little.

From memory in the 24th century

settings 1-3 are the stun settings fromm light to eavy
Settings 4-6 cause thermal damage.
Setting 7 effectively kills
Setting 8 is vaporise

Settings 9-16 are only availble on Type II and Type III rifles

By which time you are getting into melting metals, destroying rock, possible penetration of shields etc...

 

[R. Star]

But even if you don't feel pain when stunned you feel like crap when you wake up it seems.

Cochrane complained about it when he woke up in First Contact. Though admitted it may be a hangover... though given he lifted off at 11 am and was drinking for the better part of the morning, it's safe to say he was drunk up there and not hung over.

 

[Crazyewok]

Im guessing haveing a burning hole shot into you hurts.

 

[Pavonis]

How often does a phaser leave a "burning hole" in the victim? And even if it left such a wound regularly, would it be painful? Wouldn't shock leave the victim feeling no pain?

 

[Mysterion]

ANd stunned people? do they simply pass out?

See Professor Crater in The Man Trap (TOS).

 

[Crazyewok]

How often does a phaser leave a "burning hole" in the victim? And even if it left such a wound regularly, would it be painful? Wouldn't shock leave the victim feeling no pain?

Look at Remmick in Conspiracy. The phasers blew whole chunks out of him!

Not saying they would use that setting as standard. But a phaser certianly has the capability of causeing traumatic wounds.

 

[Dale Sams]

Depends on the script.

Remember getting stunned in the face at point blank range kills.

Which normally wouldn't make any sense, but maybe Valeris just poured it on.

 

[Crazyewok]

Depends on the script.

Remember getting stunned in the face at point blank range kills.

Which normally wouldn't make any sense, but maybe Valeris just poured it on.

Think it depends on the settings of stun.

 

[Pavonis]

How often does a phaser leave a "burning hole" in the victim? And even if it left such a wound regularly, would it be painful? Wouldn't shock leave the victim feeling no pain?

Look at Remmick in Conspiracy. The phasers blew whole chunks out of him!.

Yes, it blew Remmick up, but did it hurt? Would there be time for the nerves to transmit pain signals before the nerves were destroyed? And Remmick in particular was probably dead, a meat puppet, what with that mother creature filling his abdomen.

 

[MacLeod]

Depends on the script.

Remember getting stunned in the face at point blank range kills.

Which normally wouldn't make any sense, but maybe Valeris just poured it on.

Think it depends on the settings of stun.

And how long the setting is applied. You could fire a less than a second of Heavy stun at point blank range and it would no doubt stun that person. Continue to fire the beam even at that setting and it can kill.

 

[Timo]

It would help if we knew the mechanism by which "stun" stuns and "vaporize" vaporizes. Is it the same thing? That is, does "stun" shake your atoms enough to upset your body chemistry, while "kill" shakes them till they fall apart? Or does "stun" deliver an electrostatic shock effect of some sort, while "vaporize" delivers nothing but causes the target atoms to phase to a different realm? Etc.

From the two-barrel guns of STXI and ST:ID, and the three-barrel guns of "The Cage", "Where No Man", "Man Trap" and "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", we might deduce that stun beams are generated by completely different machinery and thus possibly based on completely different phenomena from the kill ones. It is only later in TOS that guns are built that integrate the two barrels more closely (the ring and the spike), and in ST:TMP and onwards that the technology gets clever enough to only require one barrel (actually, in ST:TMP and ST2, there are four!).

Does stun hurt? If so, people suffer in silence and only groan afterwards, as the effect wears out (quickly in some cases such as "Man Trap", more slowly in others). But suffering in silence is a very plausible outcome when your body is being stunned - it simply becomes impossible to scream because your muscles fail you!

Does kill hurt? Devil's advocate might say that it doesn't - and when certain victims cry out, it's out of fear and rage rather than pain. Falling from a skyscraper doesn't hurt, either, but people still scream...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[R. Star]

Ask Geordi in Samaritan Snare. He was getting flung across the room and screaming out in pain every time the Pakleds stunned him.

 

[Belz...]

Even on stun setting it can be harmful if done too often. Remember Samaritan Snare (TNG) ?

 

[Timo]

And, OTOH, getting hit by a kill beam may be survivable to a degree. Your body suddenly sporting a charred hole somewhere doesn't necessarily tell whether there's a shallow pit there, or a fairly clean hole, or perhaps a huge cavity. Hence our doctor heroes sometimes just shaking their heads at such a wound, yet sometimes springing to action and even achieving results.

It's probably much like gunshot: the hit may mess you up inside real bad even if the puncture wound is insignificant. And in battlefield conditions, you only want to mess up a pound of flesh inside your opponent, to save on batteries, whereas in a peacetime adventure (such as all the TOS ones save for "Errand of Mercy" where our heroes went covert, and "Omega Glory" where the battlefield indeed got littered with bodies, even if off screen), you show mercy and vaporize the whole victim even though this drains your gun's reserves.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[The Wormhole]

Zefram Cochrane apparently had a headache in First Contact after Riker stunned him. Though that could have been because of his drinking. Or both.

 

[FormerLurker]

Depends on the script.

Remember getting stunned in the face at point blank range kills.

Which normally wouldn't make any sense, but maybe Valeris just poured it on.

Think it depends on the settings of stun.

Based on the marks left on Burke and Samno, a sustained burst of heavy stun, say five to ten seconds, less than six inches from the head, is probably what killed them. It doesn't have to be the face, just the head. And Valeris, being a Vulcan, had the strength to hold them while she did it.