DSC: Bring Back Beams! (BBB) - Return of the ship-mounted phaser beam...

[Tuskin38]

There were quite a few vaporizations in the mirror episodes

 

[JasonJ]

One of the biggest problems for a spacecraft is heat management. Heat, contrary to what people might assume, does not dissipate very quickly in space. That is because there is no air, or matter of any kind, to conduct heat away. Pure vacuum contains no medium for convection to take place in; heat can only radiate as pure EM. So, a starship builds up thousands of degree of heat from general operations, such as running a warp drive or firing weapons; hardly anything is lost, only added. Think of how much a PC can heat a room. This effect could cook a crew alive. One way you could deal with it would be to collect the heat in a disposable material, and eject this material (like a liquid, or solid heat-sink) into space. Presumably the Federation has an even more advanced method of managing heat; not generating it in the first place somehow.

Did you see that episode of "Because Science" with Kyle Hill? This is a realistically very serious concern of space vessels. Only reason ST or SW can ignore it, I think, is because plot and "not our universe" rules.

If we are talking about bringing beams back I want more scenes were people or things are vaporized by them. Well that or they need to do more of what they did with Crusher in "Datalore" and see people actually catch fire. Basically they need to make it look like being shot by a phaser is a bad thing, even if it isn't set on kill.

Jason

For sure- one thing I did like about JJverse phasers, hand and ship mounted, when they hit, they hit like a solid projectile; there is force behind and it "feels" as if it has some serious consequence to being struck by it.

 

[Vger23]

If we are talking about bringing beams back I want more scenes were people or things are vaporized by them. Well that or they need to do more of what they did with Crusher in "Datalore" and see people actually catch fire. Basically they need to make it look like being shot by a phaser is a bad thing, even if it isn't set on kill.

Jason

Dude, there was a ton of this in DSC. Probably more vaporize hits than anywhere else in Trek (including a bowl of fortune cookies, which was the single best phaser vaporize in the franchise!)...and you had the glancing blow L'Rell took in "Choose Your Pain" that was like the Crusher shot.

Now, if they could only do it using beams and not popfarts

 

[ITDUDE]

I think it's worth mentioning that even though it's better known for pew pew blasters, three of the coolest weapons in Star Wars fire beams. Not even counting lightsabers.

Well, death star is cool and so powerful BECAUSE they ripped off phasers from Star Trek

 

[Jesse1066]

Well, death star is cool and so powerful BECAUSE they ripped off phasers from Star Trek

The Death Star superlaser beam is made of eight smaller beams though! So it's eight times as powerful!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

If they bring back beams, they should make it work like a beam would REALLY work: have it instantly appear between the phaser and the target, without any transition time.

Because, logically, a phaser beam shouldn't take any time at all to reach its target. It's made of light, after all...

 

[Timo]

...Says who?

I mean, what is lightlike about that solid pillar of death that spits out of the gun and then slams onto the target?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[matthunter]

I don't mind mixes of beams and bolts, since both have their uses. Although the swarm in ST: Beyond was too much for the Enterprise anyway, beams would have been even less effective than bolts against a cloud of small, highly mobile targets. Compare with Babylon 5, where ships use pulse weapons for gradual whittling of enemy capital ships but also AA fire against fighters, with the much more powerful beams being reserved for cap ship kill shots once the fighter screen is broken.

 

[ITDUDE]

I don't mind mixes of beams and bolts, since both have their uses. Although the swarm in ST: Beyond was too much for the Enterprise anyway, beams would have been even less effective than bolts against a cloud of small, highly mobile targets. Compare with Babylon 5, where ships use pulse weapons for gradual whittling of enemy capital ships but also AA fire against fighters, with the much more powerful beams being reserved for cap ship kill shots once the fighter screen is broken.

Ironically the Rocci from The Expanse with it's PDCs would have been a much better match up against the swarm ship.
Double ironically, The Expanse supposedly takes place around 2350s

 

[Tuskin38]

If they bring back beams, they should make it work like a beam would REALLY work: have it instantly appear between the phaser and the target, without any transition time.

Because, logically, a phaser beam shouldn't take any time at all to reach its target. It's made of light, after all...

...Says who?

I mean, what is lightlike about that solid pillar of death that spits out of the gun and then slams onto the target?

Timo Saloniemi

Phaser beams are made from nadion particles, which are fictional.

So they can move however fast they want.

 

[Jinn]

Phaser beams are made from nadion particles, which are fictional.

So they can move however fast they want.

Well humans aren't fictional particles (I think?) and in Trek they can move faster than light even though that's not really possible to our current knowledge, so even if nadions were a thing I wouldn't really care

 

[Tuskin38]

on screen evidence shows the beams moving slower then light, so it's canon.

 

[Longinus]

on screen evidence shows the beams moving slower then light, so it's canon.

As do lasers in most scifi, so that is really not a good indication.

 

[Tuskin38]

Well a phaser isn't a laser, it's a particle beam weapon.

 

[Longinus]

Well a phaser isn't a laser, it's a particle beam weapon.

Point was that even if effects make it look like something is moving slower than light, doesn't necessarily mean that in universe it really does, just like there really is no sound in space even though there are sound effects.

 

[XCV330]

I like beams.

 

[Jayson1]

What if they went with something like a PPG blast on "Babylon 5?" I always kind of liked their guns. I also like the idea of them basically having batteries and you have to recharge them or replace a battery which is kind of like someone having to replace bullets in a modern day gun. I also still haven't forgotten that still pic of the first images of "Discovery" where if you look on the console it seems they still use projectiles. One other issue that I have wondered about and that is nuclear weapons. I would really like to see a Trek equivlent or even the real thing pop up. Can't use the genisis device just yet and it makes me wonder why they were used in the earth/vulcan war and then I wonder why or if they stopped using them. I mean they were good enough for "Battlestar Galatica" so I don't see why Trek couldn't use them. If we are talking something in the Picard time you might could using something like those metronic weapons I think they were called in TNG's "Chain of Command." Or the subspace weapons RIker and Geordi used in "INsurrection" that is suppose to be against the law to use.

Jason

 

[Timo]

I don't mind mixes of beams and bolts, since both have their uses. Although the swarm in ST: Beyond was too much for the Enterprise anyway, beams would have been even less effective than bolts against a cloud of small, highly mobile targets. Compare with Babylon 5, where ships use pulse weapons for gradual whittling of enemy capital ships but also AA fire against fighters, with the much more powerful beams being reserved for cap ship kill shots once the fighter screen is broken.

Then again, the Kelvin scores no hits (on anything!) with her white bolt turrets, but snipes Nero's missiles out of the sky with 100% success with her red beam ones. That is, once it's George Kirk doing the shooting, and a third party rather than himself the target of those missiles...

Sulu later uses short red pulses to achieve the same. Again with every pulse connecting. Fire control in Trek really is something to write home about. (Except, for some reason, at the Binaries)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[BillJ]

I also like the idea of them basically having batteries and you have to recharge them or replace a battery which is kind of like someone having to replace bullets in a modern day gun.

Phasers have power packs (batteries). See: "The Omega Glory" (TOS).

 

[Tuskin38]

with her white bolt turrets

Those are torpedo launchers according to the script.
But I guess since they're never called torpedoes on screen, they're whatever you want them to be.

Phasers have power packs (batteries). See: "The Omega Glory" (TOS).

Phase Pistols as well.