Klingon torpedoes ... why all the light beams?

[T'Girl]

I always liked the way the torpedos looked there....more like energy rather than a casing being fired.

True. But given that we retrospectively know (from TWOK onwards) that there is an opaque casing.

I always thought that in addition to the torpedoes main engines there were maneuvering thrusters too, constantly firing short bursts, steering the torpedes to their targets ---
It's possible that the torpedoes are energy weapons and the physical casings we see are sabots used while the torpedoes are inside the ship, inside the launch tube. They are vaporized when the energy torpedo undergoes ignition a couple meters outside the launch tube.

 

[Timo]

We know that torpedoes can fly through complex, tight curves, though. So probably not balls of energy unleashed by a physical sabot after leaving the barrel.

OTOH, we know that warp engines glow when they are active. On starships, these engines are usually inside more or less cylindrar nacelles, with the light only peeking out through slit windows on the sides of the nacelle. But the engine of a torpedo might be largely external, with the warp glow directly emerging to our eyes. Or then emerging through small windows in the torpedo, ones that only pop open after launch, but being so bright as to obscure the source.

As for Spock's burial tube, its glow need not reflect normal torpedo operations at all. For all we know, a special flare is attached to a torpedo for burial, to make it look prettier.

Side note: The first time I saw TWOK, when the coffin curves around into the planet and the sun rises from the same point, I assumed for a few moments that that was the final, vaporizing flash of the coffin during reentry.

I gather that's another thing they did for looks: it would be a simple matter to synchronize the launch so that it would coincide with sunrise and look impressive.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[RapidNadion]

As for torpedo glow, I always rationalized it by hypothesizing that the torpedoes were shielded by some kind of high-energy deflector. Its power output is so high that it's constantly visible. The DS9 TM notes that quantum torpedoes, at least, are protected from enemy countermeasures by a thoron field.

 

[Anticitizen]

Remember when Khan fired a warning shot that passed near the Enterprise, when it was headed toward the nebula? The ship shook as the torpedo passed... obviously that glowy stuff does *something*.

 

[Christopher]

I was going to suggest that maybe it was some kind of tracer-bullet effect to make the torpedoes easier to track. But then it occurred to me that probably the last thing you want to do with a torpedo is make it easy for the enemy to see coming. Something dark and stealthy would probably be more sensible. So I guess it's just something to chalk up to poetic license. Maybe in "reality" they aren't all that visible at all, but the FX shots highlight them for our benefit.

 

[Anticitizen]

Maybe they're just really hot.

 

[Brutal Strudel]

And wearing miniskirts.

 

[RyanKCR]

The first time I ever saw them was in TMP as a child. The whole movie gave me a feeling of increadable technology and used forces of nature unheard of and unimaginable. The wormhole sequence strengthened this idea for me. So I always thought that the torps were just highly sophisticated balls of energy and that the rays were strings of space/time pulling it along. But that was just my very young way of thinking about it. I still like that idea myself.