NX-01 weapons in 'Broken Bow'.

[Mirren Audax]

I'm curious as to what weapons we see being fired by Enterprise when they attacked the Suliban Helix in the gas giant?

It looks like short bursts from hull-mounted energy weapons, but are obviously not phase cannons as they're not in place at that time, nor are they torpedoes as when they're fired in the early episodes it's a big thing, as if that's their only means of defense.

 

[JB2005]

^ They're like disrupters, near as I can tell, or possible rail guns(?)

 

[Luku]

They are Plasma Turrets...

Think bigger versions of the pistols they use before the phase pistols.

Or the weapons used by the human cargo ships in later seasons/episodes...

 

[Skywalker]

They're weapons that Enterprise should have used throughout the whole series, along with the non-photonic torpedoes and the EM-33 pistols.

 

[DestinyCaptain]

But that wouldn't have been any fun for Brannon and his mentor to write stories around. Like not writing about time travel, the Borg, and the Holodeck.

 

[Timo]

Interestingly, the weapon ports that fire these bolts (which do look almost exactly like the plasma bolts fired by the Earth freighter in "Fortunate Son") are one of the very few that are never seen firing phaser beams in later episodes.

So it seems that the ship left port with just a few outdated weapons installed, in those two dorsal forward turrets - and then got refitted with the intended main weapons, gradually, or as fast as Reed and Tucker could cobble these things together from the onboard kits and spares collections. But perhaps nobody bothered to remove the original two plasma cannon, so those turrets went unre-equipped?

Timo Saloniemi