Phase vs. Phaser and Photon vs. Photonic...?

[Timo]

The actual tech would also have changed

Or then not. It could be argued that space exploration in the Trek universe only becomes possible after one achieves a threshold level of tech (in propulsion, defense and a couple of other key aspects) - after which most of the pressure to develop better tech goes away. OTOH, it could also be argued that a certain level of tech is handed to a civilization on a platter once it starts trading with the interstellar community - but that it would be extremely unlikely for the upstart to improve upon what it has purchased in any noticeable way.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Christopher]

What's a phaser in science? I thought it was a made up term.

Well, in real science, a phaser is an electronic sound modulator that filters the frequency of a sound and is often used to modify the sound of an electric guitar or to create strange vocal effects in science fiction film/TV. And a phasor is a phase vector that describes a sine function. But yes, the term "phaser" for an energy beam weapon is a fictional coinage. Presumably Roddenberry wanted something that sounded like "laser" but was a bit more exotic.

 

[Richard Baker]

Presumably Roddenberry wanted something that sounded like "laser" but was a bit more exotic.

That's what I remember reading ('The Making of Star Trek' book?) Like changing Lithium to Dilithium, one was named for something known with certain properties, the altered name leaves things wide open since nobody knows already what it can or cannot do.

 

[Christopher]

That's what I remember reading ('The Making of Star Trek' book?) Like changing Lithium to Dilithium, one was named for something known with certain properties, the altered name leaves things wide open since nobody knows already what it can or cannot do.

Although, as it turned out, countless other sci-fi franchises have gotten away with using the name "laser" for weapons that didn't behave anything like lasers. Roddenberry gave the audience either too little credit for suspension of disbelief or too much credit for science education.

And it was startling for me when I realized recently that the first use of the term "dilithium" was in "The Alternative Factor." I had believed that to be an episode that had never been referenced again anywhere else in canon because it was so stupid and nonsensical -- and certainly its bizarrely dumb take on antimatter was ignored ever since (and contradicted what "The Naked Time" had already established about antimatter). Also, when dilithium was referenced again, it was treated as a means of channeling power like the lithium crystals from "Mudd's Women," rather than as the actual source of power that TAF alleged. And yet the word itself endured even while everything else from TAF was disregarded.

 

[Kor]

Well, in real science, a phaser is an electronic sound modulator that filters the frequency of a sound and is often used to modify the sound of an electric guitar or to create strange vocal effects in science fiction film/TV.

The audio effect came into prominence in the late '60s and early '70s. I always wondered if the nomenclature was slightly influenced by Trek.

Kor

 

[Christopher]

The audio effect came into prominence in the late '60s and early '70s. I always wondered if the nomenclature was slightly influenced by Trek.

Perhaps, but it does have a legitimate meaning, because the device alters the phase of the sound waves, which alters the tone through the interference created between the two wave patterns in different phases. So it could've developed independently; in fact, it makes more sense in its audio context than in the Trek context.

 

[VulcanMindBlown]

Can Phase weapons have different levels of intensity? It was said by Malcom that it only had two settings, stun and kill. In the episode "Regeneration," he beefs up the power on the weapons to combat the Borg.

 

[Christopher]

Can Phase weapons have different levels of intensity? It was said by Malcom that it only had two settings, stun and kill. In the episode "Regeneration," he beefs up the power on the weapons to combat the Borg.

The number of phaser settings has varied over time. The Abramsverse phasers have only two settings (and that odd design feature where you flip the nozzle around 180 degrees to switch settings). The TOS versions were generally assumed to have roughly five settings: heat, light stun, heavy stun, kill, and disintegrate (or heat, stun, disrupt, and dematerialize per The Making of Star Trek), plus overload. TNG hand phasers had 16 settings.

 

[topcat]

I believe the tech write up in star trek the magazine about phaser weapons would be nice to have around right now.

Phaser was termed as PHASed Energy Rectification. The gist was the phaser contains a emitter matrix with a rectifier that allows for a massive range in output control.
While lasers and phase pistols did not. Like with the TOS lasers, you have three separate barrels for each of the 3 settings.

I admit I liked enterprise phase pistols.

 

[dregj]

im assuming they are simply more primitive versions of the same technology with slightly longer names

 

[eyeresist]

horseless carriage -> car.

 

[Christopher]

horseless carriage -> car.

"Car" is actually much older than that -- it dates to the 14th century. It was used for things like mine cars, train cars, cable cars, etc. before the first motorcars came along.

"Van," meanwhile, is short for "caravan." While "bus" is short for "omnibus," i.e. a thing that contains a bunch of things (literally "for all" in Latin).

 

[VulcanMindBlown]

I admit I liked enterprise phase pistols.

Yes, so do I. However, if you buy the toy or the prop, it'll cost you a thousand dollars.

Seriously, those things were cool, but in WAY too much demand.

 

[Cox of Seagulls]

I think that was when one could really tell the creative team was completely out of gas.

Was the Next Gen creative team out of gas when they didn't even rename TOS technology?

 

[F. King Daniel]

Yes, so do I. However, if you buy the toy or the prop, it'll cost you a thousand dollars.

Seriously, those things were cool, but in WAY too much demand.

I liked them until someone said "hair dryer" and ever since I haven't been able to unsee it.

 

[dregj]

set phasers for...
torture

 

[Timo]

The number of phaser settings has varied over time. The Abramsverse phasers have only two settings (and that odd design feature where you flip the nozzle around 180 degrees to switch settings). The TOS versions were generally assumed to have roughly five settings: heat, light stun, heavy stun, kill, and disintegrate (or heat, stun, disrupt, and dematerialize per The Making of Star Trek), plus overload. TNG hand phasers had 16 settings.

Perhaps significantly, all also had fundamentally different user interfaces.

The Abramsverse guns had a button for selecting between two distinct modes (and "The Cage" guns had a manually rotatable head for three modes, plus apparently another ring for adjusting something else). The TOS guns had something like three separate controls - thumbwheels, sliders, switches - each supposedly adjusting a different parameter for a potentially infinite number of settings. The TNG guns had three buttons for operating what might have been a menu-type interface, similar to old cell phones, and a dial showing eight or sixteen separate settings on a simple scale that suggested the settings went simply and monotonically from "weak" to "strong".

"Number of settings" probably isn't a good gauge of what these distinct gun types did.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Christopher]

Was the Next Gen creative team out of gas when they didn't even rename TOS technology?

Whaaa...? Why would they need to rename it? We've had no need to rename well-established technologies like, say, guns and trains and printing presses. It's generally in the early days of a technology's existence that its name is in flux.

And TNG and its successors did establish a number of new terms for devices not used in the TOS era -- holodecks/suites, replicators, biofilters, isolinear optical chips, LCARS, structural integrity fields, positronic matrices, quantum torpedoes. It also did rename some things from the TOS era -- warp reactors became warp cores, landing parties became away teams. And we were given names for existing starship components that were never named onscreen in TOS, like deflector dishes and Bussard collectors.

 

[eyeresist]

Christopher, I don't think Cox was serious - he was responding ironically to a criticism that ENT's slight renaming of TOS tech represented a critical lack of inspiration.