Phasers at warp

[Tallis Rhul]

I thought you couldn't fire phasers at warp due to travelling faster than light...

Yet they do in Shockwave part 2

What's going on?

 

[C.E. Evans]

They simply decided that phasers can be fired at warp because the story demanded them to.

Personally, though, I wish they hadn't because I always felt that photon torpedoes were originally developed because phasers were useless at warp.

Oh, well. Time to rewrite Trek physics again...

 

[Dane_Whitman]

It was done before on VOY's Message in a Bottle.

 

[Timo]

I thought you couldn't fire phasers at warp due to travelling faster than light...

There has NEVER been any sort of limitation on firing phasers at warp. No hero or villain has ever made the slightest suggestion that there might be something difficult or demanding about it. No instance of phaser combat at warp speeds has elicited any sort of specific comment. And everybody seems to be capable of firing their beam weapons at warp; it's not high technology or anything.

It's just that in ENT "Fallen Hero", the phasers had been recently installed and still had some quirks during warp combat. Tucker and Reed were suitably surprised that the guns weren't working perfectly; they got everything working as intended by the end of the episode.

Also, TNG was notorious for not showing space battles where phasers would have been fired at warp. Presumably the combined effect of warp streaks and phaser beams was too expensive; easier to draw the beams on footage of a relatively static ship against a static background or something. All other shows (TOS, TAS, DS9, VOY, ENT) have shown phaser activity at warp speeds.

Various backstage sources, books etc. have tried to suggest that there'd be something difficult or demanding about warp phasers. But that simply isn't true - never has been.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[C.E. Evans]

Various backstage sources, books etc. have tried to suggest that there'd be something difficult or demanding about warp phasers. But that simply isn't true - never has been.

Which is why I think they need to be rewritten.

 

[Timo]

OTOH, the TNG Tech Manual does come with the disclaimer that sensitive information may in fact be printed as disinformation to fool those Klingons or Cardassians who frequent Amazon.com... So every claim there about phasers or photon torpedoes can probably safely be ignored!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[C.E. Evans]

Good point.

Buncha liars, dem Starfleet folks...

 

[Nerys Myk]

I'm sure Kor is still waiting for his copy of the conclusion G R R Martin's "Song of Fire and Ice" to arrive from Amazon.

 

[pookha]

the implication in arena was that the enterprise was going to fire phasers while still at warp as soon as it was in range.

 

[Timo]

Indeed - and phasers were supposed to be used in other warp chases as well. They were also often fired at warp-speed targets whether the Enterprise was at standstill, or moving at impulse, or moving at warp, or her motion status was unknown.

The first episode with phaser combat was "Corbomite Maneuver" - indeed the opening episode, if we go by production order. The combat there was at standstill, though. The second one was "Balance of Terror", and there our heroes first escaped from the Romulan plasma blast at maximum warp, then headed back at maximum warp, and fired phasers all the way as they closed the (pretty extreme!) range. Nobody ever suggested that phasers and warp would have been a bad combination. These early examples were neatly followed for the rest of the series...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tallis Rhul]

Wow, OK. I guess my preconception must have been from one of those backstage printed sources then, I do think I remember reading it to be honest.

One more thing on my list of stuff not to worry about ^^

 

[Major Chord]

The only time I remember it being specifically stated that phasers couldn't be fired at warp was in TMP, because the phaser power came from the warp engines. On any other design than the Refit Connie and her contemporaries, I don't think this has been an issue though.