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S1 phasers

Unicron

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While watching the TNG eps on Spike today ("11001001" and "Too Short A Season"), I started wondering about something. Most if not all of the cast are right handed, and the phaser holsters should be on the left hip if you wanted to draw your phaser quickly. Yet in both eps, they mainly wear the phasers on the right hip, only to draw it with their left hand and then put it in their right hand. Why bother? :p

Incidentally, I noticed a tiny goof in "11001001." After Data gives the order to evacuate the ship, there are several reaction scenes of random crew members. Data and Geordi are in Engineering trying to stop the problem the Bynars have created, and Geordi says no one else is there. But one of the random crew shots is an officer who's clearly sitting at the station Geordi uses later as chief engineer (opposite the warp core).

sunshine1.gif
 
Am I right in thinking that only season one had the small "pebble" phasers? The ones that fitted into the hand? I really liked those and thought it was a shame they got rid of them, although I understand they were ditched because they couldn't be seen on screen very well.
 
WillsBabe said:
Am I right in thinking that only season one had the small "pebble" phasers? The ones that fitted into the hand? I really liked those and thought it was a shame they got rid of them, although I understand they were ditched because they couldn't be seen on screen very well.
Wesley Crusher used a Type I handphaser in the 5th season episode "The Game" as a means of distraction.
 
Geordi also uses one the small phaser in "The Mind's Eye."

Is it weird that I know that without even looking?

-Aaron
 
WillsBabe said:
Am I right in thinking that only season one had the small "pebble" phasers? The ones that fitted into the hand?
The "cricket" phasers. They pretty much stopped appearing after the fourth season.

I really liked those and thought it was a shame they got rid of them, although I understand they were ditched because they couldn't be seen on screen very well.
Yeah, they were actually too small, as these screencaps from "Conspiracy" shows. 1 2

The crew also used the larger, "dustbuster" phasers during the first two seasons. They suffered from the exact opposite problem of the "cricket" phasers, being ridiculously bulky. 1 2 3
 
There also seemed to be frequent problems getting the actors to aim the phasers at the right angle, or even in the right direction sometimes. :p

Riker & Data take on Armus

The problem wasn't really resolved by the new "cobrahead" phaser introduced in Season 3...

Riker shoots his new girlfriend

It isn't until DS9's fourth season that we get the "phaserang" with its curved, ergonomic handle and flatter head that seem to lead to fewer of these mismatched shots.

O'Brien and Worf in "Way of the Warrior"
 
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