The Vengeance Phasers

[Starborn Dragon]

So I'm watching Into Darkness again, and I'm noticing something for the first time.

The phasers of the Vengeance do not travel in a straight line. The closes way I can describe how they move is like someone is throwing something at an arc. They have some very tight arcs to them though, almost as if they are trying to make a very tight circle.

I don't think they are phasers at all.

A phaser beam travels in a straight line and does not arc.

I don't know what to make of this, other than to say I don't think those energy beam weapons are an actual phaser.

 

[F. King Daniel]

According to the Official Starships Collection magazine, they're "arcing phasers". Initially conceived as a cool warp speed firing effect, JJ liked it so much he requested it be the way the Vengeance phasers fired regardless of velocity.

The Vengeance was conceived with a ton of weaponry we never saw, including cluster "neutron torpedoes" which fired from pop-up rails on top of the saucer.

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

I remember reading about all the unused aspects of the Vengeance's arsenal at one point.

It's a shame Khan went ahead and illustrated her most blunt-force of weapons.

 

[Timo]

Well, we shouldn't worry: considering that Marcus wanted to wage immediate war with ships like this, he probably had dozens of them already completed...

Why would Khan want to fire with finesse? It's a bit weird that Marcus uses "unconventional" weapons against the Enterprise at all, too, as he already so clearly outguns Kirk and has no desire to leave him alive for any length of time. Why launch that spherical drone when just pummeling Kirk to death with phasers would work fine? (And why does Marcus stop at all? It's silly for him to want Khan returned alive at this point - Khan should be killed lest he ruin the Admiral's plans!)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Richard Baker]

What I am curious about is how can you wage a war with only one massive ship? It is a given that it could wipe out any opposing force, but it can only do that in one location at a time. He was planing on fighting the entire Klingon Empire- even if he attacks the home world in complete surprise like Pearl Harbor, the Klingons have a lot of ships elsewhere that can still devastate the Federation.
Only recourse would be to install some of the advanced weaponry on existing vessels- those phaser spheres should be adaptable since they have their own power supply, you would just need to attach a holding cradle to the hull somewhere.
A lot of his plan does not make sense to me, but then again it is a movie for entertainment and it does succeed at that.

 

[Smellmet]

I miss the old beam ones, these are far too Star Wars-y for my liking.

 

[Starborn Dragon]

What I am curious about is how can you wage a war with only one massive ship? It is a given that it could wipe out any opposing force, but it can only do that in one location at a time. He was planing on fighting the entire Klingon Empire- even if he attacks the home world in complete surprise like Pearl Harbor, the Klingons have a lot of ships elsewhere that can still devastate the Federation.
Only recourse would be to install some of the advanced weaponry on existing vessels- those phaser spheres should be adaptable since they have their own power supply, you would just need to attach a holding cradle to the hull somewhere.
A lot of his plan does not make sense to me, but then again it is a movie for entertainment and it does succeed at that.

The ship was built for automation and could be run with a minimal crew or even a crew of one, as Khan claims.

It was the first of many.

And has a historical counterpart. The Dreadnoughts of the early 1900s were built to big and powerful. The Bismark also.

 

[Smellmet]

The 'noise' it makes when at warp however, is quite divine. One of my favourite scenes in the whole franchise. Just wish it was a bit longer...

 

[Kruezerman]

And has a historical counterpart. The Dreadnoughts of the early 1900s were built to big and powerful. The Bismark also.

Funny way of spelling Excelsior.

 

[Starborn Dragon]

And has a historical counterpart. The Dreadnoughts of the early 1900s were built to big and powerful. The Bismark also.

Funny way of spelling Excelsior.

Stan Lee or The Great Experiment with transwarp drive?

 

[Kruezerman]

Stan Lee. Obviously.

 

[BeatleJWOL]

It's a bit weird that Marcus uses "unconventional" weapons against the Enterprise at all, too, as he already so clearly outguns Kirk and has no desire to leave him alive for any length of time. Why launch that spherical drone when just pummeling Kirk to death with phasers would work fine?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EvilGloating

 

[Belz...]

I miss the old beam ones, these are far too Star Wars-y for my liking.

Same here. I guess they didn't think that beams looked action-y enough.

 

[Cyke101]

I suspect that if Khan's BFG on Qonos was mounted to a ship, that it would look pretty similar to the orange-yellow TNG-era phaser beam.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

So I'm watching Into Darkness again, and I'm noticing something for the first time.

The phasers of the Vengeance do not travel in a straight line. The closes way I can describe how they move is like someone is throwing something at an arc. They have some very tight arcs to them though, almost as if they are trying to make a very tight circle.

I don't think they are phasers at all.

A phaser beam travels in a straight line and does not arc.

I don't know what to make of this, other than to say I don't think those energy beam weapons are an actual phaser.

I figured it's some sort of artificial gravity lensing effect.

http://phys.org/news/2013-09-mimic-gravitational-lensing.html

If that doesn't work, when in doubt, just BS it by saying "something something something subspace."

 

[Kemaiku]

I know Marcus wanted the Enterprise out of warp anyway, but the phasers did tend to arc towards any high energy area of the Enterprise that was facing the Vengeance at the time.

I thought before that Vengeance was painting targets but seeing it on a smaller HD screen it just looks like the pulses were so bright that they lit up the Enterprise hull several moments before they hit, just light being messed with at FTL.

That or they weren't guided at all and the "wobble" was the pulse destablising at warp speeds, Marcus doing a spray and pray, knowing all the propulsion areas of the Enterprise were directly in the line of fire anyway.

 

[beamMe]

I miss the old beam ones, these are far too Star Wars-y for my liking.

Yeah, I like some of the old beams, too

https://youtu.be/WCpYqWAIwFA?t=8m23s

 

[publiusr]

Now, in the DC comics Excelsior did have these things called "tracing phasers."

If you get the Eaglemoss replica--you get a book detailing that there are two huge weapon spheres that come from what you might think of as torpedo bays.

These are 360 phaser drones instead.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

If you get the Eaglemoss replica--you get a book detailing that there are two huge weapon spheres that come from what you might of as torpedo bays.

Those were actually in the movie one of them crashed into the Enterprise after it got done firing.

 

[Tarek71]

I still think the TWOK phasers are the best phaser effects achieved in any of the movies or episodes. I do like the arc effect too though. It's an improvement over the SW Star Destroyer turbolaser looking short blasts that we see normally.

It's obvious that the Vengeance is beyond the normal dreadnaught type, and represented a big jump in firepower. I for one hope we see one of her type again. Maybe several were under construction. Hard to believe that at least SOME ships arent made as tough as the Federation can make them for self defense purposes.

The idea that they deliberately build even their strongest ships to be far weaker than they are capable of because they believe in exploration is wool-headed nonsense.