TOS Phaser I

[Timo]

I would argue, though, that the Phaser marksmanship we witnessed in TOS was a by-product of limited special effects technology and script conventions.

Certainly so - but most of the Trek universe is the direct result and product of such limitations. The very existence of transporters is a VFX budget conceit; we shouldn't dismiss transporters for that.

Look at Kirk's phenomenal marksmanship in "Errand of Mercy". He picked-off that Klingon at an extended distance.

And had time to let his auto-aiming doodad do some precision work beforehand. One wonders, though... Are stun beams easy in that respect, with coarse aim and wide beams producing the intended results while a coarse aiming of a wide vaporization beam would just court disaster?

As for how the phasers do that exactly, we don't really need to know beyond the fact that we can do it today - they just do it better in the future. A simple camera (although no doubt hyperspectral in Trek) can analyze the image (with much greater and cleverer computing resouces in Trek) to spot the target and cue the user or the weapon, stealthily and passively. Although how much value stealth at aiming would add to phaser use is debatable, considering the shot itself gives the shooter away in any case.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Albertese]

I imagine the roll up transparent block to be a sight in that it is a screen which displays an on-board sensor's choices for target priority, and the weapon's aim can be quite broad while the phaser itself chooses ideal vectors from its own position compared to the target.

This sort of thing seems in line with all the bells and whistles Kira describes on a 24th Century phaser rifle a century later.

--Alex

 

[aridas sofia]

The magic of TOS is in keeping as much of it as possible magic. And yet that wouldn't leave that much for us to discuss, so...

I think the phaser links to the shooter via a neuraloptic touch interface. The interface is accessed via touching the sighting block. The flip-up grid activates a low-power deflector that protects the shooter from getting his digits disintegrated.

 

[Timo]

TOS is guilty of plenty of "non-line-of-sight optics" - displays that cannot be seen, camera lenses that cannot possibly see, targets viewed from impossible angles. Some of this happens in the spinoffs as well. It would be pretty much in keeping with the current and projected state of real-world technologies that all imagery in the future would be synthetic, having pretty much zip to do with how light proceeds from A to B.

Field display systems could be a key application: in TNG still, the rifles feature pop-up sights that cannot really be sighted with, but could quite possibly project visual information exactly where it's needed (say, in the eyes of the user), in a stabilized fashion that frees the user from having to actually keep his eyes on a sight that bobs whichever way as he runs cross-country...

The unsatisfactory thing about this is the failure of the heroes to make use of the putative feature. Aiming a gun by placing it in front of your eyes is stupid for many reasons: you place your eyes in a highly dangerous place both in terms of your gun doing them harm, and the enemy having direct access to them. If you could aim by keeping the gun as far away from your eyes as physically possible (at arm's length at the very least, farther if possible), you should. Our heroes don't...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Go-Captain]

One of the interesting things about the TOS Type I is that its flip up sight leads to a an opening just above the emitter, and that opening lines up with a rectangular opening in the Type II just above its emitter.

The way I imagine it working is, the flip up sight mechanism lays a holographic sight over what ever is being pointed at. Real life holographic sights are only visible at a particle angle. That would require the phaser to be held at eye level, arm fully extended to see the sight.

It is unfortunate it cannot be used that way effectively. The idea works with the Type II because the hand is out of the way, but we see lots of off bore firing with the Type I and it is rarely or never held at eye level. It leads me to believe it is actually some sort of eye tracker and range finder. It's an idea I have for TNG phasers but it works for TOS too.

The idea goes, the phaser knows where the user's eyes are pointing and where they are relative itself, as well as its own angle. When activated, it places the point of convergence on the object being looked at. While firing, the beam does not alter angle, so that stray eye movement cannot lead to unpredictable beam swing; moving the beam while active requires moving the whole phaser. This works great for ranges where the unaided eye sees clearly, perhaps a couple hundred yards, but for long range fire out to a kilometer, a more conventional sight would be needed.

Thus, the TOS phaser rifle, original Type III, and later Type III all have sights.

 

[publiusr]

Shooting from the hip is something you can learn. Some can be rather good at it.

 

[Green Shirt]

Phasers are the ultimate smart weapon, they hit what you want to shoot at.