Type 1 Phaser

[Dingo]

Has there ever been any canon information on whether the tiny type one phasers of early TNG were discontinued? I've seen them in use as late as the fifth season of TNG (the Ktarian Game). The reason I ask is because I intend to write their usage into a Voyager fic of mine, maybe a handful of them remaining in Voyager's inventory.

 

[C.E. Evans]

They could have been simply redesigned like the Type-2 phasers were, for all we know. They weren't exactly standard-issue weapons to begin with, IMO, but they seemed to be better suited for missions where concealment of a phaser is more preferred than outright brandishing one in the open.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

I think failing to use them properly was a major flaw of later series. There were all kinds of situations where a little cricket phaser would have come in handy, and carrying one in a concealed pocket in your boot or something should have been SOP in the 24th century.

If you want to write them into a Voyager fanfic, write THAT. Say, an argument between Janeway and Chakotay, with the latter wanting to update their mission procedures and require all away teams to carry a Type-1 in a sleeve pocket "just in case" and Janeway grumbling "This isn't the Maquis!" or something.

 

[Dingo]

Actually, it's gonna be where my OC, LTJG Henry Kano, gives a Type-1 to a civilian on an away mission to help her defend herself from hostile forces. I can see the potential ramifications of that, especially when he gets back to Voyager with the phaser returned to him by the civilian.

 

[Timo]

Let's remember that TOS "Devil in the Dark" told us that civilian miners had access to Type 1, while the more potent Type 2 apparently was Starfleet issue only. So back in the 2260s at least, Type 1 wasn't some sort of an ultra-special, concealed-carry device for professional killers, but rather the everyman handgun of choice.

TNG Tech Manual information on phasers suggests that Type 1 could be handed out with abandon because it can be locked on a mode where only settings from 1 through 3, light to heavy stun, are available. The book also suggests officers get assigned Type 1 guns as personal sidearms (so supposedly Riker or Bashir or Kim always has one in his cabin, waiting for use), whilst Type 2 phasers are dished out as needed in alert situations or when preparing for away missions. This might not be in good accordance with evidence from TNG itself, where it's not trivial for even a Starfleet officer to gain access to a phaser of any sort (say, "11001001").

Timo Saloniemi

 

[SonicRanger]

Has there ever been any canon information on whether the tiny type one phasers of early TNG were discontinued? I've seen them in use as late as the fifth season of TNG (the Ktarian Game). The reason I ask is because I intend to write their usage into a Voyager fic of mine, maybe a handful of them remaining in Voyager's inventory.

Um, it was used on VOY:

http://voy.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/5x04/intheflesh_218.jpg

 

[Dingo]

I missed that reference, thanks Sonic Ranger.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

IIRC, a redesigned version was designed and prototyped for FC, but never used.

I know I've seen a picture somewhere.

 

[DarkHorizon]

IIRC, a redesigned version was designed and prototyped for FC, but never used.

I know I've seen a picture somewhere.

http://www.phasers.net/noncanon/stfc-tp1.htm

 

[Timo]

Edit: Beat me to it, sorry 'bout an unnecessary post.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Shaw]

Has there ever been any canon information on whether the tiny type one phasers of early TNG were discontinued? I've seen them in use as late as the fifth season of TNG (the Ktarian Game). The reason I ask is because I intend to write their usage into a Voyager fic of mine, maybe a handful of them remaining in Voyager's inventory.

They were used as late as the fifth season of Voyager from what I can tell.

Edit: SonicRanger beat me to it I see. http://www.trekbbs.com/member.php?u=235

 

[ElScoob]

My understanding is that the use of 'cricket' phasers was stopped sometime during TNG because they were too damn small to be seen clearly on camera, which I guess may have caused VFX problems when they were fired.

That said--VOY made use of 'em once, several years after they'd last been seen. So I'd assume they continued to be used at least as late as Voyager's launch.

Maybe an argument could be made that Starfleet decided to discontinue them in the years leading into the Dominion War, perhaps because it was decided that their power relative to the larger weapons was insufficient in the face of the growing threats faced by the Federation. This might relate to the fact that we saw phaser rifles far more frequently in that time period, whereas before they were extremely rare. Perhaps the type-2 pistol/type-3 rifle paradigm replaced the older type-1/type-2 paradigm; type-2s became standard-issue sidearms, and rifles became the go-to 'big gun'.

On the third hand: I'd imagine that replicators could produce type-1s if needed. Perhaps they just fell out of use except in situations calling for something more concealable.

On the fourth hand: there's nothing canonical that says they were (pardon the pun) phased out, and if the story you're writing requires a type-1 then go on and use one. I am firmly in favor of the idea that the requirements of the story far outweigh niggling bits of technical pedantry.

--g

 

[Kaziarl]

I actually liked how they did it in TOS with the palm phaser (not sure if it was called a type 1 back then) could be attached to the hand grip apparatus of the pistol phaser to make it more powerful. Not sure if that was the idea in TNG or not, but I suppose it could be.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I actually liked how they did it in TOS with the palm phaser (not sure if it was called a type 1 back then) could be attached to the hand grip apparatus of the pistol phaser to make it more powerful. Not sure if that was the idea in TNG or not, but I suppose it could be.

I think I read it somewhere that the idea might have been kicked around for all of two seconds before it was abandoned in lieu of just making them separate weapons in TNG.

Always kind of liked the lil' cricket/palm/type-1 phaser. An small, easy to conceal weapon that can still deliver quite a bit of devastation in its own right.

 

[SonicRanger]

I actually liked how they did it in TOS with the palm phaser (not sure if it was called a type 1 back then) could be attached to the hand grip apparatus of the pistol phaser to make it more powerful. Not sure if that was the idea in TNG or not, but I suppose it could be.

I think I read it somewhere that the idea might have been kicked around for all of two seconds before it was abandoned in lieu of just making them separate weapons in TNG.

Always kind of liked the lil' cricket/palm/type-1 phaser. An small, easy to conceal weapon that can still deliver quite a bit of devastation in its own right.

There is concept art from Probert, I believe, that shows such designs for TNG. Maybe I can find it online...

 

[Dingo]

I wound up having them being used in my fanfiction-verse on Voyager.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

Has there ever been any canon information on whether the tiny type one phasers of early TNG were discontinued? I've seen them in use as late as the fifth season of TNG (the Ktarian Game). The reason I ask is because I intend to write their usage into a Voyager fic of mine, maybe a handful of them remaining in Voyager's inventory.

It makes perfect sense for them to remain in use. The "one size fits all" concept has always been tremendously silly, after all.

Just think of that, in "Trekkian" terms, as the equivalent of a little .22 today. Think of the "type II" as something more along the lines of a .40S&W. Think of the various rifles you see as equivalents of the various rifles we use today (including, at a minimum, short-range "assault rifle" variations, "shotgun" variations, "sniper rifle" variations, and so forth).

Instead of trying to have one weapon that does every job, you'll come up with optimized designs to serve different purposes.

The "type I" isn't a great combat weapon, but it's concealable and reasonably useful as a deterent... effectively, it's a defense, not an offense.

 

[Timo]

Instead of trying to have one weapon that does every job, you'll come up with optimized designs to serve different purposes.

...Unless you intend to arm a small landing party that will operate far away from replenishment points, cannot readily carry three different types of weapon due to weight concerns, and is still expected to perform very diverse missions.

There'd always be a need for a phaser "assault rifle", I guess - that is, a weapon that is piss-poor as a rifle (has too short a barrel), piss-poor as a pistol (weighs ten times too much and has too long a barrel), and piss-poor as a submachine gun (carries too heavy and powerful a round, in insufficient quantity, for good spray-and-pray action), but perfectly fits the needs of a modern infantryman.

Phaser Type 2 might well be the assault rifle of the future, or perhaps the carbine (an even poorer rifle made more useful in the submachine gun or pistol role by shortening the barrel), while Type 3 could be something like a light machine gun, leaving Type 1 the (full-automatic) pistol role...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[sojourner]

I would imagine the type 1's as part and parcel to survival kits on shuttles and escape pods.

 

[Timo]

Curiously enough, the hero ship and her auxiliary craft rather seemed to have Type 2 weapons distributed everywhere. In TOS "Day of the Dove" and TNG "11001001", there was a separate, difficult-to-access armory for obtaining them, but there also were dispensers in Sickbay or Galley or on the shuttles. DS9 had these small Type 2 -containing drawers everywhere as well.

Perhaps a Type 1 is deemed insufficient for normal Starfleet use, then, and its existence is indeed due chiefly to its concealability. That civilian miners get Type 1 weapons might then be a matter of socialist convenience: the concealable military/spy weapon can be used for the secondary civilian purpose with minimal modifications, so nobody bothers to create a dedicated civvie gun.

Timo Saloniemi