What happened to phasers that vaporize?

[WarpFactorZ]

In the last few episodes, it's been established that phasers can poke holes in people / Control, but not vaporize the entire body. TOS / movies / TNG / etc... suggest otherwise. Although I'm pretty relaxed about the liberties Discovery takes with canon, this one seems a bit more egregious. Just registering my complaint!

On edit: this was also missing from the JJverse films. It would've have taken care of Khan pretty quickly, though Kirk would have lost out in the end.

 

[Jesse1066]

They vaporize normal density humanoids just fine, but Control's nanobots are clearly far more dense.

 

[fireproof78]

Phasers have not been great since VOY. Never struck me as that odd.

 

[Campe]

Cornwell vaporized some evil fortune cookies last season.

 

[Harpsichord]

Cornwell vaporized some evil fortune cookies last season.

Georgieu also vaporized some Klingons with her Section 31 phaser drones(?) earlier this season.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

They vaporize normal density humanoids just fine, but Control's nanobots are clearly far more dense.

Phasers have vaporized rock! Certainly denser than Control nanobots.

 

[fireproof78]

Phasers have vaporized rock! Certainly denser than Control nanobots.

Wouldn't that depend on the rock? I mean, I'm no physicist, but I would imagine that nanobots could form into a pretty dense object, and may harden against such energy discharge.

 

[Timo]

Not sure about that... Depends on how the bots are put together. But more decisive might be that the bots would have air gaps in between - the phasing effect does not want to jump from one substance to another, say, from Klingon to air or floor or wall.

What I find odder than the sparse use of the make-disappear setting is the lack of beams. AFAIK, only the rifles have fired beams so far: Landry against the Glenn door, Leland-zombie against the Angel-entrapping shield. Why no beam against the stream of nanites that approached Burnham last week?

...Anybody have a good screencap of Leland's rifle?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[X24actor]

Don't forget what they did to people in the mirror universe. Were those phasers or did they call them "disruptors" or something?

Ironically the word "disruptor" sounds more like something that would stun than the word "phaser".

VOY made me wonder why phasers stopped vaporizing people. Turns out they were on stun most of the time. Background characters that got shot would return in later episodes. Otherwise, VOY liked to leave behind bodies for some reason, especially with the pulse phaser rifles. VOY did vaporize a pick-up truck which was awesome! The only other instances of vaporizing that I can think of in VOY was Leonardo demonstrating a phaser, and some scene with a bad guy vaporizing dead bodies.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

Wouldn't having the phaser set to vaporise drain the battery or whatever quicker than having it on stun or kill would?

 

[Jesse1066]

Phasers have vaporized rock! Certainly denser than Control nanobots.

I believe most of the times we've seen large amounts of rock vaporized were in the 24th century. In the 23rd, we've seen creatures that had a high resistance to phasers, such as the Horta and Gary Mitchell. It's not hard to imagine that Control has a similar resistance for reasons we may or may not understand.

 

[Tosk]

Wouldn't having the phaser set to vaporise drain the battery or whatever quicker than having it on stun or kill would?

If I had to use up more battery to save my own life, that's a price I'd be willing to pay.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

If I had to use up more battery to save my own life, that's a price I'd be willing to pay.

Yeah of course, not always a viable option though, if you're in a hostile environment and don't know how many enemies you might have to deal with drainign the battery might be a bad idea.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Blowing holes into very resilient humanoids is not new.
Remember that guy in the Metaphase shield episode, Beverly shot on the shuttle?

 

[Timo]

One might argue that vaporizing is a luxury setting reserved for peacetime use: you mercifully remove your opponent from existence in one painless shot, but this may cost you your own life later on when the sixty-fifth enemy can't be downed any more. When facing armies, you use a setting that leaves corpses, just like Captain Tracey did in "Omega Glory", allowing him to kill thousands with just a couple of sidearms lacking spare clips. And in S1 DSC, our heroes generally went against unknown odds but could expect enemies in the dozens at the very least.

Then again, firing on stun seems to be the best way to wage war, at least against Klingons (unless it's an energy hog for some reason): it's the one setting that assuredly brings down the enemy with the first shot, as seen several times in DSC. Blowing a hole in the enemy seldom stops him instantaneously. Which may be why Kirk already wages war on stun in "Errand of Mercy". (If he for some reason doesn't get the chance to disarm and imprison his victims afterwards, yet wants to retain control of that particular battlefield, then he may use the uncertain kill setting on the stunned victims with impunity...)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[fireproof78]

Phasers are kind of like transporters to me. They are inconsistently used, especially when wide angle blasts are possible, and yet we see Starfleet Security struggle to subdue enemies at times.

 

[ITDUDE]

In MU phasers vaporize everyone just fine.

 

[Timo]

Well, phasers are transporters. They make targets shimmer and disappear, they are blocked by shields or layers of rock, they operate by phasing...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Longinus]

Phasers already stopped vapourising people in DS9.

 

[Timo]

In TNG, really - after the first season, it was a rare event indeed. Heck, I don't think we saw it done by Starfleet guns after Riker did Yuta in "Vengeance Factor".

Timo Saloniemi