Your favourite SF weapons and devices...

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Warped9, Aug 10, 2010.

  1. ProtoAvatar

    ProtoAvatar Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2008
    The most useless well known SF weapon is, without doubt, the lightsaber.

    What's the most useful? A time machine.
    The coolest? This changes with the mood: nanotechnology, lighthuggers (creative near-light-speed propulsion) niven's indestructible transparent ships, banks' orbitals, etc.
     
  2. J.T.B.

    J.T.B. Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jun 14, 2005
    To me the best SF weapon is Deckerd's pistol from Blade Runner. I don't know what it's supposed to be, it has two triggers and apparently throws exploding shells (one trigger for explosive, one for regular slugs?). Anyway it has a very cool, realistic and menacing bulky presence to it. I believe it was built from the receiver of a Steyr bolt-action rifle (which has a set trigger), with a wood grip, short barrel and various doo-dads added on.

    In a similar vein, Star Wars had great weapons because they were made from real guns, so they had a very real-world weight and look to them, with spots of wear and so on. My favorite was always Solo's blaster, made from a Mauser C96 semi-automatic pistol. It was one of the first successful autoloading pistols, and looks pretty ungainly compared to the Browning designs that came after it, but with scope, muzzle cone &c. added on, its weird bulk is just about perfect as a SF blaster.

    The TOS phaser II is just a classic, clean, almost art-deco design. It always caught my eye as a kid for having a short part out front and a long part in the back, the opposite of real and most fictional handguns. That just seemed really futuristic to me and I will always love that design.

    I always liked the Logan's Run "blow torch" blasters as a kid. Did I read they ran on carbide gas? The sound was almost as cool as the muzzle blast. But the novel had a different Sandman weapon that always intrigued me. It was described as basically an updated Old West revolver, but each chamber held a different type of load, some lethal, some less so, and the cylinder could be rotated to fire a different projectile as the situation dictated. I can still remember their names, too: Ripper, nitro, vapor, tangler, needler, and homer. I don't remember what each one did, though, except for homer, which once fired could single out, track and kill a specific person.

    --Justin
     
  3. God Magnus

    God Magnus Commodore Commodore

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  4. Nardpuncher

    Nardpuncher Rear Admiral

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  5. PointyHairedJedi

    PointyHairedJedi Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Well who wouldn't want a TARDIS. Throw in a De-Mat Gun, and I'd be all set for galactic domination!