Well, it looks like they've decided to go with the Rodenberry version of the 22nd century rather than the B&B Enterprise version, since one of the headings on the equipment list is "22nd Century Laser Weapons."
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Well, it looks like they've decided to go with the Rodenberry version of the 22nd century rather than the B&B Enterprise version, since one of the headings on the equipment list is "22nd Century Laser Weapons."
"Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens."
-Gimli, son of Gloin (The Fellowship of the Ring)
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Just curious...
I'm not an expert, so I'd like to know : where has it been stated that they used laser weapons in the 22nd century ? Was it something said in TOS or TNG (in that case I don't remember it), or is it a report from an interview about a book written from a sentence somebody recalled having heard Roddenberry said ?
I've been hearing this complaint against Enterprise for a while (the phase pistol thing), and I keep being somehow puzzled about it.
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Terry Pratchett
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In the first pilot episode for TOS - "The Cage", they used lasers rather than phasers (although they did have variable power settings IIRC).
I think given that the pilot was set at most about 10 years before Kirk's period, most people think it seems odd that they had something resembling phasers 90 years before that. It would mean they invented the phase pistol, used it for a while, then decided it was no good and went back to a less efficient laser, before reinventing the phaser!
Jon
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Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, and somewhere else the tea is getting cold. Come on, Ace, we've got work to do."
THE DOCTOR, "Survival" (Doctor Who)
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A few possibilities...
(Note - when you read this it helps if you say "laser" like Dr. Evil does in Austin Powers)
1) Pike's crew may have had both phasers and lasers. Perhaps the phaser is more versatile while the... "laser" has greater firepower. Or perhaps the... "laser"... is easier to maintain. After all, revolvers have stayed in use for nearly a century after the invention of semiautomatic pistols. (And maybe phasers were wicked more expensive, costing... one million credits.)
2) Perhaps the weapons seen in "The Cage" were phasers. But one of the settings could have been a "laser" - after all, the weapons shown had three separate nozzles. Perhaps the settings were stun, "laser", and death-ray "laser".
AKA Breschau of Livonia (mainly rpg forums)
Gaming blog 19thlevel
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Those charts might have been written before the CODA folks had seen any information on Enterprise hand weapons. Which would explain it. Of course, it could also refer to the more primitive EM-33s or whatever it is they have before they get the phase pistols (which they don't have a lot of anyway).
So I'm guessing we'll see phase weapon stats soon enough
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I have it in mind to do a campaign set 10-15 years before TOS, and I already decided that I'd rather call it an advanced form of phase pistol. I figure it this way: "The Cage" was a pilot episode (a pilot pilot, really), and a lot of details were deliberately changed, the use of lasers not least among them and specifically because using a technology with no modern analogue allowed the writers to get away with more. Enterprise is an ongoing series, not a pilot one-shot, and I prefer to give its technology precedence.Originally posted by Dan Stack
A few possibilities...
(Note - when you read this it helps if you say "laser" like Dr. Evil does in Austin Powers
1) Pike's crew may have had both phasers and lasers. Perhaps the phaser is more versatile while the... "laser" has greater firepower. Or perhaps the... "laser"... is easier to maintain. After all, revolvers have stayed in use for nearly a century after the invention of semiautomatic pistols. (And maybe phasers were wicked more expensive, costing... one million credits.)
2) Perhaps the weapons seen in "The Cage" were phasers. But one of the settings could have been a "laser" - after all, the weapons shown had three separate nozzles. Perhaps the settings were stun, "laser", and death-ray "laser".
It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of java that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion.
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While "The Cage" was a rejected pilot episode, elements of the story were used in the two part episode "The Menagerie," meaning that, effectively, "The Cage" is canon.
Davy Jones
"Frightened? My dear, you are looking at a man who has laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom, and chuckled at catastrophe! I was petrified."
-- The Wizard of Oz
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ROFLMAO!Originally posted by Dan Stack
(Note - when you read this it helps if you say "laser" like Dr. Evil does in Austin Powers
Thanks Dan.
I will never look at "laser" or even "phaser" without the Dr. Evil connection from now on.
Nice explanation btw, one that I will throw at my players when they start getting a little uppity.
Brian K
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