Talk:Type 3 phaser

Timeline issue
"The presence of the First Contact phaser rifles aboard Voyager is an anachronism - since the rifles were put into service after the vessel disappeared (the old TNG type-3 was still being used aboard DS9 in 2372), it is impossible for Voyager to have carried them on its deployment in 2371."
 * When Voyager was launched it was a brand new ship with all the latest equipment. Starfleet may not have the ability to instantly deploy new upgraded equipment everywhere in Federation space immediately.  It may also delay the release of new equipment while it undergoes beta testing etc.  I do not believe we can make any assumptions that Voyager would not had had the new phasers just because they had not yet been deployed to DS9!  64.229.181.138 22:27, 2 Mar 2005 (GMT)
 * I don't see the necessity for this note in the article, except as a background information.


 * It's not "impossible" for a First Contact rifle to have been issued to Voyager in 2371 -- obviously it was. This is poorly worded.


 * Who said the First Contact phaser rifles were introduced in 2373? was it in dialogue? script? -- this was just made up by someone writing here. It seems more likely the rifles were introduced sometime before 2371. -- Captain Mike K. Bartel 22:46, 2 Mar 2005 (GMT)

We know for a fact only that:
 * the TOS Enterprise had TOS type phaser rifles in 2265
 * the Enterprise-D had TNG type phaser rifles from 2369 onward (it seems likely they could have had them earlier than that, seeing as they recognized the one found on Krios in 2367)
 * Deep Space Nine had:
 * TNG-type rifles up until the end, since 2372 or so (it seems likely they had them since they took control of the station, since similarly equipped NCC-1701-D had them the same year, 2369)
 * FC-type rifles from 2373 onward
 * Voyager had:
 * VOY-type rifles from 2371 onward
 * FC-type rifles from 2371 onward
 * the Enterprise-E had FC-type rifles from around 2373 onward (it seems likely they had them when the ship was commissioned in 2372)


 * Any other dates manufactured by the imaginations of writers here are non-canon and should be checked. -- Captain Mike K. Bartel 22:45, 2 Mar 2005 (GMT)

I don't know if we know these things for a fact. It's probably more correct to say that those are the first appearances of those weapons onscreen.

Remember also, in the Star Trek realm, they have the ability to fabricate items aboard ship (via replicators). It's entirely possible that the reason a particular weapon wasn't seen onscreen until a particular period of time, is that they hadn't fabricated the new weapons yet.

On Voyager, for instance, they were rationing use of the replicators. Why utilize the replicators to fabricate new phaser rifles, when the ones they already had in inventory work just fine? I would imagine that Janeway justified the replicator expenditure for the new rifles because of the threat of the Borg, Species 8472, and all the other nasties Voyager encountered in their first few years in the Delta Quadrant. Roundeyesamurai 02:59, 4 June 2006 (UTC)


 * This may make an interesting note in the argument: Voyager also had the TNG-style phaser rifles. (This kinda works with Sevens "smaller rifles" comment from Good Shepard) In "Bliss", Qatai is going over Voyager's weapon manifest, and among the inventory is the TNG-style rifle. - AJ Halliwell 18:30, 13 June 2006 (UTC)


 * So where did Voyager's "First Contact" rifles all go in 2375? I notice that the CPRs reappeared from then on.  Personally, I always thought the CPR looked fragile and awkward to handle, not something I would want to carry on an away mission.  So, if the "First Contact" version was better, why suddenly stop using it?  (The real-world suggestion is that the people making Insurrection broke all the props).--Indefatigable 23:04, January 7, 2010 (UTC)

Regenerative
The article says that the rifle use din the deflector dish sequence is a regenerative phaser. Where does this claim come from? I can't find any mention in the movie or anywhere else.
 * Regenerative phasers were mentioned in as being expressly designed to operate in environments where conventional phasers would not function reliably due to high particle or electomagnetic radiation (like Chekov's phaser in ST:IV). Their use in the EVA sequence is entirely inferred, based on their unique behavior from previous phasers (firing pulses instead of beams) and their use in the vicinity of the navigational deflector, which is again assumed to produce a considerable amount of interference. 67.150.70.244 01:07, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Is this in any way related to Data's modification of a phaser in "Ensigns Of Command"? Roundeyesamurai 02:53, 4 June 2006 (UTC)


 * The evidence on these specific phasers being called "regenerative" seems very flimsy to me. At best it is speculation. We have seen other phaser rifles fire pulses . Unless someone can come up with something better, I amgoing to remove calling the First Contact phasers "regenerative". --OuroborosCobra 23:57, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

There is no evidence, it is fandom. I have made some edits, and removed the following completely:
 * Perhaps more significantly, it was termed a regenerative phaser, designed to function in the presence of duonetic fields, plasma fields, and other environments in which a normal phaser would not operate. This was important due the interfering nature of the Enterprise's main deflector dish on which the Borg were building an interplexing beacon.  As a historical note, the weapon was chosen instead of the TR-116 for such operations.

While regenerative phasers are described in that DS9 episode, they are never said to be restricted to one type, or to rifles only. I am going to look at the main article for phasers, or hand held phasers, and add the relevant information there (assuming it isn't already). --OuroborosCobra 08:26, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Speculation

 * In Deep Space Nine the concurrent useage of the TNG version and First Contact version suggests that the earlier verison may have been delegated to useage in the style of a submachine gun (i.e. by the way the characters use, hold and behave while using one)

Does anybody have any idea what this is supposed to mean? --From Andoria with Love 04:06, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

Yes- it's someone with an exceptionally cursory knowledge of firearms terminology attempting to apply that cursory knowledge to Star Trek. Roundeyesamurai 02:54, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Standard Issue
I think this line is stupid, "Phaser rifles were not standard inventory aboard Starfleet starships prior to the early 2370s." The truth is all the line outlines a fact, Phaser Rifles have never been a standard issue to a landing party, not in any episode or movie. --TOSrules 19:49, 20 January 2007 (UTC)
 * so it should be stated that phaser rifles were not standard gear for landing parties then. thefact is they probably had phaser rifles all along, we cant conclusively say they didnt. - -Captain M.K.B. 23:54, 20 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Exactly, also as I recall the crew had no reaction to the phaser rifle. Kirk was confused about the order for a phaser rifle when he had not ordered one sent down. --TOSrules 02:44, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree that this line is dumb. If a phaser rifle wasn't standard issue then how could Spock request one be beamed down from the Enterprise? I agree that it might not be standard issue for a typical Landing Party/Away Team but hardly something that wasn't an available item in the ships Arms Lockers. This statement should be removed.

New TNG phaser image
Thought you might like this File:Phaser.jpg Well?--The All-knowing Sith&#39;ari 19:34, 13 May 2007 (UTC)
 * We already have this one, which is a screencap (we prefer screencaps), but thanks anyways :) --OuroborosCobra talk 19:40, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Appearances
Is the Appearances section just really incomplete, or is there some weird guideline that I don't know about? --Cinder 05:23, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

Removed comment
Removed the below comment, as containing speculation and analysis. Absent a more specific explanation, we don't need to explain ourselves why the Cardie rifle is more powerful or why it isn't. A character said it was, that should be enough.

"Seems likely the writers assumed" is speculative without a citation.

Although DS9 "Return to Grace" comments that the Cardassian rifle is more powerful, this seems unlikely if the weapon only has two settings. The Federation rifle vaporizes on level eight and setting sixteen is much more powerful. With only two settings we would have to assume that the Cardassian rifles could be set to only stun or massive overkill. (Alternatively, it is possible that the two Cardassian settings are kill and "massive overkill"; it would not be inconsistent with Cardassian nature for Cardassians to have only lethal settings for their rifles.) Based on some of the sequences, it seems likely that many of the writers assumed that the setting that vaporizes must be maximum. This seems a poor assumption given that Kirk era Type I phasers could vaporize people. Even the TOS phaser rifle was powerful; it was rarely used and the crew was surprised that Spock requested it. It was commented (jokingly) that it could have been used to shear off some of the mountain.--31dot 12:08, 16 September 2008 (UTC)