Type-II Hand Phaser

[Olorin]

I recently acquired a Star trek Type II Phaser from my “Secret Santa” at the department Christmas party. With this in mind I will try to review this new acquisition…

Would this design make a good personal defense weapon? I can hear you typing now, “But Olorin! It is not real?” Shut your dirty mouth! I do not care about that!

Lets do this…



Gene Rodenberry might have been Science Fiction visionary but he was no John Browning.

The Type II Phaser is really two guns in one. It breaks down into a small concealable phaser. The small phaser locks into the larger frame that gives the weapon more options and longer battery life. Imagine that you could pop the cylinder out of a revolver and it would still shoot, that is what we are talking about.



How does it feel in the hand? Not too bad. It has a really small grip that also serves as the power source of the weapon. It would be a lot like having the grip of a gun also be its magazine. The balance point is behind the grip with is strange. Basically the phaser is heavy in the ass and light at the muzzle (or whatever the end of a phaser is called).

The “trigger” is a small button at the front of the weapon. It has no trigger guard and could easily be pressed accidentally. It is also located in such a way that you press it just behind your first knuckle on your trigger finger. With any modern weapon you pull the trigger in front of you second knuckle on your shooting hand.

In order to take the weapon off safety and set the power (stun, kill, disintegrate) you turn a little wheel on top of the phaser. It would take two hands to take the safety off and set the power. Not good if you are in a hurry and to keep the weapon off safety would be dangerous.



What about the weapons sights you ask? Well it does have them but you have to turn another little wheel on top of the weapon to engage them. Why not have them engaged all the time? You have to bring up the targeting sensors manually (again it requires the left hand).

In addition you have to set the weapons beam. It is much like setting the beam of a Mag-Light. You have to twist the muzzle to set it.

So in order to fire the gun from safety you have to…

1. Take the weapon off safety (requires two hands)
2. Bring up the sights (takes two hands)
3. Set the bean (takes two hands)
4. And then pull the trigger

If you disconnect the smaller phaser from the top of the weapon you have all the same problems but in a smaller and harder to handle package.



At this point a Klingon is gloating over my dead Federation corpse!

Now I just need to review a Bat'leth!!!

[Rivington]

Well, remember that the phaser has a wide-angle beam as well. See Return of the Archons for an example of this.

Here's a still from a later use of wide-beam in an episode of Voyager (though of course there's been a few generations of improvements):


Before




After

[Just Guess]

It is also important to remember that Star Fleet is primarily a scientific organization, not a military one. These were probably designed with the idea of fending off dangerous wildlife, rather than for combat.

[Rivington]

It is also important to remember that Star Fleet is primarily a scientific organization, not a military one. These were probably designed with the idea of fending off dangerous wildlife, rather than for combat.

Phasers are also used as welding devices and such. Plus, the Type Is can be revved up and thrown like grenades.

[dougguod]

It is also important to remember that Star Fleet is primarily a scientific organization, not a military one. These were probably designed with the idea of fending off dangerous wildlife, rather than for combat.

Yes, but after the Klingons and Romulans and whatnot started showing up you'd think they would get the message and go back to the drawing board.

You know, this is yet another reason why Star Wars is superior to Star Trek. You would never see Han Solo or Boba Fett carrying a blaster that could be mistaken for their garage door opener, as in pic 4.

[Barabbas]

Yeah, Union is awesome... But you should review those lightswords like lieutenant Skyrunner had.

[Olorin]

It is also important to remember that Star Fleet is primarily a scientific organization, not a military one. These were probably designed with the idea of fending off dangerous wildlife, rather than for combat.

While I agree about the mission, they are involved an a lot of combat. And the Type II Phaser is unnecessary complicated to use. No modern government would issue a sidearm this spastic.

[Wounded Ronin]

Is it possible to go off on a huge tangent about how this proves the Federation has some kind of impractical military industrial complex, or is a slave to some kind of politics such that they can't make a good weapon?

[hapkido_keith]

Is it possible to go off on a huge tangent about how this proves the Federation has some kind of impractical military industrial complex, or is a slave to some kind of politics such that they can't make a good weapon?

Or maybe the prop guys didn't have any practical weapons experience and just made something that looked cool/futuristic.

Naw, it was hippy Federation politics. Damn liberals probably had their weapons designed by some engineer in a lab who never fired it, and ignored any input from field use.

[dougguod]

No modern government would issue a sidearm this spastic.

Have you seen some of the stupid products and programs that real-world modern governments not only adopt but stand by for years, even decades, despite evidence of failure? You just know that Star Fleet went with the lowest bidder and stuck with it because the manufacturer was located in some powerful congressman's district. Damn phaser lobby.