TOS Phaser I

[Wingsley]

Could someone please explain the TOS "Phaser I" sidearm structure to me?

Believe it or not, I've been watching reruns of TOS since the early 1970s, and I've never been able to figure out the forward-most grille on the topside of this weapon.

It wasn't until I saw STAR TREK CONTINUES' "Fairest of Them All" that I noticed that the little grille flips up almost like a TOS hand-talkie-communicator. Finally, I visited the HD screen caps for "Private Little War" and noticed, for the first time, that when Dr. McCoy is heating the rocks in Kirk's cave he has the grille flipped up.

I had always assumed that the grille was fixed, not movable, and that when Franz Joseph Schnaubelt placed a trigger button situated just aft of the grille in the 1975 Tech Manual, he must have known what he was talking about.

Can someone clarify what that grille does and how this sidearm's trigger operates?

 

[T'Girl]

I believe the original idea was that there would be a "flip up" sighting device, although none of the hero props actually had one, just a clear plastic piece under the grill. Think of a small video screen, which would make sense for even medium distances.

The grill itself? Maybe a heat exchanger, not too hot, wouldn't want to burn your thumb.

 

[Timo]

I'm all for this clear block of crystal being a display device of some sort. Either it projects a detailed sighting graphic directly in the eye of the user (a likely way for displays to work in the near future, with commercial eye-trackers no doubt mandatory on automobiles in a few years), or then has coarse indicator lights for "left and a bit higher" type auto-aiming. Sure, it's somewhat obscured by the thumb of the user, but still...

If a targeting aid is that directly connected to this mystery grille, physically and functionally, the grille might well have a function associated with targeting. On the communicator, it's an antenna, right? And for something fancier than radio waves, probably. Perhaps here it's the antenna for the sensor beam that does the auto-aiming, and the user can choose whether to shoot "passive and stealthy", without using the auto-aiming - or "accurate but noisy", bombarding the enemy with a sensor beam he can easily spot with his combat tricorder if he's wearing one.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Wingsley]

But where is the trigger on the thing? And was there ever any official word from the show's makers as to what the grill flipped up for?

 

[Prologic9]

There was an aluminum Trigger on the bottom that activated the firing light. When you rotate the left dial on the Phaser I, it turns the acrylic half-rod that raises the "sight" and also extends the emitter in front.

That was the extent of the prop's functions, what they 'really' did is up to your imagination.

 

[Racer_X]

This page has images of Matt Jefferies' original blueprints for the Phaser 1 & 2, which should answer a lot of questions. These blueprints were first published in the Star Trek Sketchbook, if I recall correctly.

 

[Albertese]

Could someone please explain the TOS "Phaser I" sidearm structure to me?

....

, and that when Franz Joseph Schnaubelt placed a trigger button situated just aft of the grille in the 1975 Tech Manual, he must have known what he was talking about.

...

Really nothing that Franz Josef did in his Star Trek Technical Manual should be accepted as canon. (possible exception, ships/logos he drew/named which make it into background atmosphere in the movies)

The phasers are a prime example of this. He had less behind the scenes access than a lot of people realize. His drawings of the phasers are based on images from the plates in The Making of Star Trek rather than on handling the real props. His phaser II drawings make this very clear as blocks of shadow that prop is casting on the table in the photo are included by FJ as contours of the phaser. A side by side comparison of both images makes it pretty clear what mistake he made.

Nothing else really matches what appeared on-screen either as his goal (he was a naval engineer professionally) was to depict a gently reimagined version of the Star Fleet universe which made more internal sense to his own understanding of naval engineering. Since no one saw much of a future for Star Trek at the time, everyone gave him a green light. His work was almost thought of as the last bit of milk from the franchise teat. Little did anyone know what would happen a few years later when Paramount wanted a reply to Star Wars....

And please don't get me wrong... while I'm disabusing you of the authority of the FJTM, I don't want to seem derisive of it. In fact, over the years, it has remained my very favorite piece of Star Trek tie-in material. I bet I thumb through that book at least twice a month, which puts way over most my other Trek stuff. I love it. I just recognize that it does not address the show as solidly as one might assume.
--Alex

 

[Wingsley]

When I first heard of the trigger for the Phaser I's being located on the underside of the weapon, I did not believe it/did not understand it. So now it's true? Wow.

 

[Timo]

Well, in "A Private Little War", Nona presses all the buttons and wiggles all the widgets on the top of the phaser; her fingers completely fail to probe the underside. So that's consistent at least.

When our heroes hold the weapon, they do place the index finger beneath it in all the close-ups I had the patience to go through at TrekCore.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Maurice]

The Phaser I is a terrible design ergonomically. Just try to hold one and keep a finger on the trigger without getting your thumb right in front of the sight: it's really difficult. The sight is effectively useless until the thing is plugged into a Phaser II.

 

[Timo]

Since nobody ever looks at the transparent block (either in Phaser I config or in combined config), it probably isn't the type of sight that would suffer from being blocked by a thumb, though. If it is a sight at all, that is.

Like every Trek show, TOS features a lot of off-boresight firing, and no recognizable sighting, suggesting aiming a phaser has little or nothing in common with aiming a handgun of today. For all we know, it's all tactile: Kirk/Picard gently sweeps the phaser, and it buzzes against his hand whenever locking to a potential target, and Kirk/Picard then either accepts that target or tells the phaser to skip and lock to the next one, with a suitable keypress or -rub or -whatever. A press of the trigger then sends a beam to the locked target, regardless of where the gun is pointing at the moment.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[drt]

One of the mid-80s fanon tech publications had phasers project a laser-sight dot out of the emitter for aiming. It was actuated by having a finger touching the trigger. I always felt that made a lot of sense.

 

[Shaw]

In "Private Little War" McCoy is using the Phaser I exactly how it was designed... the weapon isn't active until the sight is up, and he has his finger on the trigger button on the underside of the weapon.

When attached to the Phaser II, the sight mechanism can also be utilized.


It is amazing that Franz Joseph's manual would define how that phaser worked, even for people who did a better job of matching the physical characteristics of the original props. The phasers being built for Phase II (by Brad Nelson) back in 1977 may have looked like very high quality versions of the TOS props, but the phaser I being built followed Franz Joseph's functionality, not Jefferies' (who was only involved in the redesigning of the Enterprise, but decided to stay with Little House on the Prairie as that series' art director).

 

[Wingsley]

The Phaser I is a terrible design ergonomically. Just try to hold one and keep a finger on the trigger without getting your thumb right in front of the sight: it's really difficult. The sight is effectively useless until the thing is plugged into a Phaser II.

I cannot resist asking: Were the palm-phasers and "Dust Buster"-phasers used during TNG any better in terms of ergonomics, and, if they were, how did they differ from TOS Phaser I?

 

[drt]

They had abandoned the "sight" thingee by then.

As Shaw pointed out, there are a couple of places where they work the Type I's correctly - where you cup it in your hand (more like a modern smart phone).

 

[blssdwlf]

I think I was convinced by earlier threads that the grill is a pop-up sighting/targeting system. You can see it raised in "The Man Trap" where Kirk takes aim and fires.

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x01-2-hd/themantraphd603.jpg

In your link from "Private Little War" it looks like McCoy's index finger is pressing on the trigger on the underside.

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x19hd/aprivatelittlewarhd0489.jpg

Could someone please explain the TOS "Phaser I" sidearm structure to me?

Believe it or not, I've been watching reruns of TOS since the early 1970s, and I've never been able to figure out the forward-most grille on the topside of this weapon.

It wasn't until I saw STAR TREK CONTINUES' "Fairest of Them All" that I noticed that the little grille flips up almost like a TOS hand-talkie-communicator. Finally, I visited the HD screen caps for "Private Little War" and noticed, for the first time, that when Dr. McCoy is heating the rocks in Kirk's cave he has the grille flipped up.

I had always assumed that the grille was fixed, not movable, and that when Franz Joseph Schnaubelt placed a trigger button situated just aft of the grille in the 1975 Tech Manual, he must have known what he was talking about.

Can someone clarify what that grille does and how this sidearm's trigger operates?

 

[TIN_MAN]

If I were going to fire the TOS phaser one (at close range) I think I'd just turn it "upside down" and depress the trigger button with my thumb which seems more ergonomically comfortable.

 

[David M]

Could someone please explain the TOS "Phaser I" sidearm structure to me?

Believe it or not, I've been watching reruns of TOS since the early 1970s, and I've never been able to figure out the forward-most grille on the topside of this weapon.

It wasn't until I saw STAR TREK CONTINUES' "Fairest of Them All" that I noticed that the little grille flips up almost like a TOS hand-talkie-communicator. Finally, I visited the HD screen caps for "Private Little War" and noticed, for the first time, that when Dr. McCoy is heating the rocks in Kirk's cave he has the grille flipped up.

I had always assumed that the grille was fixed, not movable, and that when Franz Joseph Schnaubelt placed a trigger button situated just aft of the grille in the 1975 Tech Manual, he must have known what he was talking about.

Can someone clarify what that grille does and how this sidearm's trigger operates?

Hi. I'm a big fan of the Phaser 1 weapon concept and have come to a conclusion based upon handling the Art Asylum replicas, as well as looking at available photos and diagrams. The wheel, when rotated forward, extends what is being called a flip-up sight. It isn't! It's a thumbrest to better enable a controlled "trigger press" of the button on the underside of the weapon. Think about it. On such a small scale, how could a narrow rectangular box be a useful sight of any sort? Hand phasers are point-and-shoot weapons. The visible beam itself is like shooting a water pistol. Correct aim as necessary until you hit your target. The prop designer had to be a genius to envision the ergonomics of this weapon. It is flat when carried, but when deployed it assumes a user-friendly profile which facilitates aiming and firing. My respectfully-offered 2 cents on this topic.

 

[Timo]

The thing is, phasers are never "walked" to the target. The beam always hits right where it's supposed to, from the very start, and without any sort of identifiable effort at aiming.

I'm all for "it's just a thumbrest for those who want one", but targeting must be by some sort of automated/assisted means. Which is fine and well, because the "aiming ergonomics" of phasers devolve steadily from ENT through TOS to TNG, while the instances of off-boresight beams grow more frequent (naturally, because the actors of ENT could aim their traditionally ergonomic props for real while those of TNG could not aim theirs).

Timo Saloniemi

 

[David M]

The thing is, phasers are never "walked" to the target. The beam always hits right where it's supposed to, from the very start, and without any sort of identifiable effort at aiming.

I'm all for "it's just a thumbrest for those who want one", but targeting must be by some sort of automated/assisted means. Which is fine and well, because the "aiming ergonomics" of phasers devolve steadily from ENT through TOS to TNG, while the instances of off-boresight beams grow more frequent (naturally, because the actors of ENT could aim their traditionally ergonomic props for real while those of TNG could not aim theirs).

Timo Saloniemi

I would argue, though, that the Phaser marksmanship we witnessed in TOS was a by-product of limited special effects technology and script conventions. In other words, the script says " Kirk and Spock shoot the Horta". They "do", and the effect is added regardless of whether the actor's aim is straight. Look at Kirk's phenomenal marksmanship in "Errand of Mercy". He picked-off that Klingon at an extended distance. But, again, the script says "Kirk shoots the Klingon". And, he did. I know various technical manuals have referrednto "parallel beam indicators", but those would be problematic in a number of ways. As in giving the shooter's position away, and not being visible to the shooter outside of a certain distance. The TOS Phaser Rifle had a screen, an antenna, and sensors. I think we could argue Phaser 2 could be aimed using the Phaser 1 wheel and setting dial as "goalpost" sights. Phaser 1 just seems to be "point-and shoot". Kirk's TWOK Phaser shot on the Ceti Eel had to just be an awkward camera shot.