Hand Phasers

[Mark]

Has anybody else ever wondered why hand phasers in TNG appear to be less powerful than from TOS. You routinely see people survive phaser wounds which were meant to kill them in TNG, DS9, and VOY....but if you got hit with a kill shot in TOS, you were done. In fact, most of the time people were disintegrated in TOS. While phasers are still able to disintegrate people in the latter series, it is downright RARE to see that happen. I understand it takes more power, but these are "modern" weapons than can be re-loaded in battle with power packs at need. Wouldn't it make sense that if you HAVE to kill something, that you be completely sure of it? If I were in a ground action against some of the Star Trek baddies, I would want to know for sure that if they go down, they are down and not going to get up behind me and slit my throat.

Just my thoughts

[Teaos]

Well they obviously have different settings they can be used on. And TNG+ seems to have a capture mentality to it rather than the kill mentality TOS did.

[Captain Picard's Hair]

Well they obviously have different settings they can be used on. And TNG+ seems to have a capture mentality to it rather than the kill mentality TOS did.

"A more refined weapon, for a more civilized age."

[Mark]

Not sure I'd worry to much about refined with the Borg, but I like the quote Obi-Wan

[Sionnach Glic]

Welcome to the site.

In both TOS and TNG we see people getting disintigrated by phasers, though it's far more rare in TNG. My guess as to why it's not often used would be down to ammunition. A beam like that simply has to take a lot of power, which could leave the weapon drained of most of its power. That would explain why they never use that setting in combat situations.

[Teaos]

Even modern armies know the importance of wounding over killing. Wounding someone sucks up the enemies resources... but I doubt thats what the Feds have in mind.

[Sionnach Glic]

True, but phasers don't seem to leave lasting wounds. I've lost count of the amount of times we've seen people get shot and end up fine in a few hours.
Hell, Chakotay was once shot at point blank range in the chest, and was able to run away a few moments afterward.

Ever miss the good old ancient days when guns actualy killed people?

[Teaos]

I imagin its all about the power settings. We know they can kill with them. It just seems they prefer to stun.

[Sionnach Glic]

Yeah, but you'd think in a combat situation you'd crank up the power to a level that would at least force your oponent to sit down and take a rest for a few moments.

[Teaos]

You'd hope so. Maybe its a trade off between power of the shots or more of them. But if that were the case you'd think they would use better weapons... like a AK.

[Sionnach Glic]

I find it kind of telling that modern day weapons are generaly better than phasers.

[Teaos]

Better at killing but less versatile.

[Sionnach Glic]

Not just at killing, but at ergonomics, rate of fire, lethality, accuracy, reliability, and it doesn't explode if it malfunctions.
The swiss-army phasers are interesting, but a bad idea for a weapon. If I was put on a Federation starship and got to choose whether I wanted an AK-47 or a phaser, I'd go with the AK.

[Teaos]

I'd go for the phaser but I'd use it properly.

[Sionnach Glic]

Why?