sma8465@ritcv.UUCP (11/14/85)
*******COMPLIMENTARY LINE TO BE MUNCHED*********
Being a Star Trek fan (why else would I be in this group?) and
a player of Star Fleet Battles (a simulation game using the
concepts for set down in Star Trek), I hope I can help clear
up this phaser/disruptor problem.
Avid fans of the series may have noted that there was never
an episode in which the Klingons used photon torpedoes. I
believe the theory behind this (which is the one supported
by the SFB game) is that the Federation has photon torps
and the Klingons have disruptors. Both sides have phasers.
The theory is that phasers do not require as much power to
fire as torpedoes or disruptors do, so both sides blast away
with their phasers while they charge up their respective heavy
weapons. Since they are different cultures (hence different
fields of research) they came up with different heavy weapons.
Now I know that there are people out there who are saying to
themselves (or others) that the animated episodes, the books,
and the movies (at least the first two) show the klingons
(or klingon ships) using photon torpedoes. I'll fall back on
the military spying explantion of stealing weapons secrets
(and the ground that the question was about the series).
About the "sonic disruptor" hand weapon, I would speculate that
when the device works by on a different principle but they
(the writers) chose a name the viewers were familiar with and
could understand.
These are my ideas and I welcome any discussions. (However,
send any flames to /dev/null. Those I don't need.)
Stephen Abbott
"You may be ready for the world,
But is the world ready for you?"andrew@cadomin.UUCP (Andrew Folkins) (12/12/85)
In article <8500018@orstcs.UUCP> jamesp@orstcs.UUCP (jamesp) writes: > >The Disruptor is a warp-technology weapon which creates a warp-space "shock >wave" and directs it at the desired target. This would be concievably fairly >easy to do, although it would require a decent energy input and a small amount >of charging (but nothing like that required for photon torpedoes). ^^^^^^^^ Electric charge, I presume? Actually, photon torpedoes should be pretty simple to make. All you need to do is contain some antimatter in a normal matter container, using electric or magnetic fields, and turn the field off when the torpedo is at it's target. The antimatter then reacts with it's container, and boom. Anyway, the point is putting a charge on the antimatter so it can be handled. As the big E's engines use the stuff, probably as a plasma, the techniques for handling antimatter would be fairly well developed. Given the amount of energy produced by the main engines, it should be no tribble at all to vaporize a few micrograms of antimatter, then move it into a missile and shoot the thing out into space.