They don't work like Trek stun guns though: not the same range, and not the same reliability either necessarily- how many cases do we have of taserings resulting in death?
Granted, at least some of that is reportedly due to excessive use of the taser.
Do you prefer the Fed body counts to be realistc in the new Trek series?
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The Romulan Republic
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LittleRaven
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Re: Do you prefer the Fed body counts to be realistc in the new Trek series?
As RR points out, a Taser is almost nothing like a stun phaser. To start with, for a taser to work, you actually have to stick little prongs attached to wires into a person. This is a huge problem - it means that the Taser has very limited range, it means that something as simple as heavy clothing drastically limits the effectiveness, and it means that you're always going to have physical trauma (maybe not a lot, but always SOME) in someone that gets hit with one.
But there are bigger problems. Tasers work by firing electrical impulses that cause a person's muscles to go haywire. That means that people who are hit with them almost always lock up into an uncontrolled fall. This is very dangerous. If this happens on something as minor as a street curb, the odds of serious injury or even death are high. There's a reason that people who are being deliberately shocked in a safe environment are always help up by multiple people...while Tasers can cause heart problems and the like, it's the fall that generally does the damage. And Tasers do cause damage, even under controlled conditions.
Now look at a stun phaser. Star Trek shys away from long-range combat in general, so I don't know if you can make a sniper version, but they definitely have comparable range to a handgun. There is no need to reload a cumbersome wire cartridge, and we've seen them penetrate clothing and even armor. Nobody is left with little holes in them, and while The Undiscovered Country established that you CAN use a stun phaser to kill someone, we've never seen a case where someone inadvertently caused major damage with one. (this happens all the time with Tasers) Most importantly, while a stun phaser renders a person unconscious almost immediately, they don't go into an uncontrolled fall....they fall down, but it leaves their muscle control intact so the body can minimize the damage going down. This is HUGE. It makes a stun phaser so much safer than a Taser that it's not even funny.
I mean, if we actually had a way to safely, reliably render a person unconscious almost instantly that could be delivered via an energy beam, well, I suspect we would start using it. A LOT. We'd build them into the ceilings at bank lobbies. Someone hits the alarm? BAM. Just stun everyone in the lobby. They'll all be fine in an hour and the police can move in at pick up the bad guys with 0 risk to anyone. Cop feels threatened? BAM. Stun em. No damage, no civil suit, no dead cops. Someone trips the weapon alert at the airport? BAM. Better safe than sorry. Hell, build em into ankle monitors, and then tie that into a GPS system. A sex offender gets within 100 meters of a school? BAM. Instant nap. The applications are damn near endless, though some of them get a little dystopian.
But there are bigger problems. Tasers work by firing electrical impulses that cause a person's muscles to go haywire. That means that people who are hit with them almost always lock up into an uncontrolled fall. This is very dangerous. If this happens on something as minor as a street curb, the odds of serious injury or even death are high. There's a reason that people who are being deliberately shocked in a safe environment are always help up by multiple people...while Tasers can cause heart problems and the like, it's the fall that generally does the damage. And Tasers do cause damage, even under controlled conditions.
Now look at a stun phaser. Star Trek shys away from long-range combat in general, so I don't know if you can make a sniper version, but they definitely have comparable range to a handgun. There is no need to reload a cumbersome wire cartridge, and we've seen them penetrate clothing and even armor. Nobody is left with little holes in them, and while The Undiscovered Country established that you CAN use a stun phaser to kill someone, we've never seen a case where someone inadvertently caused major damage with one. (this happens all the time with Tasers) Most importantly, while a stun phaser renders a person unconscious almost immediately, they don't go into an uncontrolled fall....they fall down, but it leaves their muscle control intact so the body can minimize the damage going down. This is HUGE. It makes a stun phaser so much safer than a Taser that it's not even funny.
I mean, if we actually had a way to safely, reliably render a person unconscious almost instantly that could be delivered via an energy beam, well, I suspect we would start using it. A LOT. We'd build them into the ceilings at bank lobbies. Someone hits the alarm? BAM. Just stun everyone in the lobby. They'll all be fine in an hour and the police can move in at pick up the bad guys with 0 risk to anyone. Cop feels threatened? BAM. Stun em. No damage, no civil suit, no dead cops. Someone trips the weapon alert at the airport? BAM. Better safe than sorry. Hell, build em into ankle monitors, and then tie that into a GPS system. A sex offender gets within 100 meters of a school? BAM. Instant nap. The applications are damn near endless, though some of them get a little dystopian.
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The Romulan Republic
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Re: Do you prefer the Fed body counts to be realistc in the new Trek series?
Indeed.
The phaser may not have the power of some SF weapons, but it is potentially a very effective and flexible tool for anything short of penetrating heavy armour or shielding.
The phaser may not have the power of some SF weapons, but it is potentially a very effective and flexible tool for anything short of penetrating heavy armour or shielding.
