Laser pistol
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A laser pistol or hand laser was a type of hand-held energy weapon commonly used in the early half of the 23rd century. They were a successor of the phase pistol and preceded the Type-2 phaser.
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[edit] History
Early hand lasers were in use by as early as 2045 on Earth. (TOS novel: Strangers from the Sky)
The Orion D'Jinnea owned a hand laser in 2218, and they were used by Federation Starfleet by at least 2248. (ST novel: Excelsior: Forged in Fire)
Starfleet continued to issue laser pistols until at least 2265. As of 2266 they had been phased out in favour of the Type-2 phaser. (TOS episodes: "Where No Man Has Gone Before", "The Man Trap")
Starfleet-type laser pistols continued to be used to arm some civilian operations later into the 2260s, such as the expeditions to M-113 and Exo III. (TOS episodes: "The Man Trap", "What Are Little Girls Made Of?")
[edit] Features
Starfleet issue laser pistols in the 2250s featured a grip and twist function to change the setting, they fired blue or magenta beams (presumably at different settings). (EV comics: "Flesh of My Flesh", "The Fallen")
Settings on the pistols included force-chamber overload and wide-beam firing. (TOS episode: "The Cage"; EV comic: "Cloak and Dagger")
[edit] Appendices
[edit] Background
The laser pistol was the first hand held weapon in Star Trek production history, however in-universe, following Star Trek: Enterprise's introduction of phase pistols, they might be seen as a step back in technology from the obviously named forerunner of hand phasers. However, laser pistols have also been shown used alongside phaser rifles in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and several Star Trek: Early Voyages comics suggesting they are perhaps an intermediate step used until phaser technology was available in a more compact form.
The name is also problematic as lasers compared to the phased energy of both phase pistols and phasers would be a step back, this would probably suggest that Laser pistols are not lasers under our current definition of the term, or that Laser pistols are not lasers at all and just named such as slang or maybe an acronym.
[edit] External link
- Laser pistol article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
