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Celebrating the Sci-fi Ray Gun
brumgrunt submitted the latest Den of Geek compilation story: this week it's the the science fiction ray guns. From Han Solo's blaster to the Forbidden Planet, there's a lot of nostalgia to get your pew pew out.
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I think the Han solo weapon looks more like a mauser than a Luger.
"The mind works quicker than you think!"
boom!
Can't find the original article but I recall reading the BSG creators did feasibility studies on bullets or rayguns for the series and came up with laser powered handguns just not being as effective as bullets.
Professor Karmadillo Songs of Science
Raygun may have been a softy for sci-fi, but he only did westerns.
If we're going to be talking about the celebration of ray guns, someone should really mention James Alan Gardner's Hugo and Nebula nominated short story, "The Ray-Gun: A Love Story" which can be read online here. Since TFA didn't do it, i guess that someone has to be me.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
I love Star Trek, a lot. I'm sure I fit every possible stereotype of a Trek nerd, including ones that are contradictory. But there was one thing that always, always bugged me about Star Trek, even as a kid.
Phasers are essentially inferior to contemporary firearms. For starters, they are actually slower than bullets. You cannot dodge a bullet (in real life, anyway). But there are several examples of the Enterprise crew dodging phaser/disrupter blasts in TNG. Granted, it's possible to retcon this by saying it's some sort of charged plasma that doesn't travel at the speed of light blah blah. But my point is not that it doesn't travel at light speed (which is obvious) but that it's actually SLOWER than a bullet. Which raises the question, why on Earth (or in the Alpha Quadrant, for that matter) would they use essentially inferior technology? If our present day firearms are superior to phasers, why the switch? It defies all logic.
And don't even get me started on the horrible scene in Star Trek: First Contact where the Borg have adapted to Picard's phaser so he lures them into the holodeck and mows them down with a tommy gun. So, 1940s machine gun > 24th century phaser. And they don't keep a stash of machine guns in a weapon's locker? Hell, they can't even replicate a few dozen? Sigh.
Really, it's easier to suspend disbelief about Warp Drive even though that violates everything we know about relativity and modern physics than it is to accept the concept of the phaser replacing the superior firepower we already have in this century.
Anyway, angry Trek nerd rant mode off. Sorry about that.
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking
The most important fact in this whole article of fiction.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
The part of the movies and Star Trek I hated when you had the laser/phaser type of gun which fires a beam for a few seconds. Is that they actually miss, Because they stand there fire in one direction opps they missed and re-aim and fire again. As anyone who used a laser pointer knows If you miss you can correct rather quickly and there the bad guy is fried. Perhaps with some collateral damage, but not much more then a bunch of random laster holes in you hull.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
No comment...
The real deal: MTHEL, from Northrop Grumman.
That's 10 year old technology, and it's a chemical laser. Back then it took three semitrailers for all the support equipment. Since then, electrically-powered lasers are catching up. The Navy Laser Weapons System is not as powerful, but it's a much smaller package, only needs electrical power. and can shoot down small UAVs.
I though that is how you celebrate the SciFi ray gun.... Run around with a sharpie in hand yelling PEW PEW PEW at your co-workers....
BTW: accounting department has NO sense of humor.... Throwing a dry erase board eraser into their office and yelling grenade was frowned upon... at least the Marketing department acted like it was real and looked like they panicked and ran from it. They are such good sports!
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I really was expecting them to use firearms, missiles, machine cannon, and nukes in Enterprise. I was sorely disappointed when they 'invented' phasers in the 2nd show.
Calibrating the Sci-fi Ray Gun
It's all about getting the collimation and stuff right, I guess.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Why is the P90 so popular with sci-fi writers?
Recognizably different + highly plausible.
It is different from designs people are familiar with yet it represents a highly plausible next generation design. For example a horizontal magazine in-line with the sights allows a user to easily see how many rounds are available. A horizontal magazine also allows the user to get closer to the ground. A vertical magazine sticking out the bottom unnecessarily raises the weapon and the users head, making the head a better target for an opponent. This limits the capacity of vertical magazines, so a horizontal may more easily offer greater capacity.
No mention at all of Lensman, the root node of Space Opera, and the classic DeLameter? Or even the Stendish, a combined semiportable energy weapon/firearm? Pah!
That's a good point.
I'll add that muskets were also very expensive, but that might not be a downside. Given many British soldiers didn't actually own their weapons, by training on guns they had to return and couldn't afford to buy for themselves they became incapable of rebellion. At the same time, training on longbows, which had been required previously of many men in England, was outlawed.
Presumably this is specifically what the Second Amendment is about--militiamen must be able to own their weapon, and militias are the more democratic form of army. Of course, the point became moot once Federal armies were drawn up and we routinely had soldiers practice with weapons they couldn't afford and, nowadays, can't legally own. What good do your tank, fighter jet, mortar, grenade skills do you when you're not in uniform? You'll never have access to those weapons to use against the government. Therefore, the government doesn't have to worry about you using those skills against it.
That might be the point of the phaser. In the "peaceful" world of Star Trek, phasers have replaced guns specifically because they're more technologically advanced, expensive, and less lethal.
I think railguns are cooler. Stopping 2 kg of tungsten hitting you with the speed of 3 km/s will take a lot more than deflecting some pansy heat wave.
The Kill-O-Zap gun is a long, silver mean-looking device, the designers of which decided to make it totally clear that it had a right end, and a wrong end, and if that meant sticking blacked and evil-looking devices and prongs all over the wrong end, so be it.
echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
and take off the stormtrooper sights ...
It ain't what they call you. It's what you answer to. http://mylyceum.us/
TNG generally had beam phasers. But DS9 and later tended to use blasters that shot slower balls of whatever.
As someone who has watched many a slow paintball coming in and yet has been unable to dodge them, I'm still a little skeptical. Then again I am not starfleet material. :-)
Great article, but no mention of the greatest ray gun of all: the Illudium Pu-36 Explosive Space Modulator.
Proverbs 21:19
Ummmm ... where does one write a thesis on orbital bombardment and in what discipline of study?
Perhaps at a war college, its the place one visits on the way to becoming a general or admiral. Something like: ,"The War College is a place of original research on all questions relating to war and to statesmanship connected with war, or the prevention of war.""
"Throughout its history, the college has held fast to the belief, first articulated by its founding president, Rear Admiral Stephen B. Luce, that
http://www.usnwc.edu/About.aspx
... the Ronald Reagan
Power corrupts. Absolute power...is even more fun.
Is that pew pew in your in your pants or are you just -- Oh god, oh god no!
Are the guns from Firefly (which are not ray guns but a real throwback to the 19th century in some cases) and the pulse weapons of Farscape.
Facts take all of the premium out of arm waving - T. Reynolds
The reason is pretty simple, actually: Gene Rodenberry wanted his pacifist explorers to carry less-lethal weapons. Hence the "phasers on stun" catch phrase. You can also see it in the prop design. Starfleet phaser props often looked like remote controls, electric shavers, or Dustbusters. Even the props that did have pistol butts moved the grip closer to the end of the barrel, making them more T-shaped, to distinguish them from actual guns.
When Gene was not involved, the phasers got a lot more actual-gun like.
In-universe, if you accept the idealistic pacifism of the Federation, you can see why they'd go out into the universe carrying nothing but glorified shock prods. Well, except for the Klingons and their disruptors...but at least the Klingons also carried knives.
It's light. Handle's adjustable for easy carrying, good for righties and lefties. Breaks down into four parts, undetectable by x-ray, ideal for quick, discreet interventions. A word on firepower. Titanium recharger, three thousand round clip with bursts of three to three hundred, and with the Replay button - another Zorg invention - it's even easier.
Wasn't the Star Wars missile defense system proposed by a president named Raygun?
Nikola Tesla is said to have invented a ray gun type device. He even claimed that a test of it caused the Tunguska Event.
because in their universe ray guns and firearms exist, but it's firearms that triumphed. there's an episode where they steal a ray gun, not for it's awesomeness as a weapon but it's value as an antique. I can't remember if they get into why ray guns didn't catch on, I think they were incredibly expensive and unreliable. A firearm, after all, is pretty darn simple and effective.
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
Big difference is it takes years of training to be able to use a longbow effectively, whereas anyone could aim and operate a musket effectively.
that is all.
The weapons at the time were cannon and musket. Muskets were iron, hard to make, heavy to carry, hard to operate, dangerous to the user (they could explode), had a horrific rate of fire, noisy, created a lot of smoke to obscure the battleplace, etc. Ben Franklin, I think it was, argued for the longbow as it could be manufactured anywhere, was light, safer to operate, had a massive rate of fire, was silent, and just as deadly as the musket - the ideal weapon for the Americans.
The problem is, Longbows require extensive training to fire effectively. Firearms allowed you to get away with cheaper, less well trained troops.
There are presidents Reagan and Gunray, but not Raygun.
When I was a teen, I read a science fiction novel which contained a nifty subplot involving a ray gun.
I believe the novel was The Secret of the Martian Moons by Donald A. Wallheim.
Our hero, a young spaceman from Earth, is crewman on the first spaceship from Earth to land on one of the moons of Mars. He is involved with the humanoid aliens who live there. He is pretty sure there is something odd going on, and he doesn't entirely trust them. A faction of these aliens gives him a ray gun, and tells him that it is a harmless stunner, and it is vitally important that he use it to stun some person (I think the person was an alien but I'm not even certain). Because he is suspicious of them, he wonders whether the ray gun might not be as advertised; perhaps it is a lethal weapon. Perhaps, even, it emits some sort of horrible radiation that would kill the user. So, when the moment of truth comes, he doesn't pull the trigger; instead he throws the ray gun with great force against the head of his target, knocking the target out. Later it is revealed that the gun is a convincing prop, not a working ray gun at all; and the faction he didn't trust was setting him up to fail. But instead he succeeded, throwing their evil plans into disarray. Moral: don't trifle with spacemen from Earth.
If anyone else has read this and can confirm any details, or if this is from some other book, please post a follow-up here. I would actually like to get a copy of this book and re-read it. It probably isn't as good as I remember, but I still want to re-read it.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Read TFA and am much disappoint - no love at all for the Illudium Q38 space resonator.
As a sniper, sure. In formation, using massed arrow fire at bodies of troops at 4-5 shots per minute? Nope! It would be just like a feathered shot-gun blast - rip a block of troops to shreds.
It also took years to train the musketmen too - and discipline was the key to everything in those formations. Takes a long time to drill the fear out of men in the line. But if you are firing 5-6 shots for every one of theirs? A lot easier to stick it out.
Actually, the opposite. Untrained troops using muskets were called militia (poor militia at that). Without the training and discipline of the regular troops they could not stand up to the British formations. They were routed and battered time and again. For a pitched battle, massed arrow fire wouldn't need a long time to train the troops to perform, and would be very deadly as no troops at that time wore any type of armor or shields.