TOS Phaser terminology explained thru pictures

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phase pistol wrote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>
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WinstonWolf359 wrote:<HR></TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS=$row_color>
The phasers seen in the Original Series came in two types, the small hand-held phaser I and the larger pistol shaped phaser II. This terminology was used for the first (and only) time in "The Devil in the Dark."
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Is that right? I know they referred cryptically to "hand phasers" in several episodes but they seemed to mean type 1 or 2 interchangeably.
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Yeah, they made a point to mention that the Pergium miners had only phaser number one, but Kirk pointed out "but we have phaser number two!"

Maybe he just meant he'd seen the vacuformed pistols and thought they looked like number two...
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In the second and third seasons, dummy pistol phasers were seen almost exclusively, unless it was a big deal to not appear to be armed, in which case they brought the type ones.
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Yeah, third season especially it seemed everyone carried a phaser all the time, even McCoy wore a phaser a lot more third season.

I think they stopped using the hand phasers in TOS for the same reason the Cricket phaser disappeared after season two of TNG...You couldn't really see the phaser if they weren't in a close up so it just looked like they had phaser beams shooting out of their fingers...
 
Re the ubiquitous 3rd season pistol phasers, I imagine Fred Freiberger taking over as Exective Producer probably had something to do with it as well.

"I want to see ray guns dammit!"

- k
 
Those are all dummies except for the dirt phaser.

That was another phenomenon of the second and third season - using dummy props for both longshots AND closeups.

- k
 
I must agree from before. I love this thread. It has been the most informative about the TOS phaser I've see in a while. I kinda lost the luv after getting and selling my MR phaser. I want one of those dummies without the alum. rails now. The seems to be the one we all saw and loved the most. keep the info coming.
ALSO... the new tech manual phaser page. BRILLIANT! I want to rip out the old one and put that one in it's place.
 
I remember when I was a kid I'd trace that page in the old Tech Manual and "fix" the details as best I could.

But Karl's blueprint rocks! That's what I wish the page had looked like from the beginning.

Any chance you're going to "fix" the tricorder and communicator pages too?

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Also the tenturn knob seems to be painted on!
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Krikey!

Never seen one like this before!
Wonder if the whole phaser was a stunt w/ painted details elsewhere. Odd for a 1st season show; I'd have thought they'd have enough 10-turn knobs to go around.
 
Thanks guys! I'm glad so many people found this helpful. I know even I get confused sometimes talking about this stuff because of all the variations and whatnot associated with the TOS phasers.

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I think I have saved most of the pictures from this thread. Too bad we cannot see them in the thread now.

This is a great trip down memory lane.
 
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