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The only difference I had thought there was to the Varon-T disruptor was that the disintegration operated more slowly than normal, thus being more painful.

Right, so then it's a fairly dramatic exception to the TNG era toning down of phasers and related weapons. I don't suppose such a weapon would have many uses other than causing a rather painful death - I doubt it has a "stun" setting. This says something about someone who would create or own such a thing, though in a way its nice to see a darker corner of the Trek universe revealed in the happy-go-lucky world of TNG.

Voyager had such fantastic technobabble...

You know, two things never did sit right with me about phaser fights. First, the phaser beam travels at light speed, so how do people continually manage to dodge one, either by stepping out of the way or ducking behind cover? Second, I know that if a phaser fight was portrayed accurately, one's cover would be vaporized and that would kill the drama and action of a fire fight, but have you noticed that while a phaser on a high setting SHOULD be punching holes in the bulkheads, they rarely even leave a scorch mark on the wall? Now that's a good paint job

We have eco-paint they have anti-phase paint.

Mark wrote:You know, two things never did sit right with me about phaser fights. First, the phaser beam travels at light speed, so how do people continually manage to dodge one, either by stepping out of the way or ducking behind cover? Second, I know that if a phaser fight was portrayed accurately, one's cover would be vaporized and that would kill the drama and action of a fire fight, but have you noticed that while a phaser on a high setting SHOULD be punching holes in the bulkheads, they rarely even leave a scorch mark on the wall? Now that's a good paint job

The answer you seek is quantum for it is all that is good and right in the universe.

Praise be to QUANTUM!

First, the phaser beam travels at light speed, so how do people continually manage to dodge one, either by stepping out of the way or ducking behind cover?

They're able to do that because phaser beams don't travel at c. We know this because we can see them heading towards their targets.

Second, I know that if a phaser fight was portrayed accurately, one's cover would be vaporized and that would kill the drama and action of a fire fight, but have you noticed that while a phaser on a high setting SHOULD be punching holes in the bulkheads, they rarely even leave a scorch mark on the wall?

I saw an explaination of this somewhere that suggested that phasers react better with certain things, such as organic matter and rock, than with others, such as steel. This would explain why plastic packing crates seem invulnerable to weapons that can blow through rock walls.

My science teacher told me the plastic we make is almost indestructable... I guess he was right.

Rochey wrote: I saw an explaination of this somewhere that suggested that phasers react better with certain things, such as organic matter and rock, than with others, such as steel. This would explain why plastic packing crates seem invulnerable to weapons that can blow through rock walls.

It's kinda absurd that - we've seen that they can melt silicon in a conventional matter without... quantum. That means that just with the normal thermal energy being transferred, the metal, unless it was currently none existant duranium/tritanium, would be [literally] vapourised.

Where did we see them melt silicone? How much? With what?

I'd say that pretty much everything we've seen would point towards a phaser being a chain-reaction weapon. If that's true, then it would make sense that it would be more effective against some materials than others.
This is also supported by the fact that packing crates seem immune to phaser fire, and walls only get lightly scorched by them.

They certainly can supply a good deal of energy; the heating rock trick we see so often shows that.

Definitely.

Rochey wrote:and walls only get lightly scorched by them.

Yet, it's a canon statement that they can easily take down structural walls. Go fig.

Mikey wrote:Yet, it's a canon statement that they can easily take down structural walls.

By a bloke who'd just transported himself from the E-D to said building by shooting himself. Plus it's William "lost the E-D to a decades-old garbage scow" Riker claiming it. Not the most reliable source in Trek methinks.

Mikey wrote:
Yet, it's a canon statement that they can easily take down structural walls. Go fig.

Wasn't Riker insane at that point? I'll go with the rock explosion in INS personally, or that bizarre tunnel in the "OMG PICARD IS A SF SOLDIER" two-parter.