# Star Trek Borg question. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 27, 2002, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-borg-question/111014 "2002-05-27T06:35:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2002, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-borg-question/111014/21 "2002-05-28T04:55:16Z")
Wow, Joel, a real stickler. Had to make sure we knew that your second post was really you šŸ˜‰ ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-borg-question/111014/22 "2002-05-29T02:11:39Z")
Uhm, obviously that was an accident. :wally ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-borg-question/111014/23 "2002-05-29T05:35:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mephisto \* > \*\*And the Federation does experiment with projectile weapons. I seem to remember oneā€“it was more or less a rifleā€“that got used in _DS9_. I think Oā€™Brien said that it had been designed for combat in electro-magnetic dampening fields or something. In the episode in question a crazy Vulcan was using this rifle to shoot through a ā€œtransporter field,ā€ thereby killing people in other parts of the space station without damaging any of the intervening walls, life-forms, machines, and so on. Iā€™m not sure, but I think all this occurred late in the series, after the Cool Sexy Smart Dax had been replaced by [personal prejudice]Ugly Stupid Immature Dax[/personal prejudice] as keeper of the slug. \*\* That would be the [TR-116](http://www.leenet.demon.co.uk/phaser/2370/tr-116.htm) rifle, just soā€™s ya know. And, by the size of the recovered projectile, it appeared (but I could be wrong) to be about a 100-Caliber weapon. :eek: Ranchoth (At least the prop guys thought to leave the casing off when they filmed it being dug out of some poor shmoe) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-borg-question/111014/24 "2002-05-29T10:09:01Z")
If you liked the juxtaposition of putting a 20th-century weapon in the hands of the _Trek_ guys, imagine giving a Marine fire team a bunch of phaser rifles. Theyā€™d be shooting down aircraft or even satellites with them in no time. Phaser weapons have never been shown to their logical potential in the various TV shows, since it suits dramatic purpose to miss every now and then (or, if youā€™re the bad guy, to miss all the time). One would assume that energy weapons with futuristicky targeting systems would _never_ miss, at least not at the ridiculously short ranges most _Star Trek_ firefights occur. Of course, the biggest liability with energy-beam weapons is that every time you fire them, you leave this neon trail giving away your own position. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-borg-question/111014/25 "2002-05-29T11:32:04Z")
Iā€™d like to know when phaser rifles went from shooting beams to projectiles of energy ā€“ or have they always done that? ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-borg-question/111014/26 "2002-05-29T14:58:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Silentgoldfish \* > \*\*Iā€™d like to know when phaser rifles went from shooting beams to projectiles of energy ā€“ or have they always done that? \*\* Unless Iā€™m misunderstanding your question, they donā€™t. 24th c. Trek has phaser rifles that work just like sourped-up phasers. The Tr-116 was a non-phaser weapon that fired a projectile experiementally developed for use in environments where phasers were non-functional. ā€“Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-borg-question/111014/27 "2002-05-29T16:09:53Z")
**Bryan Ekers** , thatā€™s a good point. So what is a science fiction writer to do? How can you make realistic futuristic weapon technology and still have dramatic fight scenes? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2002, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-borg-question/111014/28 "2002-05-29T17:17:45Z")
You make the fights dramatic exactly by making them realistic. I mean, really, if none of the good guys (or at least, none wearing a non-red shirt) ever dies, and you know that theyā€™ll never die, whereā€™s the drama? To make battles a little more survivable, you can increase the ranges, and give them some sort of high-tech defenses, as well as offense. Preferably something subtle: For instance, stealth systems which (partially) counter the auto-targeting. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-borg-question/111014.md?page=1)