Phaser

"There are two settings : Stun and kill... It would be best not to confuse them."

- Lt. Malcolm Reed

Phasers are energy weapons featured in the Star Trek film and television franchise. They were introduced in the first broadcast episode of the original Star Trek television series, "The Man Trap", and have since become regarded as a staple of the franchise in whole. The term phaser is actually an acronym which stands for PHASed Energy Rectification. There are many different types of phasers, ranging from single-person handheld weapons to those employed as part of a starship's onboard weapons systems. Handheld phasers transmit nadion particle beams similar to that of a laser and produce both thermal and concussive impact damage. Phasers can be adjusted for range and intensity. Traditional handheld phaser weapons have a stun setting, which will render a living target unconscious with a single shot. At full intensity, a phaser weapon can kill another being. A phaser blast at close range can disintegrate a selected target.

Types of Phasers
There are three distinctive phaser types seen in Star Trek, not counting starship phasers.

Type 1 phaser
The type 1 phaser was a small, personal palm device, and was generally used by Starfleet officers in situations where other weapons would be considered inappropriate. The type 1 phaser had a flip-top firing site and eight adjustable settings, ranging from stun to heat through disruption to disintegration.

Type 2 phaser
The type 2 phaser was the most commonly used directional phaser weapon during the mid 23rd century. Unlike the type 1, the type 2 phaser was larger, with a handgrip, trigger structure and visible phaser emitter, or "barrel". Utilized primarily in defensive situations, the phaser type-2 had several applications, from use as a weapon to use as a cutting tool, explosive device, or energy source. Storing considerable energy, most phasers were distinguished by a roughly pistol or gun-type configuration, firing a focused energy discharge in the form of a beam or steady stream. Type 2 phasers could also be manually overloaded, causing a localized explosion. In the year 2254, USS Enterprise First Officer Number One threatened to overload her phaser in a risky gambit to rescue her captain, Christopher Pike from the Talosians.

Most starships were equipped with a warning system that would set off a ship-wide alarm if an unauthorized phaser was ever discharged. In 2293, Vulcan Science Officer Valeris demonstrated this when she fired a phaser in the galley of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A. Her action was spurred on by an ongoing murder investigation in which several crew members believed that a pair of gravity boots had been disintegrated using phase technology.

The capability of disintegrating a target at close range was not made available in the type 2 phaser until sometime in the early 23rd century. The 22nd century era phase pistols did not possess this capability.

By the 24th century, type 2 phasers had a sleeker design, abandoning the "laser gun" design of previous models and were easier to handle, guiding a user's aim by serving as an extension of his or her own arm.

Type 3 phaser
The Type 3 phaser is a two-handed energy weapon, commonly referred to as a phaser rifle. Phaser rifles were first seen in the season one episode of the original series, "Where No Man Has Gone Before". In the episode, Captain Kirk used a phaser rifle to (unsuccessfully) take down Lieutenant Commander Gary Mitchell, who had evolved into a super-powered demagogue. Kirk ultimately used it to blast away at the side of a cliff, whereupon the rocks toppled onto Gary Mitchell, burying him. A type 3 phaser carries a higher nadion charge than type 1 or type 2 phasers and produces a more intense beam.

Phase pistol
Phase pistols were the predecessors of the type 1 and type 2 handheld phaser guns. They were commonly seen on the TV series Star Trek: Enterprise and were the standard weapon of choice amongst Starfleet officers and members of the Military Assault Command Operations.