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Weaponry in the science fiction setting

The Star Trek fictional universe contains a variety of weapons, ranging from missiles (the classic photon torpedo) to melee (primarily used by the Klingons, a race of aliens in the Star Trek universe). The Star Trek franchise consists mainly of several multi season television shows and a dozen movies, as well as various video games and inspired merchandise. Many aspects of the Star Trek universe impact modern popular culture, especially its fictitious terminology and the concept of weaponry on spacecraft. The franchise has had a widespread influence on its audiences from the late 20th to early 21st century. Notably, Star Trek's science fiction concepts have been studied by real scientists; NASA described it in relation to the real world as "entertaining combination of real science, imaginary science gathered from lots of earlier stories, and stuff the writers make up week by week to give each new episode novelty." For example, NASA noted that the Star Trek "phasers" were a fictional extrapolation of real life lasers, and compared them to real life microwave based weapons that have a stunning effect. Phaser output can be adjusted in both area of effect and output: a typical hand phaser can be adjusted so that it will merely shock or stun a living organism, while the effects of higher settings range from burning, disintegration, or to true vaporization. This versatility means they can also be used as welding torches or cutting tools, and can create heat sources by firing at a large, solid object (like a rock). The stream can be adjusted to strike multiple targets at once, strike a single target with precision, or even destroy large amounts of material. Phasers can be set to overload, whereby they build up a force chamber explosion by continuously generating energy without releasing it; the resulting blast can destroy most natural objects within a radius. The overload process is marked by a distinctive sound that increases in volume and frequency until it is deactivated or it detonates. Personal phasers can be made small enough to fit in the user's palm and still be lethal. Larger and more powerful phaser rifles are commonly issued to security personnel. Ship mounted phasers have a similar range of functions on a larger scale: The phasers on the USS Enterprise could be used as an "anti missile" defense to destroy incoming projectiles, stun entire city blocks full of people, destroy cities, and even destroy entire asteroids up to a given size. The ship's phaser system was also said to be capable of destroying continents. Although starships are frequently shown firing their phasers while at Warp speeds across the various Star Trek series, this was generally avoided during The Next Generation, and the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual stated that it was impossible. The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual, on the other hand, describes an "ACB jacketed beam device" as the mechanism which allows phasers to function at Warp speeds. According to later series, phasers release a beam of fictional subatomic particles called "rapid nadion", which are then refracted ("rectified") through superconducting crystals. The Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual indicates that the superconducting crystals used in phasers are called fushigi no umi, which is Japanese for "sea of mystery", and the phrase is written ふしぎの海 in the original glyphs. This was a homage to the 1990 anime series Fushigi no Umi no Nadia, known in North America as Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. The phasers that appeared in the 2009 reboot Star Trek appear similar in shape to the classic phasers, but fire singular energy pulses instead of a sustained stream of them, in a fashion similar to semi automatic weapons. This version of the phaser seems to only have two settings, stun and kill, which fire blue and red colored pulses respectively. The barrel of the weapon is two sided, one being colored red and the other blue to indicate the current setting; the user must manually rotate to the other output to use the other setting. A similar change was seen in the starship mounted phaser banks, which also fire single energy pulse instead of continuous streams. In Star Trek Beyond, the barrel sides of the sidearm phasers are flat and both barrels shoot blue bolts that deal no physical damage, while the barrel tips are still colored blue and red. The original phaser rifle prop from "Where No Man Has Gone Before" sold at auction in 2013 for $231,000.

Lasers are a sidearm in the original Star Trek pilot "The Cage", and laser pistols appear in several Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) episodes, although later episodes in Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) seemed to indicate that the laser's use as a weapon was outdated. In one instance, the ship mounted lasers of two spacecraft were incapable of overcoming even the navigational shields of the USS Enterprise D, though on at least two other occasions it was threatened with destruction by a laser armed spacecraft. The Borg cutter weapon is a laser, as mentioned in the TNG episode "Q Who" and is capable of quickly disintegrating the hull of a Federation starship, as seen in the pilot episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "Emissary". At lower power levels, it is capable of making "surgical" incisions into a ship's hull. According to The Making of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry claimed that production staff realized using laser technology would cause problems in the future, as people came to understand what lasers could and could not do. This resulted in the move to phasers on screen, while letting lasers be known as a more primitive weapon style.

Plasma cannons are a form of directed energy weaponry used by both Earth Starfleet and the early Romulan Star Empire. On Starfleet vessels, they were the precursors to phase cannons. Plasma cannons fired a plasma discharge in the form of a beam or a burst, similar to the plasma bullets fired by hand held plasma weapons, but much bigger in size. The NX class was initially armed with plasma cannons.

Phase cannons are 22nd century weapons, several of which first appear mounted to the Enterprise in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Silent Enemy". Phase cannons have a variable yield, with the cannons on the Enterprise being rated for a maximum output of 500 gigajoules, equivalent to about 120 tons TNT. Phase cannons are generally more powerful than spatial torpedoes. They are the 22nd century precursor to phaser technology, in addition to phase pistols (hand carried phase cannons). Unlike 24th century phasers, they do not have the normal variable power settings or a variable beam width—only stun and kill.

A psionic resonator was a weapon that functioned by amplifying telepathic energy and focusing it into kinetic form. In 2369 one type of Vulcan psionic resonator, known as the Stone of Gol was discovered to still exist, though in pieces, long after it was thought destroyed. The mercenary Arctus Baran was hired to locate the pieces and deliver them to the Vulcan Isolationist Movement.