Type-II Hand Phaser
(c. 2363)

Type-II Hand Phaser

Tech

Hand phaser in use between about 2350 and 2365.

Notes

Called the ‘dustbuster’ phaser (after a 1980's hand-held vacuum-cleaner made by Black & Decker), it looked even stupider than it sounds. Probably not seen a great deal for this reason, or perhaps because the generally-peaceful view of Star Trek at the time precluded such blatant carrying of weapons, regardless of how non-weaponlike they actually looked. . .

Seen in the first and second seasons, and in archive sensor footage (dating from about 2360) featured in the 4th-season episode "Identity Crisis."

However, what the images do show is that none of the schematics ever produced - above, from the Encyclopaedia, below, from various technical articles in magazines - actually match the weapon prop! The emitter head is shown as continuous with the phaser body, yet screen caps reveal there's a visible lip making the emitter smaller in diameter than the body. Watching the episodes now, the dustbuster phaser doesn't seem so bad as it's cracked up to be.

What the images below do reveal is how unergonomic the phaser is. Look at some of the angles of the beams and how they correspond to the angle the phaser is being held at - in one or two scenes the beam goes all over the place! It's a problem that continued with the 'cobra' phaser which replaced this model, and only the curvier 'boomerang' phaser seems to have improved matters. Schematic

Images
"The Last Outpost" Differing styles of phaser holsterage "Hide and Q"
 
"Datalore" Definitely "Datalore" Beaming up in mid-shot
 
"11001001" Note lit-up power meter
 
"Too Short A Season"
 
Aiming. . .
 
. . . both beams angled down from phaser. . . . . . now one is straight. . . . . . now both are straight
 
Firing Did I get him? Yes, I did!
 
"Heart of Glory"
 
"The Arsenal of Freedom"
 
The vegetation gets a hammering
 
"Skin of Evil" Absolutely atrocious aiming Thank God for the FX department
 
"Conspiracy" Beam generation Yowch!
 
The beams converge. . . . . . yet they're not even aiming in the same direction! This is slightly better. . .
 
. . . as you can see Remmick only looks like Niles Crane on the outside - inside, Yeuch. . . "Where Silence Has Lease"
 
"A Matter of Honour"
 
 
"A Matter of Honour"
 
"The Dauphin" "Contagion"
 
"The Royale"
 
"Time Squared"
 
"Q Who?"
 
 
"Identity Crisis"
Schematics  

Artist's ImpressionSchematic