Some clarity and timeline corrections: The phasers were designed by Matt Jefferies and built by the Desilu prop shop. The four fiberglass hero models were built to the specs that were given and looked fine in person, and hold up even on Bluray today, but they didn't show up well on TV broadcast of the time. They were sent to Wah Chang for extra detail, multi toned paint and extra metal trim, so they would stand out better on TV. The reworked phasers made their first appearance in "Dagger of the Mind". It was the vacuformed plastic dummy phasers that were described as looking like cheap toys. They had no metal parts and were easily damaged, and looked bad even on TV (they often look partially crushed). These are the ones that needed replacement, which led to what are now referred to as midgrades. These are fiberglass models similar to the heroes but with less metal and no working features, and first appeared in "Devil in the Dark". The B&W models pictured in the video are fakes, as are all B&W's seen today. All B&W's were repainted. And the story behind the new auction phaser makes no sense. The production were forbidden to do any more work with Wah Chang back in season 1, so they certainly would not send a phaser to him for repairs in season 2. And if they had is it likely they would go the rest of the season and all of season 3 without ever getting it back?
I’d add that, at the time of the auction, the phaser had never been screen matched to any episode or production still & there are no historical photos of either part. In fact, the stills from the show that the auction house used were of other known versions of the prop. Also, at the time of the auction, every hero prop ordered by the production had been accounted for.
They were also used in "Charlie X", "Mudd's Women", and "What are little girls made of", and the plain phaser one use in "The Corbomite Maneuver". Great video by the way!
I remember a talk from Roddenberry about the PHASERS, way back in the mid-1970's ( maybe around 1975/1976 ), when he was going around the U.S. doing Arena tours on Star Trek, called “The World of Star Trek with Gene Roddenberry. I was maybe 12 or 13, at the time, but toward the end of this talk by GR, he opened up the closest crowds for a question and answer period. One fan asked about the creation of all the futuristic communications devices, weapons and scientific equipment of Star Trek and he went on a sort of extended conversation about how all of the different props were thought up/designed and created and he explained some that the design and functions of the PHASER kept getting more evolved and solidified during all three seasons of the Original Series, and why there were many iterations of the PHASER seen throughout all three seasons of the TV show. Something my fellow Star Trek friends/fans and I were never aware of/oblivious to, until we heard about this directly from Gene Roddenberry, himself. BTW, these GR arena tour talks featured a pristine series blooper real showing, AND, at that time, early production photo images/photo “STILLS” showing building of sets, for what was going to be a new Star Trek series or limited bi-weekly series, featurimg all the original cast, that was planned to premiere by September/October of 1977, at that time , which was, of course, a pre-StarWars, tentative, series premiere date.
I went to one of those as well, in Norfolk VA. I remember that blooper reel. There is at least one copy of the 35mm master he had that is in the hands of a private individual who has chosen not to make it available to the public. I can understand, for him it’s an investment. Jim
I had the Starfleet Engineers manual. I took it to my high school. I forgot what the class was called Intro into electric something, but I showed the "Electronics" teacher the schematics they had for the communicator. I asked him if it would really work. He really looked it over. He came back and said, "Yes, it'll work if you can get some of the components we don't know how to make yet.". When it comes to pseudo science, I prefer more science, than pseudo. The strange thing to boggle your mind is: Star Trek did science *ssbackwards! We've got scientists creating things inspired by Star Trek!
Wasn't aware another hero surfaced in '21. Very cool. Have always loved the B&W phaser. As a kid, that's the pattern I painted the phaser from the AMT Exploration Set.
Having watched TOS on a blurry screen, (sometimes in black and white), I had no idea for many years that the small TNG phaser was based on a portion of the original. (Type 1). That was a cool look, and way better than the Dustbuster style.
Matt Jeffries was a guest speaker at my college class, he stated that the fabrication of the props was a "very rush job" only to find out later that one of the executives wanted to impress his girlfriend on their next meet up.
I may be in the minority but I do love the B&Ws. I like the subsequent paint job better, but the B&W's look great to me. I also think that the original B&W's were all repainted. Personally, I think any current B&W is a fake.
The handles were just the battery pack, so I never differentiated the difference! I just figured they were like motorola radios since battery packs are swappable. What color battery they got on the phaser was just basically luck of the draw.
Yeah, the handles themselves were basically battery packs. So they were designed to be interchangeable. It’s just the oddity that allows you to identify one of the original Desilu prototypes by the fact that they were the only ones to have the white handles.
No,No,No. The armorer on the ship would only issue phasers to be used onboard with white hand grips. These grips contained power sources that were locked on heavy stun. In this way the phaser could not be set to disintegrate by mistake or design and cause severe damage to the ship. This also why today Air Marshals only use small handguns set to stun when flying passenger aircraft.
Sounded good…… but not a fact in any way, shape, or form of the word… In Star Trek, we saw phasers set on overload on board the Enterprise. And the white handle phasers disappeared completely after season 1. Also, in real life - Air Marshals do not use any kind of stun guns. They use normal handguns. In fact, there’s a clip not even 20 days old showing an Air Marshall pulling a gun on a passenger trying to get the the pilot in the cockpit.
Some clarity and timeline corrections: The phasers were designed by Matt Jefferies and built by the Desilu prop shop. The four fiberglass hero models were built to the specs that were given and looked fine in person, and hold up even on Bluray today, but they didn't show up well on TV broadcast of the time. They were sent to Wah Chang for extra detail, multi toned paint and extra metal trim, so they would stand out better on TV. The reworked phasers made their first appearance in "Dagger of the Mind".
It was the vacuformed plastic dummy phasers that were described as looking like cheap toys. They had no metal parts and were easily damaged, and looked bad even on TV (they often look partially crushed). These are the ones that needed replacement, which led to what are now referred to as midgrades. These are fiberglass models similar to the heroes but with less metal and no working features, and first appeared in "Devil in the Dark".
The B&W models pictured in the video are fakes, as are all B&W's seen today. All B&W's were repainted.
And the story behind the new auction phaser makes no sense. The production were forbidden to do any more work with Wah Chang back in season 1, so they certainly would not send a phaser to him for repairs in season 2. And if they had is it likely they would go the rest of the season and all of season 3 without ever getting it back?
I’d add that, at the time of the auction, the phaser had never been screen matched to any episode or production still & there are no historical photos of either part. In fact, the stills from the show that the auction house used were of other known versions of the prop. Also, at the time of the auction, every hero prop ordered by the production had been accounted for.
Your logic is flawless! So is your Trek history
The white handles never crossed my mind until we saw the diamond select ones came out
They were also used in "Charlie X", "Mudd's Women", and "What are little girls made of", and the plain phaser one use in "The Corbomite Maneuver". Great video by the way!
Thanks! Yeah, I messed up on the episodes. I think they actually showed up in like 6 episodes. Oops! Jim
All good, love your videos!
And Kirk actually held that phaser 1 backwards, pointing towards himself in one scene, and that made it into the final airing.
I think I noticed that too 😅
I remember a talk from Roddenberry about the PHASERS, way back in the mid-1970's ( maybe around 1975/1976 ), when he was going around the U.S. doing Arena tours on Star Trek, called “The World of Star Trek with Gene Roddenberry. I was maybe 12 or 13, at the time, but toward the end of this talk by GR, he opened up the closest crowds for a question and answer period. One fan asked about the creation of all the futuristic communications devices, weapons and scientific equipment of Star Trek and he went on a sort of extended conversation about how all of the different props were thought up/designed and created and he explained some that the design and functions of the PHASER kept getting more evolved and solidified during all three seasons of the Original Series, and why there were many iterations of the PHASER seen throughout all three seasons of the TV show. Something my fellow Star Trek friends/fans and I were never aware of/oblivious to, until we heard about this directly from Gene Roddenberry, himself.
BTW, these GR arena tour talks featured a pristine series blooper real showing, AND, at that time, early production photo images/photo “STILLS” showing building of sets, for what was going to be a new Star Trek series or limited bi-weekly series, featurimg all the original cast, that was planned to premiere by September/October of 1977, at that time , which was, of course, a pre-StarWars, tentative, series premiere date.
I went to one of those as well, in Norfolk VA. I remember that blooper reel. There is at least one copy of the 35mm master he had that is in the hands of a private individual who has chosen not to make it available to the public. I can understand, for him it’s an investment. Jim
I had the Starfleet Engineers manual. I took it to my high school. I forgot what the class was called Intro into electric something, but I showed the "Electronics" teacher the schematics they had for the communicator. I asked him if it would really work. He really looked it over. He came back and said, "Yes, it'll work if you can get some of the components we don't know how to make yet.".
When it comes to pseudo science, I prefer more science, than pseudo. The strange thing to boggle your mind is: Star Trek did science *ssbackwards! We've got scientists creating things inspired by Star Trek!
Wasn't aware another hero surfaced in '21. Very cool. Have always loved the B&W phaser. As a kid, that's the pattern I painted the phaser from the AMT Exploration Set.
I've always wondered about the white handled phasers. Thanks for posting!
Early versions of the M-16 rifle had a white colored magazine. Perhaps the color white signifies that the weapon is a early prototype.
Having watched TOS on a blurry screen, (sometimes in black and white), I had no idea for many years that the small TNG phaser was based on a portion of the original. (Type 1). That was a cool look, and way better than the Dustbuster style.
My biggest problem (& I'm not the only one) is lack of trigger guards, asking for phaser burns in the leg!
A common mark of shame for cadets, I’m sure.
Aw, hell, I thought this would be about those tubular things used in the pilot movie.
I remember when you could buy the model kit of the "heroes phaser".
The white handled phaser is my favorite one that Art Asylum made. It's the one I have on display.
Brilliant design. The only thing that has come close since then are the lasers of Space: 1999.
Matt Jeffries was a guest speaker at my college class, he stated that the fabrication of the props was a "very rush job" only to find out later that one of the executives wanted to impress his girlfriend on their next meet up.
Ouch! Thanks for the story. I’ll keep a note of it on my end. I plan on revisiting the Phasers as a whole in Trek. Jim
I may be in the minority but I do love the B&Ws. I like the subsequent paint job better, but the B&W's look great to me. I also think that the original B&W's were all repainted. Personally, I think any current B&W is a fake.
I think the B&W phasers were also used in Charlie X and are visible on the security guards Kirk calls to take Charlie into custody in the gym scene.
A white handle phaser was also seen close up in Charlie X
The handles were just the battery pack, so I never differentiated the difference! I just figured they were like motorola radios since battery packs are swappable. What color battery they got on the phaser was just basically luck of the draw.
Yeah, the handles themselves were basically battery packs. So they were designed to be interchangeable. It’s just the oddity that allows you to identify one of the original Desilu prototypes by the fact that they were the only ones to have the white handles.
White or silver?
No,No,No. The armorer on the ship would only issue phasers to be used onboard
with white hand grips. These grips contained power sources that were locked on heavy stun.
In this way the phaser could not be set to disintegrate by mistake or design and cause severe damage to the ship.
This also why today Air Marshals only use small handguns set to stun when flying passenger aircraft.
That is fascinating. May I ask you what your source for this information is?
Sounded good…… but not a fact in any way, shape, or form of the word… In Star Trek, we saw phasers set on overload on board the Enterprise. And the white handle phasers disappeared completely after season 1. Also, in real life - Air Marshals do not use any kind of stun guns. They use normal handguns. In fact, there’s a clip not even 20 days old showing an Air Marshall pulling a gun on a passenger trying to get the the pilot in the cockpit.
Stolen rather than repainted more like
That line of thought has occurred to me more than once as well. It would explain the lines that showed up at auction decades later. Sent from my iPad