Star Trek

Evening, all! I need your help!

I'm not a 'Trekkie,' I'm afraid - sadly, I never really got into it =/

However, I'm currently working on an essay on Science Fiction, and its resemblence to our world. The example I have chosen is the Phase Pistol, from Star Trek. I focus on its close resemblence to an ordinary firearm, and how this helps people who might be unfamiliar with it see it as a weapon.

Unfortunately, I know next-to-nothing about said phaser - and I need a source to quote from. The site I picked a brief quote from is this one: http://www.phasers.net/2150/phasep.htm The problem is, the information on this site comes through a second medium - not from the guy who originally designed the weapon, and that's what I need. Or, at least, as close to it as I can get.

Which is where you guys come in: if you could direct me to any online (or otherwise) source that comes from the designing team for Star Trek, that talks about the Phase Pistol, that could be fantasic. I figured, rather than trawl through pages and pages of other fansites, that coming straight to an active forum for real and active fans was the best idea.

Can anyone help me? =)

A good starting point might be to check out The Star Trek Encyclopaedia. Michael Okuda was the principle designer of Star Trek for many years, and he and his wife put together this reference manual. I don't own it myself so I am not sure how much it has on phase pistols -- but if you want a good reference on the detail of Star Trek design, anything by Okuda is a good place to start.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek_Encyclopedia

Best of luck.

Memory Alpha (en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Portal:Main) is the official Star Trek wiki. The Phase Pistol article has numerous background notes that I imagine would come in handy.

Hope that helps.

Thanks, guys! Great help =)