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. Laser 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although later episodes in Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) seemed to indicate that the laser's use as a weapon was outdated.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 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 that 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 cannon 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 cannon 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. Phase pistols are hand-carried phase cannons, and are also the 22nd century precursor to phaser technology. However, unlike 24th century phasers, they do