Photon Torpedo

A fired Photon Torpedo.

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A standard Starfleet issue photon torpedo

A schematic of a Mark XXV torpedo

A photon torpedo (sometimes called photon) is a projectile weapon commonly used by Starfleet starships and starbases in the 23rd and 24th centuries. Its predecessor was the photonic torpedo. Its successor was the quantum torpedo.

Overview

A photon torpedo utilizes a warhead of matter and antimatter which produce a destructive explosion when combined. 24th century photon torpedoes are equipped with navigational sensors to seek and track its targets, as well as a remote self-destruct system. (TNG: "Genesis") A Starfleet torpedo shares the same oblong casing as a Class-8 probe.

Launching photon torpedoes at short-range targets is noted to be somewhat dangerous, since the explosion can also damage the firing ship as well, and is an almost unheard-of occurrence. The Enterprise-D escaped damage after attacking a pursuing Borg cube in 2365 and later in 2367 when an aggressive Cytherian probe prompted the same action. (TNG: "Q Who?", "The Nth Degree")

Photon torpedoes appear as red, orange, yellow or blue blobs of light when fired. While technically antiquated by the invention of the quantum torpedo in 2368, photon torpedoes remain a crucial part of Starfleet's arsenal, at least until the fabrication process for quantum torpedoes is streamlined.

See also: Torpedo, Photonic shockwave, Torpedo bay

Tactical

Deep Space 9 firing photon torpedo volleys from torpedo turrets

The Mark VI photon torpedo has a maximum explosive yield of 200 isotons (VOY: "Scorpion, Part II"), but even earlier models were capable of substantial destruction. An unshielded ship (for example, the Miranda-class USS Lantree) could be obliterated with a single hit. (TNG: "Unnatural Selection")

Torpedoes can also be programmed to fire in a set dispersal pattern when brute force would not provide optimal results. By attacking multiple key systems on an enemy vessel at once, the overall damage can possibly be increased. The Enterprise-D was able to destroy a Klingon K'vort-class battle cruiser in an alternate timeline with only one volley and follow-up phaser fire.

Despite the danger of a close-range explosion damaging the firing ship, a Starfleet crew's inherent knowledge of the weapon's design means that it is possible to modify the shields to protect the ship from the torpedo's impact, as Lieutenant Barclay once demonstrated. (TNG: "The Nth Degree")

Other uses

• Many other species also use defensive projectiles known as photon torpedoes; it is known that Klingons possessed such technology as early as 2151.

• Doctor Timicin from Kaelon II made several modifications to the guidance system of Starfleet photon torpedoes that would enable him to implement his theory of helium fusion enhancement and possibly revitalize the Kaelon sun. (TNG: "Half a Life")

• Doctor Tolian Soran had Mark V torpedoes among his collection of solar probes in his lab aboard the Amargosa observatory in 2371. (Star Trek: Generations)

• It has become something of a Starfleet tradition to place dead crew members inside an empty torpedo casing, and often such torpedos are launched into space. Both Spock and Jadzia Dax were placed in empty torpedo casings after their deaths. Spock's body was fired on to the rapidly forming Genesis Planet. It's unclear as to whether or not this was done with Jadzia Dax after her death. At the death of Dr. Ira Graves, his body was put in a torpedo casing and beamed into space. (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan; TNG: "The Schizoid Man"; DS9: "Tears of the Prophets")

Background Information

• The term "photon torpedo" was not used until fairly late into season one of Star Trek: The Original Series, in "Arena" (episode 19). Before that, when the Enterprise fired shots that looked like globular bursts, they were identified as phasers, as in TOS: "Balance of Terror".

• The idea that the photon torpedo is a physical missile-like casing was never confirmed for the Enterprise of the original series. This idea was first introduced in Star Trek: The Motion Picture as a graphic on Chekov's weapons display, but oddly enough Andrew Probert did not envision the photon torpedo to be a capsule even then, as he says in his 2005 Trekplace interview. He says "I envisioned them as what we saw during the TV era, they were glowing globs of plasma or some sort of energy. They weren't giant capsules. I envision them as big, glowy, dangerous blobs of... scariness." [1]

• The original photon torpedo as it was used in TOS did not have a torpedo room that we saw nor which was mentioned in dialogue. Instead, it seemed more like a setting of the phaser weaponry, which may explain why the term "photon torpedo" was not actually introduced until quite late into the first season (episode 19, "Arena") and why globular bursts that the ship fired were called "phasers", like they were in "Balance or Terror" (episode 8) and a few others. Despite that, photon torpedoes were definitely physical missile-like casings by the time of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.