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Phaser Control Room

Spock, Tomlinson, and Stiles in the Enterprise's forward phaser room

The phaser control room was a section aboard starships responsible for the coordination and maintenance of the ship's phaser weapons. While the actual firing was usually triggered by the helmsman/navigator or from the tactical stations on the main bridge, battle bridge or auxiliary control center, the phaser control rooms were capable of firing phasers independently without bridge control. These rooms were manned by phaser gun crews who were a part of the command division and trained in space combat. They controlled the phasers from a phaser station. (TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver", "Balance of Terror"; DS9: "Valiant")

These rooms were located on Deck 5 on a Constitution-class starship in the late 2260s. (TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver", "Balance of Terror")

In 2266, the forward phaser room of the USS Enterprise sustained heavy damage in battle with a Romulan Bird-of-Prey, causing the majority of the crewmembers stationed there to be injured and require treatment in sickbay. This left Lieutenant Robert Tomlinson manning the room alone, although he was later supplemented by Lieutenant Stiles. Due to the battle damage, a phaser coolant seal was breached, causing the room to fill up with the toxic substance. This resulted in Tomlinson and Stiles both losing consciousness. Although Stiles was saved by Spock, Tomlinson died as a result of his exposure. (TOS: "Balance of Terror")

The phaser control room was a redress of the engineering set. The phaser station was borrowed from the same set – it was Scotty's main console first seen in "The Naked Time". It was also the station at which Kevin Riley sat at both of his series appearances and the station Kirk used to disable Khan's planned destruction of the ship in "Space Seed". When the set was modified during season 2 this panel was moved near the entrance to Engineering.

In the 24th century, phaser control was a section aboard the Defiant-class starships. In 2374, the bridge on the USS Valiant was in communication with phaser control, informing them that there was a spike in the 3-L subsystem and that they had to take care of it. (DS9: "Valiant")

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