PRACTICAL PHASERS: A Guide To Season 1 Working P2s and P1s Hardcover – November 15, 2025

I present what I have learned about the "practical" or "working" or "hero" Phaser props filmed in the first season of the show on the various prop forums that I joined in the early 2000s and from other sources and more recently from forum site "therpf.com". I present how many "practical" phaser props were made by the Desilu Effects Department by July 1966 before filming of the television series began. I trace three of the four working pistol phaser props filmed in episode 5 throughout season one and I do the same thing for the fourth original working pistol phaser prop first filmed in episode 6, "The Man Trap".The practical phasers were fabricated by Desilu Studios employees working in the Desilu Effects Department (DED) to the future Art Director's (Walter M. Jefferies) working drawings before filming began.I provide drawings of the "practical" phaser pistol or "phaser unit # 2" (P2) and the "practical" hand phaser or "phaser unit # 1" (P1) as they would have appeared if the employees of the DED had made them exactly to the future Art Director's working drawings. In addition I provide drawings of Matt's phaser unit # 1 internal mechanism. I also provide drawings of the 4 black and white (B&W) "practical"phaser pistols (P2) filmed in season one. And I provide drawings of the 4 B&W "practical" phaser unit # 1s (P1). I then provide full color drawings of the four original Hero P2s and 4 Hero P1s "reworked" by Wah Ming Chang (WMC) for Herbert F. Solow.I then tell you in which episode the first non-working "authentic-looking dummy" ('Hidgrade') P2s made by the DED, were filmed. (These were not the "Midgrades" filmed in the second and third season episodes.I provide trace tables that trace the 4 B&W "practical phaser guns" that were made before filming began throughout season one. I include the links (URLs) for photos and movies of the two "surviving" practical phaser pistols - the "Greg Jein" and "Finney" P2s.This Final revised Seventh Edition contains 30 new drawings and 7 new color photos, as well as my corrected Finney P2, Riley/Lenore P2 and TMOST P1 drawings - all of which were enhanced to 300dpi.Qi PressRevised Seventh Edition Hardback printing, November 2025 Read more