Weapons in Star Trek

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The Star Trek fictional universe contains a variety of weapons, ranging from missiles (photon torpedoes) to melee (primarily used by the Klingons, a race of aliens in the Star Trek universe). The Star Trek franchise consists mainly of several multi-season television shows and thirteen movies, as well as various video games and merchandise. Many aspects of the Star Trek universe impact modern popular culture, especially its fictitious terminology and the concept of weaponry on spacecraft. The franchise has had a widespread influence on its audiences from the late 20th to early 21st century.^[1] Notably, Star Trek's science fiction concepts have been studied by real scientists; NASA described it in relation to the real world as "entertaining combination of real science, imaginary science gathered from lots of earlier stories, and stuff the writers make up week-by-week to give each new episode novelty."^[2] For example, NASA noted that the Star Trek "phasers" were a fictional extrapolation of real-life lasers, and compared them to real-life microwave based weapons that have a stunning effect.^[2]