The Continuity Guide
Defence
by Martin Willey

a. Laser blaster

Named as a "hand held armour piercing laser" in Alpha Child, and capable of destroying a spaceship (Alpha Child, The Last Sunset), although the damage to an Eagle is less severe in The Seance Spectre. Fires a red-orange beam in The Last Sunset, and a green beam in The Seance Spectre. Also seen in Eagles (eg The Full Circle, End Of Eternity, Death's Other Dominion, The Infernal Machine), and in The Beta Cloud.

b. Heavy rocket gun

These fire a flaming shell, used in The Beta Cloud. They are seen in The Immunity Syndrome (on an Eagle; they contain metalline fibres) and The Dorcons.

c. Laser rifle

Fires an orange beam (War Games, The Infernal Machine) or a red beam (Dragon's Domain) or a yellow beam (The Metamorph). Also seen in The Last Enemy, The Testament Of Arkadia, Brian The Brain, Catacombs Of The Moon, Space Warp, The Beta Cloud, Seed Of Destruction, and often on the weapons rack of Eagles (eg Death's Other Dominion, End Of Eternity, Space Brain, Mission Of The Darians, The Exiles, All That Glisters, New Adam, New Eve, The A B Chrysalis).

Stun guns are the principle weapon used by the Alphans. All security guards carry stun guns, as do most astronauts and planet exploration parties. In scripts it is either called a "stun gun" or a "laser". In dialogue, "laser" is the usual term (All That Glisters, Seed Of Destruction, Space Warp, The Dorcons and Testament Of Arkadia). In The Full Circle Victor calls it a "ray gun". In A Matter Of Balance, Vindrus describes it as an "electrical beam".

The gun has four stubby barrels, coloured red, yellow, green and blue. The beam generally fired from the top barrel, but in All That Glisters it is modified to fire four beams simultaneously. In Breakaway, the gun had only two colour buttons on the handle (red and blue); from Matter Of Life And Death onwards this became 4 buttons, coloured the same as the barrels (but in Another Time, Another Place there is only one button). In The Full Circle, a sliding selector was added to the top, marked "stun" (in black) and "kill" (in red). This could also be seen in The Testament Of Arkadia (not in close-up), and most of Year 2 (eg The Exiles, One Moment Of Humanity, The Mark Of Archanon). In Space Warp the "stun" caption is printed sideways (and the dials either side are absent). The trigger is apparently the black button on the top, although it is sometimes fired without using this.