Stun Guns - Space: 1999 Continuity Guide

12.3. Stun gun

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. The number of buttons on the handle varies between different props. 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. Props varied: in Another Time, Another Place there is only one button.

The weapons rack by the Eagle door in All That Glisters. Four of the stun guns have a single side button (red or, in one case, green); the other has four buttons and a different shaped grip. Most of these are vacuum-formed background props; only the four-button version is a "hero" prop intended for close-ups.

In Earthbound, Simmonds's stun gun has a central black stripe (tape hiding a damaged prop?)

Ordinary prop stun guns are vacuum-formed, with a visible seam through the middle, much rougher than the "hero" props made for close-ups. Notice how the paint is knocked off this prop.

Vacuum formed stun guns sometimes appear in close-up (compare with the hero prop held in Zova's hand).

Kill-stun slider

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.

The slider, first seen in The Full Circle.

In Dorzak, examples of two types of stun gun.

Beam

The stun beam is generally a yellow ray, causing the victim to collapse unconscious. In The Seance Spectre it has some force, bowling Koenig backwards. In Space Brain Mathias explains "Stun is neuronic concussion. The effect should be immediate." It is often not effective, as seen in End Of Eternity, Space Brain & The Exiles. In The Exiles, Cantar is supposed to revive in "an hour". Later that episode, Tony revives after 30 seconds, and other stuns are equally brief (Guardian Of Piri, The Full Circle). A "point blank stun", seen in Dragon's Domain, is apparently dangerous.

The kill ray is usually blue, and causes the victim to burst into flames (Alpha Child, Force Of Life). More often it is ineffective (against Balor, End Of Eternity; dragon, Dragon's Domain; Zamara, One Moment Of Humanity; creature, The Beta Cloud; alien strong, The Rules Of Luton; aliens, The Bringers Of Wonder part 2; Thaed & Vindrus, A Matter Of Balance). The beam is often used against inanimate objects such as rocks or equipment, causing explosions (Alpha Child, The Exiles, One Moment Of Humanity, New Adam, New Eve, Seed Of Destruction, but a yellow beam explodes rocks in The Full Circle). It is frequently used on Alphan door keypads in order to force entry (Alpha Child, The Exiles, The Seance Spectre, The Lambda Factor, although a yellow beam is used in Force Of Life & The Last Sunset).

The modified beams in All That Glisters are blue, while a green beam had been used to cut the rocks.

In War Games, Koenig fires a red kill ray at the alien

Normally the stun gun is worn in a holster attached to the uniform or spacesuit belt.

The only left-handed holster we see is the Mirror Koenig in Seed Of Destruction. There is a left-handed guard in Space Warp, but his holster is on the right. Otherwise, there seem to be no left-handed armed personnel.

Stun guns are often stored in a weapons rack by in the Eagle passenger module.