Howling:Firearm Continuity?

I was re-watching The Waters of Mars yesterday, and I noticed something. Adelaide had a sort of energy/phaser sort of weapon, that you would assume they would have in the future. The thing is though, weapons seem to devolve over the course of history. In Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways, which occurs after the events of WoM, they are using rifles with bullets again. The same goes for the battle between the Humans and the Hath in The Doctor's Daughter, where they are once again using rifles with bullets. Cobb even uses a revolver to shoot Jenny. Even at the end of the Universe (Utopia) they are using rifles. Any thoughts?

^ Most technology has fallen by the events of Utopia due to the collapse of the universe. As for the "devolving" technology, it seems humanity will always use bullets. In Utopia, both a bullet gun and an energy gun are used, showing they exist simultaniously throughout the time of humans. It is also possible that different parts where humans are established have different weapons. Some places use revolvers/bullets, others use energy guns and what not. Delton Menace 03:02, February 18, 2010 (UTC)

It actually makes sense, as the energy requirements from particle weapons are huge, thus extremely expensive to maintain. Therefore, more ordinary guns are probably just going to stick around as the most basic type of weapon.Feumas 18:50, February 19, 2010 (UTC)

In Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways, they were just on a space station that makes TV shows, so likely wouldn't need energy weapons. As for the battle between the Humans and the Hath in The Doctor's Daughter, It is possible they ran out of energy for their weapons, and had to use normal guns instead (similar to the Kaled-Thal war in Genesis of the Daleks, but on a smaller scale). TemporalSpleen 16:41, February 20, 2010 (UTC)

You are assuming that the energy weapons are more powerful than rifles...but we don't know what "energy" the weapons use, and neither do we know what damage the future rifles are capable of. It is very possible that an advanced rifle that shoots bullet at a much higher speed could potentially do more damage than the "unknown energy" weapons, or that the bullets are mini nuclear fission bombs... It is very naive to think that energy weapon must be stronger and more advantageous than physical weapons...there're also other factors to consider, such as range, costs, and safety: you don't see our cops firing machine guns at everyone when they see crimes; neither do we see nuclear bombs and missiles being legalized as household defensive weapons just because we're technologically advanced enough to do so. Can you imagine what would happen if a bank is being robbed by someone armed with a knife and the only thing the police could do is to launch a nuclear bomb to destroy the entire city? What about someone stole a purse from an old woman in the park and the park security office has no club/other safer weapons but a machine gun that will kill everyone in his vicinity? He will probably get the purse back, but the old woman will probably die too...and I don't she would be too pleased, neither would the other innocent people died in the park. Moreover, has there been any explicit references that the humans from The Doctor's Daughter are directly from Earth? Considering that we still have clubs, sticks, knives, etc, I think rifles will stick around for a very long time regardless of how advanced our technology will be. Moreover, I would be very surprised if every single civilian of Adelaide's era is armed with state of the art weapons prepared for a pioneer space mission.... I mean, we have bulldozers capable of doing massive damages for constructions and other projects, but I highly doubt any police or security officer would use a bulldozer. Think of the poor old woman:

In the Park:

Old Woman: Help! That man stole my purse!

Park Security Officer: Don't worry, ma'am! I'll make sure no one gets away by running over everyone in the park with a bulldozer. That'll show those dirty pikey scums not to steal.

In a Bank:

Robert the Robber: Everyone, move to that side! Give me money or I'll stab you with a knife!

Bank Reception calls police.

Police calls UNIT.

Police: Is this UNIT? We have a bank robbery on Coronation Street, please activate the Osterhagen Keys and destroy the Earth!

---203.168.176.42 07:44, July 31, 2010 (UTC)