No laser fallacy
A myth that has its roots in the TNG episode "The Outrageous Okona". When facing primitive ships armed with lasers, a member of the Enterprise D's bridge crew mutters, "Lasers won't even penetrate our navagational deflectors". Trekkies for years including Graham Kennedy insist this quote proves that Federation shipare completely immune to any laser, regardless of power level.
Because Star Wars Turbolasers incorporate the word 'laser' in their name, vs Trekkies assume that the statement (or rather their interpretationo of it) automatically applies to Star Wars weapons, including the Death Star super laser.
Rebuttals
- They never said "regardless of firepower" and to assume a single statement has no limits is completely unreasonable.
- Later in that very episode, Picard made it clear the statement was just the lasers on those ships
- Every time the Enterprise has flown too close to a star, it has sustained damage or was threatened.
- Numerous other TNG episodes have clearly shown lasers/EM weapons to be a threat (The Last Outpost, Loud as a Whisper, Suddenly Human, Conundrum), not to mention borg cubes being armed with lasers.
- The properties of lasers, Star Trek lasers and Star Wars lasers have little if any common ground.