Bullets versus lasars
There is a good thread somewhere in this forum where they discuss this subject pretty good. Your best modern anti armor weapons are very small dart like projectiles that do all their damage with kinetic energy not high explosive. As a super bullet as seen in the mini went through an object it would melt the metal it goes through. Although some damage would be caused by the actual bullet the majority would be caused by the superheated metal of the object it hit as that metal is imparted with the kinetic energy. This is why most armored vehicle casualties are burned (incinerated) by molten metal not torn by the actual projectile. The space rail gun concept is a natural projection of the always evolving arrow.
LASARs may be a good weapon in the future. The Air Force has a modified 747 going into service that can destroy up to 18 targets before recharge with a chemical lasar. Whether you can attenuate the effects of lasars in the future or if the power issue can be resolved is another story. You can't see with the naked eye the lasars we use today for range finding. I wonder if you would see the combat lasar in the future. If you can't the special effects person would probably rather deal with tracer bullets or pretend a lasar is visible. The TOS "lasars" on the vipers looked more like tracer rounds in flight than any real lasar. A space based tracer would need to be coated with a glow in the dark substance since I don't think current phospherous based tracers would burn in the airless vacum of space.
I think most of the anti-bullet crowd is argueing over semantics. They could have called them plasma balls and the guns plasma cannons. The shaking and "bullet like" things done in the vipers are a great way to inpart realism to the audience whether such would happen in a future weapons system firing bullets or plasma balls who knows. If the "bullets" are fired by magnetic force I don't think the viper pilot would feel any recoil at all.
I liked the way they did it. What happens in the future God only knows. I hold out hope we don't have such weapons in 1,000 years but I bet we will.
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