Star Trek’s Phaser Sound Effect Was Stolen From Another Beloved Sci-Fi Movie

In the mid-1960s, when Gene Roddenberry was first pitching science fiction technology he wanted to use in his science fiction series “Star Trek,” he was attracted to the idea of ​​making things as realistic as possible. Sure, “Star Trek” is full of impossible fantasy technologies like faster-than-light travel, matter transporters and food replicators, but all the fantasy widgets have a finger back in reality, making them seem like they might actually be possible one day. Roddenberry wanted his space characters to use lasers as weapons, believing they would supplant projectile weapons like guns and would not be lethal. However, when Roddenberry looked into modern laser technology from the 1960s, he discovered that much of what he wrote about in his science fiction show had already been invented. As such, he changed the name of Starfleet weapons from lasers to phasersthinking it would look more futuristic.

Phasers have been a common element of “Star Trek” since the beginning, and the phrase “stun phasers” has leaked into the pop lexicon, even outside of “Star Trek” circles. The sound phasers make – a prolonged, high-pitched trill – is deeply ingrained in the brains of Trekkies everywhere. It was used dozens of times throughout the 1966 series.

The phaser sound was analyzed by sound designer, editor and director Ben Burtt, perhaps best known for his sound work on the “Star Wars” films and the “Indiana Jones” franchise (but with dozens more credits). Burtt spoke with TrekFilm in 2009, and with the sharpest ears in the business, he was able to identify that the phaser sound effect was actually a reused version of the Martian warship sound effects from Byron Haskin’s 1953 film “War of the Worlds.”

When a Trekkie watches clips from “War of the Worlds”, the sound is incredibly obvious. It’s very clear that the creators of “Star Trek” cleanly stole the Martian sound effect. Ben Burtt not only knew that phasers produced the same sound effect, but he also knew how that effect was created. He described it like this:

“In the original series, the constant blast of the phaser was derived from the soaring sound of the Martian war machines created for the 1953 version of “War of the Worlds.’ The original was made with feedback from an electric guitar and harp. You can get a very similar sound on a Moog synthesizer by modulating a constant sine wave with pink noise. »

You have probably heard of a Moog synthesizer. The term “pink noise” is industry jargon for the loud, hissing static you might hear on an old TV with no signal. The sine wave, as used in sound design, represents stable, non-fluctuating sound. Sine waves can be seen visualized through your average oscilloscope, and they sound like a sliding electrical hum, the pitch of which is determined by the frequency of the wave. It seems that you can create a phaser effect – or rather a Martian war machine effect – with an old synth capable of producing a constant electrical hum, altered by the “fuzz” of pink noise. It’s all very simple – at least for someone like Ben Burtt, who undoubtedly has these items at home.

Burtt did sound work for the rebooted “Star Trek” film in 2009, as well as its sequel, “Star Trek Into Darkness.”