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In the Star Trek Alternate Reality Series, the Enterprise used red phasers very similar to pulse phasers. I understood that, although they do not really seem that useful, now that I've matured. In Star Trek: Into Darkness, the U.S.S. Vengeance fired sharp, red, fast phaser blasts that curved towards the Enterprise. When it attacked at warp, the majority of phaser blasts heavily damaged the Enterprise, of course, but some missed! Is there a point to the curving phasers?

I managed to find an image, and it clearly shows that both of the phaser blasts were curved. These were obviously phasers, and, as a Trekker, I *do* know what they look like.

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    Pics or it didn't happen. -- But IIRC, in TOS, we often had phasers shoot in directions diverging by some 30 degrees, but hitting the same small spot on a planet ... :)
    – Hagen von Eitzen
    Commented Apr 14, 2020 at 21:28
  • "This time, Admiral Marcus did not bother with professional niceties. Closing fast on the Enterprise, his state-of-the-art warship unleashed an array of powerful, state-of-the-art weaponry. Already barely traveling at warp on a wing, a prayer, and an assortment of increasingly frantic Russian entreaties, the Enterprise was rocked, jolted, and finally knocked sideways by a succession of explosions." - Novelisation
    – Valorum
    Commented Apr 14, 2020 at 22:49
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    I assumed it was because they were firing at warp and the bolts were losing momentum. Maybe they were trying to impress upon us some kind of star trek physics logic stating that trajectory of phasers are unreliable while firing faster than the ship which is in a warp bubble moving at whatever factor of light speed they are currently in.
    – Kai Qing
    Commented May 1, 2020 at 2:31
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    That doesn't make sense, because it also happened while they weren't at warp. In ST: VOY, "Message In a Bottle," a Nebula class ship pursuing the Prometheus fired a phaser, and there didn't seem to be any curvature in the beam.
    – Sovereign Inquiry
    Commented May 1, 2020 at 15:49
  • I think it has something to do with spacetime warping.
    – user931
    Commented Mar 3, 2022 at 14:06

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Watching the video, it would seem some of the apparently curving phaser shots may be because of a moving camera point of view (particularly at the point were the Enterprise spins and drops out of warp).

However, at 25 seconds into the video, there is a clearly curving light trail that hits one of the Enterprise's nacelles. I think that this is actually a photon torpedo rather than a phaser, which explains the curve.

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