Energy weapon
Energy weapons were any device that intended to use directed energy in a destructive manner. Energy weapons ranged in size and type from handheld anti-personnel weapons to massive cannons for combat in the vacuum of space, mounted on space ships, or even planetary bases.
Anti-personnel energy weapons
An energy weapon could be a handheld weapon that fired energy rather than a projectile of some sort. This energy might be a laser, plasma, or some more esoteric variety. Advantages of energy weapons over firearms included their ability to do significantly more damage than a projectile, and, ironically, their ability to be designed to incapacitate rather than kill. They were often informally referred to as blasters or ray guns.
Dalek gunstick energy weapons were part of their casings, though were originally removable. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)
Both the Cybermen of the Doctor's universe and the Cybermen of Pete's World were seen[by whom?] with built-in energy weapons; the former had them in their heads, while the latter in their forearms. The former also used Cyber-guns. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen, Army of Ghosts/Doomsday)
Sontaran soldiers typically carried some form of blaster. (TV: The Time Warrior)
The Chancellery Guard on Gallifrey used a weapon called a staser, designed to prevent regeneration. (TV: Arc of Infinity)
Jack Harkness carried a Compact laser deluxe, which was able to defeat the androids Trine-E and Zu-Zana when they tried to kill him. Shortly afterwards, Jack improvised an energy weapon out of the defabricator. (TV: Bad Wolf)
The Judoon carried hand held weapons. (TV: Smith and Jones)
Chantho used an energy weapon against the Master. While not immediately fatal, the injury triggered a regeneration. (TV: Utopia)
The Preachers carried large energy blasters to fight Cybermen; while the Doctor modified them to be be used against Daleks, they were ultimately ineffective. (TV: Doomsday)
The Sea Devils carried energy weapons. (TV: The Sea Devils)
The Master's Tissue Compression Eliminator was a particularly exotic form of energy weapon[source needed], later replaced with a laser screwdriver.
River Song carried a disintegrator pistol which was capable of an Alpha Meson burst. (TV: The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang)
The Anubians could fire an energy weapon through their palms. (TV: Curse of Anubis)
The personnel aboard Space Station Nerva carried energy pistols that could stun and kill. Their armoury section also contained fission guns that were much more formidable. (TV: The Ark in Space)
The guards on an Earth-like planet carried light-guns that used the power of liquid light beams to strike in their victims' eyes and control their movements. (TV: The Savages)
Ray guns
Several species and individuals specifically identified their energy weapons as ray guns. The Moroks and the Cat-People used ray guns themselves. Whilst the Monstrons armed their Engibrain soldiers with ray guns. (TV: The Space Museum, PROSE: Invasion of the Cat-People, COMIC: The Menace of the Monstrons)
Some merely referred to themselves (or others as possessing "ray guns") as the Daleks did in reference to their own gunsticks (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) and Jamie McCrimmon and the Second Doctor did when describing the Chameleons' weaponry. (TV: The Faceless Ones)
On one occasion the Second Doctor invented a ray gun which he tested on an Earth-like planet. When the Master of Spiders attacked them, he used the ray gun to kill one spider and to destroy the Master's mechanical spider. (COMIC: Master of Spiders) He later used the ray gun on a giant squid which attacked him on Nook. (COMIC: Peril at 60 Fathoms)
Large-scale energy weapons
The Daleks used ship-mounted energy weapons during their 22nd century invasion of Earth and their invasion whilst Earth was in the Medusa Cascade. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Stolen Earth) They also utilised Special Weapons Daleks that were equipped with an enormous energy cannon capable of vaporising several other Daleks in a single shot. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
Other ship-mounted weapons such as a Jathaa sunglider weapon, deployed by the Torchwood Institute in 2007 during the Sycorax's appearance over London on Christmas day were also capable of massive destruction, destroying the aforementioned Sycorax and their ship. (TV: The Christmas Invasion)
The human-built airship carrier Valiant also carried a Jathaa sunglider energy weapon. (TV: The Poison Sky)
The predominantly human built and constructed town-sized CyberKing was fitted with an energy weapon on its arm. (TV: The Next Doctor)
