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why do the klingons bleed in when hit with a phaser in ST6, while most people do not bleed when hit with a phaser thats se to kill

The Assault Phasers in ST6 seemed to be set on a piercing function rather then a burning function.

Lord Revan wrote:why do the klingons bleed in when hit with a phaser in ST6, while most people do not bleed when hit with a phaser thats se to kill

Could've had something to do with it being in zero gravity...

Also, in most ST episodes/movies, those who're shot with phasers more or less have their wounds cauterized by the beam. I did wonder about that when I saw ST6...

Also it gives rise to a rather interesting question-- why weren't the assailants' spacesuits smeared with Klingon blood? I mean, the stuff was floating all over the place...

Elheru Aran wrote: Also it gives rise to a rather interesting question-- why weren't the assailants' spacesuits smeared with Klingon blood? I mean, the stuff was floating all over the place...

they were or at least Scotty said so.

Backing up Alyeska, I remember hearing/reading something about how the phasers used by the pair boarding the Klingon ship had some kind of special "cutting beam" operation, which may have been illegal in the Federation...

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Backing up Alyeska, I remember hearing/reading something about how the phasers used by the pair boarding the Klingon ship had some kind of special "cutting beam" operation, which may have been illegal in the Federation...

Then that clears up ST VI... however, wouldn't a plain old phaser beam have been just fine? Seems to me that the cutting beam would've more or less just bored a straight hole through them, hence explaining Gowron's slow death... it would've been much more realistic to use something that could've actually killed the Klingons almost immediately, like, say, a Romulan disruptor, or even one of the suck-ass Federation phasers set on full "kill"... plus, if the wounds were cauterized, there'd be much less blood floatin' about, and therefore less to no blood on the spacesuits...

OK, I'll chalk that up to the usual stupidity exhibited by ST writers...

Simple answer? Plot device.

In universe answer? Possibly they wanted to make the 'federation' attack look worse by just poking a hole in Gowron and letting him die slowly.

Maybe they were cauterized somewhat, but Klingon blood pressure is high enough to seep through a certain thickness of cauterized flesh.

Or maybe Klingons don't cauterize as easily?

Metrion Cascade wrote:Maybe they were cauterized somewhat, but Klingon blood pressure is high enough to seep through a certain thickness of cauterized flesh.
Or maybe Klingons don't cauterize as easily?

That would be a nice explanation. The problem is I'm afraid TNG+ Klingons react to phaser hits very much like everybody else-i.e., they suffer scorch marks.
@Elheru:
It HAD to be Federation weapons, because Chang wanted Kirk to look responsible. Disrupters would indicate Romulans. Not only was the Romulan ambassador actually part of the plot, and thus wouldn't want that, but no effort whatsoever was made to link Kirk to the Romulans in the first place.
Fed phasers on 'full kill' would raise the question of why the assassins used this option on some of their targets, but not Gowron and the ones who survived to rat on them.
Any indication TOS phasers even have the cauterize setting?

Batman wrote:

Metrion Cascade wrote:Maybe they were cauterized somewhat, but Klingon blood pressure is high enough to seep through a certain thickness of cauterized flesh.
Or maybe Klingons don't cauterize as easily?

That would be a nice explanation. The problem is I'm afraid TNG+ Klingons react to phaser hits very much like everybody else-i.e., they suffer scorch marks.

I don't recall ever seeing any Klingon's bare skin after a phaser hit.

Metrion Cascade wrote:

Batman wrote:

Metrion Cascade wrote:Maybe they were cauterized somewhat, but Klingon blood pressure is high enough to seep through a certain thickness of cauterized flesh.
Or maybe Klingons don't cauterize as easily?

That would be a nice explanation. The problem is I'm afraid TNG+ Klingons react to phaser hits very much like everybody else-i.e., they suffer scorch marks.

I don't recall ever seeing any Klingon's bare skin after a phaser hit.

Okay, let me rephase this. Have We EVER see TNG/DS9/VOY Klingons bleed after a phaser hit?
If NOT, have we ever seen them in shots were, HAD they been bleeding, we should have noticed?
I'm working from memory so I might very well be dead wrong but I don't recall that ever being the case.

That short of blood pressure would mean that Klingons wounds such as cuts would spray or pour blood from them, no matter how small they were. Since we haven't, I would discard such a silly notion.

Since the weapons appeared to be regular Starfleet phasers, and we have evidence that the beams were doing damage by cutting rather than burning like regular phasers do, I would think that it would be most likely that they were either using a rarely used cutting setting or (if such a setting truly is illegal in the Federation as I read/heard), were modified to do so.

Ah, found it over at Phasers.Net:

Another unusual setting: a beam that cuts into the flesh it hits without cauterization, one of the few times we’ve seen what these weapons might actually do – the novelization of ST6 calls them ‘burning phasers’ and says they’re outlawed.

http://www.phasers.net/2280/2288.htm