Evidence on zats
Warning: possible episode spoiler for Prodigy, Season Four.
Well, here I go posting another message directly after my previous one in which I suggested that zats were rather similar to tasers. Coincidentally, this very evening
Stargate was on, and zats were used. I can now tell you this with certainty:
1. While I was quite certain that when zats were first introduced one shot stunned, two shots rendered unconscious and
three shots killed, it is definite that two shots kill (at least now
2. One shot does not even knock you out, if you're fairly fit and know it's coming. O'Neill gets shot intentionally by Teal'c in order to alter his body's electrical field, and he gets up and runs away barely moments later, albeit with the help of some convenient smelling salts from Carter. It doesn't seem to have a
noticeable long-term effect on him at
all.
3. The time required between shots to kill someone is longer than we thought. I am fairly certain I have seen O'Neill shot with one of those things before, so we can safely assume that the effect
does wear off, but it is slow. Teal'c tells someone whose name I conveniently can't remember (it would kinda spoil the episode for anyone who hasn't seen it, anyway) that a scientist who was shot around ten minutes ago in the script would die if he was shot again. This seems to indicate that there is a considerable delay between
apparent recovery and
neural recovery.
4. The zats definitely
do deliver an electrical payload -- Sam says so in no uncertain terms.
This should clear everything up nicely. Still can't find any conclusive information on the planetary designation system though. Perhaps I shoud try emailing Michael Greenburg and Peter DeLuise
