[Psionics] [Space] Psi Trek - Worldbuilding

[Prince Charon]

Melee Weapons

Star Fleet in canon doesn't seem to have a lot of interest in melee weapons, outside of the Mirror Universe. The closest thing to a Star Fleet-issue melee weapon we see in TOS is the thing Kirk pulls out of a panel in Engineering when he was fighting Khan in Space Seed, and that was probably a component of the ship rather than something intended to be used as a weapon as its primary purpose. Pretty much every time we see a Starfleet officer from the twenty-third century onward with a melee weapon, they're either improvised like that, given to them by someone else (e. g. just about every episode that has gladiatorial combat in it), less-lethal practice weapons (e. g. fencing foils or the padded sticks used in anbo-jyutsu), taken from an enemy (e. g. a lot of episodes where they get into fights with Klingons in the Next Gen era), or the personal property of that specific individual (e. g. the Klingon weapons owned by Worf and Dax). It's a bit different in the 22nd century, where at least the MACOs carry stun batons, but even then we rarely see even survival knives, something that really would have been a good idea on multiple occasions (Tucker uses one once in ENT that might be standard issue, and Janeway got one out of a weapons locker in VOY, but the writers otherwise seem to forget that Starfleet might have them).

In theory, it makes sense, they have really effective ranged weapons, and are supposed to look for non-violent solutions anyway, but Star Fleet personnel get into a lot of melee combat, where such tools would be very useful.

Do we want our Star Fleet-expy to have some melee weapons as standard issue, and if so, what should they have?

My own suggestion is that Swiss Army knives and survival knives are standard issue, that stun batons (possibly something like Pizard's Shock Batons or Shock Rods, if we don't go for something more psi-tech-y) and collapsible batons are commonly carried by security personnel and such (and are available to others if, for example, someone thinks an away team might need them), and that officers and NCOs have swords for ceremonial purposes, but very rarely use them in combat. Bayonets I'm less sure about, but the survival knife being usable as a bayonet makes sense, and has been done by a number of real-world militaries.


EDIT: The conclusion seems to be that the Star Fleet expy will have survival knives and probably other multitools, but won't generally be big on melee weapons outside of personal possessions and unusual circumstances.