Mike DiCenso wrote:The problem here is that we don't know the power output of a Type-I phaser that Appel initally used against the Horta before the Enterprise arrived. If the guy didn't really know what he was doing and just used one of the low-level kill settings, it likely would not have done more than make the creature uncomfortable, but was enough to drive it off.
Later on, Kirk surmises and Spock agrees that the Horta is armor plated and this is bourne out by the creature's appearance, and by the substatial piece the two manage to shoot off.
At any rate, "The Devil in the Dark" is woefully out of kilter with the rest of Trek where we have seen phasers of all sizes used against solid rock (read silicon), and it either heats it up to the glowing point, or causes massive explosive effects. Thus your Ceti Eel as slicon probably doesn't hold much merit, and chain-reaction or not, a phaser still outputs a fair amount of energy as per episode like TNG's "The Mind's Eye" where we hear of a rifle routinely outputting 1.05 megawatts.
-Mike
Phasers have all sorts of adustments including beam-width, power, frequency and effects. However "Devil in the Dark" is not inconsistent, since a Horta is obviously not an ordinary creature, being able to move through rock as easily as people move through air: therefore it would need to be much denser and stronger than ordinary rock, at least on the outside. Indeed, they said that it can tunnel through rock faster and more efficiently than a phaser could: so naturally it can
resist a phaser, and required the highest and most focused setting of two phaser II beams in order to even injure it.
