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I'm continually amused by the space battles in Star Trek. Two ships pull up within a few ship-lengths of each other, then lob torpedoes and phaser beams at each
by jff 14y ago
I'm continually amused by the space battles in Star Trek. Two ships pull up within a few ship-lengths of each other, then lob torpedoes and phaser beams at each other. I seem to remember seeing in the old series something about how the phasers really get fired: Kirk gives the order, the weapons guy on the bridge presses a button, a buzzer or something sounds down in the "phaser room", and a guy down there presses yet another button which does the actual shooting. Similarly for torpedoes, except I seem to remember seeing them manually loading torpedoes into the tubes like it's a 1940s U-boat or something.
Vernor Vinge's "Marooned in Realtime" has some very interesting space battles, based around the single conceit of "bobbles": impenetrable force shields which essentially separate their contents from the universe (and from time) for a pre-selected length of time. Space battles then become a tricky game of trying to catch your opponent when he's un-bobbled, while at the same time avoiding the bobbled nukes and other weapons he has strewn around when you were last bobbled.
- Angostura 14y agoNot to mention how the oposing force's crafts are always orientated in the same plane. Very rarely do you get someone attacking from 'above' I've never seen the Enterprise upside down, as ~I recall.
- InclinedPlane 14y agoGenerally, yes, though there are a few exceptions. Here's a good example from the series finale of The Next Generation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UspfD7SW5Ns http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UspfD7SW5Ns
- mwill 14y agoThis idea made me fall in love with Enders Game. I'm interested to see how they handle it in the movie.
- yummyfajitas 14y agoIf I recall right, Kirk maneuvered vertically in the Wrath of Khan. A quick google search points out Spock saying, "His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking."
- jacques_chester 14y agoIt gets worse. Apparently the photon torpedoes are 60 megaton antimatter warheads. You wouldn't want to be within 20,000kms of such a beast going off, let alone a few hundred metres apart. And pity whatever poor sucker is on the planet below.
- danielweber 14y agoLots of Star Trek is silly. The ship battles were often weird, and their small-unit tactics were simply laughable. I don't try to rag on it too much for that, though. I just view it as a stepping stone for better space drama.