Battlestar Galactica

[viper37]

The Minbari didn't have to close to fight, and they didn't do so.  Earthforce ships had to, because their weapons were particle weapons and thus could be intercepted if the range was long enough (though in cases where the target had no interceptors, the show rightly had engagements occur at much longer ranges).  There is no doubt, though, that ships were shown closer than pure physics would necessitate, in order to make the shots look better.

The Minbari had small fighters too.

Actually, the BG battles weren't particularly realistic, IMO.  Getting hit by nuclear weapons and shrugging them off made no sense to me.  The fighters behaved pretty much exactly like atmospheric fighters.

Consider Star Trek then, where they have proton&quantum torpedoes, much more powerful than nuclear weapons, yet they can resist it.

[viper37]

I can't remember that.
Didn't original BSG just have the ships go very very fast?

Only the Battlestar had an FTL drive, the fleet didn't.
And they used it for the episodes when they thought they found earth, wich was actually under some kind of military dictatorship.
Or maybe I'm wrong, and it was in the second season, when they landed on our Earth, thinking it was their Earth.

Oh what a great show that was... or maybe not

[Neil]

???

Light is still faster than a projectile travelling at relativistic speeds and if we are positing a future without such esoteric items as shields, then the projectile would have to be pretty large and solid lest it be destroyed by contact with a small particle. Science Fiction portrays such projectiles as a threat because planets are stationary targets, and such projectiles would be almost impossible to intercept. A habitat could see it and move.

I quite like the idea of creating biospheres inside hollowed out asteroids, but the effort involved is truly frightening.

How do you detect the oncoming projectile?

[Agelastus]

How do you detect the oncoming projectile?

Allowing for redshift issues (I think that's the right end of the Spectrum) and the complete lack of atmospheric effects, stellar occlusion would seem to work for an optical based system.

Alternatively, one deploys a (very large and very expensive) shell of radar installations linked back to the vulnerable habitat by laser based communication. I doubt a relativistic projectile would be capable of altering course, so not much movement would be required. I would imagine that the evasion would have to be automatic though, rather than let humans make the decisions (I doubt humans would have time to do so.)

That's two ways I can come up with in sixty seconds. I am sure there are more.

[Agelastus]

I can't remember that.
Didn't original BSG just have the ships go very very fast?

Only the Battlestar had an FTL drive, the fleet didn't.
And they used it for the episodes when they thought they found earth, wich was actually under some kind of military dictatorship.
Or maybe I'm wrong, and it was in the second season, when they landed on our Earth, thinking it was their Earth.

Oh what a great show that was... or maybe not

By inference, they had a realspace FTL drive on all the ships of the fleet (episodes speak of crossing to a new Galaxy, even, but the effects suggest they passed through a large and dense dust cloud.) Visual evidence from the first five episodes (the movie and the "Lost Planet of the Gods" episodes) indicate that they had crossed an interstellar distance in a period of a few months at most, more likely a few weeks.)

On screen evidence has the Galactica going to "Light Speed" in the episode "Experiment in Terra". Given the impossibility of doing this, one must curse the loose terminology of a series that strongly implied that one man fighters were equipped with a drive capable of maintaining FTL speeds.

Of course, that's where a lot of the nonsense on boards about fighters engaging in FTL combat comes from.

[Neil]

How do you detect the oncoming projectile?

Allowing for redshift issues (I think that's the right end of the Spectrum) and the complete lack of atmospheric effects, stellar occlusion would seem to work for an optical based system.

Alternatively, one deploys a (very large and very expensive) shell of radar installations linked back to the vulnerable habitat by laser based communication. I doubt a relativistic projectile would be capable of altering course, so not much movement would be required. I would imagine that the evasion would have to be automatic though, rather than let humans make the decisions (I doubt humans would have time to do so.)

That's two ways I can come up with in sixty seconds. I am sure there are more.

It's a big ass sky.  Direct observation is impossible.

As for movement, the feasibility depends on the size of the habitat.

[Queequeg]

Going through the Second Season before school starts over here in Turkey.  Pegasus was one of the finest hours of television I've ever seen.  Really, really well done.  Oh and, I Michelle Forbes. 

[grumbler]

Going through the Second Season before school starts over here in Turkey.  Pegasus was one of the finest hours of television I've ever seen.  Really, really well done.  Oh and, I Michelle Forbes.

That little triology of episodes starting with the arrival of the Pegasus is the best three-episode run in SF (or any other) TV history, IMO; better even than the B5 one that won the Hugo Award.

[Neil]

Going through the Second Season before school starts over here in Turkey.  Pegasus was one of the finest hours of television I've ever seen.  Really, really well done.  Oh and, I Michelle Forbes.

That little triology of episodes starting with the arrival of the Pegasus is the best three-episode run in SF (or any other) TV history, IMO; better even than the B5 one that won the Hugo Award.

Lloyd Bridges was pretty cool, but I don't know if I'd go that far.

[Agelastus]

Going through the Second Season before school starts over here in Turkey.  Pegasus was one of the finest hours of television I've ever seen.  Really, really well done.  Oh and, I Michelle Forbes.

That little triology of episodes starting with the arrival of the Pegasus is the best three-episode run in SF (or any other) TV history, IMO; better even than the B5 one that won the Hugo Award.

Lloyd Bridges was pretty cool, but I don't know if I'd go that far.

Regardless, what nBSG did to the character of Cain was a crime.

It is interesting though that the best episodes of both the new and the old series revolved around the Pegasus.

[garbon]

Regardless, what nBSG did to the character of Cain was a crime.

Lesbians are great.

[Grallon]

Regardless, what nBSG did to the character of Cain was a crime.

The crime being taking a cardboard character and fleshing it out you mean? 

*cue for Neil's usual meaningless cant about Starbuck*



G.

[Queequeg]

Lesbians are great.

Wanting to fuck Tricia Helfer is the sign of having a pulse, rather than being a lesbian.  And the idea of the two going at it in hot lesbian-woman-on-sexbot action makes my lobido want to produce a Big Bang of its own. 

The music on this series is near-perfect.  The #6 theme is awesome.

[garbon]

Wanting to fuck Tricia Helfer is the sign of having a pulse, rather than being a lesbian.  And the idea of the two going at it in hot lesbian-woman-on-sexbot action makes my lobido want to produce a Big Bang of its own. 

I don't really need to hear about how you and Kanye would do anything for a blonde dyke, thx.

[Queequeg]

Wanting to fuck Tricia Helfer is the sign of having a pulse, rather than being a lesbian.  And the idea of the two going at it in hot lesbian-woman-on-sexbot action makes my lobido want to produce a Big Bang of its own. 

I don't really need to hear about how you and Kanye would do anything for a blonde dyke, thx.

Genius.