This is topic Help identify a space ship in forum General Sci-Fi at Flare Sci-Fi Forums.


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Posted by CitizenX (Member # 1261) on :
 
Does anyone recognize which sci-fi movie or series this space ship is from


 

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Posted by Warped1701 (Member # 40) on :
 
Yeah, that's the USS Saratoga from Space: Above and Beyond. Damn shame they cancelled that show.
 

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Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
 
At the risk of sounding just plain silly, I'm going to suggest that this has little or nothing to do with Star Trek. Some movement seems in order, perhaps.
 

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Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
 
Here's a decent model of it, and the other things from the show.
http://www.acme360models.com/mycustompage0002.htm

If anyone has any better links with CGI-renders, please let me know.
I used to have a big blue print schematic, showing the Saratoga and all the small-craft.

I heard they made all the visual effects on LightWave. Man, if they'd still been operating, what cool it might've been...
In an interview with the VFX-studio, Area51, they said they'd just gotten the hang of doing nice ship effects and planet renders when Fox cancelled it. *sigh*
 

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Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
 




Yeah, how cool it might have been...
 

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Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
 
Wow, that guy Nuckel had some more S:AaB-shots on his page! And a gorgeous pic of the SDF-One from Macross.

This I found just now.
http://www.web-worthy.com/saab/behind-hammer.html
 

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Posted by CitizenX (Member # 1261) on :
 
Thanks guys, knew I've seen that ship somewhere before...
 

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Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
 
Augh, I can't stand that ship! It's built with almost no functionality whatsoever, ALL the weapons are on the top side, and it has a huge "hit me!" bridge sticking out of the top. Sure, it was meant to visually cross a battleship with a Star Destroyer, but in my mind it just doesn't work. Yarr!

Nice fighters though. They didn't make much more sense, but at least they looked purdy. Ditto for the ISSCV.

Mark
 

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Posted by TheWoozle (Member # 929) on :
 
Being a carrier, it's not meant to get directly into a fight, making its weapon and bridge placement less essential.
 

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Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
 
A space-carrier designed with "Star Blazers" mentality.
(a big boat in space)
 

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Posted by Manticore (Member # 1227) on :
 
I have to agree with Mark here; this ship is completely boring; at least a Star Destroy had a few interesting lines; this is a flying brick with greebles all over it...
 

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Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
 


I don't know, it carries a certain authority with it.
It's the perfect platform for a Pacific War/Fighter Squadron style fiction series.
Besides, it looks more functional and naval than the Galactica, which resembles a pregnant dugong.
 

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Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
 
Does not. I know it's a matter of opinion, but I think that someone took the roof off a house and turned it upside down to make this ship.
 

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Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
 
Mr Nguyen (niong?): "ALL the weapons are on the top side"
And the hangers are on the belly of it. Just like an SD.

"it has a huge "hit me!" bridge sticking out of the top".
Well, I haven't seen that since last I looked at a wet-navy carrier...or an SD.

The thing is, the JFK class is built in modules, with easy replacement and upgrade options, as well as configuration. The theme is present in all earth ships of S:AaB; the Hammerheads with their detachable cockpits, the dropships with the container-hulls.
If you build effective, sometimes you have to capitalize on aesthetics.
 

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Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :
 
"this is a flying brick with greebles all over it..."

Spaceships should be flying bricks with greebles all over them, dammit. Me, I've always preferred the gritty, industrial, utilitarian, almost dystopian look of ships like the Omega-class destroyer, the ISD, the Sulaco, and the Saratoga that have every cubic inch of their hulls dedicated to functionality to the bright-shiny-and-smooth-as-a-baby's-bottom designs that riddle Trek but would be better at home in a gallery for modern art...
 

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Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
 
Actually, my last name is pronounced "new-ee-ehn" as one syllable.

Weapons: a SD has plenty of obscure weapons emplacements on its bottom side, which are seen firing in the movies. While the latest batch of Saratoga pics DOES show a couple of small gun turrets on the front that can point downwards, but that's too much of a blind spot for me.

Bridge: Well, common weak points. Doesn't stop me from considering the ship ugly IMO. I just don't like it.

Mark
 

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Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
 
That's fine by me.

Huh, so Nguyen is like saying "New Zealand" without the Z, the l and the d?
I once saw a chinese movie where they pronounced it Niong, is all.

I don't remember the Earth Ships in "The Fifth Element", the ones who tried to attack the growing ball of fury in the beginning. I seem to remember thinking the ships were interesting, but I've only seen the movie twice, and not in this century.
Does anyone have any screencaps of the earth battlecruisers in "Fifth Element"? I think they share some traits with the S:AaB-heritage, see.
 

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Posted by Manticore (Member # 1227) on :
 
Cartman, I love the Hyperion and the Warlock cruisers; functionality, if done well, looks good. Not done well, like that, it's just boring. It may be efficient, but it's boring as all heck.
 

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Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
 
That's why I hate the Hyperion and the Warlock cruisers.

Nothing like 70 meter long turretts tracking an enemy at molasses speed.
Even Starblazers made more sense.
 

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Posted by Ritten (Member # 417) on :
 
Nguyen said it was pronounced 'when'....

You Nguyen's need to get your story straight....

Thanks for the link to the site btw....
 

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Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
 
He's embarrased because it's really pronounced "gwen".
 

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Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
 
To be perfectly honest, the pronunciation of my last name depends on who you ask. Depending on the dialect, it can be "new-EE-ehn", or "new-EHN", or "nuh-GWEN", or "GWEN", or "nuh-WEN", or simply "WEN". I myself was taught to pronounce it "NEW-yen", and that's what I generally stick with.

Mark
 

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Posted by Ultra Magnus (Member # 239) on :
 
So Nnnh-Guy-En is right out?
 

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Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
 
Can I think of you as "Nygwen"?
Like "Penguin" but with a "N".
 

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Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
 
What about Gwen Stephani?
 

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Posted by Ultra Magnus (Member # 239) on :
 
What about her?

(Stefani)
 

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Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
 
A couple of notches higher than other trashy tramp courtney luv. But that's just common sense. And since I'm a swedish monarch I can't make political statements, apparently.
 

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Posted by Pensive's Wetness (Member # 1203) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Cartman:
"this is a flying brick with greebles all over it..."

Spaceships should be flying bricks with greebles all over them, dammit. Me, I've always preferred the gritty, industrial, utilitarian, almost dystopian look of ships like the Omega-class destroyer, the ISD, the Sulaco, and the Saratoga that have every cubic inch of their hulls dedicated to functionality to the bright-shiny-and-smooth-as-a-baby's-bottom designs that riddle Trek but would be better at home in a gallery for modern art...

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quote:

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Originally posted by Nim:
P.W: "those brick looking ships, had they have warp drive onboard...would be the equivelant to using a chainsaw to cut subspace, instead of the razor sharp knives that Star Trek ships use..."

Didn't stop the borg cubes nor the bloody Husnock, or that big Reman ship that's shaped like Zero-G barf.

The streamlining of human ships in Trek is for aesthetic reasons, the explanations for it are added after.
The way I was taught, warp drive formed a bubble around the object and decreased its weight relative to the surrounding environment to practically nil, then pushed the bubble forward.
What's inside the bubble doesn't matter, even if it's shaped like a big parachute.

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true...but it was in stript so it has to be real...sorta...
 

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Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
 
I know what you mean, Wet, it's ok.

Man, looking at the blueprints of the Saratoga (just a "Helium 3 Fusion engine" and two chemical rocket engines, btw), I have a fat crawing for creating a Iowa-class counterpart to the S:AaB Saratoga.

Oh yes, four 1.2GW Laser cannons, two fore/two aft, with a tower in the middle, same layout on the underside. Secondary armament, two 450MW turrets flanking each big turret, and the Kinetic bigass particle cannon in the spine, coaxial like the Imperial Eclipse class.

(Edit) Som'n like this.


 

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Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
 
The SAAB pilot supposedly established that you could only get around via wormholes that opened only perodically and every few years or something. The Tellus colony mission that whatshisface was on used such a wormhole and he wouldn't be able to get to his wife until several years hence. Then he joins the military and suddenly EVERYONE can go FTL at will, military and civilians.

SAAB was never praised for technical competancy, and it stretched to most level. I mean, really - they were supposedly marine pilots, but they were ALSO special forces, regular grunts, tunnel rats, or warship gunners depending on what episode you were watching. One of the earliest criticisms I heard about the show is that in reality you'd NEVER bother training a single person, even a special forces person, to do all THAT. Also, the size of their squadron was constantly in flux - soldiers would be added or subtracted as the circumstances warranted, usually with no explanation. Anyone remember Winslow? The 58th was just our heroes for the longest while, and then all of the sudden they had her there as if she were there the whole time...

Mark
 

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Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
 
*cough*starfleet awaymissions*burf*
 

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Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
 
Half-points, there. In any given away mission, there's the tactical officer, the science guy, the pilot, the redshirt, etc. In SAAB, *everyone* was an ace pilot, AND a combat hardened infantryman, AND the go-to gunnery crew, AND...

When you captured an alien bomber, would you assign your crack fighter crew to fly the thing? When you need infantry to hold an airfield, do you get the pilots to do it? The SAAB crew were pilots from the get-go, yet they were always doing infantry or naval or whatever jobs. Got me laughing at times, wondering what the gang's indispensible specialty woud be THAT week.

Mark
 

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Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
 
"When you captured an alien bomber, would you assign your crack fighter crew to fly the thing?"
Yes, they were the most qualified for it and though they were one of the better squadrons, they were by no means unexpendable.

When you need infantry to hold an airfield, do you get the pilots to do it?
They were just supposed to clear out the airborne threat and disable the airfield, they were counting on the real recon and invasion force to come right after them, but those forces were toasted in the very clever trap the chigs had sprung.

"The SAAB crew were pilots from the get-go"

No, they were marines, not airforce. Haven't you seen "Pensacola: Wings of Gold"?
Do the soldiers in that show seem like one-trick ponies to you? Little defenseless ducklings when out of their element (the cockpit)?

Look, I understand your point about the writing staff perhaps taking liberties, but you have to use the main characters for the plots you write.

I knew from the beginning of the show that these guys would cover many versatile roles in many different episodes, not just the same bloody "Airwolf"-battles every week, with stock-material enemy-explosions used over and over again.

All this time I haven't mentioned "suspend all disbelief", be glad for it.
 

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Posted by Ultra Magnus (Member # 239) on :
 
Were I to capture an Alien Bomber I would for sure send both Detective Del Spooner and The Fly to pilot it, with air support from Captain Lone Starr and Cousin Eddie. With Jazz stylings and an early death from Harry Connick Jr, how can it go wrong?
 

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Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
 
Well...as long as Harry Connick Jr dies, it's all good.
 

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Posted by Nim (Member # 205) on :
 
But he was scary as fuck in Copycat.
 

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Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
 
Was he?

I've may have exceeded my tolerance for Segourney Weaver movies for this lifetime.....
 

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