posted
So I just got back from the San Diego Comic Convention, and I have to do a bunch of work today, but I wanted to briefly report on an amazing panel I saw while down there. The title of this panel was: "Starship Smackdown: Battleship!" and the idea was to compare starships from across the worlds of science fiction, debate them and decide who would win.
The panelists were Steve Melching (The Mummy Returns), Robert Meyer Burnett(Free Enterprise), Dan Vebber (Furturama), Sean Le Fleur (Whose credits I didn't catch, but I think included some writing for The Onion), Daren Dochterman (Talk Trek), and the proceeedings were ably moderated by Mark Altman (Free Enterprise). (I should note that Mojo was supposed to be there too, (which was a big part of the reason I wanted to go) but was inexplicably absent.) The format was One-on-one elimination championship with 16 pre-selected starships from across the science fiction landscape. After some discussion of the various strengths and weaknesses the jury would then vote to decide who would be victorious and move on to the next round. The Starships selected were:
The Cygnus (from The Black Hole) aCylon Basestar (from Battlestar Galactica) The Sulaco (from Aliens) The Executor Super Star Destroyer (from The Empire Strikes Back) a City Ship (from Independence Day) Kirk's 1701 Enterprise (from Star Trek (TOS)) The Mother Ship (from Close Encounters Of The Third Kind) The Jupiter 2 (from Lost In Space(TV)) An Eagle Transport (from Space 1999) The Discovery 1 (from 2001: A Space Odessey) Salvage 1 (the scrapyard ship constructed by Andy Griffith from 1979's understandably shortlived Salvage) The Galactica (from Battlestar Galactica) that first Star Destroyer (from Star Wars) The Spaceship of the Imagination (from Carl Sagan's belovedCosmos) Picard's 1701-D Enterprise (from Star Trek: The Next Generation) a Visitor Mothership (from the miniseries V)
I'm afraid I didn't keep notes (or videotape it (which would have been brilliant)) and so I don't remember the exact pairings. It made for quite a funny and lively discussion amongst the panel and audience. I will post who wound up winning in San Diego, but I thought it might be fun to discuss a little here...
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I don't know about a third of those ships, but out of the ones I know, the Executor wins any straight-up battle, hands down.
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Amasov Prime
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Don't forget that a single A-Wing was able to take down the vessel. If you know the vulnerable spot - the shielding - you should be able to take her out with most of those ships. I really like that ship, but ROTJ makes it look like a dumbass-construction.
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Well, based on the credentials of the various members, I'm sure it would have made for a very lively and funny discussion. In the end, thats all the best we can hope for, afterall, most of these ships don't even exist in the same universe, let alone follow the same rules of physics as each other. Arguing about whose ship has the bigger and badder death ray, will be as valid proof scientifically, as taking the various plastic ship models, throwing them at each other from across a room, and seeing which ones breaks the least.
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I was kind of hoping they'd have models of all the various ships in the same scale for demonstration purposes. But I think the ID4 city ships are supposed to be like 15 mi. across, and probably would have dwarfed the others (except maybe the Executor). Incidentally the Executor did not make it past the first round. If I remember correctly, the argument was made that the Spaceship of the Imagination was able to survive a close range super-nova while it only took a single out of control A-Wing to nix that Super Star Destroyer...
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
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To say nothing of the Cygnus (AND the Palomino) surviving passage through a black hole.
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posted
And on the weird science channel, Picard's Enterprise did enter an anti-time anomaly. How does that fare scientifically against a supernova or a black hole?
You might also note that the Enterprise's cousin, Voyager survived passage both into AND out of a black hole, whatever that means. Enjoy
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
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I'd like to see those Visitor and Independence Day behemoths slug it out... preferably over a large city. Maybe throw in an Executor or two to serve as cannon fodder -- total carnage guaranteed.
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To say nothing of the Cygnus (AND the Palomino) surviving passage through a black hole.
Ummm...no. The Cygnus blew away the Palomino when Ernest Borgnine's character tried to use her to escape. And the Cygnus herself never made it into the black hole in one piece; after being damaged by the meteor shower, she was torn to pieces by the tidal forces before she ever entered the hole. It was only her scout ship that made it all the way through.
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Ugh... I hate it when people start debating cross-series starship matches. Mainly because they invariably degenerate into something like "Oh yeah? Well, mine's BIGGER!" It's basically a way for fanboys to figure out who has the biggest penis. (I can NOT believe that I just typed that.)
Yeah, there are a few pairings that I've occasionally speculated about. (One not mentioned here is Shadow ships from B5 attacking Borg Cubes. How cool would that look?) But the endemic problem with cross-series comparisons is that most of them operate on wholly different scientific principles. "Star Wars" ships apparently use fusion reactors to power even those gigantic Star Destroyers, while "Star Trek" has harnessed antimatter and even quantum singularities. The fact is that there's not nearly enough information to determine just which ship has the most power since the engineering and scientific principles behind the technology are TOTALLY MADE UP!
Anyway, someone above asked about size comparisons. I don't have all of those series, but I compiled my own size comparison (mainly Trek, B5, and Star Wars) a year or so ago. I recently also found another comparison image that someone posted.
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posted
Don't forget that a single A-Wing was able to take down the vessel.
...it only took a single out of control A-Wing to nix that Super Star Destroyer...
AAGGGHHHHH!!!!
"All ships, concentrate your fire on that Super-Star Destroyer!"
The ENTIRE FRIKIN' REBEL FLEET was shooting at the thing for quite a while, not just one A-Wing!
"Star Wars" ships apparently use fusion reactors to power even those gigantic Star Destroyers
Nope. It may be CALLED "fusion" in a couple books, but to generate the energy we see examples of, it'd have to be orders of magnitude beyond nuclear fusion in any form. The DS, for example, runs off of something called hypermatter, and generates more power than would the m/am annhilation of a good fraction of the station.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
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Amasov Prime
lensfare-induced epileptic shock
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quote:Originally posted by Omega: Don't forget that a single A-Wing was able to take down the vessel.
...it only took a single out of control A-Wing to nix that Super Star Destroyer...
AAGGGHHHHH!!!!
"All ships, concentrate your fire on that Super-Star Destroyer!"
The ENTIRE FRIKIN' REBEL FLEET was shooting at the thing for quite a while, not just one A-Wing!
"Star Wars" ships apparently use fusion reactors to power even those gigantic Star Destroyers
Nope. It may be CALLED "fusion" in a couple books, but to generate the energy we see examples of, it'd have to be orders of magnitude beyond nuclear fusion in any form. The DS, for example, runs off of something called hypermatter, and generates more power than would the m/am annhilation of a good fraction of the station.
But the ship didn't appear to be havily damaged, it looked absolutely intact when the A-Wing hit it.
*looks at the pictures and remembers all those 'the B5-ships are totally oversized'-debates* - I thought the Whitestar was ~450 meters long. And you know that the term 'a 5 miles long space station' is controversial, too.
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quote:Originally posted by MinutiaeMan: Ugh... I hate it when people start debating cross-series starship matches. Mainly because they invariably degenerate into something like "Oh yeah? Well, mine's BIGGER!" It's basically a way for fanboys to figure out who has the biggest penis. (I can NOT believe that I just typed that.)
Well the panel was pretty light-hearted. I don't know if you've ever heard Daren Dochterman do his impressions of Picard, Scotty and Kirk but they were REALLY funny. So, I could see where people trying to analyze this seriously wouldn't get anywhere, but it can be pretty fun if you try to keep it light. Case in point:
I believe it was brought up that since Lucas wasn't able to kill imagination until the release of Episodes I and II, the Spaceship of the Imagination (note: powered not by 'hypermatter-fusion' or anything so pseudo-technical, but by the imagination) would be victorious.
-------------------- "Nah. The 9th chevron is for changing the ringtone from "grindy-grindy chonk-chonk" to the theme tune to dallas." -Reverend42
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posted
Sorry, Balaam. If everyone involved tries to keep a proper perspective in the discussion, I can certainly believe that it'd be lighthearted and fun.
Unfortunately, I've recently discovered that there are many fanboys out there who take things entirely too far. I won't go into more detail, except to say that it was "Wars vs. Trek."
Kyle Amasov: The B5 ship lengths that I got were from the most exhaustive ship length analysis that I could find at the time. It was still a fan analysis, though, based mainly on screencaps. Since then, I found a link to some "definitive" size charts that were used by CGI editor Tim Earls. http://warlock.isnnews.net/resources/sizecharts/
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Amasov Prime
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quote:Originally posted by MinutiaeMan: Kyle Amasov: The B5 ship lengths that I got were from the most exhaustive ship length analysis that I could find at the time. It was still a fan analysis, though, based mainly on screencaps. Since then, I found a link to some "definitive" size charts that were used by CGI editor Tim Earls. http://warlock.isnnews.net/resources/sizecharts/
Yes, I've seen those some time ago. I thought the incorrect info might come from www.b5tech.com , but they have the same scales.
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Maybe throw in an Executor or two to serve as cannon fodder -- total carnage guaranteed.
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