Why are Star Trek ships so skinny and sucky looking compared to Star Wars ships?

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zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
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I'll concede that, minus the awful prequel trilogy and Lucas' douchey revisionism, Star Wars > Star Trek; at least from a coolness standpoint.

Factor in the prequels and the revisionism and it quickly becomes a draw.

what "pre-quels?"

:hmm:
 

davmat787

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2010
5,512
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I see your ships and raise you ALL OF THEM!

Wow, 1 pixel = 10 meters? Someone really put a ton of time into this, impressive.

Am I the last person on the internet to have not seen all the Star Wars movies? The last Star Trek movie I saw was probably Star Trev 3 or 4, whatever was playing in the 80's. Seriously.

And its not because I think they are just for nerds or that I am too cool for them, I don't buy that BS thinking either.
 
Mar 10, 2005
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cruddy???

just look at this thing

agamemnon-mix.jpg



It's a thing of beauty.

it's just a scaled-up version of the stick-style spaceship with a rotating middle section. i know what i'm shooting at :biggrin:

and speaking of shooting, every damn show says "we want to immobilize them, target their engines!"

first, who's to say where the engines are? if i were building a spaceship, i'd put the engine in the middle for maximum protection. second, if you blasted the engine of anything, you'd be releasing a shitton of energy, almost certainly vaporizing the entire ship.maybe targeting the propulsion (thrusters on the ass end, for example) would cripple them, like blowing off the rudders and props on a ship.

don't even get me started on magical sensors that can see through anything.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
111,125
30,076
146
Exactly.

+"What novels?"

+"What comics?"

+"What CGI TV show?"

+...

well, most of those are garbage, too, if you ask me.

However, I really, really, really liked the Dark Horse mini series comics--what were those? Dark Forces or something? The one where Luke joins the emperor and controls all those World Devestators and then kills all of the Emperor's clones...
 

Fritzo

Lifer
Jan 3, 2001
41,908
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The actual reason is Star Trek had some technology theory behind it, so they made the ship shapes match the technology that they made up.

Star Wars went with "what ever looks good, who cares how it works."
 

Locut0s

Lifer
Nov 28, 2001
22,205
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well, most of those are garbage, too, if you ask me.

However, I really, really, really liked the Dark Horse mini series comics--what were those? Dark Forces or something? The one where Luke joins the emperor and controls all those World Devestators and then kills all of the Emperor's clones...


What is it about star wars that you like? It seems so much more juvenile than Star Trek, not that Trek is "deep" usually but they certainly have some very good episodes.
 

guyver01

Lifer
Sep 25, 2000
22,135
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well, most of those are garbage, too, if you ask me.

However, I really, really, really liked the Dark Horse mini series comics--what were those? Dark Forces or something? The one where Luke joins the emperor and controls all those World Devestators and then kills all of the Emperor's clones...

Heir to the Empire
Dark Force Rising
The Last Command

also known as The Thrawn Trilogy... the "unofficial 7,8,9" in the Star Wars series, according to Lucas.
 

SithSolo1

Diamond Member
Mar 19, 2001
7,740
11
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So what does Star Wars have that's better than V'Ger or the Whale Probe? Nada.

Oh and that dumb ass midi-chlorians. Sounds like a synthesizer.

As far as the Jedi and the Sith, they're doing my yard work, and the Q are making sammiches.

Hayabusa Rider aka Gary Mitchell :awe:

I'm pretty sure they have these two things called Freakin' Death Stars.

Death Star - 160Km across at the center

Death Star II - 900Km across at the center
 

SithSolo1

Diamond Member
Mar 19, 2001
7,740
11
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Heir to the Empire
Dark Force Rising
The Last Command

also known as The Thrawn Trilogy... the "unofficial 7,8,9" in the Star Wars series, according to Lucas.

Great series, I've got the original hardback set I found at a flea market.
 

mmntech

Lifer
Sep 20, 2007
17,501
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The Emperor had a small peener and needed to compensate? That's pretty much it. Bigger was seen as more intimidating. Star Trek ships are geared more for exploration afaik. They don't need big ships. The Sovereign class were pretty big though. A little bit smaller than Victory Class Star Destroyers.
 

Hayabusa Rider

Admin Emeritus & Elite Member
Jan 26, 2000
50,879
4,266
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I'm pretty sure they have these two things called Freakin' Death Stars.

Death Star - 160Km across at the center

Death Star II - 900Km across at the center

Sure they were big, but wimpy. Think about the Hindenburg going up in flames because of a mosquito bite. Pretty much the same by comparison. Some stupid ass engineering right there.
 

manimal

Lifer
Mar 30, 2007
13,559
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telepaths, not telekinetics. that was 1 dude only in 1 ep of B5 (iirc)



true but I can see after Talia dies and her body gets turned over to Bester the genetic engineering that ensues would be interesting...



If the telepaths can turn the tide over the shadows imagine what they could do to a few jedi.....
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
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Sure they were big, but wimpy. Think about the Hindenburg going up in flames because of a mosquito bite. Pretty much the same by comparison. Some stupid ass engineering right there.

Not to mention you'd pretty much have to exact all the metal of a planet to build one. And it'd take decades. And by the time you completed it, 3/4th of it would be powered by obsolete technologies, power generators, computers, elevators/lifts, etc. They'd also run into command and control problems. In any emergency, the entire Death Star would go into communication paralysis. To my knowledge, they didn't Karan S’jet implanted as Fleet Command.

Building super large ships isn't really cost effective. The Federation learned this in the late 24th century, and more recent designs of ships have all been smaller. Quicker to build, easier to crew, easier to replace if necessary, and harder for the enemy to destroy.
 

MentalIlness

Platinum Member
Nov 22, 2009
2,383
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This. When each photon torpedo can destroy large cities, the "armor" on your ship hardly matters.

Star Wars ships are bulky because they are shitty and inefficient. Star Trek ships are sleek and slim because they actually have technology beyond "LOL LAZERBEAM PEWPEW." I doubt the entire death star computer system could handle a single transport beam calculation.

Ahahahahaha, I want to thank you for this. I have laughed ever since I first read this post, and I still am...:biggrin::biggrin:

This IS sig worthy. LOL
 

Hayabusa Rider

Admin Emeritus & Elite Member
Jan 26, 2000
50,879
4,266
126
Not to mention you'd pretty much have to exact all the metal of a planet to build one. And it'd take decades. And by the time you completed it, 3/4th of it would be powered by obsolete technologies, power generators, computers, elevators/lifts, etc. They'd also run into command and control problems. In any emergency, the entire Death Star would go into communication paralysis. To my knowledge, they didn't Karan S’jet implanted as Fleet Command.

Building super large ships isn't really cost effective. The Federation learned this in the late 24th century, and more recent designs of ships have all been smaller. Quicker to build, easier to crew, easier to replace if necessary, and harder for the enemy to destroy.

I've pondered the possibilities of real ships that can travel FTL. My conclusion is that it may be forever beyond our human ability but not impossible altogether. The analogy I make is a dog riding in a car. It can travel at greater velocity than it ever could on it's own. The solution of course is for dogs to build their own cars. The problem is that intellectually the task is eternally beyond them. They can dig around it, they can smell it and the like, but construct such a thing? Nope.

Likewise it may be that it is our intellectual capacity limits us to "sniffing" the universe, unable to understand the principles which would allow us to circumvent our territorial pissing we call Relativity.

Naturally there is no way I can know if I'm right unless we accomplish it in my lifetime, but if my idle musings are correct it's impossible to validate or disprove. It would be an unprovable truth.
 

MentalIlness

Platinum Member
Nov 22, 2009
2,383
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Xenogears planet is located in galaxy NGC 6744 30 million lightyears from out galaxy. Original humans traveled that far FROM our Earth. Star Trek can't even fly across a galaxy in 100 years at warp 9 let alone to another galaxy. :D

Space Displacement Mode > Warp.

Maybe I should mention in the Episode....Where Noone Has Gone Before "TNG" That the Traveler hurled the Enterprise D over 1 billion light years from their own galaxy. :whiste:

The Traveler --------------------------------------------------------------------->Space Displacement Mode > Warp

When Xenogears can go another 970 million light years farther, come see me.

Next ?
 

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
20,479
3,597
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Star Wars has always seemed a bit out of scale to me. Giant star ships that can travel faster than light have to get about 2 feet from the enemy ship to fire a broadside with their manually aimed weapons?

Also - they keep fighting close enough to planets/'moons' that if their ship gets hit in the bridge it will crash and be destroyed in a surprisingly short period of time

Not to mention the poor quality of engineers the Empire seems to have. They may build them big but they sure don't build them to last :p

Not that I don't love SW anyway
 

Raduque

Lifer
Aug 22, 2004
13,140
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death star.

IIRC, V'Ger's cloud was AUs in diameter. That's MULTIPLES of the distance from the Earth to the Sun.

Anything capable of generating that much power makes whatever powers the Death Stars look like a match in comparison.

Don't forget the whale probe was able to shut down electronic devices simply by being in proximity to them, and is able to vaporize oceans by transmitting an audio signal.
 

SithSolo1

Diamond Member
Mar 19, 2001
7,740
11
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I like the Homeworld refernce, great game.

You are completely right about the massive time to complete and resources needed but I pretty much assume we were treating these(collective ST/SW/Other) as pre-built. Also when you control an entire galaxy resource amounts and costs are a non-issue.

What happens to communication in the "Star Trek Universe" when the home worlds of each faction are destroyed? I'm pretty sure the Federation would have a communications break down if the people of Earth all cried out at once and were suddenly silenced. ;) Of the ST factions I give the Borg/Species 8472 the best shot.

Keep in mind that SW took place "a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away" and ST is based on our reality and won't happen for another 3-400 years. Assuming that the SW galaxy didn't collapse and all sense of innovation was not lost they've had plenty of time to improve the tech.

That said, afaik, neither fiction has figured out a way to leave their respective galaxy so the whole issue is pretty much moot. I enjoy both ST and SW equally but for difference reasons. I like the logical attitude of ST and I enjoy SW for the whimsical, "lets think of the coolest sh*t thats not remotely possible and lets do it" stuff.

Oh, and HAN SHOT FIRST!


IIRC, V'Ger's cloud was AUs in diameter. That's MULTIPLES of the distance from the Earth to the Sun.

Anything capable of generating that much power makes whatever powers the Death Stars look like a match in comparison.

Don't forget the whale probe was able to shut down electronic devices simply by being in proximity to them, and is able to vaporize oceans by transmitting an audio signal.

Uh if you want to get technical about it, the cannon is 2 AUs, thats the diameter of the earths orbit. V'ger was putting out power "greater than 1000 starships". The power output of the Enterprise D is stated as being 12.75 billion Gigawatts. I'm going to assume that the Enterprise D is more powerful than any ship in the Federation at the time of the V'ger encounter. The Death Star II generator was equal to the output of seven stars main-sequence stars. Our sun happens to fall into that catagory. Its assumed power output is 386 billion billion Megawatts. Now I suck at math but I'm pretty sure that the Death Star would have a higher theoretical output than 1000 V'gers.

And the whale probe? It vaporized water with an energy wave. I can do that in the microwave. The Death Star vaporized an entire planet.

Like many have said, the SW universe is blown so far out of reality that ST flat out can't win simply because it tries to stick with known rules. Honestly Q could wipe everything out but I think he'd have to much fun watching the battle unfold.
 
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exdeath

Lifer
Jan 29, 2004
13,679
10
81
Maybe I should mention in the Episode....Where Noone Has Gone Before "TNG" That the Traveler hurled the Enterprise D over 1 billion light years from their own galaxy. :whiste:

The Traveler --------------------------------------------------------------------->Space Displacement Mode > Warp

When Xenogears can go another 970 million light years farther, come see me.

Next ?

I don't know what the maximum the Eldridge can travel is, suffice to say it's established that it can travel between galaxies under it's own power if Deus is able to begin a space displacement from the galaxy NGC 6744 to Earth in the Milky Way. If it can travel 30 million lightyears through an intergalactic void without issue, it's conceiveable that another 970 million wouldn't be a problem.

The Enterprise can't even cross half it's own galaxy in 70 years if it isn't assisted involuntarily (eg: kicked around like a bitch) by an outside force beyond their comprehension.

:D

Also Xenosaga has the UMN (http://xenosaga.wikia.com/wiki/U.M.N.) which is basically a hyperspace highway that spans the universe. While Xenosaga and Xenogears are not related, the time period of the human race in which Xenosaga takes place would be the time of the Eldridge and Deus (Episode 1 - The Cosmic War Era which spans the genesis of humans on Earth, the discovery of Zohar in Africa in the 21st century, 7000 years of human colonization of exploration of space, and the creation of Deus).
 
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tommo123

Platinum Member
Sep 25, 2005
2,617
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true but I can see after Talia dies and her body gets turned over to Bester the genetic engineering that ensues would be interesting...



If the telepaths can turn the tide over the shadows imagine what they could do to a few jedi.....

true. B5 was great. even the 1st season was enjoyable once you knew what little things were being foreshadowed.

wish they could remaster the things and redo the sfx like in the early trek movies or something though :(