Star Wars Insider (DVD Companion Issue)

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2004-09-21 02:12pm

OK, Best Buy gives you this for free when you buy the trilogy DVDs as I did today. I'm flipping through it casually and I see this entry:

Imperial Stardestroyer - The Star Destroyer is both a deep space combat vessel and a transport. Two Giant deflector shield generators atop the bridge protect the vessel from all but the most powerful capital ship weapons

Home 1 is described as the"Headquarters frigate"

These are just casual things I picked up while reading through it. Kind of annoying that even now these errors are still creeping in to a companion magazine to the trilogy.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-09-21 02:52pm

Old stuff, I doubt they did any real work into doing that article. (Of course, we could always use the old USN designation system where a frigate was a cruiser on a destroyer hull

)

PainRack · Post by **PainRack** » 2004-09-22 01:52pm

Or use the btech variant, where a frigate is superior to a destroyer.

(P.S In btech, a frigate role is the workhorse of the warship navy, and to escort jumpship convoys, the equivalent of its aquatic role. A destroyer however, role is to destroy jumpship and dropships, fulfilling its WW1 role of destroying small torpedo boats and other vessels. So, a frigate is often larger and more powerful than a destroyer, although the importance of role as opposed to mass means that there are frigates that are smaller than destroyers.)

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-09-22 02:51pm

A cruiser on a destroyer hull (DL) would presumably be more powerful than a bog-standard destroyer (DD)

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2004-09-25 03:19am

Yeah, after I returned my Wal-Mart copies I went to Best Buy just to get the mag with my replacements. Pretty fluffy, but free is free!

Btw, not related to the mag, but the ROTJ dvd commentary, they talk about the "chicken walker" (AT-ST) being a "patrol vehicle."

Q: Why did the geek wear the Darth Vader condom?
A: He wanted to get Star Wars Insider!

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-09-25 03:20am

Well, that's sort of what it was.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2004-09-25 03:28am

Agreed. I'm not saying it was a contradiction, just interesting.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2004-09-25 03:40am

How is that interesting? That's pretty much always what it's been refered to being.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2004-09-25 05:10am

I'd never heard it before (I by no means claim to be the foremost authority on all the background info of course). It was always "a scouting vehicle" or "troop transport" or (called derisively by people like Darkstar) a "combat vehicle."

But a patrol vehicle? Subtle difference between "scout vehicle" and "patroling vehicle" but definately interesting to me.

Tychu · Post by **Tychu** » 2004-09-26 01:33am

I think there calling it a Patrol Walker for this reason. The DVD companion is a book of the original trilogy, where it now has directors commentary. I havent watched all of ROTJ with DC, but i remember in i think the Rogue Squadron manual for N64 or some Insider that the AT-PT's were suppose to be in the movies back in the day. models were made, but they never appeard in the movie. the AT-PT's were considerd Patrol transports (PT) I just think that since GL couldnt get the AT-PT's in he just gave the AT-ST's (scout transports.. or whatever) another job.

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2004-09-26 01:36am

So the magazine is totally worthless? I was almost about to go back to Best Buy and get my copy, which the clerk forgot to give me...

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2004-09-26 01:50am

It's fluff, but what did you expect? It's a free magazine. There's no startling new revelations in it, just some fandom, and a nice introduction if you hadn't seen the movies in 20 years (or at all) and wondered what they were about.

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2004-09-26 01:52am

Kurgan wrote:It's fluff, but what did you expect? It's a free magazine. There's no startling new revelations in it, just some fandom, and a nice introduction if you hadn't seen the movies in 20 years (or at all) and wondered what they were about.

Good, because I'm one to agonize about passing up free stuff. It's rather silly, but I'm relieved.

Kurgan · Post by **Kurgan** » 2004-09-26 01:55am

Tychu wrote:I think there calling it a Patrol Walker for this reason. The DVD companion is a book of the original trilogy, where it now has directors commentary. I havent watched all of ROTJ with DC, but i remember in i think the Rogue Squadron manual for N64 or some Insider that the AT-PT's were suppose to be in the movies back in the day. models were made, but they never appeard in the movie. the AT-PT's were considerd Patrol transports (PT) I just think that since GL couldnt get the AT-PT's in he just gave the AT-ST's (scout transports.. or whatever) another job.

Interesting. If anything the "scout transports" would seem to be the Speeder bikes.

Of course the name itself might not mean what we think it means. "Transport" to me envisions a vehicle that hauls troops around. But how many troops could you realistically pack into an AT-ST? 4 or 5? Or maybe equipment. How much equipment could you pack into one of those things?

Or does it transport scouts? We could be talking "Transport" in the generic sense, that an automobile is a transport (and you usually can't fit more than 5 people in a car either, unless you're smuggling them across the border with no room to breath or something). "Scout" to mean implies that it does exploration and reconissanse, etc.

We see them leading the charge on Hoth and speculation is that they were all destroyed by battle's end. Against infantry it would be a great weapon (and it was in the battle of Endor), but for transporting troops the AT-AT seems much better. Anyway, we could go on and on but I know it's been discussed a million times. A light patrol vehicle would make sense, and if you need to drop off a few troops somewhere while you're out on patrol, that makes sense too (like the SW equivalent of a jeep with a machine gun on the back). If you need a sentry vehicle, etc.

I know what you mean about the free stuff. ; ) I was at least curious, so I picked it up. It's sort of like the "interactual dvd-rom content" of the trilogy. On the one hand I hate it when they make the excuse of leaving stuff off to put it online. I prefer to have all the content on the disc itself, accessible through a regular dvd player, though on the other hand I understand it would be cool to expand on it for the future; but that means it may not last forever and it forces you to waste time online. Soooo when I discovered that all the content (so far) is basically just links to Starwars.com and the databank, and a measly cast & crew list like you'd see at IMDB, I didn't feel like I was missing much.