Star Wars Inconsistency

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

I think this whole discussion is moot. Let's take a look on the excerpts from The Computers of Star Trek - Lois Gresh and Robert Weinberg (which started this thread).

Remember the stirring space battle scene right after the Millenium Falcon escapes from the Death Star? The fast-paced episode whre Luke and Han destroy several attacking enemy fighters? We're looking at a level of technology not too different from Star Trek, so it's reasonable to suppose the attackers are flying at roughly impulse speed somewhere in the neighborhood of 75,000 kilometers per second. Their ray guns are firing some type of energy beam that travels at 300,000 kilometers per second. Yet Luke and Han are swinging their futuristic ack-ack gunswith human reflexes, using human eyes, squeezing the triggers with fingers that operate on millisecond, not nanosecond timescales. This fight, shown at aerial dogfight speeds, could never happen in outer space.

First, it said that because SW "is not too different" from SW, thus X-Wings's speed in ANH must be somewhere around 70,000 kps, and laser cannon's bolt must travel at 300,000 kps.

Second, it also implied that it's impossible for SW tech to perform those feats, since Luke and Han using "human reflexes, human eyes, and squeezing the triggers with fingers."

Third, the excerpts claimed that "The Universe of Star Wars is even less logical than the Universe of Star Trek."

So. What does it mean? Does it mean that SW fans carries burden of proof that X-Wings travels at 75,000 kps and laser bolts travel at 300,000 kps? And if X-Wings and laser bolts don't travel at such speed, then Star Wars technology must be "too different" from Star Trek tech, right?

In other word, those excerpts from The Computers of Star Trek imply that SW tech must be inferior to ST tech, right?


I think those excerpts only mean to discredit Star Wars tech. Let's take a look:

We're looking at a level of technology not too different from Star Trek, so it's reasonable to suppose the attackers are flying at roughly impulse speed somewhere in the neighborhood of 75,000 kilometers per second.

We've never ST ships maneuvers in combat at 75,000 kps. Not in a single episode.

Their ray guns are firing some type of energy beam that travels at 300,000 kilometers per second.

Neither it happens on Star Trek. Mention a single episode when we see phaser beam travels on such speed. Anyone?

Yet Luke and Han are swinging their futuristic ack-ack gunswith human reflexes, using human eyes, squeezing the triggers with fingers that operate on millisecond, not nanosecond timescales.

And in Star Trek space combat, the captain is barking orders to the weapon officer, which in turn frantically entering those orders into his/her consloe via keyboard. Star Trek combat doesn't have nanosecond timescales either. Again, I challenge the writers of "The Computers of Star Trek" to mention a single ST episode when space combat happens in nanosecond timescales.

My best guess that purpose of "The Computers of Star Trek" is only to discredit Star Wars tech, without even bother to proof its own assumptions.


Probably, the X-Wings in ANH didn't travel at 75,000 kps. But does it proof that SW tech is inferior than ST? I don't think so.[/quote]

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

BTW, GAT, I believe that this thread still belongs to "SW vs ST" instead of "Pure SW", because it's started by excerpts that tried to discredit SW tech using its own assumption on ST tech.

If we're going to purely analyze about X-Wings' combat speed during batte of Yavin in ANH, or analyze whether droid can pilot starfighter or not, let's *ignore* those stupid "75,000 kps" and "300,000 kps" figures from the excerpts. And we should *not* discussing them in the context of ST-SW comparation.

And if we can successfully estimate X-Wings' speed during battle of Yavin, and if the result is less than 75,000 kps, it doesn't mean that SW tech is inferior to Star Trek (or "too different from Star Trek", as the excerpts claimed).

[David]

This thread is titled SW Inconsistencies and should be about that. If you cannot stay on subject I will split it as a SW vs. ST thread in the VS forum.

[Master of Ossus]

In space, full throttle means full acceleration and not necessarily maximum speed. In fact, in space, it is almost impossible to reach maximum speed.

[Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi]

Anyway, did you ever hear of a dogfight where the planes were travelling at mach 2? I think that the DS had surface gravity, and that limited the speed of the fighters.

[Master of Ossus]

The DS would have had gravity, because of its enormous mass. That would not have limited speed greatly, unless the space frames were poor (which we can see that they were not). It would only have limited the ships' rate of climb, and even then it would not have limited it very much.