What's The Last Movie You Saw?

[Ravi Oli]

Why bother with a deathstar at all if you can fit a few hundreds of Terra-ton yielding hydrogen bombs (or equivalent) on each of the smaller star destroyers effectivly providing the same capability of planetary annihilation at a fraction of the cost?

You obviously have never played Ogame....

[Roland Deschain]

But the shield generator was a prepared imperial position, they could at least put a simple fence around it. And what bussiness did they have roaming off into into the jungle in the first place? they could easily just walk into the base and nullify any ambush atempts.

But without sparsely-guarded back doors, how would any film heroes ever be able to enter secret bases? Ok, there was a whole legion there, but that's beside the point. It was sparsely-guarded before that, and the legion of troops were only sent there on the orders of the Emperor. Now, their orders were to stop the Rebel attack and kill all Rebel troops. They also didn't want to stand around doing nothing, whilst the Rebels were off enjoying themselves in the jungle, drinking Ewok Mojitos, or whatever the Ewoks drink. I think that justifies going into the jungle to chase them off. This is part of repelling an attack and eliminating all attackers.

It still seems like an easy fix to a easily identifyable design flaw to just not include that sort of shaft in the first place.

The Death Star used huge quantities of fuel. It needed an exhaust port to vent this. The second Death Star was bigger than the first (~900km wide), so this would have needed a larger exhaust port to compensate. This is where the design differences really begin. The second Death Star vented its exhaust from thousands of millimetre-wide holes over the entire super structure, thus effectively making the skin impregnable once completed. The hole entered by Lando, Wedge and the others was there due to the incomplete nature of the construction. Once completed, there would be no hole, thus effectively ending that particular flaw. The information on its whereabouts was allowed to be leaked by the Emperor himself, to lure the Rebels there. The plan would have been successful, but for the Ewoks, who saved the day.

It is still no excuse for Achilles to not keep a pair of sturdy boots.

See above. Achilles' pair of sturdy boots during construction was the shield generator on the Sanctuary Moon of Endor. Achilles' pair of sturdy boots after construction would be not only that mentioned above (about the thousands of impregnable exhaust ports), but a massively increased number of gun turrets over the super structure on top of a far faster recharge time (3 minutes as opposed to 24 hours) and the ability to fire the main laser at lower powers with greater accuracy, thereby allowing protection against capital ships and small fighters.

The Millennium Falcon, as far as I know, is a light freighter converted into a contraband-runner and is in no way a millitary vessel. The Star Destroyers on the other hand are capital war vessels with a substansial fighter assets. Although they seem suspiciously undergunned when it comes to anti-capital weaponry. Anyway, it is no way necessary to destroy the entire planet when irradicating all prospects of life would suffice plenty.

This is true, yes. I was only paraphrasing Han Solo when encountering debris in the Alderaan system (my previous post is peppered with Star Wars paraphrasing). They aren't under-gunned either. It is capital ship shielding that protects the ships. Without a shield, it is relatively easy to destroy any capital ship, as the hull plating isn't impregnable. The weaponry on capital ships is still very powerful; powerful enough to destroy another unshielded one with one shot. The simple fact remains, though, that you'd still need a vast number of Star Destroyers to do the job, and even then it would take time to completely eradicate all life on the surface. It's also still extremely impressive to have a weapon like the Death Star that can remove a whole planet from existence in a matter of seconds.

The fear would be much greater if I knew there was thousands of smaller vessels, whose whereabouts are mostly unknown capable of delivering admitedly less impressive but equally lethal destruction to my homeworld at any moment. In conclution: fear of death from invisible at any possible moment > fear of death from great black blob only when said great black blob is present.

But the Star Destroyers aren't invisible. If they came out of light speed far enough away from the planet, they wouldn't necessarily show up on planetary scanners, unless there was a system-wide scanner network in place, but they would still need to get very close to deliver destruction, thereby making themselves visible, although not to the naked eye. I understand what you mean though, and concur to a point, but as your logic above suggests, the "fear of death from great black blob only when said great black blob is present" should also hold true with the Star Destroyers. They may not be visible to the naked eye from the planet's surface, but they still have to be present. They cannot destroy by proxy. A fully-charged Death Star can also turn up at any possible moment. All it has to do is align itself with the planet, and BOOM! The Star Destroyers would also need to align themselves, and it's far easier to orchestrate the alignment of one object, no matter how large, than it is to orchestrate the alignment of hundreds.

The main consern of all those walkers is the incredibly high center of mass and the not-so-discrete silhouette. I think the design would be considerably improved by a more "spidery" aproach with lower center of mass, also it is often a good idea to put the main armament on a swivel to improve flexibility.

The high centre of mass is a problem, as is the not-so-discrete silhouette, but the AT-ST was designed on a bipedal model. We, as bipeds, have a high centre of mass, but we are also very adept at moving over different types of terrain. The Empire did have spidery designs of walker, but these were used in different environments, such as for climbing rock walls, etc, and were not deemed necessary for that environment. They are also mainly used to chase routing enemies and attack smaller fortifications, so were quite suited to the job at hand. The gun does swivel, but only really up and down. The reason it doesn't swivel side to side is because it uses the armour of the 'head' of the AT-ST as protection. If it were completely exposed, it wouldn't be protected as well, and would be an instant target from enemies both at the sides and behind.

You wouldn't build a dyson sphere as a spacefaring ship, stars are a bit too heavy for that, you build them as energy harnessing structures and they would probably work poorly as a weapons platform. You doesn't need a completly covering dyson sphere, I guess you would call it a dyson ring, and it would require considerably less material

If you want a Dyson ring, read Ringworld by Larry Niven. Great concept, and exactly what you say. Anyway, back on topic, so to speak. This energy that is harnessed would need to go into maintaining the ring or sphere. Any extra energy left over, and I imagine there would be a lot, would still need to be stored somewhere and transported. This wouldn't be cost-effective, imo. A Dyson ring would still need the resources of an entire planet, and I don't just mean what could be mined conventionally. You would need to use pretty much an entire planet to do so. Then if you need to synthesise very rare elements, or ones that don't exist for long naturally, that would take a lot of time to do as well. Dyson spheres/rings just aren't in the remit of a lord of the Dark Side. They may show power, and a civilisation that can build one must be immensely powerful, but they just don't show it in the way a Dark Lord of the Sith would want it to.

EDIT: This made me feel really geeky, but it's great fun. Thanks for the great conversation, Gronank. I hope you're enjoying it as much as I am

[PKMKII]

Okay, with all this Death Star talk going on, I have to post this: Death Star contractors (good part starts at the :40 second mark).

[gronank]

^alright for independent contractors, what about employed construction workers? what about possible slave labour?

[PKMKII]

what about possible slave labour?

JAR JAR BINKS DESERVED IT.

[daftbeaker]

Paul. If it was from someone other than Pegg and Frost I'd have loved it. However, after Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead it seems to lack any obvious punchlines or quotable bits. While several bits of the previous films are now standard responses in my house ("Because I love her! Alright...gay" and "You've got a moustache. I know" as two examples) there's nothing in Paul that stands out like that. It's enjoyable and rather watchable but not what you'd expect from Frost and Pegg. There are nice nods to other sci-fi as well (I count references to Alien, Predator, E.T., possibly Alien 2, Blade and I'm sure I missed a lot).

With that said, Sigourney Weaver is still hot and quite menacing as the baddie and the alien's abilities are nicely integrated with the plot without getting all mushy and E.T.-like. Plus it mocks creationists and has a rather hot fundamentalist become a swearing nyphomaniac so it's not all bad

It's a good film but after their previous efforts it feels like it could have been so much better.

[Roland Deschain]

I enjoyed that film. The spoilers you put in the small text I totally agree with, especially the second one, although Sigourney Weaver is still hot in my opinion. Does this mean i'm getting old? Oh dear. You can tell exactly where Pegg and Frost's sentiments lie on certain issues rather close to all our hearts. Plus, you've got to love a profane alien, lol.

[daftbeaker]

Sigourney Weaver is still hot in my opinion. Does this mean i'm getting old? Oh dear

I did say that Plus, I'm 23 so I don't think it's an age thing. Although Felicity Kendall in The Good Life

[Roland Deschain]

I did say that Plus, I'm 23 so I don't think it's an age thing. Although Felicity Kendall in The Good Life

Oops. I read it but completely forgot you'd written it, even though it was less than a minute beforehand. Don't get me started on Felicity Kendall. Grrrrrrr...

[Roland Deschain]

Seeing as nobody else appears to have watched any films recently, I thought i'd make up for it this past weekend (Friday to today). Seeing as it's Hallowe'en as well, I made most of them pretty gruesome horror films:-

In the Mouth of Madness
Splice
Street Trash
The Road
A Serbian Film
The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu
Sleepaway Camp
Zombie Holocaust
Paranormal Activity
Paranormal Activity 2
Wolf Creek
Resident Evil: Degeneration
The Human Centipede
Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation
H P Lovecraft's Necronomicon: To Hell and Back

No. I didn't go out this weekend.

[pieces o'nine]

The Human Centipede

A young co-worker's dearly beloved 'made' her watch this with him. Apparently, he 'really liked it'.
To help ease the horror, she told me about it.
And told me.
And told me.
And told me.
And told me.
And told me.
And told me.
And told me.
And told me.
And told me.
And told me.
Until I *strongly* hinted, "Does this movie ever end?"
Which she answered, "no,"
And told me some more.
And some more.
And some more...


Honestly.
What is *wrong* with the male mind, anyway?

[Roland Deschain]

Warning: The thoughts and views expressed in the interviews contained herein are not the views of either the owners or distributors of said interviews.

A young co-worker's dearly beloved 'made' her watch this with him. Apparently, he 'really liked it'.
To help ease the horror, she told me about it...Until I *strongly* hinted, "Does this movie ever end?" Which she answered, "no,"...

This is because your young co-worker's dearly beloved is a man, and therefore instantly awesome, unless he has done anything to lose that awesome status, in which case he is a douchebag. The movie does end, or she wouldn't have been able to tell you about it as she would still be watching it now. It is pretty sick, though, and done for shock value more than anything. There are some truly horrible moments in it, as no doubt you have been told.

Honestly. What is *wrong* with the male mind, anyway?

It is because the 'stronger' male mind is awesome. That is why we came up with things like beer, bacon, steak and horror. See Twilight for further proof...*ignores Anne Rice (earlier books), Sigourney Weaver, Florence Nightingale, Marie Curie, etc* Awaits the whipping.

[daftbeaker]

Honestly. What is *wrong* with the male mind, anyway?

It is because the 'stronger' male mind is awesome.....Awaits the whipping.

Whipping? You'll be lucky to get out of this with your 'stronger' male bits intact

[Roland Deschain]

Whipping? You'll be lucky to get out of this with your 'stronger' male bits intact

I realised that whilst writing it, but what can I say? I'm a glutton for Egyptian punishment...

[pieces o'nine]