TALK BATTLESTAR !!

POSTED BY: Calhoun
UPDATED: Wednesday, June 8, 2005 06:23
VIEWED: 68030
PAGE 4 of 7

Finn mac Cumhal wrote:
Monday, April 04, 2005 18:02

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she also readjusted her lateral vector after the bank. Why? What azimuth plane is she adjusting to? She’s in space! There is no up or down, so why readjust the lateral aspect?

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Don't you know? The enemy's base is DOWN.

Sorry, had to say that.

You have valid points on all those tech issues - but I'd claim that they ARE good about having SOME silent scenes - more than a lot of shows. And Zoic doing the special effects really makes it feel like Firefly-realistic space (not that Firefly is entirely realistic, I know). Perhaps the rocket-emission-sound-transmission idea is a decent excuse, but banking IS silly :)

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The problem was the she made two lateral adjustments. The first was when she initiated the turn, and the second was when she finished the turn. The maneuver she made was consistent with a plane banking against the atmosphere and then returning lateral aspect to the artificial horizon. Now I suppose one could argue that the initial lateral adjustment was simple an unintended roll resulting from the maneuvering thrusters, but why the second lateral adjustment? Or maybe the lateral adjustment was needed because she pitched the raider as well as rolled it? In other words she turned to the right with respect to her velocity vector as well as pitched upwards. From the angle we were looking, that might have appeared to be a lateral adjustment. But why the second adjustment? Why return to the same azimuth plane as she was prior to initiating the turn, unless there is some preferred azimuth plane? Why would there be some preferred azimuth plane in space, and how would you even know what that plane was? Presumably there is some kind of artificial gravity in the raider so “down” is always going to be toward the floor of the raider, regardless of the raider’s orientation with respect to any other ships.

At this point, I’m nitpicking. I know. The producers and graphic artists gave the raider that motion because it looked cool. But there is a larger point here, and that is that in all science fiction shows there always seems to be a preferred azimuth plane? Why do the vipers meet up with the Cylon Raiders always in the same lateral orientation? How come we don’t see the Cylon ships rotated some degrees to the left or right with respect to the orientation of the vipers when they meet? Do they plan this ahead of time, and if so how do they communicate the azimuth and aspect of the combat theater plane? What are they measuring these angles against? It really doesn’t make any sense when you think about. There’s no such thing as preferred orientation in space, in general, but somehow or another sci fi space operas* have found one.

*With the exception of a few. The aforementioned 2001 being one of them.

And BSG is better then a lot of shows about their science in space. Certainly they haven't got everything right, but it looks like they're thinking about it, which is good.

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The preferred azimuth plane for all the vipers would be the same plane as their Battlestar.. otherwise they may come in to land upside down.

Good point about them meeting up for combat on the same plane though.

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Did I kill this thread?

Is there no more interest in talking about BSG?

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Qui desiderat pacem praeparet bellum.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by Finn mac Cumhal:
Did I kill this thread?

Is there no more interest in talking about BSG?


SO how about that ending??

did he shake hands with Sharon or hand her a gun?

or would she have still been carring a side arm from the mission

is it July yet?

Also, I can kill you with my brain.

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