Krystian, good nerdy question on why bullets now versus lasers / beam weapons.

The funniest answer to that was in "Stargate SG:1".

Alien heavy to O'Neal, hefting a beam weapon:
"This weapon kills with its second shot!"

O'Neal hefts a submachinegun:
"Well, this weapon kills with its first."

Anyway, it seems in the SG:1 universe human's primitive technology just catches everyone off guard and so they continue using it.

As far as science goes, the advantage lasers have is that the targetting is instantaneous and is direct fire. The big advantage would be over very long distances of course. The air force for that reason has been throwing millions (billions?) into developing energy weapons. If you can see it; you can hit it. The disadvantage currently is that it requires a lot of energy. Currently, they can probably deploy an anti-aircraft energy weapon on a ship. But it will take a lot more work to bring it down to tank sized or infantry deployable. They have lasers now that are used for targetting and can even be used to blind sensors (or people's eyes).

But in science fiction movies, rarely is weapon as instantaneous as a laser portrayed. A beam 'grows' or is a 'pulse'. Come to think of it, I think the original Star Trek TV (ST:OS) had instantaneous beams. But in almost all other science fiction films featuring beam technology they are not weapons that move at the speed of light.

One theory of mine is that a battle with lasers wouldn't be very exciting. After all, assuming your targetting is correct, you would hit whatever you aim at. So, no dodging, no risk or chance of countering (unless you bring in some shielding technology). No competition = no excitement. However, a 'beam' would still have the attractive lightshow but the enemies would theoretically have a chance to dodge and counter each other. Ask yourself why the Jedi in Star Wars battle with 'swords' rather than just shooting each other. It's more exciting to see a swordfight, that's why.

Space battles in reality (assuming sub-light battles) would be more akin to submarine battles. They may take place over days, weeks, months. So not so exciting. And if they involve automated ships, even more boring to viewers. Launching a missile on Monday and then seeing it if hits on Friday would be a snoozefest. Instead, we have ships that dive and tumble like WWII fighters.

On the last episode of Galactica I found it interesting that the Capricans seem to have developed the Hummer in parallel to our own civilization. In earlier episodes we learned that they also eat Ramen noodles.

Yeah, I've always loved the way that laser beams shoot across the screen. I suspect this dates all the way back to Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers with their "death rays" though. They also make some interesting sounds in outer space which seem to be fairly consistent between the different sci-fi series.

Remember that the reason that the Cylons didn't get the Galactica initially, was that it was behind the times technologically. No networks, remember?

Actually I thought the point was that they had networks, but Adama refused to turn them on. So it was more an issue of his old school stubborness that saved Galactica. In one of the episodes this season they turned the network on long enough for some computations and they cylons were trying to hack their way in.

I believe they had to "network" it all together - with a bunch of cables and temporary connections. I don't believe there was a real network. Otherwise it would have been compromised to begin with.

Maybe... they did talk about about unplugging things I guess.

I find it interesting that a ship wouldn't be "technologically advanced" enough to have a computer network, but they are advanced enough to have a faster-than-light propulsion system, artificial gravity, and lots of other things that are far beyond anything in today's world...

Whatever, it's only a TV series. :-)

we just saw the 4th human model out of 12. so perhaps we'll see the doctor guy aboard galactica fleet.

remember there are 8 cylons aboard the fleet somewhere... but only baltar knows of course.

BTW Krystian+gibbons+Russian film fanatics, i've started another thread here:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...184#post346184

Being cast as a cylon in this new show is a pretty good gig. Even if they kill you off, you're gonna come back. :-)

and it's interesting to play such a character because, how do you play it? do you play it as the same exact character? no, you can't. but how different? totally different person? i mean the character itself is basically hardware and the "soul" is the software. it's pretty interesting =).

Hmmm, pretty interesting theory about the bullets vs lasers. Yeah, I can see it may be a little tougher to create really intense battle scenes: bullets vippins by, dust spumes, etc. I'd like to see the cylons with really cool weapons though, and definitely more tech - especially is we ever see anything like a home base, mother ship, etc.

For SG-1 I think bullets work, since that earth isn't that far ahead of today's world.

For Star Wars, the lasers work and the light sabers are the coolest sci-fi weapon ever devised man. I've always dreamed of having one of those baby's.

When the new Flash Gordon comes out it's gonna be interesting to see what their take will be.

The last episode of BSG from last friday was pretty good with the cylons - thought the emphasis on Starbuck was too much - but, I'm liking those cylons man. I'm gonna start to root for them soon! Well, that is if we get some more stuff out of them like names, maybe model numbers, hierarchy, etc.

And yeah, I agree it's a great time to be a cylon in BSG; truly if they frag you today, you can come back tommorrow!

I still think the wife is a cylon!

Is that wrong? Sigh, maybe I'm like jimmy from the movie quotes thread, always rooting for the bad guy! Lol.

Anyways, I'm out, for now! Go Cylons!

have you guys seen the latest Ep? it was very emotional, even for a TV show! i loved how the "family" is going to be back together. and it wasn't out of nowhere like star trek, it was progressive. adama realized he can't function without his son personally and professionally. the family is dependent on one
another, can't be split apart. =).

*SPOILER AHEAD DON'T READ THE REST OF THE THREAD IF YOU DON'T WANNA BE SPOILED*

oh, more info on upcoming episodes:
"With Cain I wanted to maintain that kind of superior warrior attitude of someone who wants to concentrate on the battle against the Cylons as opposed to the survival of the human race." Moore told the magazine "There's a twist, through, in that we've made Cain an Admiral, and that throws a wrench into everything. Adama is no longer the senior military officer, and therefore not in command of the fleet any more."

"Suddenly, Roslin is no longer dealing with Adama, and this creates a new set of problems for her and everyone else. Here's this outsider who comes in and goes, 'What the hell have you people been doing? Apollo is a mutineer, and this Starbuck is smacking people around. This isn't a pirate ship, it's the military.' So Cain starts making changes, and that becomes great fodder for our storytelling."

"...["Pegasus" is] going to propel a whole series of storylines in the latter 10 episodes of this season. We'll also be delving more into the Cylons and starting to do some stories from their point of view. It's going to add a brand new dimension to how we view the Cylons, to the characters we have so far regarded as the enemy, and which side you are supposed to be rooting for. Audiences can look forward to an added layer of complexity as we get closer to this year's finale."

More from Moore can be found at The Great Link.

I think that qualifies as spoiler material.

sorry keith, i stand corrected.

thx for the link, i didn't know about that connection before =).