Star Wars Andor

[woodenhead]

1 hour ago, Mark Saunders said:

The suspension of disbelief really help in some form!

Without it Star Wars Episode 4 A New Hope falls over at the first sight of the Death Star - a massive moon sized space ship with no visible means of propulsion yet able to travel at light speed and able to generate a laser powerful enough to destroy a planet.

 

And there there are the extremely small fighter craft able to change direction like a Spitfire using what???

 

I've realised as I've gotten older that the shear scale of the universe means even with speed of light propulsion the idea of planet hopping spacecraft fallacy, even the idea of colonising Mars is some egotistical dream of rich billionaires who no longer want to have to share this planet with poor people.

 

So unless I suspend disbelief even the most accurate attempt at a science fiction space movie is really going to be unwatchable.

[Classsix T]

5 hours ago, woodenhead said:

Without it Star Wars Episode 4 A New Hope falls over at the first sight of the Death Star - a massive moon sized space ship with no visible means of propulsion yet able to travel at light speed and able to generate a laser powerful enough to destroy a planet.

...and whilst it's a bit slower than the Falcon, the navigators of said space station can't plot a course that'll avoid having to creep around a planet to destroy the target satellite in a forced nailbiter. Just blow up the sodding planet dummies, the collateral damage will do the job!

 

C6T.

[Classsix T]

There are two franchises I gave up over what are probably minor issues to most but I couldn't muster enough disbelief.

 

Cars: An anthropomorphism too far. When there's a Daddy car and a Mummy car and offspring cars I'm afraid it raises a number of "wait... what?" issues for me.

 

Ice Age: Enjoyed the first one, but in the second the (talking!) sabertooth mentions a perilous part of the journey being "like a minefield". To which I'd hope Manny would ask wtf is a mine or indeed a field... but alas no.

 

C6T.

[woodenhead]

We should now honourably mention Star Trek - every time Captain Kirk or any of the crew beam down (or up) they are replaced with a replicant - the only true original crew are those who have never beamed anywhere.

[Classsix T]

6 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

We should now honourably mention Star Trek - every time Captain Kirk or any of the crew beam down (or up) they are replaced with a replicant - the only true original crew are those who have never beamed anywhere.

Hmm, not quite I think. The particulate matter isn't duplicated at any stage in the transfer, merely transported to a different place. It isn't a fax or photocopy object at destination.

 

The buffer does keep a record though apparently.

 

C6T.

[57xx]

On 05/12/2022 at 12:58, Gareth Collier said:

Bombers in space - slow moving bombers that drop bombs through the gravity free vacuum of space where someone has to push a release button like a WWII bomber. No shields and the pilot couldn't push the button. What has happened to missile, lasers etc?

 

I remember being at the cinema watching this scene with my brother. Our heads turn in unison to look at each other in disbelief, both uttering something along the lines of WTF...?

[57xx]

7 hours ago, woodenhead said:

Without it Star Wars Episode 4 A New Hope falls over at the first sight of the Death Star - a massive moon sized space ship with no visible means of propulsion yet able to travel at light speed and able to generate a laser powerful enough to destroy a planet.

 

Absolutely. I'm sure I remember seeing a video on Youtube somewhere where someone did the maths on just how powerful the laser would have to be to cause a planet to explode and debris to reach escape velocity. it was rather a lot... like star levels of power IIRC.

[Classsix T]

2 hours ago, 57xx said:

 

Absolutely. I'm sure I remember seeing a video on Youtube somewhere where someone did the maths on just how powerful the laser would have to be to cause a planet to explode and debris to reach escape velocity. it was rather a lot... like star levels of power IIRC.

FFS, I d like to think before it even gets to that point people would be aware IT'S NOT REAL! and maybe go and do their proper job or summat.

 

C6T.

[PaulRhB]

Yep these are films not documentaries 😉

 

They’d be a bit limited if you stick rigidly to probability and physics. Christ most films can’t get the right car or train for the period and we are worrying about space bombing . . .

 

😆

[Reorte]

4 hours ago, PaulRhB said:

Yep these are films not documentaries 😉

 

They’d be a bit limited if you stick rigidly to probability and physics. Christ most films can’t get the right car or train for the period and we are worrying about space bombing . . .

 

😆

There's a lot in between sticking rigidly to reality and being OK with anything and everything, it's not only one extreme or the other.

[scottystitch]

5 hours ago, PaulRhB said:

Yep these are films not documentaries 😉

 

They’d be a bit limited if you stick rigidly to probability and physics. Christ most films can’t get the right car or train for the period and we are worrying about space bombing . . .

 

😆

You're correct to a point.  However I don't think it's unreasonable to question or test (in the case of the death star weapon) the plausibility of a concept.

 

Regarding the "bombing" of a Star Destroyer, it's seems particularly lazy writing to so flagrantly appear to change the laws of physics (captain).  Surely it's okay to comment on that?

 

I'd actually look at it the other way 'round:  We can't even get the depiction of physics correct and we are worrying about not getting the right car or train for the period...

 

Personally, I'm waiting for Christopher Nolan to reboot the whole lot (Rogue one aside).

 

Best

 

Scott.

[scottystitch]

9 hours ago, Classsix T said:

FFS, I d like to think before it even gets to that point people would be aware IT'S NOT REAL! and maybe go and do their proper job or summat.

 

C6T.

Surely it's okay to think " I wonder how much power a laser would actually need to destroy a planet...I'll go and try to work it out."  I think we all accept it's not real, but we can be a curious species and that's fine I think.

 

Best

 

Scott.

[Wolf27]

Stop ruining Star Wars! 

[scottystitch]

10 minutes ago, Wolf27 said:

Stop ruining Star Wars! 

It was already ruined by George Lucas! 🙃

[woodenhead]

12 hours ago, 57xx said:

 

Absolutely. I'm sure I remember seeing a video on Youtube somewhere where someone did the maths on just how powerful the laser would have to be to cause a planet to explode and debris to reach escape velocity. it was rather a lot... like star levels of power IIRC.

 

10 hours ago, Classsix T said:

FFS, I d like to think before it even gets to that point people would be aware IT'S NOT REAL! and maybe go and do their proper job or summat.

 

C6T.

 

8 minutes ago, Wolf27 said:

Stop ruining Star Wars! 

I guess this is where neurodivergency comes into play, you look at a film and think - how would that work.

 

Remember Luke didn't fire two physical missiles into the Deathstar exhaust port - it was an 'energy' missile.  So something without an engine or guidance system did a 90 degree turn at an exhaust (i.e. blowing out not sucking in) port.  Lets allow that to settle in our minds.....😆

[woodenhead]

12 hours ago, 57xx said:

 

Absolutely. I'm sure I remember seeing a video on Youtube somewhere where someone did the maths on just how powerful the laser would have to be to cause a planet to explode and debris to reach escape velocity. it was rather a lot... like star levels of power IIRC.

So the Starkiller actually took that logic and ran with it - sucking in a star's energy to provide the power to destroy a planet.

 

Oddly it seems that's it's backwards - the Deathstar should have had that technology and later the First Order rising out of the Imperial period should have been capable of developing it further into a self contained Death Star.

[PaulRhB]

2 hours ago, scottystitch said:

Personally, I'm waiting for Christopher Nolan to reboot the whole lot (Rogue one aside).

😀

[Reorte]

1 hour ago, woodenhead said:

 

 

I guess this is where neurodivergency comes into play, you look at a film and think - how would that work.

 

Remember Luke didn't fire two physical missiles into the Deathstar exhaust port - it was an 'energy' missile.  So something without an engine or guidance system did a 90 degree turn at an exhaust (i.e. blowing out not sucking in) port.  Lets allow that to settle in our minds.....😆

Getting a bit geeky here but they were "proton torpedoes", which in-universe are supposed to have some sort of guidance. How that's supposed to work I don't know but we're definitely at the level there where I don't have a problem suspending disbelief.

[woodenhead]

2 minutes ago, Reorte said:

Getting a bit geeky here but they were "proton torpedoes", which in-universe are supposed to have some sort of guidance. How that's supposed to work I don't know but we're definitely at the level there where I don't have a problem suspending disbelief.

And generally when watching something I just enjoy the ride and don't worry too much about the science.

 

But outside of it, sometimes I like to wonder.

 

I watched this recently and it makes you realise just how stuck we are with Earth and how all this science fiction simply avoids physics in order to be able to be possible. 

 

[Reorte]

12 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

And generally when watching something I just enjoy the ride and don't worry too much about the science.

That only works for me up to a point. Like I said in an earlier post I find it no fundamentally different to character behaviour - if characters suddenly start behaving implausibly and out of character my enjoyment of a film starts to go downhill. After all some films are better than others, no-one can simply sit back and enjoy the ride for every film no matter how good or bad the effort put in to making it was.

 

There's a bit of allowance there I suppose for the type of film - my suspension of disbelief can usually stretch further for a comedy for example.
 

Quote

 

But outside of it, sometimes I like to wonder.

 

I watched this recently and it makes you realise just how stuck we are with Earth and how all this science fiction simply avoids physics in order to be able to be possible.

 

I'm not too bothered as long as there's a reasonable stab at decent internally consistent worldbuilding (unless a film's claiming to be a very hard piece of science fiction), and this is despite a physics degree (well a scraped through third due to being a hopelessly lazy student).

 

I don't believe we're stuck on Earth though. In this solar system, perhaps.

Edited December 7, 2022 by Reorte

[MattR]

3 hours ago, woodenhead said:

 

 

I guess this is where neurodivergency comes into play, you look at a film and think - how would that work.

 

Remember Luke didn't fire two physical missiles into the Deathstar exhaust port - it was an 'energy' missile.  So something without an engine or guidance system did a 90 degree turn at an exhaust (i.e. blowing out not sucking in) port.  Lets allow that to settle in our minds.....😆

 

I assumed that was the point ... they were never going to go in until Luke used The Force to guide the proton torpedoes to where they needed to go.

[woodenhead]

6 minutes ago, MattR said:

 

I assumed that was the point ... they were never going to go in until Luke used The Force to guide the proton torpedoes to where they needed to go.

Which meant only a Jedi could destroy the Deathstar, so the Rebels on their own having got the plans, were going to attempt to destroy it with weapons that could not penetrate even the exhaust port.  It's jolly lucky for them Luke turned up out of nowhere \and was given an X-Wing to fly off the back on one mate (Biggs) knowing him and had enough control of his access to the Force to do it..  Luckily they didn't know who his dad was....

[MattR]

Trading one convenient plot point for another!

[woodenhead]

Whilst over the years the series have become more nuanced and the special effects ever improving, it's still a typical Saturday morning Western for the masses - Cowboys and Indians.

 

However, the original Star Wars I still think is a high point alongside Alien for it's outstanding contribution to the science fiction films we have today.  The quality of the filmography and special effects of Star Wars and the grittiness and suffocating isolation of Alien remain groundbreaking I feel.

Edited December 7, 2022 by woodenhead

[chris p bacon]

5 hours ago, woodenhead said:

The quality of the filmography and special effects of Star Wars and the grittiness and suffocating isolation of Alien remain groundbreaking I feel.

Off topic - Whilst watching the original at the cinema, there was a group of girls in the seats in front. In the scene where the Alien emerges from John Hurts stomach, one screamed and another was sick. .....the poster did say "no one hears you scream in space"