Babylon space battles
Oct. 1st, 2007 01:45 pmThe space battles have a different vibe from StarTrek. It's not a matter of floating stationary in mid-space zapping each other with phasers and first to 0% shields loses. Fighters dogfight until one ship gets a clear shot with its Big Zappy Guns of Doom and then ka-pow, it slices the other ship in half, and if the crew are lucky, the fusion plant holds, and they die of vacuum, and if most of the crew are lucky, the fusion plant blows quickly and cleanly.
For instance, there's a subtle point, but watch a big ship pow-pow-powing a little one. It's not that it keeps hitting glancing blows, it keeps not quite hitting it, until it does, when it's dead. It feels much more immediate.
On the other hand, no TV series and few films show space battles really well. Limited encounters and "oh my god, look at the size of that fleet", yes, but actually "we're winning, they're winning" no.
For instance, there's a subtle point, but watch a big ship pow-pow-powing a little one. It's not that it keeps hitting glancing blows, it keeps not quite hitting it, until it does, when it's dead. It feels much more immediate.
On the other hand, no TV series and few films show space battles really well. Limited encounters and "oh my god, look at the size of that fleet", yes, but actually "we're winning, they're winning" no.