Favorite Enterprise

[Al]

D gets my vote, too, since that's what drew me to the whole series way back when I was but a lad. The 1701-A is a close second. It's introduction just caps off the 2-3-4 trilogy so perfectly.

EDIT: Never saw the Enterprise J before. Shiny.

[DocD83]

Prepare for nerdiness:

The original is too campy for me. I liked B because it was similar to the Excelsior class which is all over the place, but without the weak jaw (the engineering section bumpouts make it look a whole lot tougher, plus I think there were some mods to the topside). C was always pretty cool, like D but without all that cruise ship foolishness. I grew up on D, but there was too much extraneous crap for me to ever take it seriously as a fighting ship. Also, while all these ships have weird interior layouts, the D seems to be the worst (look at a profile view and try to trace a route from the bridge to engineering, or a nacelle), and the sideways oblong saucer makes it look like it would be sluggish at maneuvering. E is sleek, shiny and tough, and doesn't look like it'll snap at the neck or nacelle strut. It gets my vote. Archer's ship I thought was pretty nice. Just because it's older doen't mean it can't have been designed well. J looks like it's from an anime.

Anyone want to debate whether Star War or Star Trek had better ships?

[Rett Mikhal]

Sluggish? First off, the saucer was only slightly elongated. Secondly, it's space and thus even a ship shaped like a mongoose fighting a dozen cobras would be maneuverable as long as it had enough thrusters.

The ships from Star Trek kick more ass in my opinion. Mostly because you know they can kick ass but they rarely do. So whenever they do throw away their philosophy and bust out the phasers it's just that much more awesome. A Star Destroyer is bad ass but that's all it really is. I do admire the Star Destroyers for being Battleships in Space. They look like an extremely efficient design with their wedge shape (all the cannons can fire forward in theory.) Also, Clone Wars dictated that they could fly in an atmosphere and float so they WERE Naval Battleships... in space.

Still, that's all they have going for them. They're kind of boring besides that. It may because we never see the insides of one except the Bridge and nothing happens there anyway; whereas in Star Trek all sorts of crazy crap happens all over the ship. So, it's not exactly a fair debate.

However, Star Wars is second only to Robotech when it comes to kick-ass stunt fighters. Is there anything more kick ass than an X-wing? I submit there is not. Except a Y-wing but that's me.

[Hucklebubba]

Quick! Quick! Name the X-Wing's manufacturer and model! Test your nerd might!

As for Star Destroyers; I think their ruthlessly efficient, utilitarian boringness is my favorite thing about them. They make a great metaphor for the Empire itself.

However, I cannot stand the Star Destroyer's good guy counterpart; the Mon Cal Cruiser. According to something official somewhere, Mon Cals are slightly inferior to Star Destroyers from a technical standpoint, but I'm more concerned with the fact that they're worlds crappier in the aesthetic sense. "Ooh! It's made by fish people, so that's why it's all bulbous and goobly-goo!"

Blegh. Mon Cal Cruisers make me want the Alliance to lose.

[Head Mutant]

hucklebubba said:

Quick! Quick! Name the X-Wing's manufacturer and model! Test your nerd might!

Hasbro?

[PoolMan]

The X Wing was an Incom T-something or other.

The Millenium Falcon was a Corellian YT-1300 modified freighter, I remember that.

Aaaaaaaand that's the sum of what I learned as a teenager.

[Rett Mikhal]

The Incom T-65 X-wing. Which was originally designed for the empire (hence its prototype, the ARC fighter, being a clone fighter) but Incom defected and gave the plans to the Rebels.

Major geek points: Name the engine type the A-wing used... without using wookiepedia...

Also, major points for whoever can tell when this went from Star Trek to Star Wars.

Huckle, you're right no kid ever wanted to be captain of the Mon Cal's, but those blockade runners are still pretty bad ass looking. I always found it ironic that the most intimidating and bad ass looking ship the Rebels had was a Medical Frigate. Metaphor, perhaps?

[PoolMan]

*I* like the Mon Cals...

[Rett Mikhal]

Do you even know where the guns are on the Mon Cals?

The thing I do like about them is they look like they can hold a crapton of whatever you need, including stunt fighters.

Here's something I always wondered: The Rebel Fleet makes a smart move by warping with fighters already deployed to avoid an ambush. However, it's already been established nothing is faster than the Falcon, and obviously there's no way an X-wing has as big a warp drive as a Capital Ship. So, how did they do that? Just tell everyone to go exactly as slow as the slowest warp drive? Like waiting for the fat kid to finish his lap in gym? (That kid was me, by the way.) Last time I checked the A-wing was the fastest in sublight engines but had the worst warp drive by far.

[Hucklebubba]

poolman said:

*I* like the Mon Cals...

And that's A-OK, buddy. You just keep on bein' you.

rettmikhal said:

Do you even know where the guns are on the Mon Cals?

Mon Cals don't have guns. They rely solely on the power of high ideals.

rettmikhal said:

The thing I do like about them is they look like they can hold a crapton of whatever you need, including stunt fighters.

If geekiness serves, that's the one area in which Mon Cals outclass Star Destroyers; payload. So they're kind of like the minivan to the Star Destroyer's luxury sports sedan.

rettmikhal said:

Here's something I always wondered: The Rebel Fleet makes a smart move by warping with fighters already deployed to avoid an ambush. However, it's already been established nothing is faster than the Falcon, and obviously there's no way an X-wing has as big a warp drive as a Capital Ship. So, how did they do that? Just tell everyone to go exactly as slow as the slowest warp drive? Like waiting for the fat kid to finish his lap in gym? (That kid was me, by the way.) Last time I checked the A-wing was the fastest in sublight engines but had the worst warp drive by far.

What is this "warp" drive you keep mentioning?

[Rett Mikhal]

FINE. Hyperdrive.. Happy! SORRY, HUCKLE. Sorry I didn't feel like differentiating between all the dozens of FTL modes of transport between all the sci-fi series! Sorry WARP isn't an appropriate pronoun to be used to describe them all. Sorry I can't be plagued to remember to type out hyperdrive/warp engine/transwarp drive/space fold engine/wormhole generator every time!

/rant.

Now onto business. I think it's quite stupid that the Mon Cal's have no weapons considering their massive size. Those things must have 20 power generators. Are you going to sit there and tell me that's all for lights and shields? Those things fell over like Civil War reinactors at the battle of Normandy with the X-men assisting on the side of the Germans. You could argue it's for maneuvering considering if you played Rogue Squadron they can turn a full 270 degrees in 2.6 seconds flat to the point it hits and kills you which to me was a wee bit ridiculous. Unless I can SEE gigantic thrusters at the fore and aft portions of the ship firing enough magnetic was/fuel mixture to make a moment of 6.42*10^10 newton meters then I just can't see anything spinning that fast except possibly William Shatner's hair piece when he realizes people aren't supposed to laugh at 'Rocket Man'.

Done.

[Hucklebubba]

Actually, I have no clue as to the Mon Cals' armament, aside from the assumption that they must have something.

As for the earlier question about the A-Wing's propulsion system; I vaguely remember the term "Event Horizon" being used, and that it was manufactured by Kuat Drive Yards. Other than that, couldn't tell ya.

Something else I just thought of that bugs me about the Mon Cals; apparently, each one is unique in its construction.

Blargh! No! Homogeny am best!

Were I a stormtrooper or an imp officer or one of those guys with the helmets that seem to be designed for other people to eat soup out of, transferring from the Eradicator to the Sexalicious, I would take great comfort in knowing that I wouldn't have to ask anyone where the bathrooms are.

[PoolMan]

Ah, the Sexalicious. The flagship of Darth Kinky.

[Rett Mikhal]

It was the J-77 Event Horizon engine. I know this because I played the CRAP out of Rogue Squadron and I always had to listen to the technical briefing on each ship before the mission narrated by Captain Cool Voice. "The Incom T-65 X-wing is the fighter that killed the death star." Too bad they kept the dialog but replaced the narrator with a guy off the street for Rogue Squadron II/III.

Y-wings forever.

Also, what happened to the original post on this page?

[TheLuckyOne]

hucklebubba said:

Were I a stormtrooper or an imp officer or one of those guys with the helmets that seem to be designed for other people to eat soup out of, transferring from the Eradicator to the Sexalicious, I would take great comfort in knowing that I wouldn't have to ask anyone where the bathrooms are.

If I were stationed on the Sexalicious, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't trust the bathrooms. I'd just hold it.

-D