EXECUTOR - Ship Of The Week #20 4/30/2015

[Ithekro]

The original videomatic had a much larger fireball after the initial spout of flame from the imact of the Executor into the Death Star.

http://www.starwars.com/video/jedi-videomatics-a-moving-storyboard-narrated-by-ken-ralston

 

[Brolan]

... I like the look of the regular star destroyers a lot more. The Executor's rather ridonkulously oversized.

Agree.

I put it in the same category as Ewoks and Jar-jar.

 

[The Wormhole]

The destruction of the Executor was, among other things, I didn't like about "Return of the Jedi".

I have been reading about naval combat. Ships weren't taken out of action when the bridge was destroyed. In many cases, the ship still had motive power and firepower. When ships were destroyed, it was because the damage was greater than the ability of the crew to compensate.

So, the Executor would have been disabled, then destroyed, by a convergence of firepower from the Rebel capital ships. The SSD would have shaken off the impact of a single fighter into its bridge. And, if the ship did go off course, automatic systems would have corrected the flight plan.

I don't think the crashed ship the Millennium Falcon flies into is of the same class as the Executor. The arrangement of engines is different.

But you're thinking of terms in of naval combat on this planet which doesn't involve massive starships with massive power and computer systems.

The crash of the A-wing combined (As mentioned above) with damage already inflicted could easly have set of a casscade failure.

Possibly one other factor - it's possible the Death Star II was exerting a gravitation pull and with no helm control it's possible that the Executor was pulled towards it.

But it's funny you mention a hit to the bridge taking out a ship. In 1941 the light cruiser HMAS Sydney was sunk following a battle with the German Raider Kormerant. The wreck wasn't discovered until 2008 and it's only recently they've discovered what probably lead to her loss - a shell hit the bridger which is believe to have left her disabled and an easy target.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-01/new-photos-provide-evidence-of-why-hmas-sydney-sank/6438496

Still, it is a good point, a ship the size of executor must have had an auxiliary control room (possibly multiple) that would have been fully staffed (this being the middle of a battle) and could assume control of the ship within seconds of losing contact with the bridge.

 

[Marc]

The destruction of the Executor was, among other things, I didn't like about "Return of the Jedi".

I have been reading about naval combat. Ships weren't taken out of action when the bridge was destroyed. In many cases, the ship still had motive power and firepower. When ships were destroyed, it was because the damage was greater than the ability of the crew to compensate.

So, the Executor would have been disabled, then destroyed, by a convergence of firepower from the Rebel capital ships. The SSD would have shaken off the impact of a single fighter into its bridge. And, if the ship did go off course, automatic systems would have corrected the flight plan.

I don't think the crashed ship the Millennium Falcon flies into is of the same class as the Executor. The arrangement of engines is different.

But you're thinking of terms in of naval combat on this planet which doesn't involve massive starships with massive power and computer systems.

The crash of the A-wing combined (As mentioned above) with damage already inflicted could easly have set of a casscade failure.

Possibly one other factor - it's possible the Death Star II was exerting a gravitation pull and with no helm control it's possible that the Executor was pulled towards it.

But it's funny you mention a hit to the bridge taking out a ship. In 1941 the light cruiser HMAS Sydney was sunk following a battle with the German Raider Kormerant. The wreck wasn't discovered until 2008 and it's only recently they've discovered what probably lead to her loss - a shell hit the bridger which is believe to have left her disabled and an easy target.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-01/new-photos-provide-evidence-of-why-hmas-sydney-sank/6438496

Still, it is a good point, a ship the size of executor must have had an auxiliary control room (possibly multiple) that would have been fully staffed (this being the middle of a battle) and could assume control of the ship within seconds of losing contact with the bridge.

Except the exploding power system could have either prevented them from taking out control, they tried to take control and failed or they could have been wiped out by exploding power systems.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

"Don't put all your eggs in one basket" is good advice.

 

[Ithekro]

The Empire is all about putting all their eggs in one basket. Or two baskets actaully. "Always two there are".

 

[publiusr]

The only I time I wasn't impressed by the Executor/super star destroyer was when it was destroyed in Jedi. The fireball leaping up from the Death Star was too small, too fast and belied the scope and size of the ship as being the filming model it actually is vs. some gigantic spacecraft.

In the book the Executor's demise was a lot more interesting. As it tumbled in flames it ran into and destroyed a number of Star Destroyers, broke it's back and folded somewhat just before crashing into the Death Star 2's surface where it burned for a while.

That's why I would love to see new effects in a special edition. From what I understand, they had a lot of extra time in post for STARSHIP TROOPERS-- and it paid off in the look of the ships.

Cutting edge effects showing her going down and breaking up like Cygnus--that would be money well spent.

It's not the Executor, but the remains of a crashed super star destroyer are also visibly seen in the new Star Wars trailer:

http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/starwarstheforceawakens_teaser_trailer2_17.jpg

There is another type of capital ship in that trailer--larger than the Imperial class, but not as large as the Supers.

Over at sci-fi meshes.com you see a lot of fan work on the Allegiance-class battlecruiser.

I wonder...

 

[T'Girl]

It's called "over-confidence" - something the Empire had in abundance!

Not "over confidence," but instead paranoia.

The ship could only be controlled from the single bridge, they didn't want there to be a alternate site where a mutiny, or worse a rival faction, could seize control.

 

[Marc]

It's called "over-confidence" - something the Empire had in abundance!

Not "over confidence," but instead paranoia.

The ship could only be controlled from the single bridge, they didn't want there to be a alternate site where a mutiny, or worse a rival faction, could seize control.

With Sith Lord aboard the ship I doubt they have to go that far into paranoia.

After all we're talking about a guy who could force choke any mutineers without too much of an effort

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Palpatine can't read everyone's mind, can he? Not unless they're Force sensitive, and perhaps not even then. He could sense the presence *of* the Force, but I don't think he could ever actually read minds. He would have been unstoppable if he could.

 

[Marc]

^ Palpatine can't read everyone's mind, can he? Not unless they're Force sensitive, and perhaps not even then. He could sense the presence *of* the Force, but I don't think he could ever actually read minds. He would have been unstoppable if he could.

missed the point.

Vader might not be able to stop any mutiny but he'd put an end to it real quick.

Plus he was good at telling when people were lying to him.

 

[T'Girl]

According to Han Solo "there are a lot of command ships." And there would be times that Vader wasn't aboard any of them, the ship would still need to operate.

So you place the command center up on a tower, semi-isolate it from the bulk of the ship, and it's crew.

 

[Starborn Dragon]

One of my favorite passages from the first Star Wars pen and paper rrole playing game:

Player: okay, let's turn this bucket of bolts around and attack that Star Destroyer!

GM: You're in a stock light freighter, are you sure you want to do that?

Player: Yeah! What's wrong with that?

GM: Well, let me illustrate.

GM takes out a piece of notebook paper, and draws a large triangle that almost fills the page.

GM: See this? This is the Star Destroyer.

PLAYER: Okay. So?

The makes a dot with the pencil next to the triangle.

GM: See this? This is your ship.

The player sees the dot and realizes what he's doing!

PLAYER: I turn this ship around at full speed and begin making the calculations for light speed.



I'm paraphrasing, of course, because i can't fully remember the exact wording, but I know I got the spirit of it right.

According to the d6 stats the Star Destroyer had 72 Fighters aboard and the Super star Destroyed can carry four times as much as that.

So I emphatically agreed with Princes Leia that the let them go. There is no way even Han could've escape 72 Tie Fighters.

 

[SPCTRE]

Star destroyers are awesome, so a super star destroyer can only be super-Awesome!

It's science, is what it is.