The Death Star from Star Wars (spoilers ahead)

[Ironhead]

Just to play devil's advocate(because I agree with you), that time could have been consumed by the subjugation of the galaxy. Not every planet was going to buy into Palpatine's new order right away, or at all, in some cases. Plus, look at the scale of the project -- the size of a small moon.

[BlackAdder]

Our largest ships take years to build...i think 15-20 would only be possible with the empires slave labor regime, and thats taking into account droid labor as well, which no one trusts because of the droid rebellion...

[Hugh Jarrod]

You know who I feel sorry for it the workers and contractor who die in Return of the Jedi. You know the guys working on the second unfinished Deathstar.

[TomSelis]

Palpatine was a "plans within plans within plans" type of guy. He probably was working on a second death star at the same time. Since the rebels probably knew about the first death star, because he started working on it during the fall of the republic, he probably started working on the second (secret one) a few years later, just in case.

[steven_638]

A project of this magnitude, incorporating all of that technology, who's to say they succeeded the first time? It's very possible they destroyed a few, during construction.

[steven_638]

oh, btw, what bothered me more, was that in "A New Hope" Obi-Wan knew nothing of R2 or Threepio. He acted as though he had never seen them before. Also, in 20 years, how did Obi-Wan go from being like 30, to looking like he was well over 80?

[almore]

I wonder if there were any Tgirls on the DeathStar

[Gus The Dagger]

only 7 tgirls on the death star.

There is actually a moon in our solar system that looks like a death star.

[Gus The Dagger]

http://www.nineplanets.org/mimas.html

Thats the one

[Ecstatic]

Here in Boston we've experienced a similar construction fiasco, known colloquially as The Big Dig, the preliminary engineering for which began in the 1980s and which has run up costs of some 14 billion dollars.

[kennbo]

Ecstatic, say it ain't so. You aren't one of those Big Dig naysayers, are you? I hope you were just being funny. As I see it 15 billion over 15 years, or approximately 1 billion/yr to employ a lot of people, improve the aesthetic of the city, and, at least temporarily, improve traffic flow is nothing compared to 1 billion for a B-1 bomber.

[Ecstatic]

Is the tally up to 15 billion now? I lost count. No, I'm not a naysayer, but I am a critic. A bevy of bad decisions have been made on the big dig, going back to the late 80s. The biggest is probably the decision, made nearly 20 years ago now, to not buy the land to either side of the big dig which would have allowed for proper tunnel-inside-a-tunnel construction instead of the poorly executed approach (to save that expense) which led directly to the massive leaks in the slurry wall. Perhaps you can dispute that, but the shortcuts taken along the way which amount to shoddy construction and engineering are scarcely excusable. Yes, overall it's a good thing, and I think Boston and Mass in five years' time will have virtually forgotten the headaches and expense up to this point, but I think the parallels with the Deathstar as a construction project of massive scope requiring two decades to complete are valid.

Gus, that moon photo is amazing. That HAS to be the original for Lucas' conception!

[kennbo]

Watched Return of the Sith last night. Not impressed, kinda anticlimactic. As far as suspension of disbelief issues go, that whole opening scene aboard the droid general's ship had several unbelievable problems with it. 1)Where did the gravity come from when it started pitching? It had to have it's own gravity generator to stop people and objects from floating around, so it should be able to spin 360' without anyone noticing. If the gravitational field generator was knocked out, then people would have floated around, instead of sliding as the ship pitched.2) When the general ruptured the seal on the command deck, the sudden decompression should have had a far more dramatic effect on the human Jedi, and in a heartrbeat, without any repair to the breach, the decompression stopped.3)How do you land such a huge ship when more than half the damned thing has disintegrated? 4) How could all those Jedi masters not sense a sith lord in their presence? On the other side of the galaxy they can sense a shift in the force when other Jedi are dying, yet they can't sense the negative energy of a sith lord 5 feet away from them? I could go on, but why bother. The first movie was the best, all the others got skewed by an over emphasis on special effects and marketing and the substance of the story suffered.

[NickTheQuick]

Kenbo, here's your answer.......It's a fucking movie. A movie about jedis, wookies, spaceships the size of few city blocks all very believable, but gravity OMG????

Personally my favorite is the Return of the Jedi. All the newer ones don't do much for me. Besides like Danny Glover said "I'm getting too old for this shit".

[brickcitybrother]

4) How could all those Jedi masters not sense a sith lord in their presence? On the other side of the galaxy they can sense a shift in the force when other Jedi are dying, yet they can't sense the negative energy of a sith lord 5 feet away from them?


Best question bar none.

[jt money]

4) How could all those Jedi masters not sense a sith lord in their presence? On the other side of the galaxy they can sense a shift in the force when other Jedi are dying, yet they can't sense the negative energy of a sith lord 5 feet away from them?


Best question bar none.

Doesn't Yoda give some short answer like his vision is clouded by the dark side of the force in Ep. 2?

[jt money]

oh, btw, what bothered me more, was that in "A New Hope" Obi-Wan knew nothing of R2 or Threepio. He acted as though he had never seen them before. Also, in 20 years, how did Obi-Wan go from being like 30, to looking like he was well over 80?

In ESB, Obi-Wan says to Yoda, "That boy was our last hope." And Yoda tells him there is another. How did Obi-Wan forget about the sister?

[Ironhead]

The answer that's developed over time( i.e.- Lucas made it up to answer critics) is that the Sith ways were so different from that of the Jedi that they'd be undetectable unless using the force within a certain proximity of them, I believe.

[Vicki Richter]

I've just suffered through Episode 3, at the end of the film we see the Death Star under construction, we know that Luke will blow it up in Episode 4. But wasn't Luke like, in his late teens or very early twenties?

The Imperial Empire spent 15-20 years building the Death Star? In E4, Space Nazi Peter Cushing mentions that it is now fully operational.

Not exactly busting their ass building it where they?

Also in Return of the Jedi, Death Star no 2, was under construction, yet at no point do we see any one working on it.

No shit a blond kid toppled the Empire!


mds

#1 - Yes it did take that long to build. Hello! It was a prototype planet killing device the size of the moon. How long do you think that would take to build. I mean... lets be realistic... I've seen highway projects last 5 years and that isn't shuttling all the parts and pieces into outter space. I think 20 years is conseravative.

#2 - All the scenes took place in areas where the construction had been completed or was near completion. Obviously they had oxygen.

You didn't give any spoilers. This all makes complete sense. Since you just now saw Episode III you aren't a real fan of the genre and should stick with Battlestar Galactica on Sci Fi.

[Vicki Richter]

oh, btw, what bothered me more, was that in "A New Hope" Obi-Wan knew nothing of R2 or Threepio. He acted as though he had never seen them before. Also, in 20 years, how did Obi-Wan go from being like 30, to looking like he was well over 80?

In ESB, Obi-Wan says to Yoda, "That boy was our last hope." And Yoda tells him there is another. How did Obi-Wan forget about the sister?

Obi-wan knew, but all the jedi masters were dead. Hello? How is Leah going to learn the force with Luke dead as well? Nobody would be there to train her. Yoda pointed out that there was another...

It would be like someone saying, "How can we continue TS porn if Vicki Richter retires?!?!" Obviously there are other possibilities and some rational person would say, "You're right we can't" and TS pornography would cease to exist.

OK so it's not like that at all, but you get my point.

[Ironhead]

I can see the bashing coming already for comparing yourself to a Jedi that way, Vicki :D Once it gets rolling you're going to wish you could use that force choke of Vader's. If it gets too bad, I volunteer to "console" you. Jade didn't take me up on the offer the other day, so I figured I'd throw it out there for you ;)

[zerrrr]

Who was used to build the Death Star? Slaves, union employees, nonunion employees, I stay up at night wondering these things. In addition, they could have used a little color in the halls. Everything was white!!! No pictures, nothing.

Sealab 2021 had a bar for employees to kick back. I wonder if the Death Star had any bars or Murphmobiles for that matter.

[Felicia Katt]

I thought Vicki self identified as a Sith, not a Jedi? :twisted:

FK

[likemdom]

You know who I feel sorry for it the workers and contractor who die in Return of the Jedi. You know the guys working on the second unfinished Deathstar.

A fan of the movie "Clerks" I see.?.?

[Ecstatic]

Battlestar: Galactica was crap when I was a kid, I'm not going back to it!!

mds
Key word: "was"; the new series is one of the best SF series ever to air on TV, so far beyond the original it's like comparing Bond's car to Fred Flintstone's.

(Boy, was that a weak simile!)

[Ecstatic]

Hey Vicki, you do know that Leah NEVER learnt the Force in the movies, right?

mds
Couldn't let a woman have that much power, now, could you? :twisted:

[Ecstatic]

Oh, you're waiting on the new BG then like we're waiting on the new Dr Who over here. I understand that there's actually been two new Doctors since the abominable made-for-TV movie back in the 90s!

Anyway, do check it out when it makes it over there. Excellent series.