Star Wars vs Star Trek – How Science Fiction Failed Us
June 18, 2010 - By Phineas Delgado
Well, friends, I apparently got some people fired up with last week’s article on Space Battles. Apparently, I broke an unwritten rule that says that you can’t pit one universe’s technology against another’s without committing the worst faux pas since Princess Leia unwittingly kissed her brother after calling her future husband a “scruffy-looking Nerf herder”. But I’ve never been one to follow the rules, really, particularly ones that no one has ever bothered to write down. So that said, it’s time we settled this age-old dispute once and for all.
OK before we continue, I wanted to explain the rules of engagement (who knew I would find a use for the Law of Armed Conflict outside the military… and yes, there is such a thing… and yes, they enforce it… back on topic now). There are a few sites that have already gone into great detail about how the Empire would trounce the Federation (and anyone else in the Trek universe), but much of it is based on scientific data and guessing. The technology in Lucas’ universe is very different than that in the Trek franchise because Lucas’ story takes place “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” so he can pretty much just make things up. Star Trek takes place in the future, sure, so there are liberties, but it’s OUR future, so it had to have a foundation in real science, or it would have been unbelievable. With that in mind, I discovered something odd about the “science” of the two universes, and thusly, the arguments in favor of an Empire squash. Here’s what I discovered:
Star Wars does things on an epic scale, which alone makes it the favorite to win. But there are some major inconsistencies that mainly deal with the power of the weapons being used and the power output of the items. This is the main problem with trying to compare the two sciences. In Star Wars power output is measured in Watts, which is something we are very familiar with. A watt is a measurement of the amount of work it takes to move an object one meter in one second against a force of one Newton (sorry for the science talk, but I had to show you why some people are just too serious about this stuff). Trek measures its power output in a unit called “dynes” which makes more sense since we are talking about a propulsion system. A dyne is the measure of how much force it takes to accelerate a mass of one gram over one centimeter per second every second. Brain hurt yet?
How do watts compare to dynes? Well a single Watt would be equal to a force of 100,000 dynes over one meter ever second. Now that I’ve fried your brains a little, consider this: a single Imperial-I class Star Destroyer can produce about 7.75 x 1024 W (just for reference, a gigawatt would be 109 watts… the Flux Capacitor in Back to the Future only needed 1.21 gigawatts of power to TRAVEL THROUGH TIME… really?!… and our SUN puts out about 4 x 1026 watts of power, a mere 100 times more than the ISD… yeah… overkill, I think). Meanwhile, a standard Federation starship (in this case Voyager) can produce roughly 4,000 Teradynes, or 1010 watts, of power. Since the Star Wars ships are on the order of 10 to 20 times more massive, but produce 100 TRILLIONS TIMES more power… I think the Star Wars folks are overestimating a little bit.
Wow, for the first time since starting this article back in March, I had to stop and take a break from it. The science was starting to be too much (and if it’s too much for me, I KNOW it’s too much for you). I think I’ve discovered the fundamental flaw in any comparison of these two genre’s though (and apologies to the person who seems to have devoted many hours to the systematic tearing down of the Star Trek universe for the glory of the Galactic Empire). Star Trek is quite honestly too different from other Science Fiction universes in how it portrays Space Travel, ships, crews, and space combat in general. It has no fighters, and no large capital style ships. The best analogy I can come up with is that the Star Trek ships are more akin to submarines while other universes, including Star Wars use surface ships.
Think about it for a moment. The battles in Trek are slower, more calculated and usually involve torpedoes. The ships maneuver to try to get out of optimal firing lines. Other universes usually have large capital ships duking it out while their fighters work to get close enough to fire powerful missiles or torpedoes of their own. That’s more like how surface naval vessels fight today. Since it’s our only point of reference, that makes sense. Of course, space battles would probably be nothing like what’s presented in either universe, but it’s all we’ve been given to work with.
So what we’re left with is this: Star Wars overestimates and uses impossible physics while Star Trek just makes up units and particles, like “isotons” and “rapid nadions”. Comparing these two is like comparing Al Gore to George Bush; they’re both full of crap, but different kinds of crap. With that in mind, I present the following scenario. Please take it in with the appropriate grain of salt.
Imagine a scenario where a fleet of Imperial ships drops out of hyperspace and into our galaxy. They land on the nearest planet and claim it, subjugating the residents. Those residents happen to be Romulan. See, that’s what’s never considered. It’s always Federation vs. Empire, but that’s not how it would go down. The residents of this galaxy have shown more than once that they are willing to put petty differences aside to fight for a common goal. They did it against the Borg and again against the Dominion. Now they will do it against the Empire.
Seeing the strength of the Imperial Fleet (let’s say 30-40 ships, including a Super Star Destroyer and assorted support ships), the Romulans contact the Federation and their Klingon allies and ask for assistance against the massive ships. The Romulan fleet would be about 40 ships, with the D’deridex and Mogai classes at the front, the Klingons would commit 20-30 of their own ships, with at least 4 Negh’Var battleships, and the Federation would send a numbered fleet, which would number anywhere from 50 to 150 ships, so let’s make it an even 100 (the 12th fleet was 112 ships).
When the combined fleet warped in, they would be greeted by patrolling Tie Fighters, would be easily dispatched, but not before they communicated to the larger ships. The battle would begin the way all Imperial battles begin, with an onslaught of fighters. It would take the destruction of several smaller vessels at the hands of Ion Cannons and Proton Torpedoes to get the Trek Fleet to begin rotating shield and power frequencies, to lessen the impact of the Ion Cannons.
Eventually, the Federation flagship identifies the patterns and send orders to set phasers to wide area dispersal, which destroys the fighters in large groups, all while keeping outside the capital ships effective range. Several Stormtrooper carriers actually make it and attach to the hulls of the larger vessels, but find that the Klingons are more than a match for them in ground combat. The Romulan and Federation vessels are equipped with sensors that allow them to track the invaders, and they are easily cordoned off into cargo bays.
As the combined fleet moves to engage the Imperial Fleet, the Super Star Destroyer hits the Klingon flagship with its primary guns and destroys it in a few shots. The Trek group scatters and begins engaging the ships in groups of 4 or 5 at a time. The Imperials are scoring plenty of hits and find that the shielding of the smaller ships is no match for the power of their lasers, but also that the smaller more agile ships are more difficult to hit, even with computer guidance. The Klingons focus on the Super Star Destroyer, and two of the Battleships, badly damaged, ram into the large capital ship, disabling it. It goes badly for both sides.
In the end, I see the Empire losing 10 ships totally, with another 15 badly damaged or completely disabled with the fighters being a total loss. The Federation loses 75 ships, the Klingons all of theirs, and the Romulans managed to escape with a loss of only 15 (because gravity well generators don’t prevent warp travel, only hyperspace travel). But this is only a single battle and the Imperials are cut off from reinforcements. The Federation eventually develops technology that allows them to transport torpedoes directly to critical components if the Imperial shields are down, or beaming warp cores directly into the path of moving ships, causing massive damage.
In the end, the Imperials lose, but the Federation, Romulan and Klingon fleets are decimated and will take years to recover fully. Keep in mind the Imperials only lose because they are cut off from resupply and reinforcement. In a balanced scenario where resupply is not an issue, or in a single engagement, I have to say Empire wins every time. Size and numbers matter.
Of course, they could always just find a Doomsday machine or two…
Related posts:
- Space Battles – How Science Fiction Failed Us
- Alien Life – How Science Fiction Failed Us
- Time Travel – How Science Fiction Failed Us
- Parallel Worlds – How Science Fiction Failed Us
- Light Speed – How Science Fiction Failed Us.
I have te say, very well put together. ‘m liking yer way o’puttin science te our science fiction.
I dont see how a fully armored storm trooper is going to fall to a klingon. No offence but lets compare the two.
Stormtrooper fully armored, fully automatic blaster, fights in well organised groups. thousands per star destroyer.
klingon. knife, gun simiautomatic, stratagy includes charging enimies (who have guns) with knife.
Getting images of storm trooper actually stop shooting because they are confussed at why an unorganized mob is charging them with mere knives, the klingon stabiing at stormtroopers and as the knife bounces off the storm trooper armor the stormtrooper laughing so hard he has trouble standing, then the klingon stabbing again gets his knife stuck in the stormtroopers armor at which point the stormtrooper sticks his blaster in the klingons gut and ends him.
1. it would likely never get so far as boarding. The Klingons would never allow themselves to be boarded in the first place. With large dreadnaught ships, the imperials would send hundreds of troops to their deaths because all ships in Trek have something most ships in Wars don’t have… a self-destruct mechanism.
2. Any Klingon ship that was badly damaged would attempt to ram into the Imperials. Since the Trek ships can do something else the Wars ships can’t (move at FTL speeds over short distances), one solid ramming maneuver from a ship as small as a bird of prey could cripple or destroy even the largest imperial ship.
3. Taking ONLY film references.. we all know stormtroopers can’t aim for crap, despite what Obi-Wan said on Tatooine. And that armor has a lot of chinks in it where hand-to-hand combat is concerned. A single blaster shot won’t drop a Klingon like it would a human. It would take a lot. and Stormtrooper armor doesn’t strike me a “bat’leth” resistant.