What’s better 1978 Viper or Star Wars X wing

[Indiana40]

Hello everyone I was just wondering what does everybody think is better the 1978 colonial viper or Star Wars X wing ?

[Cylon-Knight]

Now this is a good question.

I will have to go against the grain and say an X-Wing.

• Doesn't need a mother ship
• Can travel light speed on its own
• Has an astromech to help with repairs - even when in flight
• Has shields
• Has two more lasers
• Armed with torpedoes

[Indiana40]

That’s true But if you look At the viper

Reverse thrust

Its lighter so it would be faster

It’s smaller harder to hit

It can turn better

It got turbo thrust

The pilots have more combat experience

[Cylon-Knight]

Plus they can stow a Turbo Bike

[GoldCylon]

Plus they can stow a Turbo Bike

Double Turbos all the way

[Croft2014]

I thought all of the Colonial and Cylon ships could do light speed on their own. Only way they could travel the distances they do in the time, surely?

[GoldCylon]

I thought all of the Colonial and Cylon ships could do light speed on their own. Only way they could travel the distances they do in the time, surely?

Food for thought. Why is the Rag-Tag-Fleet crawling along in space if all ship could go light speed?

[Croft2014]

Unfortunately, the makers of BG 1978-80 didn't have any science advisors and they didn't set in stone the capabilities and perimeters of the world they created.

[Specter]

Not all of the ragtag ships can go light speed. In "Experiment in Terra," the Galactica temporarily leaves the fleet so it can travel at light speed to rendezvous with the patrol.

[johnnybear]

Wasn't it stated somewhere that some of those ships might fall to pieces if they weren't careful? I know they said that a lot of them shouldn't be out in space but that they had no real choice!
JB

[Cylon-Knight]

The rag-tag fleet, makes sense to me... If people today were told, "quick everyone drive out of town, now" - not everyone would be in brand new, top of the line, sports cars and/or huge SUVs. There would be old beat up cars, minivans, school buses, etc. Totally random collection. I might even be there in my X-Wing

[GoldCylon]

Blahaha "my Xwing"

[Croft2014]

The problem with that is that it damages the credibility of the show. You would need to have faster than light travel if you wanted to move between star systems, possibly between one colony and another ... it's never stated if the 12 colonies are in the same solar system. In story terms it also enables better movement.

[Cylon-Knight]

I wouldn't say that damages the show. Rather, it puts them at a realistic disadvantage that drives drama. They are only as fast as the slowest ship. A perplexing situation to be in the writers never utilized. Send them packing? Abandon the ship and crowd into another? Install parts into it, taking irreplaceable spares from other ships... DRAMA

As for speeding around the Universe...
Thanks to "the Googles," I see it would take 43 minutes to get to Jupiter from Earth going light speed. So, if you were going 1/4 the speed of light, that would make it a few hours trip... still reasonable. Heck, even at 1/10th of the speed of light the trip would still be under 8 hours. It takes me almost 12 hours to drive to Houston, TX from Kansas City, MO. So, it seems credible to me to have interstellar trips of several hours at sub-light speed - even in a light speed society. (I could fly to Houston in 2 hours.) Our real-life space probes took longer to get to Jupiter (MANY YEARS) as they went on a sight-seeing paths and started out poking along, gaining speed. For my times, I'm talking about Colonial ships that *POOF* - go sub-light fast... WITH SCIENCE.

All that said, you're 100% correct they don't ever specify the Colonies' distances from one another. However I'd have to argue they are in the same (maybe large) solar system. Or perhaps systems MUCH closer than our real-life nearest neighbor. Their colonies' societies are completely intertwined and have a sweeping governing body, even television seems unified (i.e. coverage of the Peace Conference ~ news and Pyramid ~ sports). If it took YEARS and YEARS to get between systems (like us and Alpha Centauri - 4+ years away) even at light speed, that, would ruin credibility to me. They'd totally loose touch. There would be no way to have such a unified governing body, laws, armed forces, entertainment, etc. as they do in the series.

[Specter]

In “Experiment in Terra” Apollo describes the Colonies as “a system of twelve planets.”