# The physics behind the Death Star superlaser



## slind1 (Jun 17, 2006)

Hi All,

I'm not a laser guy but after I read this I couldn't help thinking this would be a great CPF topic...

http://techrepublic.com.com/5254-62...3893&messageID=2032148&id=1383826&tag=nl.e101

Steve


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## PhotonWrangler (Jun 17, 2006)

In the original Star Wars movie, when they cut to a close-up of a hand operating a sliding bar that fired the weapon that blew up the planet, that "weapon" that you saw in the guy's hand was the fader bar on a Grass Valley video production switcher. I've used them and I've never blown up a planet with one.


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## Ken_McE (Jun 17, 2006)

PhotonWrangler said:


> a hand operating a sliding bar that fired the weapon that blew up the planet, that "weapon" that you saw in the guy's hand was the fader bar on a Grass Valley video production switcher. I've used them and I've never blown up a planet with one.



You have to use the right amp...


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## pixar (Jun 17, 2006)

Working within the broadcast industry (BBC) that has been a running joke ever since it was used in the movie. Still, %99 of the population or more would have no idea.

It's similar to when sci-fi shows incorporate robots and advanced technology and then show a PCB with some common resistors, tranny's, etc, and 74 series chips


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## Cliffnopus (Jun 17, 2006)

Ken_McE said:


> You have to use the right amp...


:laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: 

Cliff


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## Manzerick (Jun 17, 2006)

Use the force 



PhotonWrangler said:


> In the original Star Wars movie, when they cut to a close-up of a hand operating a sliding bar that fired the weapon that blew up the planet, that "weapon" that you saw in the guy's hand was the fader bar on a Grass Valley video production switcher. I've used them and I've never blown up a planet with one.


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## PhotonWrangler (Jun 17, 2006)

Ken_McE said:


> You have to use the right amp...


:laughing:


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## The_LED_Museum (Jun 17, 2006)

pixar said:


> It's similar to when sci-fi shows incorporate robots and advanced technology and then show a PCB with some common resistors, tranny's, etc, and 74 series chips


Even on the Star Trek:TNG episode "Samaritan Snare", Geordi was on a Pakled ship doing repairs, and he holds up (in plain sight) a 1980s-era printed circuit board stuffed with all kinds of discrete components - hardly what one might expect to see in the 24th century.


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## PhotonWrangler (Jun 18, 2006)

The_LED_Museum said:


> Even on the Star Trek:TNG episode "Samaritan Snare", Geordi was on a Pakled ship doing repairs, and he holds up (in plain sight) a 1980s-era printed circuit board stuffed with all kinds of discrete components - hardly what one might expect to see in the 24th century.


 
Lol! At least they didn't hold up a chassis from a 5-tube AM radio... :laughing:


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## Hikaru (Jun 18, 2006)

Ken_McE said:


> You have to use the right amp...



yeah...it has to go all the way to 11!


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## Kiessling (Jun 18, 2006)




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## Topper (Jun 18, 2006)

PhotonWrangler said:


> In the original Star Wars movie, when they cut to a close-up of a hand operating a sliding bar that fired the weapon that blew up the planet, that "weapon" that you saw in the guy's hand was the fader bar on a Grass Valley video production switcher. I've used them and I've never blown up a planet with one.



Of course not, that planet was blown up "long ago and far away"
so even if you were close enough it was still "long ago"
You might try changing some resistors or adjusting the pot then slide that
baby one more time.
Topper


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## nero_design (Jun 18, 2006)

The student theorised that he could calculate the energy required for The Death Star to destroy a planet. But was that a non-specular dark coloured planet with little cloud cover like Tattooine or a specular, reflective planet with plenty of cloud cover like Alderaan?

I'd like to point out that the planet Alderaan had a specular surface which would have deflected a portion of the Death Star's laser energy. It was also a cloudy day at the point of impact (see pic) and as we all know, 532nm laser wavelengths are not easily absorbed by such a light surface colour.






*Alderaan was a Specular planet with a reflective cloud cover which should have deflected much of the laser energy.*


Since we know that Alderaan was the first planet for the Death Star's Primary Weapon to be tested on, we can only assume that they gave it more power than needed in order to do the job. Essentially, they needed to have erred on the side of caution.





*Tattooine was a reddish-earth-toned planted with no cloud cover to help deflect the 532nm laser light from the Primary Weapon of the Death Star. It would have absorbed the energy more effectively.*

But what happens when your laser outputs more power than it's conversion crystals and lenses are rated to allow for? We know that from Star Wars Canon, power cells and crystals fuel the lightsabers so it makes sense to assume that similar energies were required from the main reactor aboard the Death Star to generate the power for the lasers.

Since the Death Star was essentially an untested prototype with more power than it actually needed and it was flown by a crew who were inexperienced with such a spacecraft or it's weapons in the past, it is logical to assume that the same crew/machinery/electronics/defect ratio would have existed at the time of the Death Star's manufacture. 





*A Death Star user bickers amongs his peers over the pro's and con's of using his new laser in the public environment against FDA approval. *

So they fire their main guns and demolish a planet. Clearly they didn't have to do this, they were just having fun with their new toy and wanted something to write about in the Forums. But I propose that the use of the primary weapons with an untested armament by an inexperienced crew would have damaged the lensing array. Would they have overlooked such a flaw in the design? Of couse! It was one of a series of flaws that allowed the Death Star to be destroyed at the end of the film by Rebels "Exploiting a weakenss and flaw in the station's design."





*Rebel Pilots argue the merits of the Death Star's flawed design. Clearly there was no return policy or after-sales-service available at the time. Then again, this all took place a long time ago...*

In the end, Luke Skywalker (a whiny redneck) destroys the Death Star with two very well placed Photon torpedos fired into the "Small exhaust Port, right below the main port", triggering a reaction that destroys the main reactor and destroy's the Death Star. Right? Not necessarily!

Luke is basically an idiot. 
* He get's walked all over by his cranky uncle. 
* He picks a dud robot that the jawa's are pushing and get's ripped off.
* He's tricked by a "stupid" Robot (R2D2) - which is also considered to be an imbecille by other robots - into removing it's restraining bolt.
* He gets mugged for spare parts by the Sand People.
* He offends the bartender (Mod) by bringing in droids.
* He's so dumb that on his first trip to mos Eisley, he gets into a fight where some guy looses an arm due to a laser. Luke picked the fight. 
* He get's ripped off when he sells his landspeeder to gather funds for his trip into space.
* He stands in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon and exclaims: "What's that flashing?!!" before getting warned off by the pilot trying to save their skins.
* Ben tells Luke that The Force gives him control over weak minds. When Ben suffers accute laser injury playing with his handheld laser with one of his former students, he tells Luke "Run, Luke Run!" and Luke runs away! This proves that he's feeble minded - based on Ben's earlier explaination/statement.
* Luke argues with experienced combat veteran pilots about the odds of success when he's never flown a spacecraft before in his life.
* Luke fails in his first Death Star Trench Run.
* He almost crashes his fighter whilst firing blindly at the Death Star's surface.
* Luke, who has never been religious, turns off his targeting computer during a skitzophrenic eposide when he hear's a voice in his head telling him to take stupid risks.





*Yet another Oversight by the Death Star design crew - Turbo Lasers that were too slow to track the enemy fighters*

So did Luke destroy the Death Star? I say no. Luke was just as much an idiot during the Trench run as he was the day before where the movie picks up. As a screw-up, he fired his torpedos (AFTER turning off his guidance and targeting computer!) at the exact moment the Death Star was preparing to fire it's primary weapons. It was by sheer co-incidence that Lukes final salvo was launched just as the Death Star fired it's lasers... the same lasers which were overheated and likely damaged THE DAY BEFORE when Alderaan was destroyed by it. We know the Death Star was new and untested. We know that there were no nearby spare parts had the units been damaged the day before. We also know that the only remaining pilot capable of destroying the Death Star (with it's excessively flawed design) was an idiot. Even Han Solo (an experienced pilot) said that he "had flown from one side of the galaxy to the other and {he'd} never seen ANYTHING that would make him believe in an all-powerful Force".

Clearly, the Death Star suffered catastrophic failure from the previous day's overheating during testing of the prototype weapons. Weapons which were as poorly designed as the outer defences and exhaust ports were. The damaged components resulted in backflash and triggered an immediate self destruction. 

__________________________

/Worked on Star Wars.

/Not a geek.


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## x-ray (Jun 18, 2006)

Fantastic


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## dr_lava (Jun 18, 2006)

thanks for a good laugh, nero! that was the most fantastic thing of the day!

ps- being this happened long ago in a galaxy far far away, depending on how far and long, we may be able to see the planet exploding soon! maybe with the dark-side moon based super telescope.


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## Kiessling (Jun 18, 2006)

:twothumbsup:
GREAT !


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## SuperNinja (Jun 18, 2006)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJumh5OIIXE


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## badhorsey (Jun 20, 2006)

Actually, the Death star's first test was on the uninhabited planet Despayre, which has been described as barren and lifeless... well, it is now.

But the burning question is: What sort of pump diode did they use in the Death Star? And was it pot-moddable?


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## nero_design (Jun 20, 2006)

badhorsey said:


> Actually, the Death star's first test was on the uninhabited planet Despayre, which has been described as barren and lifeless... well, it is now.
> 
> But the burning question is: What sort of pump diode did they use in the Death Star? And was it pot-moddable?



Nope, George Lucas reserves the right to ignore anything not Cannon/Law - that includes just about everything not written by himself. To defend my statement that Alderaan was indeed the first planet destroyed by the Death Star, I offer you these quotes directly from the film.
__________________________________________________

*Star Wars - 'A New Hope'*: 

TARKIN: "Lord Vader will supply us with the location of the Rebel fortress *by the time this station is operational.* We will then crush the Rebellion with one swift srtroke".

{Clearly the station was not in operation)


To prove that the station had not destroyed a planet at this time, a futher set of lines from the script (also spoken by Governor Tarkin (/Peter Cushing):

TARKIN: "Princess Leia, before your execution I would like you to be my guest at *a ceremony that will make this station fully operational*. No star system will dare oppose the Emperor now."

LEIA: "The more you tighten your grip ..."(blah blah blah)

TARKIN: "Not after we demonstrate the power of this station. In a way, you have determined the choice of *the planet that'll be destroyed first.* Since you are reluctant to provide us with the location of the Rebel base, I have chosen to *test this station's destructive powers* on your home planet of *Alderaan* ."... 

There's another reference in an earlier scene where Tarkin is informed that the Death Star's innitial checkout is complete and the station is only now operational... Tarkin then orders the Death Star be plotted a new course to *test* it's weapons on Princess Leia's home planet (Alderaan).

/now, are we going to cover that other geeky/laser-laser-argument?:
*Can a Lightsaber Cut Through Admantium?*


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## Navck (Jun 20, 2006)

Now, heres something to ponder - How would they even bend light in the first place to cause the primary beam we see? Unless they have tactical singularitys, I highly dobut that'll happen with a "superlaser." Personally, I think its a particle beam weapon [Possibly matter/anti matter collision]



















But don't ask me, I design space capital ships. (  )


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## WAVE_PARTICLE (Jun 21, 2006)

NO! *NO!* *NO!* *NO!!!!*


Don't you guys realize that the Death Star's laser canon is actually the Wave Motion Gun borrowed from the Space Cruiser Yamato?

I mean.....comon! :shakehead 



Here's a little tidbit on the technology:

"Wave motion" energy systems take inert space matter, such as dust and gas, and convert it to tachyon energy particles. A tachyon particle is a particle that moves faster than the speed of light (as opposed to slower particles which are collectively called tardyons). Modern physics tells us that it is impossible to accelerate a tardyon past the speed of light without infinite energy. If tachyons do exist, they must already be moving at speeds greater than that of light. However, it is obvious that the Space Cruiser Yamato (and now the Death Star) has this circumvented.

Anyhow, the rift in space cause by decelerating tachyon particles can cause intense releases of energy. Thus, this can be used as a weapon. The particle energy they fire is generated by the sudden decompression of tachyon charges. Energy converts to matter (actually, more like particle plasma) which should be powerful enough to annihilate a planet.

See? See?!???!? I mean.... comon!!!!! :shakehead


WP


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## jkaiser3000 (Jun 21, 2006)

This is all heresay. At least some people would say so. I, for one, could only laugh with all these explanations :lolsign:


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## pixar (Jun 22, 2006)

I thought most people knew it's all hearsay. Lets face it, as far as space travel itself is concerned, even if we could travel at, near, or faster than light, there are much greater problems to overcome, and for most scientists, not be overcome by any understanding we have at present - these are a force field to stop fragments in space blasting a hole through a fast traveling ship, gravity systems, and the fact that in the direction of travel, as you speed up you stretch out to infinity - so, to stop being pulled apart (the ship, people, objects, etc), every sub-atomic particle must be accelerated at the same speed at exactly the same time - almost impossible to see how that lot can be arranged


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## DCFluX (Jun 22, 2006)

It was a Grass Valley 1600-3F, Very common in LA at ABC studios, they still use them today.



PhotonWrangler said:


> In the original Star Wars movie, when they cut to a close-up of a hand operating a sliding bar that fired the weapon that blew up the planet, that "weapon" that you saw in the guy's hand was the fader bar on a Grass Valley video production switcher. I've used them and I've never blown up a planet with one.


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## nerdgineer (Jun 22, 2006)

nero_design said:


> *...Turbo Lasers that were too slow to track the enemy fighters...*


LOL. I really enjoyed your story, and very nice formatting work. I have always suspected that the rebellion had a high level mole in the Imperial Military Design House. How else could you explain the slow turbo lasers you mention and:

1. How the TIE fighters - which are intended as space superiority fighters - could limit the pilot to one tiny viewport forward and a little window overhead, period. That thing was one flying blind spot. Real air/space superiority craft try to maximize pilot visibility (look at an F-15 canopy).

2. The rebellion X wings had windshields typical of ground attack aircraft (no rear visibility) - reasonable since they were probably jury rigged Imperial surplus, but still not good.

3. What were the Imperial Storm Trooper suits good for? They couldn't stop anything, including tennis ball size rocks thrown by 2 foot tall Ewoks. All they did was limit vision and allow Luke to masquerade as one. If they were vacuum suits, someone should have written in the manual that you should take them OFF when there's breathable atmosphere.

4. Regarding the albedo of Alderan and associated backscatter of the planet killer laser blast: given the 10 to a lot power of the laser, I would think that even a LITTLE backscatter would make you want to be VERY far from Alderan when you let go. I would think at least the front side of the Death Star would have been shielded up the wazoo. I guess that ploy didn't work though - not enough backstatter to take out the Death Star first shot.

5. In the Return of the Jedi, the rebels take out the big Imperial Star Destroyer (a misnomer) by crashing into the geodesic shield generator first and then ramming the bridge. I did note that the one thing which was happened to be sticking outside of the Star Destroyer's shield protection was the...shield generator. Also, unless they're using their eyeballs to guide the fight, putting the control center of a ship outside like that is inviting incoming. All warships I know of have the control center inside, usually below the waterline.

And on and on. Like I said, a rebel mole inside the design bureau, with a lot of yes men engineers working under him/her. My guess is it would have been a her...


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## AJ_Dual (Jun 22, 2006)

Insanely irresponsible. Stunts like this make all us laser users look bad.

I'm sure there were multiple aircraft operating in Alderaan's atmosphere at the time...


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## pixar (Jun 22, 2006)

Yeah, and apparently there were no safety interlocks - someone has a bad day and woomp, there goes another planet.


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## TinderBox (UK) (Jun 22, 2006)

I was wondering what the lite-sabers power sorce was when it was cutting through that door in the first movie.

If you could make a large version, just fire it at a planet like a missile.

like a hot knife through butter to the planets core.

regards.


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## SuperBert (Jun 22, 2006)

TinderBox (UK) said:


> I was wondering what the lite-sabers power sorce was when it was cutting through that door in the first movie.
> 
> If you could make a large version, just fire it at a planet like a missile.
> 
> ...




Darth Vader goes to the corner walgreens and picks up a value pack of "D" cells when his saber starts to fade







Everyone knows this....


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## Navck (Jun 22, 2006)

nerdgineer said:


> LOL. I really enjoyed your story, and very nice formatting work. I have always suspected that the rebellion had a high level mole in the Imperial Military Design House. How else could you explain the slow turbo lasers you mention and:
> 
> 1. How the TIE fighters - which are intended as space superiority fighters - could limit the pilot to one tiny viewport forward and a little window overhead, period. That thing was one flying blind spot. Real air/space superiority craft try to maximize pilot visibility (look at an F-15 canopy).
> 
> ...



Let me sum this up in the typical teenage highschoolers that surround me

1. BECUZ DER LIEK SEWOOO TOTLAIE LIEK KEWL
2. DEWD LUKE UZES DUH FORC
3. DER LEET LOOKIN
4. WUT U SAY
5. LOLOLZOLROSLOMSDFGOSMOGMSADGAFGIKAIK BECUZ ITS LIEK SO KEWL AND I LUV STARWARZ BECUZ ITS LIEK WHEN STUF LIEK HAPPENS

:green:

Heres my explination that usually fails to most teenagers who can't understand space combat

1. They're ment to be fodder, and someone can't design a superiority fighter
2. See 1
3. They're ment to be fodder, look cool, and someone can't design a proper combat suit
4. Contact George Lucas, he'll yell at you for questioning why his movies aren't realistic. Most movie directors like to call it "artistic merit" :green:
5. Actually I see people who design spacecraft, and put the bridge at the most vulnerable place, for fun and "ITS LIEK TOTLAIE LIEK KEWL N LIEK STUF". Anyone who has a functioning brain and uses at least 1% would think thats a bad spot to put it. "Use cameras instead, who needs a glass window"

Example of this
http://img158.imageshack.us/my.php?image=15so5.jpg
We can already guess where the bridge is on these things. "Artistic Merit"

http://img160.imageshack.us/img160/2872/chiemriasiekanii5kp.jpg
If anyone could find the bridge on this thing, they would win a cookie. I placed it carefully away from all the explosive weapons on the ship. (No, its not the gold thing with green stripes. Thats just a very large retracting sensor.)

http://img63.imageshack.us/my.php?image=falteriderusii6oj.jpg
Same concept on this picture, the things sticking out on the "top" are not the bridge(s). If anyone is able to tell me where the bridge is in one guess, they win a cookie. (No, it is NOT visible on the outside.)


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## FNinjaP90 (Jun 22, 2006)

I would be embarrased to show this thread on the other forums that I visit.


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## Chief117 (Jun 22, 2006)

Since we are all having a good time making fun of star wars, I thought that I would share this great review of "revenge of the sith" with all of you. Its long, but I couldnt stop laughing at all.

"Sith. What kind of a word is that? Sith. It sounds to me like the noise that emerges when you block one nostril and blow through the other, but to George Lucas it is a name that trumpets evil. What is proved beyond question by “Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith,” the latest—and, you will be shattered to hear, the last—installment of his sci-fi bonanza, is that Lucas, though his eye may be greedy for sensation, has an ear of purest cloth. All those who concoct imagined worlds must populate and name them, and the resonance of those names is a fairly accurate guide to the mettle of the imagination in question. Tolkien, earthed in Old English, had a head start that led him straight to the flinty perfection of Mordor and Orc. Here, by contrast, are some Lucas inventions: Palpatine. Sidious. Mace Windu. (Isn’t that something you spray on colicky babies?) Bail Organa. And Sith.

Lucas was not always a rootless soul. He made “American Graffiti,” which yielded with affection to the gravitational pull of the small town. Since then, he has swung out of orbit, into deep nonsense, and the new film is the apotheosis of that drift. One stab of humor and the whole conceit would pop, but I have a grim feeling that Lucas wishes us to honor the remorseless non-comedy of his galactic conflict, so here goes. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his star pupil, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), are, with the other Jedi knights, defending the Republic against the encroachments of the Sith and their allies—millions of dumb droids, led by Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) and his henchman, General Grievous, who is best described as a slaying mantis. Meanwhile, the Chancellor of the Republic, Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), is engaged in a sly bout of Realpolitik, suspected by nobody except Anakin, Obi-Wan, and every single person watching the movie. Anakin, too, is a divided figure, wrenched between his Jedi devotion to selfless duty and a lurking hunch that, if he bides his time and trashes his best friends, he may eventually get to wear a funky black mask and start breathing like a horse.

This film is the tale of his temptation. We already know the outcome—Anakin will indeed drop the killer-monk Jedi look and become Darth Vader, the hockey goalkeeper from hell—because it forms the substance of the original “Star Wars.” One of the things that make Episode III so dismal is the time and effort expended on Anakin’s conversion. Early in the story, he enjoys a sprightly light-sabre duel with Count Dooku, which ends with the removal of the Count’s hands. (The stumps glow, like logs on a fire; there is nothing here that reeks of human blood.) Anakin prepares to scissor off the head, while the mutilated Dooku kneels for mercy. A nice setup, with Palpatine egging our hero on from the background. The trouble is that Anakin’s choice of action now will be decisive, and the remaining two hours of the film—scene after scene in which Hayden Christensen has to glower and glare, blazing his conundrum to the skies—will add nothing to the result. “Something’s happening. I’m not the Jedi I should be,” he says. This is especially worrying for his wife, Padmé (Natalie Portman), who is great with child. Correction: with children.

What can you say about a civilization where people zip from one solar system to the next as if they were changing their socks but where a woman fails to register for an ultrasound, and thus to realize that she is carrying twins until she is about to give birth? Mind you, how Padmé got pregnant is anybody’s guess, although I’m prepared to wager that it involved Anakin nipping into a broom closet with a warm glass jar and a copy of Ewok Babes. After all, the Lucasian universe is drained of all reference to bodily functions. Nobody ingests or excretes. Language remains unblue. Smoking and cursing are out of bounds, as is drunkenness, although personally I wouldn’t go near the place without a hip flask. Did Lucas learn nothing from “Alien” and “Blade Runner”—from the suggestion that other times and places might be no less rusted and septic than ours, and that the creation of a disinfected galaxy, where even the storm troopers wear bright-white outfits, looks not so much fantastical as dated? What Lucas has devised, over six movies, is a terrible puritan dream: a morality tale in which both sides are bent on moral cleansing, and where their differences can be assuaged only by a triumphant circus of violence. Judging from the whoops and crowings that greeted the opening credits, this is the only dream we are good for. We get the films we deserve.






The general opinion of “Revenge of the Sith” seems to be that it marks a distinct improvement on the last two episodes, “The Phantom Menace” and “Attack of the Clones.” True, but only in the same way that dying from natural causes is preferable to crucifixion. So much here is guaranteed to cause either offense or pain, starting with the nineteen-twenties leather football helmet that Natalie Portman suddenly dons for no reason, and rising to the continual horror of Ewan McGregor’s accent. “Another happy landing”—or, to be precise, “anothah heppy lending”—he remarks, as Anakin parks the front half of a burning starcruiser on a convenient airstrip. The young Obi-Wan Kenobi is not, I hasten to add, the most nauseating figure onscreen; nor is R2-D2 or even C-3PO, although I still fail to understand why I should have been expected to waste twenty-five years of my life following the progress of a beeping trash can and a gay, gold-plated Jeeves.

No, the one who gets me is Yoda. May I take the opportunity to enter a brief plea in favor of his extermination? Any educated moviegoer would know what to do, having watched that helpful sequence in “Gremlins” when a small, sage-colored beastie is fed into an electric blender. A fittingly frantic end, I feel, for the faux-pensive stillness on which the Yoda legend has hung. At one point in the new film, he assumes the role of cosmic shrink—squatting opposite Anakin in a noirish room, where the light bleeds sideways through slatted blinds. Anakin keeps having problems with his dark side, in the way that you or I might suffer from tennis elbow, but Yoda, whose reptilian smugness we have been encouraged to mistake for wisdom, has the answer. “Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose,” he says. Hold on, Kermit, run that past me one more time. If you ever got laid (admittedly a long shot, unless we can dig you up some undiscerning alien hottie with a name like Jar Jar Gabor), and spawned a brood of Yodettes, are you saying that you’d leave them behind at the first sniff of danger? Also, while we’re here, what’s with the screwy syntax? Deepest mind in the galaxy, apparently, and you still express yourself like a day-tripper with a dog-eared phrase book. “I hope right you are.” Break me a ****ing give.

The prize for the least speakable burst of dialogue has, over half a dozen helpings of “Star Wars,” grown into a fiercely contested tradition, but for once the winning entry is clear, shared between Anakin and Padmé for their exchange of endearments at home:

“You’re so beautiful.” 
“That’s only because I’m so in love.” 
“No, it’s because I’m so in love with you.” 


For a moment, it looks as if they might bat this one back and forth forever, like a baseline rally on a clay court. And if you think the script is on the tacky side, get an eyeful of the décor. All of the interiors in Lucasworld are anthems to clean living, with molded furniture, the tranquillity of a morgue, and none of the clutter and quirkiness that signify the process known as existence. Illumination is provided not by daylight but by a dispiriting plastic sheen, as if Lucas were coating all private affairs—those tricky little threats to his near-fascistic rage for order—in a protective glaze. Only outside does he relax, and what he relaxes into is apocalypse. “Revenge of the Sith” is a zoo of rampant storyboards. Why show a pond when C.G.I. can deliver a lake that gleams to the far horizon? Why set a paltry house on fire when you can stage your final showdown on an entire planet that streams with ruddy, gulping lava? Whether the director is aware of John Martin, the Victorian painter who specialized in the cataclysmic, I cannot say, but he has certainly inherited that grand perversity, mobilized it in every frame of the film, and thus produced what I take to be unique: an art of flawless and irredeemable vulgarity. All movies bear a tint of it, in varying degrees, but it takes a vulgarian genius such as Lucas to create a landscape in which actions can carry vast importance but no discernible meaning, in which style is strangled at birth by design, and in which the intimate and the ironic, not the Sith, are the principal foes to be suppressed. It is a vision at once gargantuan and murderously limited, and the profits that await it are unfit for contemplation. I keep thinking of the rueful Obi-Wan Kenobi, as he surveys the holographic evidence of Anakin’s betrayal. “I can’t watch anymore,” he says. Wise words, Obi-Wan, and I shall carry them in my heart.



"


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## Greenlead (Jun 22, 2006)

The_LED_Museum said:


> Even on the Star Trek:TNG episode "Samaritan Snare", Geordi was on a Pakled ship doing repairs, and he holds up (in plain sight) a 1980s-era printed circuit board stuffed with all kinds of discrete components - hardly what one might expect to see in the 24th century.


They're Pakleds, they aren't very smart.


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## OldGreyGuy (Jun 22, 2006)

PhotonWrangler said:


> that "weapon" that you saw in the guy's hand was the fader bar on a Grass Valley video production switcher.


I have never understood why you needed something like a fader type switch, are you going to turn the thing on with varying power levels? Are you only going to half obliterate your target?

Get it right Lucas, it is a Death Star, the switch is either on or off, nothing in between. If you want varying power levels use another dial, turn it up to 11 as someone else pointed out.

Idjit movie director.


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## nero_design (Jun 23, 2006)

Navck said:


> 1. They're ment to be fodder, and someone can't design a superiority fighter
> 2. See 1
> 3. They're ment to be fodder, look cool, and someone can't design a proper combat suit
> 4. Contact George Lucas, he'll yell at you for questioning why his movies aren't realistic. Most movie directors like to call it "artistic merit" :green:
> 5. Actually I see people who design spacecraft, and put the bridge at the most vulnerable place, for fun and "ITS LIEK TOTLAIE LIEK KEWL N LIEK STUF". Anyone who has a functioning brain and uses at least 1% would think thats a bad spot to put it. "Use cameras instead, who needs a glass window"




As a spacecraft designer for film and television, I can assure you that all spacecraft are designed based on what producers have seen on other films. In most cases where I have been asked to design spacecraft, I have been given very specific instructions to design the spacecraft on the ideas from the director/producer... now matter how unimaginative the idea might be.

I'm working on a $60M+ film right now as I write this... and just found a great way to use my lasers to extract and photograph a spiderweb for use in creating nebulas. Will write more about this and post some pics after Novemberrrr.


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