Although there are times when ships do use reaction mass for propulsion. For example, Admiral Harrington’s force during the Battle of Cerberus maneuvered into position on reaction drives in order to maintain the element of suprise. It was later pointed out by Captain Michelle Henke that this would have failed completley if Honor didn’t happen to have her fleet between the Havenite force and the system’s sun (the exhaust from the reaction drives would have been like flares otherwise).
Also, Minotaur era LACs maneuver primarily with reaction thrusters during combat (something to do with how bow walls interfere with an Impeller Wedge’s ability to maneuver in any direction but forward).
That said, I wouldn’t mind them fudging physics for the sake of storytelling. Do YOU want to watch a spacebattle where every ship has to stay hundreds of kilometers from it’s nearest neighbor, whilst firing invisible beams of energy (and missiles which themselves fire invisible beams of energy) at eachother from beyond visible range?
I assume a space battle, using any technology, would be exciting to those involved in it – who almost certainly will die if they lose. And they are probably experiencing it via some kind of enhanced holographic projection on the main bridge. (Why even look out a porthole?) You could get a lot of dramatic tension just out of watching them watch a dot representing an enemy missile as it approaches the dot representing their own ship. It would be a lot like a submarine-warfare movie, where the world outside the sub is represented only by a periscope image and a sonar ping.
Well yeah, the parts of Independence Day where they are watching all the missiles fly around on the radar was pretty cool, but that kind of thing would get old. Showing only the inside of the ships would require some extraordinarily good acting and directing to carry the scenes without outside special effects, though I suppose they could always just pull a Star Trek II and show random people in corridors getting blown up or fighting fires/rescuing shipmates with blast doors closing as the ship takes damage.
The main thing I would change is just how big the wedges are. I’d make them a fair bit bigger than the ship, but not stretching out for hundreds of kilometers in every direction. This way you could see a squadron of Super Dreadnoughts in formation, and be able to tell that they are in fact in formation, and that we’re not just looking at White Haven’s flagship with another couple of ships off in the distance. Relative speeds for stuff like LAC battles might also be fudged so we can see the LACs dogfighting and swarming the capital ships.
There can be. That said, take that same extraordinary acting/directing and combine it with some niftykeen SFX shots of ships duking it out, and you got yourself some fun.
Cinematically that sounds alot like the battle scenes from The Hunt for Red October, just replace torpedoes with invisible beams. And that was some damned exciting stuff.
BTW, if the Ain’t It Cool link in the OP is correct that David Weber and John McTiernan are working on “a big budget HONOR HARRINGTON film,” it must still be in the early-planning, finding-funding stages. There’s nothing about it on the IMDB, which often has “in production” pages on moves that never actually get produced.
Like the Aintitcool source, I was also at Philcon, and while I didn’t hang out with David Weber I did attend the Q&A during which he discussed the movie. What I remember: Aside from her age, another objection to casting Claudia Christian is that the scriptwriters might be tempted to turn Harrington into Ivanova II (if only to avoid disappointing Ivanova fans), and Harrington simply isn’t Ivanova. An ideal cast would have young, fairly unknown actors in the lead roles and big names in the minor roles. (Kind of like the first Star Wars.) Weber said he wants John Rhys-Davies to play Clinkscales, and that James Earl Jones has been mentioned for Corvoisier.
Check out the latest version of “Pride and Prejudice,” now showing in an art-house theater near you. She’s the female lead, and is quite good. I think she could handle the role of HH pretty well - she comes across as smart, proud but not arrogant, with a wicked sense of humor and a sense of adventure. A similar role to that which she played in “Pirates of the Caribbean,” come to think of it.
Hmm… In general, I had imagined John Rhys-Davies as being Mr. Hauptman of the Hauptman Cartel. Yaknow, a short, pudgy fellow who nonetheless commanded the respect of anyone in the room.
I never imagined Corvoisier as black… but damn, James Earl Jones would be pretty darned good for that role!
I’d also like to see Anthony Stewart Head somewhere, but only because he’s totally awesome.
I always pictured Mark Harmon as being pretty good for Lt. Colonel LaFolette.
Also, David Warner needs to be somewhere, but only because he manages to wander into almost every sci-fi franchise I’ve ever been a fan of (he was even in the Wing Commander movie!).
If they keep the movie at the KISS level , the best one to start the franchise would be On Basilick Station.
It works if your gonna cast an unknown as Harrington , gives you only four ships and a station to build models and CGI for. Both Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5 have both shown that you can have a realistic view of space combat , and not have to leave out the visuals in exchange for bridge tension that would center around a radar screen.
Now if they cast an unknown or a little known in the role as HH , I could still see Claudia Christianson playing the part of lady medusa or Cathy Montaigne.
Well, the Capital of Haven is Noveau Paris so maybe a French accent isn’t that bad.
I really hope this movie gets filmed and that it turns out good. While a lot of possible names have been mentioned here I still agree with those suggesting casting unknown young actors.
Well, both BSG and B5 present a universe where space combat tends to be more of a knife fight than a shoot out.
Claudia Christian wouldn’t fit the physical description of Cathy Montaigne, that is, tall, skinny, blonde and vaguely horse-like in manner. Not sure if Lady Medusa is ever given a description or not, but I thought she was oriental (then again, I might have just assumed that somewhere). Was Esther McQueen ever described?
You’re probably thinking that because her name is Estelle Matsuko. Matsuko is a Japanese given name (which means she has two… but hey, no one’s perfect.)
So, assuming that the actual movie conversation has stalled up a bit, I figured I might ask a random question here, in the Honorverse, it’s not uncommon to see pre-war cruisers trolling around which are smaller than the current generation of destroyers. In a space navy, what differences between destroyers and cruisers would keep the older smaller ships from being reclassified? (Other than tradition, which would be why the tiny HMS Unconquerable is still considered a battlecruiser in the same sense that the USS Constitution is still a frigate).
