Something on my mind for a while as I watched many, many episodes of Trek (though the original series up through Voyager; though I can’t stand Enterprise) was that it would be a lot easier to avoid confrontation if the ship would take advantage of the fact that space is 3D.
For example, in the Voyager episode “The Swarm,” a fuss was made about having to fly through the protected space of a vicious species. Is it not possible that they could’ve flown UP one light-year, then gone through?
I mean, given the infiniteness of space, why did everything always take place on a 2D playing field? I understand that it would make for boring episodes if we could avoid enemies that easily, but oy, the concept was never discussed in ANY episode, if I remember correctly.
3D physics only get used a few times through Trek history. The first notable occasion is the Nebula fight at the end of the second film, where the Enterprise essentially ducks straight down for ten kilomters, then pops up again to catch the “intelligent, but inexerienced” Khan. Rather than come at the Reliant at some weird angle, though (you’d expect coming straight “up” or “down” at another ship would give you the biggest target), Kirk just settles into more-or-less the same plane and shoots the Reliant from behind.
The final episode of TNG featured a “come from beneath” move, which is the first time I can recall it being used. DS9 could and did get attacked from all angles, though atackers almost always made a “pass” at the station, implying that like aircraft, spaceships have to maintain forward velocity or they stall, or something. All told, Star Trek was never a good source for realistic space battles (I haven’t caught enough episodes of the newest show to judge it’s credibility). Babylon 5 was a little better, but their ships were all computer-generated and presumably they could stage complex battles more easily. Even then, some allowance has to be made for what will “look right” to an audience, who might largely assume that space battles will resemble air and naval warfare.
In the last episode of TNG, the latest version of the Enterprise uncloaks and attacks a Klingon ship from underneath. During Star Trek II, the Enterprise moves in three dimension during the final battle. These are the only two times I can think of and both were on a tactical level.
I always assumed they did that most of the time (I have vague memories of course plottings looking exceedingly complex), and that various species’ protected space was occasionally just unavoidable. Like, say, if there’s this gigantic cube of Klingon space, right, and bored right into the middle of it, almost out to the other side, is a long column of safe federation space… if the Enterprise has been happily jigging about inside said column, and is at the far end, and then they suddenly and very quickly have to get behind the cube, then they’ll have to go through Klingon space. Either that or go all the way home, then negotiate a ludicrously long journey round the outer edges of the cube, by which time they’ve run out of time.
Look at Foundation - the planet with the encyclopaedia-writers on it gets completely cut off from other civilised worlds. It’s just as easy in 3d as in 2d, it just takes a bit more to be going on, is all. The thing is to remember that in Star Trek the galaxy isn’t mostly empty, it’s mostly heaving with life (at least according to the frequency with which aliens show up). So you’re always in somebody’s space.
Any of this make sense? Cos I’m making it up as I go along.
Yeah, that’s always bugged me, too. Especially since they made it such a big deal in the end battle of ST II. I mean, 3-Dimensional battle tactics should be Standard Operating Procedure for any space-faring vessels, and yet Spock has to nudge Kirk into realizing he can move on the “z” axis and it’s played in the film as though it’s a brilliant move. That whole scene is kind of funny in that it is unintentionally revealing of the flaws and creative limitations of the Star Trek writers who usually think 2-dimensionally, just like Khan. In most of the other movies and television episodes, I will agree that there is some merit to the explanation that a 2-dimensional battle will look less confusing to the viewer.
What I found most entertaining about that part was Kirk ordering Sulu to move “Z minus 10,000” and Sulu executes the command by moving a knob most of the way down the panel. Good thing he didn’t say “Z minus 50,000” because Sulu would have been up the creek. Really people, you can go faster than light but can’t design controls that make sense? Sheesh!
As an aside, having ships ‘make a pass’ at the station doesn’t necessarily imply they need to keep moving like an airplane. Most likely they either want to keep moving so they don’t get hit by return fire, or that they don’t want to be next to the station when it blows.
The 2D thing is a result of naval battles being the inspiration for sci-fi capital ships. Most of the time, it’s WWII in space. The only time you get 3-D is when you have fighters involved, and even then it’s back to 1941… except that the P51’s and Me109’s shoot red beams as they try to maneuver into the 6’oclock position to get a shot off with their forward mounted weapons. Oh well, just like NASCAR, people watch it just to see the wrecks and explosions.
Apparently the battle scenes in Star Wars Ep. IV were taken pretty much frame by frame from WWII movies. The FX guys couldn’t make the battle look quite right without making it look just like a dog fight.
The great thing about that is that if you watch the climactic scene of Dambusters, from which I am reliably informed the Death-Star raid was copied, it looks just like a space battle already because of all the tracer fire.
There is momentum to consider, as well. In the battles at DS9 it is assumed that the ships are moving at relatively slow velocities, and they don’t seem to be designed to maneuver easily when not traveling at warp velocities. It doesn’t look like they would be able to change direction quickly with just a rear-mounted engine, as most designs seem to have.
Realistic space battle would be flashes in the dark anyway, so Hollywood uses the model of air and naval combat because it allows them to get as much action on the screen as they can.
STNG Can’t remember episode title. Tasha’s half Romulan daughter is secretly aidng Lursa and Beytohr in their bid to make their nephew chancellor.
IIRC The web of ships placed on the neutral zone to keep the Romulans from aiding Tural son of Duras was slightly 3-d. Instead of being an arrangement of ships on a plane, it was several layers of ships staggered in 3-d space.
Re Going Around
I think they did address this in some episodes of NextGen when they needed the ship to go through dangerous space. Klingons, Romulans, and the rest don’t have two dimensional territory. Going around it can be time consuming, or pose dangers of its own.
Re Battles Quercus got this one first. A station like DS9 will not be very maneuverable. But, it is heavily shielded and has big guns. The attacking ships tend to have lighter shielding, and small guns, but be very maneuverable. It makes sense that attacking ships would come in quickly, fire, and run away before the station’s guns can target them. I’d say the same holds for smaller craft when attacking a galaxy class federation starship.
My problem with Trek is that ships always meet on the same orientation. I can believe that hostile, or potentiall hostile vessels would rotate themselves to point the most guns and shielding at an enemy. But, you’d think a few federation ships would meet up facing all kinds of different directions.
The only major work of sci-fi that I know of that approached this problem with any sort of detail was Niven’s The Mote In God’s Eye. And I have certainly not ever seen a realistic space battle scene.
I’m sure some others will be posted as the collective might of the Doper Geekdom of Sci-Fi Fans (DGSFF) gets to work on it.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it last, but I seem to remember the enemy approaching from all directions in The Last Starfighter. I’m thinking specifically of when he is fighting a whole lot of ships and he finally presses that one “death plasma” button (or whatever it was called) and his ship spins around and around, rotating around various axes and sending blasts in all 3 dimensions.
