Actually, one might make a case for the relevance of bladed weapons in spacewar . . . In John Maddox Roberts’ SF novel Cestus Dei (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0523485840/qid=1133376053/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-8357406-3872927?n=507846&s=books&v=glance), there’s a scene where the heros board a pirate spaceship and engage the pirates with swords, etc. – which is implied to be the usual tactic in such situations – simply because a projectile weapon might punch a hole in the hull and kill everybody. (As might a blaster or phaser, I suppose.)
So with the light sabre what excatly stops the light … or the energy or whatever the hell it is from continuing upinto the stratoshpere or through the roof? What
makes the stuff hold its shape aside from the collective willing suspension of disbelief of the fans?
As far as Klingon weapons. Well the Bathleth seem designed for looks rather than practicality. Mind you one could try to argue that in a hand held primative weapon melee it could be used more as a defensive weapon to allow the skilled carrier to close in on his opponent deflecting sword blows for a close hand to had attack. It is borad long and could cover a good areat from glacing blows. though one good stab and fergedaboudit.
By that line of thinking, the Jedi will win any one-on-one duel with a non-Jedi, just by his own superior skill/prowess/Force-groktitude.
But even a Jedi could still do more and surer damage, at less personal risk, with a blaster than with a lightsaber.
The plasma or whatever is held by a magnetic field and moves in a stretched out torus. IIRC It moves up on the outside, reaches the tip and flows back toward the handle on the inside of the torus. A geekier friend than I (he once showed me a copy of the itemized bill for what Han owes Jabba), told me that in one of the novels Luke does meet a Jedi who has tweaked his lightsaber for adjustable blade length.
Again, I say that offensive capability increases when the batleth is used one-handed.
My understanding is that Klingons kept the bladed weapons for ceremonial purposes.
It seems to me that there are several real knife and sword designs with such prongs. They’re for catching the opponent’s blade. As to why they are poppable – ease of storage perhaps?
Oh, and the qutluch - I imagine it works pretty much like a regular dagger, except that the irregular forms make the wounds more irregular, and, thus nastier.
Perhaps, but that doesn’t seem applicable to the technology available in Star Trek. Any way, I don’t see why the can’t design bullets that aren’t designed to penetrate hulls, we have glaser rounds these days I imagine we’ll have something better in another cenutry.
Marc
In TNG I only remember the bladed weapons being used when fighting a duel of some sort. In DS9 it was firmly established that bladed weapons, and disruptors I’m sure, were used during boarding actions. Ultimately I guess the answer is that it looks cool and it’s exciting to see fisticuffs instead of shoot outs.
Marc
In his Long Sun series, Gene Wolfe described a hilted weapon he called an Azoth that was very much like what you describe. Unlike a light saber, the “blade” wasn’t visible. It did attenuate at some point well short of the stratosphere but was effectively a ranged weapon.
I just realized another reason. Internal sensors can easily detect phaser or disrupter fire. They don’t pick up stabbings or beheadings.
But I agree that Klingons primarily retain archaic weapons due to honor. If an opponent charges you with a battleth and you shoot him, other Klingons will view you as a dishonorable coward. It should also be noted that Keh’less, the god/hero of the Klingons was said to have made the first battleth by plunging a lock of his hair into a stream of lava. So, the battleth is carried in emulation of him.
[starwars hijack]
General Grevious is some kind of cyborg who uses lightsabres pretty effectively but doesn’t demonstrate any knowledge of The Force. And I can’t imagine how you would keep such technology secret. Jedi mind tricks only work on the weak, so don’t you think someone like Watto would have gotten the plans and built at least one? I would think that every technician, repairman, mechanic, soldier, etc would carry a little lightsabre-type utility knife on his belt.[/starwars hijack]
I’d say that Greivous uses them pretty ineffectively. He has cybernetic reflexes, four lightsabers, and he gets his butt kicked. Compare him to Dooku, who defeats Obi Wan and takes off one of Annakin’s arms. Compare him to Darth Maul who holds off Qui-Gon and Obi Wan, manages to seperate them and kills Qui-Gon. Greivous is stronger and faster than Obi Wan. He has four arms and can use four lightsabers at once. Beyond that, he’s got nothing. Greivous has no skill at swordsmanship. IMO The only reason he can use a lightsaber without killing himself is that his prosthetic body gives him sufficient fine control and speed.
Idunno. I seem to have heard something about a lightsaber needing to be charged through the Force powers of the maker.
WAG There may be laws against it. While the Jedi wouldn’t kill anybody massproducing lightsabers, the Sith sure would.
Apparently, there had been several situations in which his butt had not been kicked. That accounted for the multiple lightsabres in his possession.
A few facts that affected the outcome of that fight: Worf is some sort of bat’leth black-belt, Duras was a cowardly, lazy warrior more used to backstabbing than fair duels, and Duras had just killed Worf’s mate (so Worf was mad enough he’d have kept fighting for 15 minutes after his own death, if necessary). It sucks to be Duras in light of these facts.
Personally, if someone were trying to kill me with a sword and I wasn’t too interested in killing them back, a bat’leth would come in handy. I think it could parry swordstrokes much better than a sword does, as long as you have the strength and endurance to use it.
Unsupported assumption. Unless they showed those fights in the Clone Wars cartoons (I still haven’t seen them), we don’t know for sure how Greivous got those lightsabers. He may have taken them in duels. He may have used a BFG or droid army to kill Jedis and take their lightsabers. They may have been gifts given to him by Darth Sidious, Darth Tyrannus or somebody else in recognition of his continuing success and loyalty.
The Clone Wars cartoons do indeed show Greivous kicking Jedi butt.
Also, dosen't he make at least a passing reference in the movie to his collection of sabers being trophies of past battles? Perhaps he gathered them from dead Jedi after those battles, or was given them, but I would have assumed, even if I had not seen the cartoons, that if he is carring trophies, that he himself had killed the Jedi in question.I admit my error and retract my statement. I can only assume that the cartoon Greivous is more bad ass than the one in the film. Considering that Tartikovsky was behind the cartoons, I’m assuming everybody is more bad ass. But, I suppose a brief appearnance by a Jedi named Saam-U-Raijaq is too much to hope for?
Can we end this Star Wars hijack? This is a Star Trek thread! And we have no patience with geeks 'round here! 
Well, yeah, he was a lot more badass in the cartoon, as was almost everyone, but it’s worth mentioning that Obi Wan Kenobi is indeed more badass than most Jedi. He’s one of the Masters on the Jedi Council for goodness sake. This is the guy who has tea with Yoda and Mace Windu before leading his army off to some place or another.
I don’t recall any of the other Jedi Masters fighting Grevious, with possibly one exception. For the most part, we only see Grevious fighting Clone Troopers, Padawans, and Jedi Knights. He does seem to handle himself well in a light saber duel against a Jedi Knight towards the end of the Clone Wars cartoon, but even by his own admission, he had made sure the knight in question had spent much of her strength fighting a bunch of his bodyguard droids as a diversion first. When Obi Wan fights Grevious on Utapau, it’s the first time they have actually fought eachother.
No, one of the Jedis he fights when we first see him is the cone-headed guy from the Jedi council, and Grievous kicks his ass pretty handily. However, at that point the Jedi had just lost a major battle, and were exhausted and demoralized.