Anyone remember "Vera"?

Sound as we know it, can't travel in the vacuum of space.
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I always "explain" the sound of the ship, and the weapons in space as the sound the people onboard hear, through the air inside their ship.

Exploding the death star, or anything else is space would only be "heard" by the people onboard the exploding vessel.

Film directors, however want/need something both spectacular enough to entertain and familiar enough to be understood by the masses.

If Vera needs oxygen to fire, then whatever it is that she does fire is NOT a self contained cartridge.

One of the traps of sci-fi is that if you make up something, and give it a set of characteristics, based on what a character says it does, or how it works, you cannot go back and change that. A later episode (or a different writer) might want something different to better fit the current plot, and changes something without staying within the logical parameters set in earlier episodes.

Continuity flaw! boo!
 
Actually, gentlemen, NASA proved that to be partially wrong, as electromagnetic radiation can be expressed as sound. There is a web site that has the signals of the various planets as heard by passing spacecraft, and rendered into sound as the "songs of the planets". :) I know, not QUITE the same thing, but it is something. :D
 
"I like how they fixed the problem by putting her in a suit and shooting through the suit's face plate."

Yep, and it's odd how that suit didn't puff up at all from the propellant gas coming out of the muzzle brake... :D
 
And you know, something else just occurred to me...

In one of the episodes they are trying to steal the Lassiter, the first successful laser handgun.

And yet in the series everyone is running around shooting guns using gunpowder and metal bullets.

So much for a successful laser handgun...
 
So many fun toys in the movies and TV! lasers, Phasers, disruptors, blasters, on and on. What the heck is the PPG from Babylon 5 anyway? something electrisical?? :rolleyes:

We got Stens, MG 42s an SMLE and a Broomhandle Mauser in Star Wars (was it the short one? Han "Bolo"? :D)

Calicos in Spaceballs...

Barretts in Robocop (the original, haven't seen the new one yet)

And in the books, its even better!

I want Prince Rodger's rifle! (March Upcountry). Gonna have to re-read that one to be sure of the details, but going from memory, it was a .375(?) caliber, bolt action/semi auto (selectable at need), cases were infinitely reloadable, built in reusable primer, 5 or 10 rnd mag, and a scope that compensated for drop and drift. We can almost do that today...almost...
yeah, I know if we could, only a Prince could afford it, but I can dream...:D
 
the PPG from Babylon 5
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A PPG (an acronym for Phased Plasma Gun) is a type of weapon that fires a bolt of energized, super-heated helium sheathed in an electromagnetic field and propelled by an opposed magnetic field. On impact, the plasma bolt dissipates and discharges its thermal and kinetic energy.

& so now you know.:)

I actually prefer the main gun of the hovertanks in Hammer's Slammers. Its also a PPG of a sort, but the descriptions of the "flaccid, steaming blue plastic" shell being ejected into the turret is just so graphic!:eek:

In the Hammer universe, a powergun is a weapon which projects high energy copper plasma toward its target. This plasma is created by inducing an electrical field in a precisely aligned group of copper atoms; the atoms' alignment causes a resonance which greatly amplifies the field energy and ionizes the atoms. The resulting plasma is directed by a firing chamber and barrel made of refractory metal, such as iridium; the chamber and barrel are cooled between shots by injected gas (typically nitrogen). The copper atoms are stored as individual charges, with the atoms held in the correct alignment by a plastic matrix which is mostly consumed by the firing. All the parts of a powergun require extremely precise machining and advanced materials, which makes powerguns very expensive; only the most successful mercenary units (or technologically advanced planets) can afford large numbers of powerguns. Powerguns are easily identified by the extremely bright cyan color of their plasma bolts; the electrical field also generates a broadband radio frequency discharge which can be picked up by the appropriate equipment. A powergun's recoil is far lower than a projectile weapon of equivalent size or firepower, as the copper atoms have low rest mass; the primary limit for powergun rate of fire is its ability to dissipate heat. Many smaller rapid fire powerguns use a multibarrel configuration, either a rotary gatling or a multi chamber mitrailleuse (the latter called a "calliope" in Slammers military slang.)
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Quote armoredman- "Actually, gentlemen, NASA proved that to be partially wrong, as electromagnetic radiation can be expressed as sound. There is a web site that has the signals of the various planets as heard by passing spacecraft, and rendered into sound as the "songs of the planets". I know, not QUITE the same thing, but it is something. "

I was thinking of that very phenomenon when I wrote my post. Did you hear the "song" of the asteroid we landed on recently?? Pretty cool stuff!


Quote 44 AMP- "I always "explain" the sound of the ship, and the weapons in space as the sound the people onboard hear, through the air inside their ship.

Exploding the death star, or anything else is space would only be "heard" by the people onboard the exploding vessel.

Film directors, however want/need something both spectacular enough to entertain and familiar enough to be understood by the masses.

If Vera needs oxygen to fire, then whatever it is that she does fire is NOT a self contained cartridge.

One of the traps of sci-fi is that if you make up something, and give it a set of characteristics, based on what a character says it does, or how it works, you cannot go back and change that. A later episode (or a different writer) might want something different to better fit the current plot, and changes something without staying within the logical parameters set in earlier episodes.

Continuity flaw! boo!"

Very true... In one respect this is where Firefly got it right... No audible report from Vera as she fired from the suit... but the bad guys in the space station heard the bullets hitting their window...and promptly soiled their nickers!

Because of this thread, I whipped out the Firefly DVD series and started watching last night!

And they say "gun nuts" are a bunch of knuckle-dragging imbeciles! ;)
 
I want Prince Rodger's rifle! (March Upcountry).
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That was a great series, but do you want to through what Prince Roger did in ALL the books just to have that rifle? Pass. :D They devolved to black powder and muscle powered weapons in the end, before they "borrowed" the Saint's ship...

Still want a M-41A Pulse Rifle 10mm caseless rifle with functional over and under 30mm grenade launcher. Not the replica made with a shotgun and Tommy gun. :D
 
No, absolutely do not want to go through all that for the rifle! But I will note that devolved to blackpowder, Rodger's rifle still worked, if not as well. The Marine's bead guns and plasma rifles and grenade launchers were done when their ammo was used up, leaving them to learn pikes and swords.

Gotta love a gun with infinitely reloadable cases with built in everlasting primers! As long as you can scrounge up the raw materials to make some kind of gunpowder and something for a bullet, you are golden! :D

In the Honor Harrington universe despite the high tech, they still use 10mm semi auto pistols as dueling weapons. And, in one instance (not a duel), Honor carries the day because she conceals a 1911 (given to her by her uncle, a creative anachronist) inside a case. Bad guys scan her for weapons, find no power sources, and assume she must be unarmed.

I think there will be a place for cartridge firearms for a long, long time to come. Even after our tech finally produces viable alternatives, even superior ones, regular guns will fade, won't be first line combat or even defensive arms, eventually, But they won't completely go away.
 
this guy goes into the detail behind just about every sci-fi weapon. as long as it is a powered-weapon of some kind
http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/sidearmenergy.php


John Ireland brought my attention to the prototype non-lethal laser dazzler developed by the U.S. Department of Defense. Some comedian gave it the name Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response rifle which has the predictable acronym "PHASR". It is intended for crowd control, using a laser to temporarily (they hope) blind the targets. It is intended to skirt the 1995 UN Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons by not blinding the target permanently. However, researchers noted that these weapons will still permanently damage the target's eyesight if used at close range or for prolonged periods of time.
 
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44AMP, I own every Honor Harrington book, and love them all. Yes, high speed battery powered pulsers rule small arms, but Honor and her 1911, (plus the guns her Uncle uses with the Sphinx SCA, not yet seen), help us get through the missile and graser duels. :)
 
I've never seen the series but I will now....

All these future guns are cool... But will never be as cool as gun powder burning and flinging brass

However a gun that you can throw any ammo and it works would be awesome....

Many years from now, some archeologist is gonna find my AR in in a dig, look at the mag well in amazement... Then proclaim to his colleagues "MULTI-CAL"!!!
 
Being a gun person, things in books, movies, tv that involve guns tend to stick in my memory better than the rest of the plot(s).

One nugget that has stuck with me is from the old Buck Rodgers TV show (late 70s? early 80s?)

one scene, can't remember the rest of the episode at all, just the one scene, Buck sees a table of what you and I know as .30 Browning machineguns. Some even have belts of ammo in them. He asks about them, and is told they were recovered during an archeological dig. "We believe they were some kind of signaling device". Buck nods. A bit later stuff happens, and Buck (who does know what they are and didn't say) grabs one with a belt in it, and ..demonstrates rather conclusively that its not just a signaling device!

PHASR...they could have done a better job with the backstory for that one!

Do you know why a TASER is a TASER?
Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle
the inventor clearly read some of the same books I had!;)

If you like combat SF check out Ringo's work. Not for everyone, some are pretty ..out there, but he has a good grasp on many real world things real soldiers have to deal with, and sets them in various SF situations.

One of them is, that while the other guys will try to kill you, the real enemy is always behind you!
 
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