Death Star annihilates the Enterprise

sworm

#1 – 6:41 PM May 10, 2009

Imperial propaganda. I don't believe it.

Brother Provisional

#2 – 7:04 PM May 10, 2009

Dorkgasmic!

jjasper

#3 – 7:09 PM May 10, 2009

Ding dong!

Blue

#4 – 7:58 PM May 10, 2009

This video is not available in your country or domain.

What precious IPs would I be stealing by watching this?

akbar56

#5 – 8:32 PM May 10, 2009

(Nerd filter)

The Enterprise would never be that low in the atmosphere. She would rip apart. Don't get me even started on the Big E being built planet side in the latest film.

(/Nerd filter)

Anonymous

#6 – 8:50 PM May 10, 2009

I'm suprised that the Death Star's laser didn't a. vaporize the atmosphere, or b. rip through the enterprise, then make an Alderaan out of Earth.

pork musket

#7 – 9:05 PM May 10, 2009

@5 Didn't the detached saucer portion of the Enterprise crash into a planet at some point in one of the mives? Didn't rip apart then.

redsquares

#8 – 9:14 PM May 10, 2009

@5

Yeah, that completely took me out of the movie.

akbar56

#9 – 9:31 PM May 10, 2009

@6
If you are referring to the saucer section crashing in Generations (aka the one where Ronald D Moore kills Kirk) then sure. However, it was crashing. Not really a fair comparison.

yeags

#10 – 11:31 PM May 10, 2009

Wow, I like the special effects, but can't the trekkies and star wars fans get along? Seems like a star wars fan is just jealous of the better sci-fi genre. :-)

Observational Rants
www.yeags.com/rant

Auto Parts for Brains

#11 – 1:14 AM May 11, 2009

Oh yeah, I bet my Deathstar can beat up your enterprise. Oh yeah, I bet my Spock can beat up your Obi Wan Kenobi....

There will not be an end to this.

mattofdoom

#12 – 1:18 AM May 11, 2009

Could anyone explain a quick method that would allow me to watch this in the UK?

Apparently, this video is 'not available' in my country or domain.

I had no idea youtube videos could be location-locked!

caipirina

#13 – 3:13 AM May 11, 2009

#11

I first experienced the location lock on youtube when they played around offering full lengths movies ... but now the same for short clips ??? this severally does SUCK

Anonymous

#14 – 4:24 AM May 11, 2009

Artistic license, people. Imagine how boring that video would be in a space setting.
While we are nitpicking nicely along: don't they usually use that death ray to rip apart whole planets and not just puny space ships?

Rickyneck

#15 – 5:35 AM May 11, 2009

Video is nice but Is it real?
I think, this one is the scene from any movie.

Nelson.C

#16 – 5:49 AM May 11, 2009

This may seem a pretty geeky point, but I don't know of any other way to respond to this except geekily... Isn't the Death Star's main weapon designed to destroy planets? Even on a low setting it seems likely that the Enterprise, the bridge, the city, the clone warriors and the camera crew would be wiped out. Also, those Constitution class cruisers are designed to take hits from matter-antimatter photon torpedoes. Anything that would destroy one would certainly lay waste to anything in the vicinity.

So, um, almost certainly faked. ;)

dculberson

#17 – 6:41 AM May 11, 2009

akbar56, I figured the Enterprise was being "dry-fitted" earth side and then would be lifted in pieces into orbit and reassembled. That makes sense to me, at least.

[nerd]

But to your point of "it would be ripped apart:" Bull shit. The forces involved in going to warp, or even just to an impulse speed, would be so far beyond one gravity that being this low in the earth would be a cakewalk to a ship built like that.

[/nerd]

Anonymous

#18 – 8:10 AM May 11, 2009

fake!

artbot

#19 – 10:17 AM May 11, 2009

Fun vid and the motion tracking looked good, but that assplosion at the end was, well, ass.

akbar56

#20 – 10:52 AM May 11, 2009

#17 Dculberson

Just seems like a huge waste of energy to lift something that heavy from the bottom of a gravity well if it's only purpose is to travel between star systems.

I would also theorize that a ship that is built a specific way to fly through space (and the energies involved such therein) would have problems navigating under a planets gravity field.

echolocate chocolate

#21 – 11:01 AM May 11, 2009

#16 Well obviously the Death Star's main weapon uses a rapidly modulating resonance pulse in subspace frequencies, bypassing the Enterprise's shields. I mean, duh.

That said, the Enterprise's warp core exploding probably would have turned most of California into a crater. Maybe that part stayed intact.

Gosh, this conversation reminds me of being a teenager more than I would like to admit.

dculberson

#22 – 11:11 AM May 11, 2009

Akbar, I definitely concur there, on both points really. I suppose I was just willing to say, on the first point, perhaps their space based manufacturing wasn't up to snuff yet? Or maybe it was just "we want to have Kirk on a motorcycle wistfully, but rebelliously, looking at the ship?"

The other problem with the ship being in the atmosphere is - how did it get there? I suppose the shields could have absorbed or deflected the heat energy of re-entry...

(looking around furtively, fighting need to push my glasses further up on my nose...)

Trent Hawkins

#23 – 12:10 PM May 11, 2009

#17: "The forces involved in going to warp, or even just to an impulse speed, would be so far beyond one gravity that being this low in the earth would be a cakewalk to a ship built like that."

Nope! Warping and even impulse speed involves bending space to move not to create actual thrust. As a result the ship generates minimum G forces and although it's moving through space it does not actually accelerate or pull Gs or anything like that. That are very few ships in the Star Trek universe that can enter Atmosphere, and this Enterprise is not one of them.

adamgreenwood

#24 – 12:20 PM May 11, 2009

NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERDS!!

Enochrewt

#25 – 1:28 PM May 11, 2009

This thread is hilarious. More power to you nerds.

As a Star Wars Nerd, the only thing that rubbed me the wrong way is that all of the sub-beams that make up the main death star beam didn't fire at the same time. Maybe that's why it was underpowered and didn't blow up the planet behind the Enterprise.

The fist pump really made the whole thing.

Anonymous

#26 – 2:18 PM May 11, 2009

Further proof that Star Wars pwns Star Trek tyvm.

rikchik

#27 – 2:27 PM May 11, 2009

You build the Enterprise on Earth the same reason you build iPods in China even though most of them are not staying there - cheaper access to labor and materials. Providing space-station living space for all those engineers, welders, etc. is a lot more expensive than just lifting a single starship from Iowa to space.

fitzroy_doll

#28 – 2:28 PM May 11, 2009

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/05/death-star-annihilates-star-treks-spotlight-hogging-enterprise/

Same clip, but region unlocked.

tizroc

#29 – 2:30 PM May 11, 2009

I recall watching this, or a video very, very close to this a few years ago. However that particular video didn't have the Enterprise in it. I believe it was originally just an "invasion" sort of video. It would appear that someone has added the Enterprise to it.

Very intertaining, except the actual explosion. It seemed anti-climactic given the rest of the shot.

-Tizroc

Xeno

#30 – 2:33 PM May 11, 2009

Ok... just to put an end to this once and for all.

Star Trek has Shatner

Star Wars has Harrison Ford

Nuff said baby.

Anonymous

#31 – 2:34 PM May 11, 2009

That explosion was less than compelling.

Brainspore

#32 – 2:38 PM May 11, 2009

Let's not jump to conclusions here. That could have been ANY Constitution-class starship.

Anonymous

#33 – 2:55 PM May 11, 2009

Regarding not vaporising the planet, my (perhaps erroneous) recollection of Return of the Jedi is that the Death Star's primary weapon was taking out Mon Calamari star cruisers without the beam passing through them.

orangebag

#34 – 3:01 PM May 11, 2009

@#4 Blue

yep, no go here either.
I would love to have the rationale for region locking a gag video explained to me.

orangebag

#35 – 3:02 PM May 11, 2009

THX fitzroy doll!

The Life Of Bryan

#36 – 3:06 PM May 11, 2009

#29: Can you imagine the state of SF today if Ford had played Kirk?

Anonymous

#37 – 3:22 PM May 11, 2009

Actually, the primary weapon on the Death Star has multiple energy settings. It can blow up a planet like Alderaan (after which, it takes a long time to reenergize the weapon), or it can take little "pot shots" at lower energy to blow up starships like the unlikely cruisers and frigates at the end of Return of the Jedi (it can make these small energy shots more quickly).

Still, Star Trek is better.

Brainspore

#38 – 3:36 PM May 11, 2009

@ @36: Not worth having Shatner in "Blade Runner."

Glenn Fleishman

#39 – 3:36 PM May 11, 2009

#27: "You build the Enterprise on Earth the same reason you build iPods in China even though most of them are not staying there - cheaper access to labor and materials"

Hey, you're forgetting transporter technology. It costs the equivalent of two AA batteries to zap the engineers up for their shift from Earth and then back down at the end.

CD

#40 – 3:38 PM May 11, 2009

I was in the Headlands on Sunday and I witnessed this first-hand...it almost ruined Mother's Day

Jack

#41 – 3:40 PM May 11, 2009

You folks are hilarious. The precedent for a Star Trek ship landing on a planet comes from Star Trek: Voyager as well as the movies where Klingon ships clearly land on planets

Also, did someone say magic xylophone or something?

MisterStupidFace

#42 – 3:42 PM May 11, 2009

#32: I lol'ed.

Josh

#43 – 3:44 PM May 11, 2009

About the Enterprise being able to maneuver in atmosphere. See the episode titled "Tomorrow is Yesterday" involving the Enterprise being slingshotted back to 1969. They are in the atmosphere with a jet fighter chasing them. Looking at the memory-alpha.org site Scotty says they are in a low orbit on impulse power. Now they didn't do any kind of atmospheric entry but they were able to maneuver fine.

*pushes glasses back up nose*

bcsizemo

#44 – 4:15 PM May 11, 2009

Well technically I don't think the Enterprise can land...

At least not the original or up until Next Gen...if that.

At the same time, this whole Star Trek vs. Star Wars is pointless...

Everyone knows the Borg will own you all.

And all uber geeks will either be rooting for Mal (from Firefly) or my favorite John Crichton (from Farscape)...

I mean the man destroyed a Scarin (sp?) dreadnought with a wormhole....

Anonymous

#45 – 4:46 PM May 11, 2009

Sounds like a very special episode of Deadliest Warrior

Anonymous

#46 – 6:10 PM May 11, 2009

The death stars main gun is NOT only designed to destroy plan. I refer you to the iconic "Fully operational battle-station" scene in The Return of the Jedi.

speonjosh

#47 – 6:41 PM May 11, 2009

First -

The video rocks.

Second -

To all those who are making the "nerds" comments - FYI, you're on BoingBoing - you are, by definition, a nerd.

stratosfyr

#48 – 6:55 PM May 11, 2009

@30 Xeno:

That doesn't settle anything.

elix

#49 – 8:26 PM May 11, 2009

Came here for remark stating that the Enterprise would be incapable of supporting its own mass in Earth's gravity at sea level. I'm leaving sort of satisfied.

Anonymous

#50 – 9:17 PM May 11, 2009

If The Enterprise went warp off San Francisco, would that be like the SDF-1 doing a space-fold over Macross Island?

Anonymous

#51 – 10:54 PM May 11, 2009

"This vide is not available in your country or domain" said YouTube.

"PAH! The UNIVERSE is my domain, it seems available elsewhere there," grumbled a UK resident, noted for his meglomaniacal delusions, in the early hours of this morning. He was also wearing a T-shirt inside out and wiping cereal off his chin.

Seriously I'd like to see this, is it mirrored anywhere in a non-Xenophobic video hosting site?

Anonymous

#52 – 11:09 PM May 11, 2009

@23: An impulse drive operates on pretty much the same principles as a jet engine. If it worked by bending space it would be called a warp drive.

That said, it also contains special sci-fi voodoo which keeps the forces involved from actually affecting the ship, so Federation starships probably still aren't fit for planetside action.

Still, I highly doubt the forces involved with being at sea level would actually cause significant harm, although #49 makes a good point, since as far as I can tell thrusters aren't intended to have that kind of output.

Also, it's definitely a constitution refit class, meaning there's a 1/12 or 1/13 chance that it's the Enterprise, depending on whether or not you think the Yorktown was in service at the same time as the Enterprise-A.

Christ, I'm not even a Star Trek fan. This is ridiculous.

Mark Young

#53 – 3:31 AM May 12, 2009

Great. Now the 9-11 twuthers have a new scenario to explain what REALLY happened on Sept. 11th, 2001.

rikchik

#54 – 7:01 AM May 12, 2009

#39: if tranporters are so cheap, why did they take a shuttlecraft from the Academy to the Enterprise? But even given cheap transporters, you still need to provide safe working conditions for all those people in a vacuum - if you're on the ground you only need welding masks, not spacesuits.

Anonymous

#55 – 7:49 AM May 12, 2009

To all you guys pointing out all the little flaws and stuff: They are called girls, try talking to one who doesn't want you to do her homework. lol
Just Kidding. But really, it's a MOVIE. Make believe, not real. Want real? CNN's got all the real you want. Me? I like to get away from real when I go to a movie.

Anonymous

#56 – 7:50 AM May 12, 2009

Two words: Magic bullet
Five more: Back and to the left

Halloween Jack

#57 – 9:26 AM May 12, 2009

Bah--this is unconvincing Imperial propaganda. Clue 1: The Enterprise is just hovering there? Don't think so. Clue 2: Starfleet captains are smart enough to maneuver to the side of the big space station that doesn't have the big-ass cannon on it and start slinging photon torpedoes in their half-built ass.

akbar56

#58 – 9:58 AM May 12, 2009

@41 jack
The Klingon Bird of Prey and an Intrepid class star ship are designed to operate in an atmo. The Enterprise is not.

@43 Josh:
That high in orbit I have no problem with the Enterprise flying. She would be stressed alot, but she would survive. Going as low as this video shows? No way.

@50 anon:
Not exactly the same since the Macross did a space fold maneuver (i.e. move from one location through hyperspace to another rather quickly) Also their fold field expanded in a large sphere around the ship taking the island with it. If the Enterprise were to hit warp at that position above SF, nothing would go with them but manipulating a warp field in an atmosphere would theoretically have repercussions.

elix

#59 – 8:02 PM May 12, 2009

@52: The Enterprise's warp nacelles are too heavy for the Engineering hull to support them in a planetary gravitational environment. In outer space, no problem. At the surface, without some serious structural support shields made of Handwavium or Tachyons, they'd droop outwards relatively close to the bottom of the ship, just like how the B-52's wings sag when it is on the ground, but in a much more dramatic fashion.