Galaxy Quest vs. Star Trek

Airlocke_Jedi_Knight · Post by **Airlocke_Jedi_Knight** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 3:24 am

I realize that this is a bit of a laugher, but lets consider it.

The Enterprise against the flagship seen in the movie Galaxy Quest.

Lets have some fun with this.

Post by **Jedi Master Spock** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 3:53 am

Hm...

Who's crewing the Protector? And which Enterprise?

Airlocke_Jedi_Knight · Post by **Airlocke_Jedi_Knight** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 4:54 am

Well, honestly, I have only watched that movie once, so I don't know a lot about it. But, I will say that it is the alien crew, not the crew that was cast for the show.

Also, the original Enterprise, with Kirk and Spock.

Roondar · Post by **Roondar** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 1:04 pm

Difficult.. Two shirt-ripping captains.. Which one will win?

I must admit that Galaxyquests 'slogan' (Never give up, Never surrender) is almost enough to win me over right there with it's sheer awesomeness but I'm afraid that the Enterprise from Star Trek is probably the stronger ship (observed combat ranges and abilities are far greater as far as I can see).

Pitty because GQ rocks.

Praeothmin · Post by **Praeothmin** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 3:01 pm

I have to agree with Roondar, the GQ ship doesn't appear to have shields, if memory serves, plus it only has missiles, and doesn't look that powerful, although it does look very cool.

And I'm not sure who would win in a one on one fight, Peter Quincy Taggart, or James Tiberius Kirk... :)

Mr. Oragahn · Post by **Mr. Oragahn** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 7:05 pm

If you actually apply the laws of versus debates in stricter fashion, you'd see that the Thermians (Chtulhuesque tentacle guys) redefine naive, but when it comes to tech, it's goddamn incredible.

They live on what remains of their world, a floating piece of their planet (Sarris Dominion killed billions, likely destroying the whole thing).

Their transportation tech is as good as Trek, they can beam a massive monster.

They can send people across the stars in one man shielded pods fired through what looks like wormhole windows.

They have a mimetic tech which lets them adopt the form of humanoids without issue, which is quite very far from their own morphology, and it just takes a very small device.

One shot of their basic hand weapons can literally vapourize a muscular reptilian big bad guy.

They built the Omega 13 based on a guess of what it should have been able to do. Actually they built the whole NSEA Protector that way, based on pure interpretation of the show.

Cocytus · Post by **Cocytus** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 11:59 pm

As Oragahn points out, the Thermians enjoy several parities with the Federation in transporter tech and hand weapons. The gel pod is an amazing bit of chemistry, but the wormhole was referenced as merely being an extant black hole. Taggart orders Laredo to "set a course for the black hole" near the end of the film, and it is visually identical to the one Taggart traveled through in the gel pod. The Federation has demonstrated the ability to "mail" people long distances as well, as was done in "The Emissary."

The ship is powered by a neutron reactor which makes use of a beryllium sphere. "Neutron reactor" is somewhat redundant, since all present-day reactors make use of neutrons released from fission to split other atoms. Real-world beryllium also plays a role in nuclear reactors and weapons, since it reflects neutrons. The more neutrons are reflected back into a fissile material, the longer fission is sustained. In any event, the ship's power source appears to be nuclear, which would place it at a disadvantage to Federation starships powered by matter/antimatter annihilation.

The Protector has no shields, instead being protected by "plasma armor." The armor was worn down after several direct hits from Sarris' missiles. The Protector is also stated to have red and blue particle beams, though their effectiveness isn't known.

The Protector is surprisingly maneuverable. It runs circles around Sarris' ship and performs some impressive turns in the minefield. I'd rate it a match for most Starfleet vessels in terms of maneuverability. The ship's superluminal velocities are given in "marks;" Mark 1, Mark 2, etc, though we've no idea how fast it actually is. But, given that the ship is capable (both in the TV show and the "real world" of the film) of rapid interplanetary travel (speed of plot, yes, but it's all we have) we can reasonably infer it to be comparable to most Federation starships in terms of superluminal velocity. I'd rate it at low to mid-warp, just as a starter, since the greater energies liberated by M/AM reactions would allow Federation starships access to higher velocities.

Post by **Mike DiCenso** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:07 am

We can look at this in one of several ways:

- One: it's a fight between any one of the Enterprise starships and assume that NSEA Protector and it's crew as seen in the faux "Galaxy Quest" series are real as we would with any real-life TV series like Trek or B5. Unfortunately, unlike the Thermians, we don't have very much access to the "historical documents" to make any analysis from. ;-)

- Two, a fight between any one of the Trek Enterprise starships and the Protector as built by the Thermians in the movies and the ship is crewed by the the GQ actors and the Thermians.

Either way the Protector does have a few serious weaknesses, like it's main computer only responding to Tawney/Gwen, and the fact that the "digital conveyor" on the Thermian version of the Protector, as well as the helm must be operated with certain motions used by the actors on the original show's set.
-Mike

Roondar · Post by **Roondar** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:49 am

Mr. Oragahn wrote:If you actually apply the laws of versus debates in stricter fashion, you'd see that the Thermians (Chtulhuesque tentacle guys) redefine naive, but when it comes to tech, it's goddamn incredible.

They live on what remains of their world, a floating piece of their planet (Sarris Dominion killed billions, likely destroying the whole thing).

Their transportation tech is as good as Trek, they can beam a massive monster.

They can send people across the stars in one man shielded pods fired through what looks like wormhole windows.

They have a mimetic tech which lets them adopt the form of humanoids without issue, which is quite very far from their own morphology, and it just takes a very small device.

One shot of their basic hand weapons can literally vapourize a muscular reptilian big bad guy.

They built the Omega 13 based on a guess of what it should have been able to do. Actually they built the whole NSEA Protector that way, based on pure interpretation of the show.

I feel that most of the tech they show is, when compared to ST tech, only really better in their warp-pod thingy. The rest seems on par or weaker (or at least more convulated :P).

The form-altering tech I'm not sure on. I have this nagging feeling that the UFP have shown similar tech somewhere on at least one occasion but can't place it.

But there is one thing that indeed strikes me as quite impressive and that is that they build the whole thing from interpretation alone. No schematics, no 'real tech' just looking at it and building it as they saw.

Mr. Oragahn · Post by **Mr. Oragahn** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 10:18 am

Actually, if I remember correctly, what finished the Protector was flying full throttle into a dense and immense minefield to escape Sarris' ship, and the hull was barely scorched.

We'll never know about the Protector's offense abilities. It's implied she had weapons, but apparently the crew knew little about how to operate them! :D

Who is like God arbour · Post by **Who is like God arbour** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 10:54 am

It's not only implied, that the Protector has weapons.

Remember why the Lieutenant of Sarris was beheaded? He was not quick enough to activate the ship's neutron armor [1].
- - - JASON:
    Okey dokey, let's fire blue particle cannons full. Fire red particle cannons full. Fire gannet magnets left and right. Fire pulse catapults from all chutes. And throw this thing at him too, killer.
    - - He hands the GUNNER the empty coke can, then before even waiting for the weapons to reach their target ... he exits!
    - - [...]
    - SARRIS:
    We meet again Commander.
    - - The crew stares at Sarris. A frightening visage.
    - JASON:
    Yes... Hi Sarris... How are you doing?
    - SARRIS:
    Better than my Lieutenant. He failed to activate ship's neutron armor as quickly as I'd hoped on our last encounter.
    - - He brings into view a stake with the impaled head of his former Lieutenant.

Mr. Oragahn · Post by **Mr. Oragahn** » Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:49 pm

Who is like God arbour wrote:
It's not only implied, that the Protector has weapons.

Remember why the Lieutenant of Sarris was beheaded? He was not quick enough to activate the ship's neutron armor [1].

JASON:
Okey dokey, let's fire blue particle cannons full. Fire red particle cannons full. Fire gannet magnets left and right. Fire pulse catapults from all chutes. And throw this thing at him too, killer.

He hands the GUNNER the empty coke can, then before even waiting for the weapons to reach their target ... he exits!

[...]

SARRIS:
We meet again Commander.

The crew stares at Sarris. A frightening visage.

JASON:
Yes... Hi Sarris... How are you doing?

SARRIS:
Better than my Lieutenant. He failed to activate ship's neutron armor as quickly as I'd hoped on our last encounter.

He brings into view a stake with the impaled head of his former Lieutenant.

Oh yes, I remember, the Thermians were even afraid that the weapons might not achieve anything. Quite a smart way to cut on VFX budget! :)

Roondar · Post by **Roondar** » Tue Mar 31, 2009 2:35 pm

Mr. Oragahn wrote:
Who is like God arbour wrote:
It's not only implied, that the Protector has weapons.

Remember why the Lieutenant of Sarris was beheaded? He was not quick enough to activate the ship's neutron armor [1].

JASON:
Okey dokey, let's fire blue particle cannons full. Fire red particle cannons full. Fire gannet magnets left and right. Fire pulse catapults from all chutes. And throw this thing at him too, killer.

He hands the GUNNER the empty coke can, then before even waiting for the weapons to reach their target ... he exits!

[...]

SARRIS:
We meet again Commander.

The crew stares at Sarris. A frightening visage.

JASON:
Yes... Hi Sarris... How are you doing?

SARRIS:
Better than my Lieutenant. He failed to activate ship's neutron armor as quickly as I'd hoped on our last encounter.

He brings into view a stake with the impaled head of his former Lieutenant.

Oh yes, I remember, the Thermians were even afraid that the weapons might not achieve anything. Quite a smart way to cut on VFX budget! :)

That movie is just so full of win.
(appologies for the internet slang :P)

Post by **Jedi Master Spock** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 3:46 pm

Airlocke_Jedi_Knight wrote:Well, honestly, I have only watched that movie once, so I don't know a lot about it. But, I will say that it is the alien crew, not the crew that was cast for the show.

Also, the original Enterprise, with Kirk and Spock.

With the Thermians themseves, I see this ending up much like "The Carbomite Maneuver."

Post by **Mike DiCenso** » Tue Apr 07, 2009 6:27 pm

I assume you mean "The Corbomite Maneuver" there. And yes, the Thermians by themselves are too naive to deal with any kind of serious lie or other forms of deception, no matter how powerful a ship they have. This is in part why they got nearly exterminated by Sarris in the first place.
-Mike