Starfleet Jedi

Brian's claiming that the Empire can defeat the Systems Commonwealth from Andromeda.

However, he's also claimed that the reason that starfighters are so useful in SW is because SW shields don't offer much kinetic protection, allowing starfighters to slip in. If you say that this would just allow ST small craft to fly under SW ships shields, and beam in torpedoes to key spots.... well, he said the exact same thing. Yes, he said that while a GCS might not be able to defeat an ISD, a runabout would be able to. Not sure I've ever heard this claim from either side of the debate before.

He's also a proponent of the theory that because Romulan disruptors fire antimatter as well as nadions, they'd be much more effective against an ISD than other ST weapons.

Your thoughts?

Khas wrote: Brian's claiming that the Empire can defeat the Systems Commonwealth from Andromeda.

Isn't Andromeda the setting that says visuals are pretty eye candy only, and even those outstrip anything star wars?

Khas wrote: However, he's also claimed that the reason that starfighters are so useful in SW is because SW shields don't offer much kinetic protection, allowing starfighters to slip in. If you say that this would just allow ST small craft to fly under SW ships shields, and beam in torpedoes to key spots.... well, he said the exact same thing. Yes, he said that while a GCS might not be able to defeat an ISD, a runabout would be able to. Not sure I've ever heard this claim from either side of the debate before.

Where do we see fighters in Star Wars fly under a warship's shields? The closest I recall is fighters flying into enemy warship hangers. Every other time I recall fighter vs warship you have fighters needing to batter down the shields, and often use their blasters to do that or ram.

If matter can easily pass through shields in Star Wars then why are there so few weapons that fire metal slugs like Halo?

Why would a Photon or Quantum Torpedo need a fighter to fly through the shields? They have guidance systems. just target the hanger.

Khas wrote: He's also a proponent of the theory that because Romulan disruptors fire antimatter as well as nadions, they'd be much more effective against an ISD than other ST weapons.

What evidence is there that disruptors fire antimatter? We know Phasers can fire antimatter as part of the beam, but I don't recall disruptors being said to ever fire antimatter. The closest I can think of is from a DS9 episode where disruptors are said to leave trace amounts of antimatter, but lightning does that as well.

Why would a phaser do poorly against a Star Wars type shielding system? Sure Phasers are designed with dealing with gravitational distortion type shielding, and star wars uses hydrostatic plasma bubbles type shielding, but assuming that Phasers are chain reaction weapons that get more bang for their buck just means they are super effective against matter which plasma is.

Khas wrote: Your thoughts?

1)You should link to the thread in question.

2) Provide exact quotes if not too much trouble. You seem like a nice guy, and I wouldn't want you to get accused of mud slinging.

The claims as well as the reasoning behind them are completely silly, some purely unsubstantiated.

Lucky wrote:

Khas wrote:He's also a proponent of the theory that because Romulan disruptors fire antimatter as well as nadions, they'd be much more effective against an ISD than other ST weapons.

What evidence is there that disruptors fire antimatter? We know Phasers can fire antimatter as part of the beam, but I don't recall disruptors being said to ever fire antimatter. The closest I can think of is from a DS9 episode where disruptors are said to leave trace amounts of antimatter, but lightning does that as well.

Why would a phaser do poorly against a Star Wars type shielding system? Sure Phasers are designed with dealing with gravitational distortion type shielding, and star wars uses hydrostatic plasma bubbles type shielding, but assuming that Phasers are chain reaction weapons that get more bang for their buck just means they are super effective against matter which plasma is.

If I remember correctly, his reasoning for disruptors firing anti-matter is because of his ideas of DS9: "The Die is Cast" and some TNG episode where they identify Romulan weapons fire from a residual anti-matter signature leftover from the battle. I find it somewhat funny that he sticks to chain-reaction phasers, but jumps to anti-matter for disruptors when disruptors (at least Klingon ones) are identified as "phase disruptor[s]" in TNG: "Aquiel". And they're identified as leaving behind residue.

Crusher: "The cellular residue is completely fused with to metal of the deck plate. We're trying to micro-vaporise the metal in order to get a clear DNA sample."
...
LaForge: "Now wait a minute. We haven't even established this phaser is the murder weapon yet. And even at level ten I don't see how it could have done the damage the medical evidence says it did. A phase disruptor like a Klingon weapon, maybe."

His claim is not so much that phasers are particularly ineffective against Imperial/Republic shields, just that Imperial/Republic shields are far to powerful to be bothered by mere phasers... As for armor, he claims that based both on its strength and density that phasers would be ineffective; but due to their supposed anti-matter component, disruptors could be a threat to an unshielded Imperial/Republic ship, even with their "advanced armor" as he refers to it.

Lucky wrote:

Khas wrote:However, he's also claimed that the reason that starfighters are so useful in SW is because SW shields don't offer much kinetic protection, allowing starfighters to slip in. If you say that this would just allow ST small craft to fly under SW ships shields, and beam in torpedoes to key spots.... well, he said the exact same thing. Yes, he said that while a GCS might not be able to defeat an ISD, a runabout would be able to. Not sure I've ever heard this claim from either side of the debate before.

Where do we see fighters in Star Wars fly under a warship's shields? The closest I recall is fighters flying into enemy warship hangers. Every other time I recall fighter vs warship you have fighters needing to batter down the shields, and often use their blasters to do that or ram.

He refers to RotJ where the A-wings destroy the Executor's shield sphere, TCW: "Storm over Ryloth" where Ahsoka's bombers destroy several munificents, TCW: "Downfall of a Droid" where Anakin blasts out several munificent's bridges, and TCW: "Shadow of Malevolence" with the bomber's attack run as all demonstrating fighters doing damage when the capital-ship's shields are supposed to be still up to conclude that fighters are able to bypass capital-ship shields. He then decides on an explanation suggested by several clips, including the attack on the first Desthstar ("we're passing throught the magnetic field"), which involves fighters slipping under the shields to do damage.

Mr. Oragahn wrote:The claims as well as the reasoning behind them are completely silly, some purely unsubstantiated.

Yes, many are, but at least he provides evidence to back up his claims.
I disagree with (most of) his conclusions, I disagree with his general method of analysis/comparison, I disagree that he always includes all evidence, I disagree with his extrapolation from most evidence, but he does provide backing, and easy to determine reasons for his claims, so that gets him something at least in my book.

359 wrote:He refers to RotJ where the A-wings destroy the Executor's shield sphere, TCW: "Storm over Ryloth" where Ahsoka's bombers destroy several munificents, TCW: "Downfall of a Droid" where Anakin blasts out several munificent's bridges, and TCW: "Shadow of Malevolence" with the bomber's attack run as all demonstrating fighters doing damage when the capital-ship's shields are supposed to be still up to conclude that fighters are able to bypass capital-ship shields. He then decides on an explanation suggested by several clips, including the attack on the first Death Star ("we're passing throught the magnetic field"), which involves fighters slipping under the shields to do damage.

So he absolutely cannot fathom the idea that fighters simply have strong enough weapons to damage capital ship shields? I mean, so far with the exception of the Death Star (which is a major exception in many ways in its own right), there are plenty of ways of explaining what we see. For example, the attack run by Anakin's Y-wing bombers on the Malevolence could be them skimming along conformal shields. After all we do have plenty of evidence that Star Wars shields are largely conformal, as seen when the N-1 fighter Anakin flies in TPM turns it's shields back on inside the Trade Federation control ship, we see the shields flare up and it largely conforms around the fighter's hull. When we see storm troopers fire on the Millennium Falcon in ANH and TESB, the shields seem to be conformal. The same is true in both movies when the ship is hit by turbolaser and TIE fighter laser fire.

The only time we see Star Trek-style bubble shields, is in TCW's "Cat and Mouse", with the "thermoshields", which not only blocked the missiles from Anakin's stealth ship, but it also took an inordinate amount of time to raise them back up once they were turned off as they apparently need to recharge.

If Brian really wants to go down the route of fighters being able to bypass Star Wars shields, then that opens up a whole can of worms for him, since we have seen in TESB where an asteroid only 50-70 meters wide went right through the shields of an ISD and destroyed it's bridge tower, meaning they have a distinct weakness to KE attacks. This means Star Trek shuttles and fighters, along with other sci-fi franchise fighters can duplicate that feat, and wreck havoc on Imperial/Republic starships.
-Mike

359 wrote:

Lucky wrote:

Mr. Oragahn wrote:The claims as well as the reasoning behind them are completely silly, some purely unsubstantiated.

Yes, many are, but at least he provides evidence to back up his claims.
I disagree with (most of) his conclusions, I disagree with his general method of analysis/comparison, I disagree that he always includes all evidence, I disagree with his extrapolation from most evidence, but he does provide backing, and easy to determine reasons for his claims, so that gets him something at least in my book.

LOL.
In MY book, you find him at the Cheery Pickers section.
Yes, they do have *some* evidence, obviously.

359 wrote: If I remember correctly, his reasoning for disruptors firing anti-matter is because of his ideas of DS9: "The Die is Cast" and some TNG episode where they identify Romulan weapons fire from a residual anti-matter signature leftover from the battle.

That is rather ignorant of him. High energy events tend to create small amounts of antimatter. Lightning creates small amounts of antimatter. High energy events like lightning and stars are more then mundane matter.
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/sc ... ntimatter/

You do realize that plasma torpedos crush things to dust rather then explode, and that the Cardassians and Romulans use Plasma Torpedos?

Interestingly enough, Quantum Torpedos use plasma warheads. They may function in a similar manner to plasma torpedos.

Photon Torpedos produce a fictional radiation called Ion Radiation, and can be set as shaped charges.

359 wrote: I find it somewhat funny that he sticks to chain-reaction phasers, but jumps to anti-matter for disruptors when disruptors (at least Klingon ones) are identified as "phase disruptor[s]" in TNG: "Aquiel". And they're identified as leaving behind residue.

Crusher: "The cellular residue is completely fused with to metal of the deck plate. We're trying to micro-vaporise the metal in order to get a clear DNA sample."
...
LaForge: "Now wait a minute. We haven't even established this phaser is the murder weapon yet. And even at level ten I don't see how it could have done the damage the medical evidence says it did. A phase disruptor like a Klingon weapon, maybe."

That quote is rather odd because phasers used by the Federation use have 16 settings.

359 wrote: His claim is not so much that phasers are particularly ineffective against Imperial/Republic shields, just that Imperial/Republic shields are far to powerful to be bothered by mere phasers... As for armor, he claims that based both on its strength and density that phasers would be ineffective; but due to their supposed anti-matter component, disruptors could be a threat to an unshielded Imperial/Republic ship, even with their "advanced armor" as he refers to it.

Does Brian realize Star Wars shields seem to be plasma while star trek shields are gravity? The way a phaser would interact would differ greatly.

These super metals are the ones that the Invisible Hand is made from? The same Invisible Hand that started to burn up as it made a semi-controlled crash landing, and started to fall apart under its own weight?

359 wrote: He refers to RotJ where the A-wings destroy the Executor's shield sphere, TCW: "Storm over Ryloth" where Ahsoka's bombers destroy several munificents, TCW: "Downfall of a Droid" where Anakin blasts out several munificent's bridges, and TCW: "Shadow of Malevolence" with the bomber's attack run as all demonstrating fighters doing damage when the capital-ship's shields are supposed to be still up to conclude that fighters are able to bypass capital-ship shields. He then decides on an explanation suggested by several clips, including the attack on the first Desthstar ("we're passing throught the magnetic field"), which involves fighters slipping under the shields to do damage.

And why is it not possible that the fighters don't carry weapons powerful enough to bring down the shields on their own, or that the shields were not up, or that the shields don't cover every part of the ship?

0:46 you see the Gungan shield VS AAT laser cannons.

2:21 you see a shielded N-1get shot down by an AAT.

4:45, the destroyer droids in the hanger on Naboo in Episode 1. The droid's shields fend off shots from blaster pistols, but when Aniken shoots the droid's shields with the guns on the N-1 he is hiding in the bolts seem to completely ignore the shields.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qZJ85MdS-g

....-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
Only the Death Star is said to have a notable magnetic field last time I checked though I would not be surprised if it was not uncommon for ships to have highly volatile targets on the surface of their hulls like the Death Star..

359 wrote: Yes, many are, but at least he provides evidence to back up his claims.
I disagree with (most of) his conclusions, I disagree with his general method of analysis/comparison, I disagree that he always includes all evidence, I disagree with his extrapolation from most evidence, but he does provide backing, and easy to determine reasons for his claims, so that gets him something at least in my book.

Brian has a tendency to take things out of context to support his case. If you take things out of context then you are basically lying.

The only setting I can not recall him not doing this is Babylon 5.

Lucky wrote:

359 wrote:If I remember correctly, his reasoning for disruptors firing anti-matter is because of his ideas of DS9: "The Die is Cast" and some TNG episode where they identify Romulan weapons fire from a residual anti-matter signature leftover from the battle.

That is rather ignorant of him. High energy events tend to create small amounts of antimatter. Lightning creates small amounts of antimatter. High energy events like lightning and stars are more then mundane matter.
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/sc ... ntimatter/

You do realize that plasma torpedos crush things to dust rather then explode, and that the Cardassians and Romulans use Plasma Torpedos?

Interestingly enough, Quantum Torpedos use plasma warheads. They may function in a similar manner to plasma torpedos.

Photon Torpedos produce a fictional radiation called Ion Radiation, and can be set as shaped charges.

I agree on the antimatter idea, although I probably wouldn't go as far as saying "ignorant". When I first saw it I coulden't quite figure out why antimatter residue equated to anti-matter weapons, and I still can't; mostly because it doesn't. There are many explanations, including antimatter based weapons, but given the surrounding context from the rest of the series it seems unlikely.

"Ion radiation" likely refers to ionizing radiation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionizing_radiation), especially because that is what you would expect an antimatter explosion to emmit. 

Lucky wrote:

359 wrote:I find it somewhat funny that he sticks to chain-reaction phasers, but jumps to anti-matter for disruptors when disruptors (at least Klingon ones) are identified as "phase disruptor[s]" in TNG: "Aquiel". And they're identified as leaving behind residue. 

Crusher: "The cellular residue is completely fused with to metal of the deck plate. We're trying to micro-vaporise the metal in order to get a clear DNA sample."
...
LaForge: "Now wait a minute. We haven't even established this phaser is the murder weapon yet. And even at level ten I don't see how it could have done the damage the medical evidence says it did. A phase disruptor like a Klingon weapon, maybe."

That quote is rather odd because phasers used by the Federation use have 16 settings.

My guess would be that level ten is the highest classical heating setting, after that you begin to break into the phaser's unique vaporization/disintegration settings. We know that phasers stun and kill by causing varying degrees of neural trauma, they also can provide direct thermal input, and then weird stuff happens after that point.

Lucky wrote:

359 wrote:His claim is not so much that phasers are particularly ineffective against Imperial/Republic shields, just that Imperial/Republic shields are far to powerful to be bothered by mere phasers... As for armor, he claims that based both on its strength and density that phasers would be ineffective; but due to their supposed anti-matter component, disruptors could be a threat to an unshielded Imperial/Republic ship, even with their "advanced armor" as he refers to it.

Does Brian realize Star Wars shields seem to be plasma while star trek shields are gravity? The way a phaser would interact would differ greatly.

What indicates Star Wars shields are plasma based, or that they would respond differently to any significant degree?

Lucky wrote:These super metals are the ones that the Invisible Hand is made from? The same Invisible Hand that started to burn up as it made a semi-controlled crash landing, and started to fall apart under its own weight?

Yep, pretty much.

Lucky wrote:

359 wrote:He refers to RotJ where the A-wings destroy the Executor's shield sphere, TCW: "Storm over Ryloth" where Ahsoka's bombers destroy several munificents, TCW: "Downfall of a Droid" where Anakin blasts out several munificent's bridges, and TCW: "Shadow of Malevolence" with the bomber's attack run as all demonstrating fighters doing damage when the capital-ship's shields are supposed to be still up to conclude that fighters are able to bypass capital-ship shields. He then decides on an explanation suggested by several clips, including the attack on the first Desthstar ("we're passing throught the magnetic field"), which involves fighters slipping under the shields to do damage.

And why is it not possible that the fighters don't carry weapons powerful enough to bring down the shields on their own, or that the shields were not up, or that the shields don't cover every part of the ship?

0:46 you see the Gungan shield VS AAT laser cannons.

2:21 you see a shielded N-1get shot down by an AAT.

4:45, the destroyer droids in the hanger on Naboo in Episode 1. The droid's shields fend off shots from blaster pistols, but when Aniken shoots the droid's shields with the guns on the N-1 he is hiding in the bolts seem to completely ignore the shields.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qZJ85MdS-g

....-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
Only the Death Star is said to have a notable magnetic field last time I checked though I would not be surprised if it was not uncommon for ships to have highly volatile targets on the surface of their hulls like the Death Star..

I would say that TCW: "Shadow of Malevolence", the deathstar run, TCW: "Defenders of Peace", and the battle of Naboo all in some way support his idea to some extent, however, the rest of the information suggests otherwise.

Lucky wrote:

359 wrote:Yes, many are, but at least he provides evidence to back up his claims.
I disagree with (most of) his conclusions, I disagree with his general method of analysis/comparison, I disagree that he always includes all evidence, I disagree with his extrapolation from most evidence, but he does provide backing, and easy to determine reasons for his claims, so that gets him something at least in my book.

Brian has a tendency to take things out of context to support his case. If you take things out of context then you are basically lying. 

The only setting I can not recall him not doing this is Babylon 5.

You don't want to get me started on Brian taking things out of context; last time it resulted in a 10+ page argument of semantics until I could no longer keep up with the posting volume on my schedule, and lost interest :)

359 wrote: I agree on the antimatter idea, although I probably wouldn't go as far as saying "ignorant". When I first saw it I coulden't quite figure out why antimatter residue equated to anti-matter weapons, and I still can't; mostly because it doesn't. There are many explanations, including antimatter based weapons, but given the surrounding context from the rest of the series it seems unlikely.

I prefer to say someone is ignorant as apposed to saying they are purposely being dishonest in cases like this because it is a strong possibility. What may be a well known peace of information may be completely unknown to someone else.

359 wrote: "Ion radiation" likely refers to ionizing radiation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionizing_radiation), especially because that is what you would expect an antimatter explosion to emmit. 

Ion Radiation

TNG: New Ground wrote: PICARD: Report. 


DATA: We have passed through the wave, Captain. 


FELTON: We have dropped to warp seven point two. The wave is directly astern at a distance of twenty three kilometres. 


WORF: Deflector strength is down to twelve percent. There are fluctuations in several warp transfer conduits. Tractor beams and transporters offline. 


RIKER: We have some gaps in the aft shields, Captain. When the torpedoes explode, these areas will be contaminated with ion radiation. We need to evacuate sections twenty four to forty seven, decks thirty five through thirty eight. 


PICARD: Make it so.

Voy: Dreadnought wrote: PARIS: There's still a lot of distortion in the upper frequencies. Better. Now let's try filtering out the ion radiation. B'Elanna? You must be really worried about catching this thing.

Ionizing Radiation

TNG: The Pegasus wrote: DATA: Captain, we are approaching the Devolin system. 

PICARD: Any sign of the Romulans? 

DATA: No, sir. 

PRESSMAN: Oh, they're out there. They're just waiting to see what you're going to do. 

PICARD: Mister La Forge? 

LAFORGE: There's an awful lot of ionising radiation in this system, Captain. That and the sheer amount of rock is going to slow down our search a little. 

PICARD: How slow? 

LAFORGE: I'd say at least 

WORF: Sir, Romulan warbird decloaking directly ahead. 

WORF: They are powering weapons. 

RIKER: Shields up. Red alert. Prepare phasers. 

WORF: Sir, they are hailing us.

TNG: Identitity Crisis wrote: COMPUTER: No subspace projections present. No z-particle emissions present. No interferometric patterns present. 


LAFORGE: Damn. 


DATA: Geordi. May I inquire how your investigation is proceeding? 


LAFORGE: It's not. 


DATA: Have you attempted an audio analysis? 


LAFORGE: Yes, Data. And a spectrographic analysis, and a screen for ionising radiation. I even ran an enhancement for micro-seismic disturbances. I've tried it all, okay? I'm sorry, Data. 


DATA: There is no need for an apology. Perhaps if you indulged in a brief rest period, you would be able to approach this problem with a fresh point of view. 


LAFORGE: Yeah, you're probably right, Data, but I've got to keep scanning these records while I can. 


DATA: May I can assist you? 


LAFORGE: If I knew what I was looking for. Rally, Data, I think it's just a matter of me going over it, maybe finding something I forgot. I'll let you know if I come across anything, all right? All right, computer, one more time.

I'd say you are likely correct, and that the character simply misspoke, but then you have things like Baryon Sweeps

TNNG: Starship Mine wrote: Captain's log, stardate 46682.4. The Enterprise is docked at the Remmler Array, where it will undergo a routine procedure to eliminate accumulated baryon particles. In preparation for the sweep, we are evacuating the ship.

If Baryons are not necessarily Baryons then there is a good chance that Ion Ration is not Ionizing Radiation.

359 wrote: My guess would be that level ten is the highest classical heating setting, after that you begin to break into the phaser's unique vaporization/disintegration settings. We know that phasers stun and kill by causing varying degrees of neural trauma, they also can provide direct thermal input, and then weird stuff happens after that point.

As I recall, phasers often leave burns even when used on stun.

Phaser

TNG: Descent part 1 wrote: WORF: These wounds were caused by a forced plasma beam, similar to a Ferengi hand phaser.

TNG: The Mind's Eye wrote: DATA: Energy flow is within normal parameters, from the pre-fire chamber to the emission aperture. 


LAFORGE: Rapid nadion pulse, right on target. Beam control assembly, safety interlock, both checked out. Beam width intensity controls also responding correctly. 


DATA: Energy cell usage remains constant at one point oh five megajoules per second. Curious. The efficiency reading on the discharge crystal is well above Starfleet specifications. 


LAFORGE: Yeah, by quite a bit. Ninety four point one percent efficiency. 


DATA: Our most efficient discharge crystal typically fires with eighty six point five percent efficiency. 


LAFORGE: Let's take a closer look at the wave pattern on the emission beam. That might tell us why it's losing so little energy. 


DATA: Pulse frequency out of pre-fire chamber reads steady. 


LAFORGE: There. That's not right. The initial output spike is inverted. 


DATA: That might suggest that the weapon has been charged with a forced pulse, well into the terahertz range. 


LAFORGE: Then it's definitely not Starfleet issue and there can't be that many systems that use the terahertz feeds. 


DATA: Three hundred twenty seven, to our knowledge. We can probably achieve an exact match with a random computer search. It will take approximately three hours. 


LAFORGE: I think we could narrow this down with a little common sense, Data. Who has the most to gain from a conflict between the Klingon Empire and the Federation?

Voy: Time and Again wrote: JANEWAY: What time is it?


TERLA: Four oh one rotations plus twenty one. 


JANEWAY: We'll just wait until twenty three.


MAKULL: Twenty three? What's the importance of twenty three? Oh, this is all about the alleged time of our self-annihilation. All right, let's just see if we can all get through the next 


(A wormhole starts to open up behind Janeway.) 


TERLA: What's going on?


JANEWAY: They're cutting through subspace.


MAKULL: My god, it's going to intersect with the conduit wall!


JANEWAY: Our own rescue attempt. That's what sets it off! My weapon may be able to seal that hole. It's our only chance. 


(Makull opens the bag and Janeway takes out a phaser. She fires it at the growing wormhole.)


[Ruined corridor]


TORRES: I'm getting nadion particle resistance from the other side.


KIM: Increasing generator to maximum output. The generator's overloading.


TORRES: I don't understand. It's not working. We're not penetrating the fracture.

Voy: Demon wrote: TUVOK: Even if thrusters are repaired, they won't be of much use if we sink any deeper. 


JANEWAY: There must be some way to disperse it. Try a nadion burst from the phaser emitters. It may weaken the electromagnetic properties of the fluid. 


TUVOK: Aye, Captain. 


JANEWAY: I'm on my way to sickbay to check on Harry and Tom. You've got the Bridge.

TNG: Best of Both Worlds Part 2 wrote: SHELBY: Acknowledged. Fire antimatter spread.

Voy: Prey wrote: SEVEN: I'll modify the phaser rifles to fire nanoprobe discharges.

Disruptor

DS9: The Ship wrote: SISKO: Maybe it's a side effect of the Jem'Hadar weapons. They must leave some kind of anti-coagulant.

DS9: Change of Heart: wrote: WORF: The disruptor burst left an anti-coagulant in your system.

I highly doubt any of that was covered in Brian's theory.

A number of strange and differing effects can be accounted for by changing what is mixed into the beam. We have examples of phasers firing nanites, antimatter, and plasma, and disruptors firing drugs.

359 wrote: What indicates Star Wars shields are plasma based,

http://starwars.com/explore/encyclopedia/technology/gungantech/ wrote: The Gungans have adapted their unique organic technology to the defense of their underwater homes and their sacred lands. They employed a variety of muscle-powered weaponry to deliver a specialized payload to their targets. Using the plasmic energy found deep in Naboo's porous crust, the Gungans have crafted a spherical grenade-type weapon they call a "booma," or boomer. These grenades are either thrown by hand, sling, atalatl, cesta or catapult. When they hit their target, their protective shells burst, releasing the liquid-like plasma and a powerful electric shock.


In addition to their boomers, Gungans also carry spears and lances called electropoles. This polearms can be used as missile weapons, or can be used as contact weapons that deliver an electric jolt. For defensive purposes, the Gungans have adapted their hydrostatic bubble technology to form hand-held personal shields. These ovoid frames project a defensive screen of shield energy capable of deflecting blaster bolts back at the firer.

http://starwars.com/explore/encyclopedia/technology/blasters/ wrote: The standard ranged weapon of both military personnel and civilians in the galaxy, the blaster pistol fires cohesive bursts of light-based energy called bolts. Blasters come in a variety of shapes and sizes, delivering a wide range of damage capability. Many blaster pistols have stun settings that incapacitate a target, rather than inflicting physical damage. While blasters do deliver a searing concussive blast, they can be foiled by magnetic seals and deflector shields.

Type
Ranged energized particle weaponry

I admit I might be reading too much into things, but Gungans seem to use plasma for their shield and weapons.

Star Wars shields seem to behave very similarly to real world plasma technologies like Plasma Windows.

Blasters are strongly effected by electromagnetism.

359 wrote: or that they would respond differently to any significant degree?

1) The physical forces of gravity and electromagnetism are drastically different.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetism

Plasma is a form of physical matter, and Gravity is warped space/time. Basically a Star Trek shield should be redirecting things around the ship, but a Star wars shield should be acting like a physical barrier.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_window
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pl ... )_articles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:G ... al_lensing

http://physicsforme.wordpress.com/2011/ ... -cloaking/

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/110 ... 3793v1.pdf
It is rather interesting that the paper that talks about using gravity as a cloak/defense says that it requires the same things as traversable wormholes and warp drives.

359 wrote: I would say that TCW: "Shadow of Malevolence", the deathstar run, TCW: "Defenders of Peace", and the battle of Naboo all in some way support his idea to some extent, however, the rest of the information suggests otherwise.

You do realize that since the first release of Star Wars: Episode 4 there have been two basic types of shields in Star Wars. One type will protect against solid objects, and the other will seemingly do nothing to solid object, Ray Shields and Particle Shields?

The type of shielding we see on the ground in Star Wars will likely stop solid objects that are moving over a certain speed in a similar manner to how water or even air will.

_+_+_+_+_+_

The Death Star is unique with its huge magnetic field. Nothing else in Star Wars has anything like that, and we never see the magnetic field stop anything.

359 wrote: You don't want to get me started on Brian taking things out of context; last time it resulted in a 10+ page argument of semantics until I could no longer keep up with the posting volume on my schedule, and lost interest :)

It isn't providing evidence if the context contradicts what you are claiming it shows.