Another Blow to Hypermatter Fuel's Existence?

[Mike DiCenso]

The recent TCW episode "Counterattack" has our heroes making their way out of the Seperatist Citadel maximum security prison facility on a rescue mission. At one point, the party splits up, with Anakin, Asoka, and Tarkin in one team; Obi-Wan in another. At one point in order to get to the escape shuttle, Anakin's group has to go through a fuel pipeline. The fuel flowing through the pipeline is shown as a glowing, orangish-yellow in color, emitting foul smelling, but not excessively toxic vapors. No one in Anakin's party touches the stuff, so we do not know if direct contact is deadly in any way or other physical properties. This scene is reminiscent of the one cut from RoTS with Anakin and Obi-Wan fleeing from droids in a fuel conduit in the Seperatist flagship Invisible Hand. You can view the scene on Mastertoons by clicking this link.

So, if the Citadel's power plant operates on similar power principles as starships, this fuel is nothing at all like what hypermatter is described like in the EU books. This is not necessarily some kind of hydrocarbon, but it is nothing terribly exotic, either.

Any thoughts?
-Mike

[2046]

There's also the strategic world of Malastare whose claim to fame is massive fuel reserves. It was basically a green-glowing liquid that came out of the ground in "The Zillo Beast"[TCW3]

And there's the fuel leak aboard the Munificent in "Cargo of Doom"[TCW3] which, IIRC, was a black liquid.

So it's pretty clear that they're maintaining continuity with the deleted scene from RotS in that the fuel is liquid and of a fairly normal-seeming density, though they have apparently chosen to avoid the use of simple water to represent it, as was used in those deleted scenes.

(I guess it's hard to convince actors to intentionally sink into green or black or orange goop . . . but, then, Frakes did it once, except that was only for a very brief time and did not involve choreographed underwater fight sequences.)

While it's still possible for the TCW cats to whip out the term hypermatter at some point, it seems quite unlikely it would have any of the qualities assigned to it by the Lucas-canon-haters of SDN and their ICS-author ally.

[Mike DiCenso]

No, the fuels in use here have nothing in common with hypermatter as described in the ICS and other EU materials. However, the inconsistancies between the various fuels depicted still allows the Warsies to cling to hypermatter since they can claim that there are so many fuel varieties, and none of them are necessarily a main power core fuel for hypermatter reactors, just for secondary fusion ones, or some BS like that.
-Mike

[Praeothmin]

Why is it BS though?
In ST, there is the Warp Core and the multiple Fusion Reactors to provide power to a ship.
Why could not an ISD have a Hypermatter core and multiple Fusion Reactors for main power?

[Mike DiCenso]

Consider that in all of Star Wars, we seldom, if ever hear of a duel power system like we do with Star Trek. With ST, you hear about impulse and warp, switching from one to the other, or supplementiing power using impulse, ect. We never hear of that with SW in relation to power, merely hyperdrive versus being on sublight engines, but not seperate power sources. Even in the EU material, there is seldom any references to back up or duel-use power systems.

Furthermore, with ST warp and impulse, they make use of the same fuel... deuterium in some form, though warp combines that deuterium with it's antimatter counterpart to obtain the larger amounts of energy it generates over the fusion-power impulse power and engine systems. There is no such thing here with SW tech, where whatever fuel they are making use of in these episodes, it seems to power a centeral main reactor. If the main reactor goes, there is no switching to another kind of reactor to provide propulsion power as you can in ST. So when the Tantive IV's main reactor shut down, they could not switch over to the SW equivalent of "impulse" and escape on sublight down to Tatooine. They were just dead in the proverbial water and the ISD tractored them in.
-Mike

[Praeothmin]

Hhhmm, so true...

[Mr. Oragahn]

The fact that fuels in TCW would be of different colours and other minor other properties isn't a problem.
Our own fuels vary as well.
The real problem with the ICS is that it insists on making the hypermatter as something that's transported and somehow quite dense by the way, while it would have been very, very easy for Saxton to shoehorn a design that argues that fusion fuel is used to open an hyperspace singularity in a core and tap energy that way. It would have worked well with what we progressively got to learn about the Death Star, and it would have even fit with some ISD schematics showing a link between the hyperdrive and the ionizer core. This would have not even been support for the huge power figures, but it would have certainly made hypermatter based reactors possible, since hypermatter was already mentioned since the OT:ICS, for the DSI.

[Admiral Breetai]

the issue with hypermatter seems to be the way it's described..the power generation the pseudoscience like nature of it (generating the power of a small star etc etc)

simply put in the movies we don't see a galaxy technologically advanced enough to handle stuff like that hell The Feds only recently began developing stuff like this and they are..in many areas centuries to decades ahead of the empire

[Khas]

Also, the Star Wars Encyclopedia mentions that starships have oil reserves, and that the Ganathans have steam-powered starships.

[Mike DiCenso]

Would you be able to scan the SW Encyclopedia entry on that? It would make a great inclusion to the EU material that contradicts the ICS books thread.
-Mike

[Admiral Breetai]

Also, the Star Wars Encyclopedia mentions that starships have oil reserves, and that the Ganathans have steam-powered starships.

that sounds really awesome

[Khas]

Would you be able to scan the SW Encyclopedia entry on that? It would make a great inclusion to the EU material that contradicts the ICS books thread.
-Mike

I'll do it on Friday.

[Praeothmin]

And I'll get my Photon Torpedoes on Thursday... ;)

[Khas]

I thought they didn't come until Tuesday...

Anyway, Friday's really the only day that I have time to do that.

[Mr. Oragahn]

Also, the Star Wars Encyclopedia mentions that starships have oil reserves, and that the Ganathans have steam-powered starships.

that sounds really awesome

Eh. I think it sounds terribly dumb, and probably the cheapest way at attempting to introduce steampunk in Star Wars.