I think that a lot of problems with B7 viewed as an ongoing series (rather than separate episodes) could have been reduced by thinking of things on a smaller scale. If, for instance, there were only a dozen habitable planets, it would be less surprising that they all have quarries and only one building (an underground bunker) per planet, and it would be possible to follow the political currents of their relationship with the Federation.
If the Liberator were an astonishingly advanced--but tiny--ship (as if Scorpio weren't an interstellar Yugo, for example) then it would make perfect sense that Blake couldn't accommodate a larger crew and had to be critically understaffed all the time.
-(Y)
"Dana Shilling" dshilling@worldnet.att.net wrote:
I think that a lot of problems with B7 viewed as an ongoing series (rather than separate episodes) could have been reduced by thinking of things on a smaller scale. If, for instance, there were only a dozen habitable planets, it would be less surprising that they all have quarries and only one building (an underground bunker) per planet, and it would be possible to follow the political currents of their relationship with the Federation.
If the Liberator were an astonishingly advanced--but tiny--ship (as if Scorpio weren't an interstellar Yugo, for example) then it would make perfect sense that Blake couldn't accommodate a larger crew and had to be critically understaffed all the time.
-(Y)
But the Liberator is 'slightly' larger than the London, which probably contains 50 persons - prisoners and crew.
Unless, of course, it was a 'very' large treasure room.
Jacqui __________________________________________________________________ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Webmail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/
Jacqui said:
But the Liberator is 'slightly' larger than the London, which probably contains 50 persons - prisoners and crew.
Actually, I think Liberator is huge compared to the London-- so much so that in a later episode, footage from SpaceFall is re-used because someone failed to notice the tiny speck of the London model in the footage. So even if Liberator is "only" five times the size of the London, there are six and then five bio-crewmembers in a ship that could probably hold 250 people.
-(Y)
On Mon, 16 Jul 2001, Dana Shilling wrote:
Actually, I think Liberator is huge compared to the London-- so much so that in a later episode, footage from SpaceFall is re-used because someone failed to notice the tiny speck of the London model in the footage. So even if Liberator is "only" five times the size of the London, there are six and then five bio-crewmembers in a ship that could probably hold 250 people.
Not necessarily. The vast size of the Liberator could well be mostly engines and guns, leaving a very small volume for crew and passengers.
Iain
Iain Coleman wrote:
Not necessarily. The vast size of the Liberator could well be mostly engines and guns, leaving a very small volume for crew and passengers.
Ooops. Nothing like doing a mail run and finding someone else just made the same point you did, only with much more succinctly. :-(
Susan Beth (susanbeth33@mindspring.com)
ijc@bas.ac.uk wrote:
On Mon, 16 Jul 2001, Dana Shilling wrote:
Actually, I think Liberator is huge compared to the London-- so much so that in a later episode, footage from SpaceFall is re-used because someone failed to notice the tiny speck of the London model in the footage. So even if Liberator is "only" five times the size of the London, there are six and then five bio-crewmembers in a ship that could probably hold 250 people.
Not necessarily. The vast size of the Liberator could well be mostly engines and guns, leaving a very small volume for crew and passengers.
Iain
I suppose the amount of space available for people depends upon how many the plots involved demanded (g) - at least a dozen (eg Mission to Destiny), and what the Liberator was originally intended to do.
As The System describes it as a Deep Space Vessel, it probably contains significant storage areas - for whatever the equivalent of 'a five year mission to explore....' a la Star Trek. That is why it might have been caught up in the space battle in the first place - the crew got curious and too close.
Jacqui __________________________________________________________________ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Webmail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/
Dana Shilling wrote:
Actually, I think Liberator is huge compared to the London-- so much so that in a later episode, footage from SpaceFall is re-used because someone failed to notice the tiny speck of the London model in the footage. So even if Liberator is "only" five times the size of the London, there are six and then five bio-crewmembers in a ship that could probably hold 250 people.
But that assumes the empty volume/ship machinery ratio is the same, which isn't necessarily so. The drives evidently work on completely different methods which might be bulky. And who knows how much volume is consumed by the power regenerators? And the recycling/recreation machinery for life support and mechanical maintenance must have been pretty extensive. Heck, even Zen itself might require a sizeable amount of memory banks or whatever. Not to mention the offduty lounges for all the robots that actually do the grunt work. ;-)
And, of course, you can't assume non-filled-with-machinery volume equates to crew accommodations. They had at least one cargo hold large enough to admit a space shuttle. Perhaps there were dozens of them, empty ones the Altas were looking to fill with <something> in the course of their journeying.
I can't help but think that if there *were* accommodations for 250 people, we'd have heard something about it, especially from people used to living in what looked like a densely occupied dome. References to the ship being eerily empty, jokes about using a different cabin every night, complaints about the miles of corridors to pass through on the way to <some place.>
Not to mention that having those 'wasted' rooms would have preyed on Blake's mind. Why not frequent references to taking extra people on board simply to ferry them away from bad circumstances/to places they were needed? Okay, the show's budget wouldn't allow that to be shown, but there could have been remarks about 'Glad to finally get those rebels to Chandra Six and have the ship to ourselves again.'
My impression was always that there was SOME more space than they needed, but not extremely so. Something more on the order of a handful of extra cabins.
Susan Beth (susanbeth33@mindspring.com)
In message 008a01c10dff$c187ab40$5294590c@dshilling, Dana Shilling dshilling@worldnet.att.net writes
Jacqui said:
But the Liberator is 'slightly' larger than the London, which probably contains 50 persons - prisoners and crew.
Actually, I think Liberator is huge compared to the London-- so much so that in a later episode, footage from SpaceFall is re-used because someone failed to notice the tiny speck of the London model in the footage. So even if Liberator is "only" five times the size of the London, there are six and then five bio-crewmembers in a ship that could probably hold 250 people.
One of the model builders said in an article that the Liberator is supposed to be a kilometre long (something which apparently does not seem to have got through to some of the people who do "how big are the various sf spacecraft" articles...).
Julia Jones julia.lysator@jajones.demon.co.uk wrote:
In message 008a01c10dff$c187ab40$5294590c@dshilling, Dana Shilling dshilling@worldnet.att.net writes
Jacqui said:
But the Liberator is 'slightly' larger than the London, which probably contains 50 persons - prisoners and crew.
Actually, I think Liberator is huge compared to the London-- so much so that in a later episode, footage from SpaceFall is re-used because someone failed to notice the tiny speck of the London model in the footage. So even if Liberator is "only" five times the size of the London, there are six and then five bio-crewmembers in a ship that could probably hold 250 people.
One of the model builders said in an article that the Liberator is supposed to be a kilometre long (something which apparently does not seem to have got through to some of the people who do "how big are the various sf spacecraft" articles...). -- Julia Jones
Some of the Liberator will be used for things not present on the London - eg the weaponry systems (the London is unlikely to have anything larger than 'inconvenient asteroid/equivalent bashers' for want of a better term) etc.
There are probably going to be more storerooms than the clothing and treasure containing ones. Any suggestions as to what they might contain?
(And would Orac have its own cabin?)
Jacqui __________________________________________________________________ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Webmail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/
... said the traveller.
Jacqui __________________________________________________________________ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Webmail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/
In message 31808F78.550A5002.4BF51BCE@netscape.net, jacquispeel@netscape.net writes
... said the traveller.
Seems to have gone all quiet, doesn't it? On three of the lists, at any rate; the FC spin list has suddenly woken up. Well, 3 posts in as many days counts as frenetic activity on FCspin...
As far as Avon was aware the Federation did not know Blake was on Gauda Prime - and nobody expected the Scorpio.
Jacqui __________________________________________________________________ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Webmail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/
jacquispeel@netscape.net wrote:
As far as Avon was aware the Federation did not know Blake was on Gauda Prime - and nobody expected the Scorpio.
Possibly this explains the Scorpio's dilapidated condition - it was a relic from the Spanish Inquisition.
Mistral
Jacqui wrote:
But the Liberator is 'slightly' larger than the London, which probably contains 50 persons - prisoners and crew.
Go back and watch Space Fall, and the moment when the London flies in front of the Liberator. The prison ship looks like a bluebottle by a seagull.