Redesign Star Wars

[Mossie]

Another approach to the Planet Killer (probably wouldn't call it the 'Death Star' in this case) would be to make it a really, REALLY big 'gun', so big that the spaceship bits around it don't cover it, but are built onto it, a bit like engine pods and gondolas on an airship. It might look a little like the Cygnus from The Black Hole.

I had an idea years back for a Star Wars ship that was designed around a huge gun.   In this case it was a point defence fighter I called a Z wing.  The idea was to wrap the smallest possible design around a gun that was capable of damaging a capital ship and to employ several in a shoot and scoot manner (or more appropriately, shoot and scuttle, it would be relatively slow).  The cockpit and engine assembly would swing above the gun when it was ready to fire.  It's  the same basic concept as your planet killer, on a smaller scale.

[joncarrfarrelly]

Another approach to the Planet Killer (probably wouldn't call it the 'Death Star' in this case) would be to make it a really, REALLY big 'gun', so big that the spaceship bits around it don't cover it, but are built onto it, a bit like engine pods and gondolas on an airship. It might look a little like the Cygnus from The Black Hole.

I had an idea years back for a Star Wars ship that was designed around a huge gun.   In this case it was a point defence fighter I called a Z wing.  The idea was to wrap the smallest possible design around a gun that was capable of damaging a capital ship and to employ several in a shoot and scoot manner (or more appropriately, shoot and scuttle, it would be relatively slow).  The cockpit and engine assembly would swing above the gun when it was ready to fire.  It's  the same basic concept as your planet killer, on a smaller scale.

What powers the gun? 

A major reason for the bulk of the Death Star was the power generating equipment for the
Big Gun.

 

[tigercat]

One way of killing a planet  is dropping a big rock into  the gravity wel.  obviously it would need to be a sizeable  rock to  destroy it .

So your Death Star could be a giant rock slinger

[Weaver]

Another approach to the Planet Killer (probably wouldn't call it the 'Death Star' in this case) would be to make it a really, REALLY big 'gun', so big that the spaceship bits around it don't cover it, but are built onto it, a bit like engine pods and gondolas on an airship. It might look a little like the Cygnus from The Black Hole.

I had an idea years back for a Star Wars ship that was designed around a huge gun.   In this case it was a point defence fighter I called a Z wing.  The idea was to wrap the smallest possible design around a gun that was capable of damaging a capital ship and to employ several in a shoot and scoot manner (or more appropriately, shoot and scuttle, it would be relatively slow).  The cockpit and engine assembly would swing above the gun when it was ready to fire.  It's  the same basic concept as your planet killer, on a smaller scale.

What powers the gun? 

A major reason for the bulk of the Death Star was the power generating equipment for the
Big Gun.

 

Big cool-looking thing on the back end, or maybe a ring of cool-looking things around the back end? This is Star Wars Engineering: the Rule-Of-Cool governs most things...

[Weaver]

One way of killing a planet  is dropping a big rock into  the gravity wel.  obviously it would need to be a sizeable  rock to  destroy it .

So your Death Star could be a giant rock slinger

Yeah, but that's slow and boring: it doesn't give you that I'm-gonna-push-the-button-NO-DON'T-PUSH-THE-BUTTON!-I'm-gonna-push-the-button-harder-now-BOOM moment...

Babylon 5 had an extended sequence where the Centauri were bombarding the Narn homeworld with mass-drivers firing, presumably, rocks, but they were small rocks and it was taking months, not a moment, to trash the surface.

[scooter]

Babylon 5 had an extended sequence where the Centauri were bombarding the Narn homeworld with mass-drivers firing, presumably, rocks, but they were small rocks and it was taking months, not a moment, to trash the surface.

You can also see the remorse and disgust in Londo's face at his actions that brought them to that point as the camera pans out of the flagship, as he's watching the Narn homeworld getting literally bombed back into the stone age.

[kitnut617]

A major reason for the bulk of the Death Star was the power generating equipment for the
Big Gun.

 

So, a sci-fi version of an YAL-1   

[Mossie]

What powers the gun? 

A major reason for the bulk of the Death Star was the power generating equipment for the
Big Gun.

 

That has been a problem in fixing the design in my head.  Smaller planetary based weapons that can damage a capital ship exist in Star Wars but they do tend to have some superstructure associated with them or tap into a power source.

That being said, there's always the sci-fi approach of just not mentioning the power supply.

[Scotaidh]

What powers the gun? 

A major reason for the bulk of the Death Star was the power generating equipment for the
Big Gun.

 

That has been a problem in fixing the design in my head.  Smaller planetary based weapons that can damage a capital ship exist in Star Wars but they do tend to have some superstructure associated with them or tap into a power source.

That being said, there's always the sci-fi approach of just not mentioning the power supply.

Di-lithium crystals ...

[Weaver]

Perhaps the reason planet-killer guns aren't used much in normal combat is that their rate of fire is very low. Say it takes days or even weeks for the system to generate enough handwavium particles for a shot. That would make it exactly the sort of 'luxury item'  that only an evil empire with a very large fleet to protect it could afford to build.

[joncarrfarrelly]

Another approach to the Planet Killer (probably wouldn't call it the 'Death Star' in this case) would be to make it a really, REALLY big 'gun', so big that the spaceship bits around it don't cover it, but are built onto it, a bit like engine pods and gondolas on an airship. It might look a little like the Cygnus from The Black Hole.

I had an idea years back for a Star Wars ship that was designed around a huge gun.   In this case it was a point defence fighter I called a Z wing.  The idea was to wrap the smallest possible design around a gun that was capable of damaging a capital ship and to employ several in a shoot and scoot manner (or more appropriately, shoot and scuttle, it would be relatively slow).  The cockpit and engine assembly would swing above the gun when it was ready to fire.  It's  the same basic concept as your planet killer, on a smaller scale.

What powers the gun? 

A major reason for the bulk of the Death Star was the power generating equipment for the
Big Gun.

 

Big cool-looking thing on the back end, or maybe a ring of cool-looking things around the back end? This is Star Wars Engineering: the Rule-Of-Cool governs most things...

Huge gun, humongous power generation and drive gubbins and a teensy-tiny cockpit. 

[Weaver]

Another approach to the Planet Killer (probably wouldn't call it the 'Death Star' in this case) would be to make it a really, REALLY big 'gun', so big that the spaceship bits around it don't cover it, but are built onto it, a bit like engine pods and gondolas on an airship. It might look a little like the Cygnus from The Black Hole.

I had an idea years back for a Star Wars ship that was designed around a huge gun.   In this case it was a point defence fighter I called a Z wing.  The idea was to wrap the smallest possible design around a gun that was capable of damaging a capital ship and to employ several in a shoot and scoot manner (or more appropriately, shoot and scuttle, it would be relatively slow).  The cockpit and engine assembly would swing above the gun when it was ready to fire.  It's  the same basic concept as your planet killer, on a smaller scale.

What powers the gun? 

A major reason for the bulk of the Death Star was the power generating equipment for the
Big Gun.

 

Big cool-looking thing on the back end, or maybe a ring of cool-looking things around the back end? This is Star Wars Engineering: the Rule-Of-Cool governs most things...

Huge gun, humongous power generation and drive gubbins and a teensy-tiny cockpit. 

Well a bridge, but still pretty insubstantial. The idea is that the power-requirement of the gun and the output of the power-generators are at the limit of the possible, so there isn't much left for thrust, life support, defense, etc... The Planet Killer is thus slow moving and relatively defenseless, and looks more like an industrial complex than a warship, with lightweight skeletal structures supporting just the bare neccessities. The bridge is a wide bar hanging underneath the back end, just in front of the power pods, which have small engines on the back of them. Shuttles dock externally rather than in a hangar bay, and most crew live on an accompanying support ship, shuttling back and forth as they go on and off shift. Escorting battleships extend their defense shields around the Planet Killer, so you have to whittle them down through attrition before you can get a shot at it.

[joncarrfarrelly]

So you'd have some sort of interstellar tug to move it from system to system?   

[scooter]

What powers the gun? 

A major reason for the bulk of the Death Star was the power generating equipment for the
Big Gun.

 

That has been a problem in fixing the design in my head.  Smaller planetary based weapons that can damage a capital ship exist in Star Wars but they do tend to have some superstructure associated with them or tap into a power source.

That being said, there's always the sci-fi approach of just not mentioning the power supply.

Di-lithium crystals ...

Dilithium isn't the power source in ST, its a matter-antimatter reaction.  The dilithium carried aboard is a focusing element to improve the reaction.

You can see Kirk kicking on it in Into Darkness, as the Enterprise is falling to Earth after getting shot down by Khan.

[Weaver]

So you'd have some sort of interstellar tug to move it from system to system?   

What I'm thinking is that it takes a long time to charge the weapon, it can't be held charged for very long, and it can't be taken into hyperspace charged because <insert technobabble>. So you've got plenty of power for a hyperspace jump, but you then have to crawl around the target system putting most of your power into charging the weapon with only a little left over for propulsion, making sure that you end up in range of the target just as you hit full charge, otherwise you're going to have to blow up some random asteroid and start again.

From the scriptwriting point of view, this gives a reason for the normal-space crawl towards the target that give the defenders a shot at stopping it: one of the big unadressed questions in the original movie is why the Death Star didn't just drop out of hyperspace right next to Yavin and blow it up ten seconds later*. It also keeps the purpose of stealing the Planet Killer's plans, when this version is all weak spots: it's the escort you've got to defeat. You need it's performance specs in order to work out where it can shoot from and how long it takes to charge, which in turn lets you define the area of space that needs to be monitored in order to get enough early warning to coordinate a response.


*Off topic, but it's just struck me that this is a plot hole in Rogue One. In a New Hope, the Death Star has to travel in normal space for over 15 minutes to  get into firing position on Yavin (source: Rebel command centre dialogue). However, in Rogue One, it pops out of hyperspace practically on top of Scarif and takes a shot about 1 minute later (source: timings of space battle scene). Okay it's "only" a "one-reactor" shot, but it's still pretty devastating and would more than suffice to finish off the Rebel base on Yavin. So since it worked so well at Scarif, why didn't they do the same thing a few weeks later at Yavin? Also, where was the Imperial fleet at Yavin?