Why Dreadnoughts?

Or: Jay's Gun Bunny Rant.

       In reply to every super dreadnought, space control ship or anything with more that four nacelles, Jay P. Hailey, fan fiction writer and general Nice Guy, did reply on the TrekCreative mailing list with this mild rant. We the management being in perfect agreement hereby post it with permission. -- Garry Stahl

 

       Okay. Then we get into a different question, Did Gene Roddenberry have a clue when he said that Starfleet is not a military organization? I am not thinking so. In GURPS (A role playing game) and Traveler (A different and occasionally related game, I'd explain but your head would explode. C.F. South Park's "Chewbaca Defense")
       In these two imaginary worlds, there is a Space Navy and a Scout service. The Scouts handle exploration and scientific investigation. The Navy handles defense. In times of war and Emergency, the Scouts are attached to the Navy for recon duty.
       This division of labor makes nearly perfect sense to me. But no one asked me. Gene Roddenberry said that Starfleet melds the duties of both Scouts and Space Navy.

       Now one must ask a question. Gene Roddenberry proposed cruisers (Starship class, I presume a special and superior form of space ship) as the highest form of Starfleet life. Gene Roddenberry proposed that the Federation's chief arm would be this Jacques Cousteau like paramilitary force.
       One must either decide here if A> Gene Roddenberry was stupid or B> The paramilitary Starfleet was *sufficient to the task*
       If Gene Roddenberry was stupid then you'd see Starfleet building warships and dividing into these subclasses (Scout and Navy).
       If, as Gene Roddenberry imagined, Starfleet was sufficient to the task then the fire power of a single cruiser would be horrifying, sufficient to replace a squadron of real navy battle cruisers, and the the captain would be picked to use this force with great judgment and reserve. And these cruisers would be all you need. One cruiser, one problem.

       I like to try to take a middle ground and assume that Starfleet was not stupid or criminally incompetent when designing it's starships.

       Every time a gunny-bunny hands you a new super dreadnought, this is what he's implying. "Starfleet was too stupid to add the other nine nacelles and all the weapons until *I* came along and a good thing for them that I did, in all my wonderfulness."
       Every time a gun bunny hands you a ship that totally out guns the Enterprise, he's saying that the Enterprise wasn't big or strong enough for him.

       Look at it this way. Do you remember the old TV Show Baa Baa Black Sheep? Robert Conrad as Pappy Boyington. He and his brave crew of pilots fly forth and do battle against Japanese Zeros and so on. It's set during WWII and uses a lot of footage of Corsairs and Japanese Zeros.
       So this guy comes up to you and says "I am a fan of Baa Baa Black Sheep. I even wrote my own story about my own Baa Baa Black Sheep pilot. But I thought that the F4u Corsair was a bit wimpy and so I made up my own airplane for Baa Baa Black Sheep." And then Mr. Black-sheep-nical fan hands you a drawing of his special plane, an F-14.

       If you can look past, for the moment, the maximum statement of "I have no penis" inherent in this sort of thing, then Mr Fan-boy there is resting his little ego trip on a couple of weird premises.
       If there's an F-14 in WWII, then by extension the U.S. in WWII can build F-14s. So why are Pappy and his crew flying Corsairs?
       "Well" Fanboy says "It's a super duper secret prototype and I have the only one."
       So the U.S. In WWII has the ability to build a super plane but elects not to, except for one Special character? Duh?

       It makes the assumption that the U.S. during WWII or by extension that The Federation defending itself against any given enemy will only go halfway and use half measures until the arrival of Mary Sue on the scene.
       It assumes that they're stupid until fanboy shows up to show them all the error of their ways.
       Never mind that the Corsair was something of a super plane during it's day and flown by a competent, lucky pilot, who used the right tactics, a one-on-one match was foregone conclusion.
       Pappy Boyington and his crew commonly *attacked* formations of 30 Japanese airplanes and once got the drop on 60 of them (!!) and waded in anyway. They were good pilots, with superior tactics and superior airplanes and had every faith they could follow through such an attack.
       So why add an F-14 to a Baa Baa Black Sheep story? Why add a super-duper dreadnought to Trek?

       Ya got me there, Sport.

       Actually I like to blow things up, too. I don't think Trek is the tool for that. Battlestar Galactica. Tom Clancy. Baa Baa Back Sheep. But Trek?
       Also I like my "blowing things up" a slightly different flavor than that. A more balanced form of destruction where it's the *character's* skill, ability and spirit that makes the difference.

-- Jay P. Hailey


Body material Copyright © Jay P Hailey, 2002
Introduction Copyright © Garry Stahl 2002
Do not reprint without permission

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