mae@aplvax.UUCP (Mary Anne Espenshade) (05/17/85)
Yes, Adrian Zannin (ugzannin@sunybcs.UUCP), a lot of people watched
Space Cruiser Yamato, unfortunately most of them were in Japan. At
least some of them also make Star Trek movies, since the scene of
the Enterprise escaping the Genesis effect by warping out is exactly
the same view and special effects as the Yamato escaping the exploding
planet at the end of Be Forever Yamato, which was released in 1980.
Back to the original "what if":
There is a major edge the Enterprise has over most ships in the
Yamato universe - energy shields. Only the largest, non-Earth
vessels like the White Comet and the Uruk (from Final Yamato) have
energy shields and they are not put up and taken down quickly and
easily like those of the Enterprise. The other problem is the time
needed to both charge large weapons for firing and engage warp engines.
The Enterprise only has to wait to charge phasers or fix the warp
drive if the ship has already been damaged or the plot needs a quick
suspense boost. While the Yamato's wave motion gun and the large
armaments on the Gamilon cruisers could probably destroy the Enterprise
if they got a shot off, the Enterprise would carve them up while the
weapons were charging, unless the small fighters were enough to keep
them distracted.
The White Comet is more of a problem, phasers and photon torpedoes would
bounce off the shield over the city and the perimeter weapons are rapid
fire. Like the Death Star that it was partially copied from (crossed
with the Mother Ship from CE3K), the White Comet is not very
menueverable and the Enterprise would be able to use the same trick the
Yamato did and stay beneith the firing angle of the main guns. The
White Comet must be destroyed from inside and the Enterprise has a real
edge here - the transporter. Instead of loosing most of the crew in a
direct assult to get in, like the Yamato did, explosives experts could
be beamed from the Enterprise directly to the White Comet's engines.
Having destroyed the White Comet, the Enterprise would have to deal
with Zwordar's black flagship, which was only destroyed by "divine
intervention" - Therasa's mysterious powers - in the series, but was
destroyed by antimatter explosion in Arrivederci Yamato, the movie
the second Yamato series was based on, so a few well placed photon
torpedoes should do it.
I have rambled on long enough. I'll leave it to the next person to
consider how the Enterprise would deal with Harlock's pirate ship,
the Arcadia, or something really huge like either the Macross or
the Zentradi cruisers. This is fun, I love cross-universe games.
Mary Anne Espenshade
...!{allegra, seismo}!umcp-cs!aplvax!mae
P. S. -
To correct some misinformation from Henry J. Neeman (ughenry@buffalo),
the Japanese animated shows he listed were only "brought to us" by the
same people in the sense that they were all made by Japanese film
companies and butchered by American syndication companies.