Battlestar Galactica: Mercury Class Battlestar - Ship Breakdown
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- Опубліковано 24 лип 2018
- I break down the fearsome Mercury Class Battlestar.
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Battlezone II Music by Carey Chico
Sci-Tech Intro Features Animated Elements by SKIBBZ.
Spacedock does not hold ownership of the copyrighted materiel (Footage, Stills etc) taken from the various works of fiction covered in this series, and uses them within the boundaries of Fair Use for the purpose of Analysis, Discussion and Review. Produced by Daniel Orrett. Owner/Executive Producer at Spacedock. - Розваги
Whoops! Small editing mistake in the factsheet, the ship is 1789 meters long not 11789! My bad. :)
Rian Johnson seal of approval?
Measuring 11 kilometres from bow to stern, the Mercury class wields more firepower than 10 Basestars combined.
Hence why the TV program ended so abruptly after 10 episodes.
Noticed that
It's also Mobile, evidently.
If humanity made a battlestar class with a length of 11789 meters what name would it have? Mega class? I haven't seen BSG. I will at some point.
People in the comments compare the Mercury class and valkyrie but the point of this giant was to not to act alone but to support a fleet of smaller vessels. The Valkyrie and Mercury classes were meant to compliment each other. The leaner and more flexible ships flanking an enemy while the sheer brute power of the command ships tied up baseships in a slugging match. With the Mercury ability to replenish lost Vipers such a battle group could tear across Cylon space, wrecking havoc far beyond the range of the old Olympia class Battlestars.
The only point to raise is that while the Mercury could replenish it's Viper's and keep the Fighters in tip top form... It could not fabricate pilots. It's training facilities required time to train pilots. So it could take more pilots than necessary who were not trained and train them enroute... Which isn't a good idea for obvious reasons taking fresh pilots with a majority of sim experience, no combat experience and no stick time in real Viper into hostile territory.
And the fab facilities don't make sense either. Harvesting raw material from asteroids means it needs a hopper for raw material... Then it needs a purification plant and a hopper for processed material... Then it needs fabrication for the processed material before rolling out a new Viper.
You could just cut weight by pulling out the mining, raw hopper and purification planet that do nothing but add mass and don't provide an advantage in a fight. Mining and processing duties should go to a frigate type ship and free the Battlestar to provide security. Adding processing facilities that by rights should be ground based simply renders the Battlestar overweight and bulky to the point that it's back lacks swivel mounted artillery to give the ship versatile firing arcs. Instead it's alligator head and engines block any artillery fixed there rendering the area unusable in a fight. compared to Galactica. Though she might have less firepower, Cain was renown for not using the Pegasus to it's full potential in combat. Resulting in older and more experienced crews and ships 'whipping the tar' out of her.
Pegasus makes sense as a fighting support ship. One that doesn't slug it out with other ships, but rather can fight its way out of trouble if it arrives on it's doorstep. Producing trained pilots and Vipers is it's best feature, but to do so it needs to remain away from Cylon's to allow it's pilots the time to train in the sims before being let out to fly the real thing. Granted in wartime pilot training is sped up and certain lessons not bothered with, but the point stands that if no ship other than Pegasus can train pilots from scratch, then it makes sense to keep it out of combat rather than risk it's pilot production capacity.
Pegasus really is just a command ship designed to generate the resources a fleet needs to keep going. If a Battlestar is a carrier and Battleship rolled into one, then Pegasus rolls auxiliary support into it's superstructure and that has resulted in a ship that doesn't know what it is. It can operate in any role, but only at a cost. If it fights then it's lugging around extra mass from mining and fabrication that doesn't help it. And if it trains pilots away from the front lines, it's guns aren't helping the war effort.
All in all, Pegasus would have been better off being converted into a museum instead of Galactica and allowed to function as a mobile flight school that allowed pilots to train as Battlestar pilots, before being assigned to a real Battlestar. It was only the Cylon war that saved it from living out what would have otherwise been a lackluster service life.
Shallow thinking.
It all come down to LOGISTIC and Power Projection/Operational Range.
Also...square-cube law ensure there are plenty of empty volumes to inserts extra capabilities in.
They really thought this through. These vessels are designed to function in battlestar groups, not alone. A Mercury is the centerpiece with onboard factories that can build at least Vipers, possibly more that we don't know about. This ability cannot be understated. It being able to win a slugging match is great too, but onboard fabrication of strikecraft (and I always imagined replacement parts for the ships it was designed to supplement, the Valkyries) would make modern Battlestar groups highly mobile, independent meat grinders. No wonder the Cylons concluded subterfuge was the only way to win a war
Titan warships from Eve online which are around 20km length are designed to destroy entire enemy fleets by themselves without support so a single one could end a whole colonial battlestars and basestars fleets together
@@davfree9732that presumes that it doesn’t have the extra armor needed to protect the fab facilities during a slugging match, there’s a reason none of the characters bring up that it could be damaged during an operation and it likely means that if the fab facilities were destroyed then the mercury had bigger problems to worry about since that would mean it sustained enough damage to cripple the ship. Basically if the fab facility is damaged then the ship was fucked with or without it
0:25 ah the Battlestar Susagep, the most powerful battlestar of them all.
Nice catch there.
Sus
Hoh sis, hiiimalooo
everybody gangsta till the ꙅuꙅɒǫɘq shows up
God i love Pegasus, never has a ship gone out with more style, swining til the end with the icing on the cake being the baseship taking a flightpod to the face. I did love the fact that Lee thanked the ship before abandoning her.
Mark David it's like she said after ramming the basestar I'm not done yet!
Lee should have apologised to Pegasus before abandoning her!
@@GazC In a way he did, when Lee paused a bit before leaving _Pegasus_ bridge/CIC, he seemed to be saying "Thank you, and goodbye".
Fun Fact: Sisko did the same when he said goodbye to the Defiant, an episode that was also directed by RDM.
Bit of a waste, tbh, buuut what a way to go
The thing I never understood about the colonials is given their first war experience the obvious lesson would appear to be to have one set of networked computers for processing power but to also have completely disconnected second set of non-networked computers to prevent the cylons from being able to completely disable you through hacking
Humans have a bad habit of repeating bad ideas and ignoring the lessons of history. That's why people keep supporting socialism...thinking this time... it's gonna work.
Peace is just as dangerous as idiocy. The decades of peace made them complacent with on-board computer networking.
The series also depicted the colonials as having backstabbing and megalomaniacal tendencies.
They probably though their firewalls would hold off cyber attacks long enough for them to counterattack, not realizing the system that networked their computers was designed with a massive backdoor in it.
Isn't that the point? The cylons NEEDED to use a backdoor, physically written in the code and they also needed to destroy the mainframe on Caprica in the opening wave.
The networks themselves were just fine, the CNP, which is an operating system was the problem.
I always blame the ministry of defense for not letting 2 or 3 other computer scientists recheck the code before deploying it on the ships
A beast armed to the teeth and built for war. Imagine the whole fleet of Mercury Class Batllestars intact and unleashing their wrath upon the fragile Cylon Basestars. They would chew them up within hours. An easy and decisive victory for the Colonial Forces.
That's why they concluded they couldn't win by force and had to use subterfuge. Also, it'd be a Mercury supported by a bunch of Valkyries in a fleet. Berzerks and other support ships too. We don't know how many, the show never goes into it but we see at least 3 deployed together without a Mercury over Caprica during the fall. It's a shame there weren't more people with brain cells in the fleet, and we don't get to see a fleet working in unison to destroy the enemy because those BSGs would be formidable. Hundreds of guns and planes would make it a giant saw in space
I waited a long time for this. There she is, the called her the beast and the name fits but she is also a beauty. Easly my favourite bsg design.
Like David i am mad at lee for wasting that powerfull ship but your last line helped me to make peace with that. Going down saving all humanity is not that bad of an end for the last of her kind.
The Pegasus is easily the best looking ship in the entire franchise.
Second place would be the original 1978 Galactica and her sister ships.
Yea lets just destroy the ship thats perfectly suited to our current situation
Blame Baltar, he's the real douche in that show.
@@SvenStadt have you rewatched BSG? Just curious because I felt the same about Baltar the first watch. The second I felt differently. Instead of a douche I felt more like he was pitiable. He was a weak, flawed man who got played by everyone around him. Only his personal failings and vanity allowed him to be played so he is still a shitty guy but he is also kind of a hilarious viewpoint and a weak victim
Well the show is called Battlestar Galactica not Pegasus lol. Though the show could of continued on just fine with both of them being able to make new vipers on the Pegasus gives them more strategic options.
@@rc59191 thats easy, just rename the Battlestar pegasus to battlestar galactica
@@truta3715 something about that feels dirty lol.
What the most people don’t know, this shipclass even had 2 raptor magnetic launch tubes
Perhaps the thing I most greatly admire about these ships is they're more realistic than spacecraft from other shows. These ships look as spacecraft should look. Powerful, durable and slightly ominous.
I think they got a lot more right than most sci-fi. If you had a fuel source like tylium (almost twice the energy density contained in a star) you could build things like this. Kinetic weapons are much more destructive in space than energy weapons would be, so they got that right too. The ranges seem a bit short but then again if you want to make sure your rounds are on target, you have to get in close so they can't be evaded. Baseships might lack armor but those things move _fast_
The only show with more realistic science is The Expanse.
They were constantly having to deal with the laws of physics, and had some clever ways to get around them.
For instance, there was an ever-present lag time in all communications for the outer planets and belts. Nearly every "cell phone" message was a delayed recording.
Still mad at Lee Adama for getting the Pegasus destroyed.
Would've been interesting to see Pegasus last until the end. Imagine Bill Adama having to abandon the rotting Galactica to plant his flag in the Pegasus. But hey, that was a terrific episode.
That makes two of us! It was an exciting episode and the old girl met an epic end, but from a tactical standpoint she was far too valuable to risk at New Caprica. I totally agree with Daniel's assessment in his vid covering the Battle of New Caprica.
Pegasus should have been destroyed at the battle in the nebula at the end of season 3. It would have made more sense and could have made for an equally dramatic moment to have the Pegasus try to save the Fleet by holding off the cylons why the fleet tried to escape at sublight speeds.
I mean, in the end it still would've been sent into the sun when they found earth. Sometimes I think about that Deadlock game and realize that none of that matters in 40 years when all that's left is two Battlestars.
It's like when One sacrificed himself for the USS Voyager. smh. could've totally made it out alive and made the ship go home faster.
They may not have the best technology in all of sci-fi universes, but for me, the Battlestars, specifically the Jupiter and Mercury class Battlestars, are the best ships in all of sci-fi
Imagine a Mercury class Battlestar with Asgard weapons, shields, beaming technology, Lantean Drone Missiles, G.O.D. Cannons, Pulse Plasma Cannons, Gatebuster Nukes, Direct Offensive Missiles, Nova bombs, Fusion drive engines, Lantean Intergalactic Hyperdrives. The Cylons won't stand a chance.
@OVOD.net why is that cringe?
@@Hammerhead137 The replicators from Stargate just ate your upgraded battlestar.
@@protorhinocerator142 how? My ship still has its PDC network, not to mention nukes.
@@Hammerhead137 The more tech you have, the more the replicators want it.
Enjoyed the nod to the original series with this design. Unfortunate that the writers felt they needed to include the ship for half a season only to write it out the way they did. Cant blame the Lee Adama character for following the script, but people will.
It was because they couldn't financially maintain the Pegasus sets when they decided to introduce the Basestar interiors. And since the Pegasus and Galactica interiors were wildly different, there was no chance of just using one for the other. It's why they destroyed the Pegasus so soon after it was introduced.
@@Mobius_118 Correct. The writers didn't get rid of the Pegasus. Accountants did.
I like how it was laid out in the first series. The Pegasus did a blind jump after attacking to Basestars. Just like it did to originally save itself when the Cyclons attacked the Colonies.
And there was the promise of it returning. I just don't think it was written back into the script because the series couldn't add the additional budget requirements before the series was cancelled.
@@superdave8248 Please correct me if I'm wrong but I remember that the OG Pegasus did return in Richard Hatch's continuation novels of the '78 series (which ignores the '80 one).
It's nice to see this channel's quality grow overtime. Well done Spacedock.
God I love bsg
Enclave soldier so say we all
so say we all
series 2 episode 10 crackle over the radio, brings a tear to my eye every time I hear that call.
So say we all😇
So say we all
The mercury class battlestar is one of my best favourite battlestars in the universe loved them very much xxx.
LOVING this animation you're using
I love this ship one of my favorite batttlestar galatica designs I just wish they used it well
You have Lee to thank for that and he is still a punk.
Pegasus heading into the great Valhalla of vessels, asked "Was I a good ship?"
*No. You were one of the best.*
To a Battlestar called the Pegasus! So say we all!
I think the BSG battlestars, especially Pegasus and Valkyrie, are the most beautiful science fiction ships I have seen in a while.
Had this pop up in my recommended feed after getting the Modern Ships pack for BSG: Deadlock.
Should do more battle analysis. Keep it up.
As a fan of the show, this is great. I clicked out of curiosity, and ended up glued to my phone for the whole thing. Good work.
When I see this I just think, "dam you, Lee"
Probably one of the most beautifulest capital ships ever
This is such a beautiful warship, and presents a solid design through and through
Awesome! I really wish BSG could have had more "large fleet vs. large fleet" fights, but that's somewhat... difficult with only 2 surviving capital warships!
If you like that you should definitely play Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock which is set in the first Cylon War but there are DLCs for modern ships to use in skirmish battles.
Kudos Spacedock. Nicely done.
The Beast is awesome....
I would love to see an episode on Starcraft 2 ships, especially the Terran Battlecruiser or even the Hyperion variant. your videos are great.
By far one of the best designed ships in science fiction
I like it, but obviously not as much as the much as the similar but less bloated Artemis. Anyway there are soooo many designs in science fiction that I'd always use the qulifiers "that I know of" or "that I can think of".
Probably the best looking starship design in sci-fi!
You’re one of the reasons I started watching Battlestar Galactica, for that I thank you
I have been eagerly awaiting this. Thank you, Daniel. Great video!
Not only do I love this guys voice, listening to him makes me go, "where do I sign up for the Colonial Fleet?" as if this ship really existed.
It helps that this is probably one of his favorite capital ships of all time, meaning he's more enthusiastic about it than others.
Yes!!! I've been waiting for you to do a Mercury Class video! Thank you!
0:42 The thing is long than an Imperial-class Star Destroyer!
It actually is longer than an ISD by almost 200 meters.
Deadlock music
Has to be one of the best warship designs ever, full stop.
Agreed, I haven't seen the show yet but I liked the design so much I got the Titanium diecast model of it.
I would personally love to see a Spacedock video on the Hive Dreadnaught from Destiny.
what a beauty!! i love this design so much! cheers
Wicked episode as always SpaceDock !
The best Ship design I've ever seen. I love it!
Great video, as always!
This is going to remain my all-time favourite space warship design.
3:21 waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait a minute.
is that a freaking berzerk in the background from the series? i never noticed!
Funnily enough its the same image that was used in Spacedocks Berserk-class analysis video. ^^
Yes it is... Watch Battlestar Galactica: Razor to see it
Amazing
Yup. One cool baby battlestar. Not a bad ship in Deadlock if you can keep it alive and get it in a good spot to use those guns
The berserk looks not too smaller than Pegasus, but it's actually approximately the size of a Valkyrie (700m)
I love this review bro so I subscribed
This is Pegasus-Actual .
I still love these old videos.
I am now in love with this ship 😍
The Mercury Class Battlestars are awesome ships !
Favorite ship in Sci-Fi!
I really like this ship. Great video.
Thank you
THAT WAS AWESOME SIR!
A couple folks cite Spacedock's coverage of the Mercury class (and its performance in Deadlock) to invalidate the canon of the novelss/comics claim that the admiralty thought this ship was too expensive, kind of unnecessary, and put Cain in charge of the Pegasus to get the politically well-connected daughter of a prestigious military family out of their way (and out of major decision-making.)
I don't see how anything Daniel says here contradicts those sources. The Mercury _is_ technically superior, but militaries do not thrive on the best, most expensive ships and materiel that can possibly be manufactured. They thrive on the best equipment you can make enough of to outfit the most people with them. Surely the Mercury, the largest, most expensive, most advanced war machine the colonies had ever developed, was deemed to be basically unnecessarily wasteful. Especially in peace time.
And if you had a daughter of a prestigious military family who was unreasonably rigid but had all the political connections to advance … you might put her in charge of one of these technical "marvels" that were deemed unnecessary to flatter her ego, and then conveniently shunt her away from decision making.
Yes, an old Jupiter was going to be no match for a Mercury in a head on fight, because that's not how you actually defeat an enemy's superior force. But you first need to establish Cain is actually an enemy.
I’ve been waiting for this for a very long time...
Great vid! I recently got the Pegasus Battlestar Titanium model, great stuff.
Man...Pegasus was an absolute BEAST!!! I loved her the second she showed up on screen.
Damn this should be on the dvd/blueray as part of the behind the scenes
Subbed
my favorite Battlestar
Omg love the BSG vids keep em up !!!!
I just wanna say that your voice and pronounciation play a great role in your videos success! love it
In my opinion the perfect Battlestar! What a beauty.
DAMN. Great video.
the only fault in this ship is that She wasn't named Galactica
Pegasus was lost... #BlameLeeApolloAdama
Daimon X Right with ya, pal.
NightRaven 1901 He crashed an experimental stealth ship that was effective against cylons into a raider, crashed a superior battlestar into a basestar, and then crashed literally all their technology into the sun.
Maybe he should of had the call sign CRASH instead.
Launchpad McQuack didn't crash as much as Apollo
He should have transferred the flag to the Pegasus and renamed it as the Galactica.
My absolutely favorite ship in science fiction!
Like a bigger alligator... Obviously, sacrificing the Pegasus instead of the Galactica was illogical, but you know - the show wasn't called BSP!
They couldve renamed the ship....
Keny30
That is...actually not a terrible idea. Controversial, sure, but it would have made the escape from New Caprica more heartwrenching than the loss of the Pegasus. And the Pegasus does look a hell of a lot more like the original '78 Galactica.
I'd have gone for renaming the show.
"Previously, on Battlestar Pegasus..."
Flows kinda nicely I think.
Idk if there'd be a good reason to rename the ship and I'd personally be fine with renaming the show - however, I doubt marketing would feel it had the same ring to it. Whatever... I do agree that the less sleek look of the Pegasus harkens back to the original 78 galactica, which just used the same design for it's version of the Pegasus.
Whether Pegasus or Galactica survived dosnt matter. BSG is about *humanity* surviving. Without Adama snr, humanity was basically lost. Who would command the fleet? Lee? He knows how to fight a ship and little more, he hadnt got into politics at this stage. Plus he has it stuck on his mind he just let his own dad bite the dust when he had a very powerful warship under him that could have saved him. Tigh? After just having to force venom down his wifes throat? His mind (and his eye) were in pieces. Roslin? Yea right. The only one who could realistically take over would be Zarek, who with his liberal pacifist thinking would probably jump the fleet on top of the Cylons and try and make peace with them.
Their reply at that point would be very fissile. Goodbye all of humanity.
One of my favourite starships alongside Blakes7 Liberator and Star Trek Excelsior!
Sorry the Excelsior is one of the Butt Ugliest Ships Ever....akin to A Giant Space Turd.
Just got me eaglemoss pegasus and just had to come back here to enjoy
at 0:41 the image says 11789 meters length..thats a bit too much xd
Enlarge your Pegasus
Another reason the ship shouldn't have been destroyed. That base-star should have made little more than a few scruffs and dings on a ship that big.
Neovenator Rex Have a battlestar of that size vs an Executor class super star destroyer. Would be awesome.
Alduin the Anti-Dragonborn There's no way in hell the Mercury class would win in that case, but it would at least survive longer than anything else would.
Honestly I don't think it would be classified as a Mercury class anymore with a size of over 10k, but I think the battlestar's greatest strength against the SSD would be in its FTL jump drive, which can also micro jump to any point in the same system, as shown in the battle of New Caprica with the Galactica. Jumping also causes a dimensional tear around from where it jumped from, which can cause major damage to any ships around. Now I like to think the Executor can easily deflect nuclear weapons with its shields, but against dimensional tear at short range? That may heavily damage it. Though it would have to get in close enough to the SSD in the first place, and then be able to jump away in time. A Cylon jump drive may be more effective at this task though. Not completely sure however since I heard from someone that while Cylon jump drives have longer range and accuracy, as it can do what takes 200 jumps for Galactica, it takes 10 for them, though the Colonials have a faster cooldown rate for their jump drives. Though not exact, some say that a Cylon's jump drive cooldown is around 32 minutes, while a Colonial's is less. So it is accuracy vs cooldown pretty much.
@spacedock on one of you previous videos you referenced how to land on the battlestar galactica I am just wondering if you could make a similar one about the Pegasus? I would like to here how the inverted landing bat works.
The new caprica jump in atmosphere was lit.
Kick Ass Episode as always SpaceDock M
Could you do a break down of the Prometheus Class Battlestar. Thanks.
We call this Pegasus
Do you want me to watch BSG again? This is how you get me to watch it again.
God this is so long overdue...
Can you do a ship breakdown of the Cylon Colony? You know, the ship that's the size of Mega Super Star Destroyer Supremacy?
Alduin the Anti-Dragonborn Still bothers me that name "Mega Star Destroyer"
It really reminds me of playing games as a kid, where we'd just add super, mega or ultra on to things to make them sound impressive, but looking back it's just silly.
ChaosSandwhich Don't let Disney hear you say that. Heard they attack anyone who has the slightest criticism of anything in the movie. I even heard that Rian Johnson gave the middle finger to fans on Twitter or Facebook.
YES finally something i can watch! im still on a media blackout for anything the expanse related until it gets on netflix or box copy so i can watch it (season 3) :D
So question. Why in comparison to the Jupiters during the end of the war and the Valkyries, does the Mercuries don't have gun batteries on the "head" and spine?
Attention on Deck, Spacedock is back! (yes, I'm quite late)
I saw the thumbnail and already like the video. 😛
I absolutely love the Mercury Class/Pegasus, but having a fighter foundry on board just seems strange for a vessel built in peacetime for the purpose of keeping that peace (and the industrial capability of its homeworlds).
Having the necessary machinery and cargo space for raw material to be gathered, stored, processed and put together into a sophisticated fightercraft... that can't be more efficient than just having some spare ones stored somewhere. Even less so, when they just store lots and lots of pre-produced parts to assemble on demand.
If that storage runs out at some point, I'm pretty sure the ship won't have any pilots left anyways (even if they manage to recover some of those shot down).
Actually, modern aircraft carriers have machine shops and can make a number of critical repair parts on their own from stock (They can NOT build airplanes though). Though it's not as cheap or as manpower efficient as using on board spares or have parts delivered/waiting in port, they CAN. to a degree, repair themselves.
I had this on mute and I was like holy crap these were 11km long?
Turning the sound on was a relief.
have you made any vids about command and conquer the brotherhood of nod? Or GDI?
Loving the Battlestar Galactica deadlock music
My god. He's back.
Damn that's a fine starship. Allegedly the origins of this design lie in the original sketches for the new Galactica. They updated the original series'design but it looked to good for a rusty museum ship but was bought back for Pegasus.
I have the moebius kits for tos galactica and the mercury class, it'll be intetesting to see them side by side, since they're the same scale.
I want the pegasus model so bad, but finding it for a good price is like pulling teeth...
That’s one hell of a ship.
She was a beautiful ship.
Love this ship. Only part of the battlestars i dislike is no window or view screen and no captains chair.
I was wondering if Spacedock would do a episode on the SA 43 Hammerhead fighter from the tv series Space Above and Beyond?
When will you do a video on the adamant frigate?
Where does this background info of different classes of ships and tech details come from?
MAkes me wonder why in the world no other Sci-Fi series has a Ship that produces new Ships on it's own. Heck if possible a Battleship could perhaps build small Escort Corvettes if necessary.
Hey Spacedock you going to redo this and the Valkyrie when the modern ship DLC for Deadlock releases?
Please do a breakdown of the Subjugator-class heavy cruiser?
I have a question. What is the purpose of having that big gap in the forward hull that doesn’t have protective plates? Almost looks like an engineering crew removed the plates to do some work on that spot.
The Beast!
I am not sure if this was purely a Re-Imaged Characteristics, but the fact sheet states the Flight Pods do not retract, but i have seen many episodes where they retract right before they Jump. I could be misunderstanding the fact sheet though.
The Jupiter class battlestars need to retract the flight pods, the Mercury class do not and have fixed flight pods.