I watch way to much TV part III: or Thoughts on Tau'ri Starship Design

I'm just about done. This is going to be a brain dump about ship design. The special effects guys have it almost right. A space battle cruiser will need to preset as small a cross-section to the enemy as possible. If you compare the Prometheus to the Daedalus you see that when looking head on, the Daedalus presents a smaller cross section. That conning tower on the Prometheus would get shot off in just about any major space battle. It's gone in the Daedalus. And that front section looks like a chunk of armor. But I think they could do better.

Imagine a Star Destroyer from Star Wars. If you take that basic shape, make it smooth, and paint it black, that would probably be the ideal shape of a space battle cruiser. If shields go down, then the shape of the ship's armor would deflect quite a bit. The shape would also deflect radar and radar like sensors, giving it a form of stealth, enhanced by painting it in special purpose black stealth paint. And it would present a minimal cross-section in head to head combat.

You could make it smaller by getting rid of the fighters. Have two classes of battleships, a carrier and a destroyer. The destroyer should be easier/cheaper make. Think like a modern naval destroyer versus an aircraft carrier. Both types of ships would have cloak capability, and advanced weapons (energy cannons, rail guns, nuclear missiles, etc), but the destroyer would be relatively small and nimble. Send a handful destroyers with a carrier to some planet and you've got a force to be reckoned with. Imagine the destroyers swarming around a g'ould mothership punching real hard, and taking the occasional hit, while the carrier stays back a bit and launches fighters to take on the death gliders.

On to the fighters. The next generation of Tau'ri fighters should really deviate from the whole Death Glider aesthetic. Fighters should also present as little as possible cross-section. In fact, mini Star Destroyers would probably not be too far off the mark. Since we have anti-gravity (needed to launch the battle cruisers, cause rockets sure can't), and naquada generators, we put those in the fighters, and we can pretty much ignore aerodynamics. Although, the fighters will probably look more like some sort of lifting body if you want some concession to aerodynamics. I've read a lifting body described as a cone, cut in half. Add some winglets on the back, and it even looks mean. Since this is Star Gate, they should be small enough to fit through a gate. Wraith darts are fighters designed properly. Long and pointy, not really aerodynamic, and fits through a stargate. Tau'ri fighters wouldn't need the beaming tech, so, put in more weapons. Maybe some kind of missile to go with the energy weapons.

Well, maybe someone making a new sci-fi series will think along these lines in their ship design. Maybe, it's kind of annoying that George Lucas's team stumbled upon an almost ideal shape for space battle cruisers. Now no-else can use it.