KLC wrote:the lights made it more mysterious!!!
And not being able to see the guy also made it more mysterious.
There wouldn't have been much of a story if Chatak just woke up with a gun to her head...
Oh, I don't deny the effectiveness of the corridor as a storytelling device. It's just that the viewpoint that there wasn't space for someone to hide on the ship (incorrect, as it happened, but expressed by the pilot) doesn't quite fit with the necessity for a corridor long enough to pull that trick in being on the same ship.
bottomdweller wrote:By the time spaceships get large enough to walk around in comfortably and routinely - we won't be using screwdrivers to get to fuses. I think some thought should have been given to how the workings of a spaceship might be different a hundred years from now. It's like the difference between an antique wooden radio and an ipod.
And, assuming that you have spares and tools on hand, which is easier to repair; the ipod or the radio?
War is
not a situation where you want equipment that you are not
fully comfortable with, because then if there's problems, you could lose your life, and military commanders prefer not to lose soldiers. They also prefer to have as many soldiers out there fighting as possible. If you have equipment that requires steadiness of hand and clean contacts to replace and a full lab and workshop to repair, versus equipment that can be unscrewed in a rush, the fuses checked visually and easily replaced even when under fire or when facing a variety of possible contaminents, the better choice may quite often be the second type; even if everyone not in the military considers it horrendously outdated.
Especially if everyone else considers it horrendously outdated, because then you might be able to get it cheaper.
I think the fuses work in the story. Now, the wastage of energy implied by a whole string of lights in the corridor rather than one helmet-mounted light for the pilot is an entirely different issue...