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Topic:
DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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Master_Starwalker
Registered:
Sep '03
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Date Posted:
12/20/07 1:48pm
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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MisterVader posted:
This is funny...
If the Rebels hadn't known that Kenobi turned off the tractor beam, then how could they have attacked the DS in the first place?!
Their whole plan depends on the tractor beam not working, but the only reason it wasn't working was because they happened to get captured beforehand.
That's ridiculous! If we pretend that the MF was never captured, then the Rebels would have NO PLAN.
Where does it say anything like that?
General Kenobi posted:
Master_Starwalker posted:
TwiLekJedi posted:
Kenobi switched off ALL tractor beams? That's hard to believe. Surely it was just the one(s) for the Falcon's hangar...
I assumed that the Tractor Beam terminals formed a circuit and that shutting down one would disable them all.
"A power loss at one of the terminals will allow the ship to leave." [/C3P0]
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zombie
Registered:
Aug '99
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Date Posted:
12/20/07 1:54pm
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
- Date Edited:
12/20/07 1:55pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
zombie
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Katana_Geldar posted:
Remember, the Falcon didn't actually escape--they let them go.
Only Vader and Tarkin knew that. I reckon your average stormtrooper would have thought they escaped.
Well I'm sure when they reported "uh, that ship in the hanger just flew away" that whomever was in charge would have been informed of the plan; otherwise that guy would just gone "oh, crap!" and switched the tractor beam back on and brought them back in--but they want them to escape. Remember, they don't know Kenobi disabled the entire thing, as far as they know it is deliberately turned off. So someone in charge of everything had to know to let them go, he had to know to turn the tractor beam off and leave it off when he sees the ship flying away. So no one that actually would have been in a position to do anything about it would have thought it odd.
Also, the rebel ships attacking the Death Star may have made precautions about the tractor beam, since, as was pointed out, its disabling was an unplanned coincidence. They certainly know that it has a magnetic field, and have taken precautions about protecting themselves from that--"were passing through the magnetic field, switch your deflectors on double-front." Whether this has anything to do with the tractor beam is unlikely but they are aware of what the station is capable of and how to defend against various fields and beams. I mean they have the entire blueprints to thing! They can't be that stupid.
I think what we may have to go on is Kenobi, you know, informing them. They may very well had come up with an elaborate plan to avoid the tractor beam but when Kenobi says "actually, I just turned it off" they might have simply said "even better" and disregarded it--or simply left their original plan as a backup but then never had to implement it since when they got to the Death Star the beam was still non-functional due to Kenobi's tampering.
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General Kenobi
Title: Comms Admin
SW & Film Music
Classic Trilogy
Registered:
Dec '98
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Date Posted:
12/20/07 3:12pm
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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Obi-Wan was dead. The only person he "spoke" to was Luke. But Luke, Han, Leia, etc. must have assumed that Obi-Wan shut down the power terminal leading to the tractor beam.
Also, remember that four TIE fighters on sentry duty were supposed to "take care of" the escaping Falcon. So it goes like this:
Vader to docking bay commander: "Leave them for the sentry fighters to deal with."
Vader to TIE fighter pilots: "We're tracking that ship. Allow them to escape unharmed."
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zombie
Registered:
Aug '99
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Date Posted:
12/20/07 3:27pm
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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General Kenobi posted:
Obi-Wan was dead. The only person he "spoke" to was Luke. But Luke, Han, Leia, etc. must have assumed that Obi-Wan shut down the power terminal leading to the tractor beam.
LOL, yeah I meant Luke. But then I guess Luke never sure if Obi Wan did do it since he never gets a chance to talk to Kenobi.
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Katana_Geldar
Title: Former CR Tasmania, AU
Registered:
Mar '03
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Date Posted:
12/20/07 3:33pm
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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How could you be not sure about what Obi-Wan had or hadn't done? I know he talks in riddle, but you usually CAN count on him for doing something when he says he IS going to do it.
Anyway, Obi didn't just "turn off" the tractor beam, they could have done that from the computer room. (They discuss this in the novel) He turn off it's power, and there may have been a delay charging it back up again.
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Darthbane2007
Registered:
Oct '07
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Date Posted:
12/20/07 4:59pm
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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If the tractor beam worked, then there would be no Battle of Yavin.
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Vortigern99
Title: Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Nov '00
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Date Posted:
12/21/07 6:09am
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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Zombie's expounding on General Kenobi's explanation works best for me. I'll pass it by my wife and make sure it passes muster. 
zombie posted:
This is actually a topic I hadn't thought about before! It makes sense though--why wouldn't they use the tractor beam?
General Kenobi posted:
But remember that they allowed the Falcon to escape to track it to the rebel base. So they wouldn't have attempted to use the tractor beam. It is possible that they didn't realize and fix the power loss. Perhaps the rebel fighters had deflectors that jammed the tractor beam ("We're passing through their magnetic field, switch your deflectors on double-front"). And even if it worked, they could only apply it to one ship at a time.
This is the best explanation. Remember, the Falcon didn't actually escape--they let them go. As far as we know this means that the Imperials themselves had switched the tractor beam off in the hanger so when the Falcon escapes no one is scratching their heads--they are rubbing their hands going "everything went as planned." So they never knew that Kenobi had, unbeknownst to them, actually disabled the whole damn thing!
Also, the tractor beam is designed to guide incoming ships into the hangers--but the X-wings and Y-wings are not incoming, they are skimming across the surface in trenches and weird places. The only area where the tractor beam would actually work is when the were first approaching the Death Star, because then their trajectory could be just pulled into the hangers. But you can't magically pull people into the hangers when they are somewhere else, especially when they are ripping along twenty feet above the surface. Its possible that the Imperials tried to use the tractor beam, it conked out because no one realised Kenobi had sabotaged it, and before they could do anything about it the rebels are divebombing and hence out of range.
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shadowplay_80
Registered:
Aug '01
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Date Posted:
12/22/07 9:24pm
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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I would assume that the thought of using the tractor never even crossed their minds, since they don't seem concerned with taking prisoners at that point.
Rather than detain and interrogate, the Empire figures they have the rebels in a corner and just want to go pew-pew-pew with their lasers.
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General Kenobi
Title: Comms Admin
SW & Film Music
Classic Trilogy
Registered:
Dec '98
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Date Posted:
12/23/07 7:45am
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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And along those lines, they were thirty minutes away from blasting the rebel base FTW. Who cares about a few snub fighters?
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KennethMorgan
Registered:
Sep '04
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Date Posted:
12/23/07 9:30am
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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A few ideas:
First, using the tractor beam to pull them towards Death Star isn't a good idea. It would allow the Rebels to move in close to the station then blast away. Also, from the Han Solo books, we learn that, under the right conditions, you can evade a tractor beam pulling you in by simply flying towards the beam at full power. Thus, you hope that the beam will be shut down, allowing the pulling ship to escape, before a collision. It's possible Han may have been planning both options (fly in, blast 'em) when Ben convinced him to try a more stealthy plan.
Second, using the tractor beam to push the fighters away isn't much of an option, either. Yes, you'll keep the fighters back, but that's not what you want. You want them shot down, not simply sent away. And you can't send your own fighters in to mop up if there's an active tractor beam which will affect them as well.
Third, for a tractor beam to work effectively, I figure you need to fully focus it on one object. That means you can use it well against one fighter, but that leaves the others able to evade and attack. Using the beam on the whole squadron wouldn't seem too work to well; the beam would have such a wide focus that its power would be lessened, making it easier for the fighters to break away from its influence.
In short, I figure tractor beams are good for capturing single objects or slightly influencing groups, but they're not meant to be used as actual weapons. It makes more sense to just zap an enemy with a turbolaser right off the bat.
But, that's my opinion. Feel free to contradict me.
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skyysoblue
Registered:
Jul '05
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Date Posted:
12/23/07 11:32am
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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The tractor beam would not be strong enough to hold the ship if it were resisting, although it would keep the ship from escaping. Remember, when Han was caught in the tractor beam once he realized he could not pull free his first reaction was to fight, which meant he would have gone forward and attacked. It was Obi Wan who told him not to fight but instead to let the tractor beam guide the ship in.
One of the initial targets going in could very well have been the tractor beam impacting on that quadrant of the battle ship to prevent the tractor beam from interfering with the pilot's actions.
The tractor beam may also be ineffective once ships get within a certain range of the death star unless they are flying directly over it.
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Katana_Geldar
Title: Former CR Tasmania, AU
Registered:
Mar '03
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Date Posted:
12/23/07 3:31pm
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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Out of interest, how many tractor beams did the Death Star have? I'm too lazy to ask the Wook.
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TwiLekJedi
Title: Classic Trilogy & YJCC Manager
Registered:
Jun '01
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Date Posted:
12/24/07 3:19am
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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768
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DroidGeneral
Registered:
Jun '05
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Date Posted:
12/24/07 12:54pm
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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They have tractor beam deflectors.
"We're passing through the magnetic field, switch your deflectors on, double front!"
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Atlas1946
Registered:
Dec '07
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Date Posted:
12/26/07 2:02am
Subject:
RE: DS Tractor Beam: Why no effect on the Rebel Fighters?
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Because the fighters are too small and can escape the tractor beam's grip quickly. That's just my educated guess.
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