SDF-1 Macross

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The SDF-1 and smaller support craft

The SDF-1 Macross is a fictional interstellar spacecraft from The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, an anime series that aired in Japan in 1982-1983, and its American adaptation Robotech (1985). SDF (Super Dimension Fortress) is a reference to the ship being a maneuverable space fortress capable of space folds, or travelling in subspace for faster-than-light movement.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Contents

[edit] History and background

Robotech made some considerable alterations to the Macross storyline, changing the role and purpose of the SDF-1 Macross. The similarities and differences are explained in this section.

[edit] Similarities

A massive alien spaceship, 1210 meters (3/4 mile) long, crashed onto an unsuspecting Earth in the year 1999, on an island in the Pacific Ocean. Inspection of the wreckage showed that the spaceship was manned by giant aliens several times larger than humans and that their technology was centuries and probably millennia beyond Earth's.

An international government is established as a result of the spaceship's arrival. The crashed ship is rebuilt and a city, called Macross City grows up around it. During the reconstruction, the huge ship is given the hull number SDF-1 for "first ship of the Super Dimension Fortress type" and the name "Macross". Like most military designations in Macross, the ship's hull number formatting is based on that used by the United States Navy. In 2009, manned by a completely human crew (the bridge crew consisted of a male captain surrounded by an all female bridge crew), the ship was prepared for its maiden voyage as Earth's defender. A race of giants called the Zentradi suddenly arrive looking for this spacecraft. The spacecraft turns out to be "booby trapped" (preprogrammed to fire its main gun at its enemies when they find the ship). The human crew of the ship are unable to stop it from firing at the Zentradi, forcing the humans to commit to a war with aliens.

After a failed attempt to take off using the gravity control systems, the renovated alien spaceship takes off using its Earth made rocket thrusters and attempts to escape using its space fold capability to escape to the far side of the moon. However, considering the system had never been actually used before by Terrans and the fold was performed deep inside a planet's gravitational field, the space fold calculations were off, and the ship overshot its destination and ended up near Pluto's orbit. At the same time, the spacecraft was close enough to Macross City that the entire city was caught in the space-fold bubble and transported to Pluto's orbit also. After the space-fold, the ship's fold drives mysteriously vanish. The ship eventually makes its way from Pluto back to Earth, taking most of a year to do so, pursued by the Zentradi the whole way.

During this pursuit, outnumbered and far from home with few resources, these desperate circumstances force the crew to innovate and improve their technology. The civilians from Macross City (who survived in sealed shelters), were transplanted onto the spacecraft, and the entire city was rebuilt on the ship. Two large seafaring ships, the landing vessel Daedalus and the aircraft carrier Prometheus originally stationed in the bay of Macross City were also accidentally caught in the space-fold bubble, and were immediately retrofitted for space and brought alongside the SDF-1 Macross. The pinpoint barrier system is created from energy remaining from the fold drive. Also during this time, the captain ordered the ship's modular transformation, which transforms the ship from a cruiser to a humanoid form. This reconfiguration allows the main cannon to reach a power supply, as it had been previously linked through the missing fold engines. The First Officer develops the Daedalus maneuver, which allows the giant robot to punch through enemy ships with its attached landing craft by placing the pinpoint barrier around the bow.

When the ship finally reached Earth, it splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. Its stay on the Earth is brief (the Earth government wants to use the ship to lure the Zentradi away from Earth). The civilians were also forced to remain on board since letting them run around freely would damage the credibility of the international government (the government did not tell the public the real reason the ship disappeared for a year, not wanting the public to know they were at war with alien invaders).

When a region in Canada, seceding from the international government, agrees to take the civilians, the new Omni-directional barrier system overloads, while under attack. The energy is released outward, causing a large explosion but leaving the ship intact. This destroys a significant part of the Ontario Quadrant on Earth and as a result, the Quadrant will no longer accept the refugees. The ship and all the civilians on board are sent back into space.

It is during this time that Zentradi deserters begin taking asylum on board the spacecraft and the first Zentradi-human wedding takes place on board. After the bombardment of the Earth by the Zentradi fleet, the spacecraft plays its role in winning the war with the Zentradi by burrowing into the Zentradi mothership, the latter being much larger than the former, and generating an Omni-directional barrier overload (this time on purpose), which destroys the flagship.

This ends the war and the spacecraft lands on Earth once more, too damaged to rise again. Macross City is then rebuilt outside, surrounding the battered spaceship.

A couple of years later, a disgruntled Zentradi warrior decides to make a final attack on the grounded spaceship as a psychological assault. By this time the spaceship had been sufficiently repaired to lift off again to defend Macross City. It destroys the attacking ship, but not before the disgruntled Zentradi manages to complete a kamikaze run against the spacecraft.

[edit] Differences

In Macross, the bridge crew included captain Bruno J. Global (Henry Gloval in Robotech), chief tactical officer Misa Hayase (Lisa Hayes, who was promoted to executive officer in Robotech) and chief weaponry officer Claudia LaSalle (Claudia Grant in Robotech). The final three members of the bridge crew were Kim Kabirov, Shammy Milliome, and Vanessa Laird (Kim Young, Sammy Porter, and Vanessa Leeds in Robotech, also referred to as the "Bridge Bunnies").

In Macross, the ship was originally a gun destroyer that belonged to a group of aliens called the Supervision Army. After being damaged in a battle against their longtime enemies, the Zentradi, the Supervision Army abandoned the gun destroyer. It wandered through space for some time before reaching Earth. So the motivation for the Zentradi to track the ship to Earth and attack it lies in the fact that the ship belonged to one of their enemies. When the gun destroyer automatically fired upon the Zentradi, Captain Global, in both Macross and Robotech, immediately catches on to the "booby trap". But only in the Macross version does he compare this tactic to WW2, when the Germans would plant bombs in ships they were forced to abandon.

In Robotech, the spacecraft was originally the flagship of an alien scientist named Zor, who was killed as he sent the spacecraft to Earth. A race of aliens called the "Robotech Masters" wanted Zor's battlefortress because it held the Protoculture generator (a fuel source Zor cultivated from the Invid flower that led to further development of the Robotech Masters and Zentraedi technologies that were fundamental to interstellar domination which, in order to maintain them, all depended on the Protoculture fuel source). The Robotech Masters then sent the Zentraedi, their army of cloned warriors, to find Zor's ship.

Though the term "Protoculture" does exist in the Macross version, it actually refers to something completely different from the Robotech "protoculture" and had very little to do with the Supervision Army gun destroyer other than the fact that the Zentradi believed that the humans aboard were the last remnants of an ancient interstellar civilization called "protoculture."

In the Macross series, Earth originally named the spaceship ASS-1, which stands for Alien Star Ship - 1. In the novel rendition of the Robotech storyline by Jack McKinney, Earth originally named the spaceship The Visitor.

In the Macross version, the arrival of ASS-1 provoked the "U.N. Wars", since the alien spaceship motivated a movement to unite Earth under a U.N. controlled military government. This war was bloody and lasted throughout most of the first decade of the new millennium. In the course of that decade, ASS-1 was rebuilt on the island where it crashed and renamed SDF-1 Macross (a term coined from Macro to imply its massive size). (Note: English-speaking fans have extrapolated that the "-ss" suffix stands for space ship, but this is not an official explanation from the Japanese creators. The "-ss" originated from "-su" in the Japanese pronunciation (makurosu), which in turn was derived from the Japanese pronunciation of Macbeth ("makubesu"), a pre-production name that the main production sponsor initially wanted.).

In the Robotech version, there was already a massive bloody "global civil war" going on throughout the 1990's when "the visitor" first arrived in 1999. "The Visitor" motivated several of the warring factions to put their differences aside to create the "United Earth Defense Council", which served as the head of a global military government. After the creation of the UEDC, there were a few minor skirmishes with dissenting nations, but it was not on the scale of the "global civil war" that came before it, nor was it on the scale of the U.N. Wars in the Macross version. After dealing with those minor skirmishes, work proceeded to rebuild "the visitor" which was eventually renamed not Macross but simply SDF-1. In Robotech, Macross was the name of the island in the South Pacific that the spaceship crashed on, not the name of the ship. In the Macross version, the island was called South Ataria Island. Hence, in Robotech, Macross city was named after the island it was founded on, while in the Macross version, it was named after the ship it grew up around.

The ensuing war between the Earth forces and the Zentradi would be retrospectively labeled Space War I in Macross. In Robotech, it would be retrospectively labeled The First Robotech War.

[edit] Continuing in the Macross universe

In Macross, the kamikaze Zentradi's name is Quamzin Kravshera. His kamikaze doesn't completely destroy the Macross but the damage caused in the battle includes the loss of its main cannon and the Daedalus landing craft. The ship is repaired and refit, and it returns to service. The missing Daedalus and remaining Prometheus carrier are replaced by a pair of ARMD class carriers. The bridge crew also survives almost unscratched and Macross city remains a thriving city.

The SDF design inspired a second battleship, entirely human designed and built. The SDF-2 Megalord was under construction since November 2003 at the Apollo Base on the Moon until work stopped with the outbreak of Space War I in 2009. After the war, the unfinished ship underwent a massive redesign and became the colony ship SDF-2 Megaroad-01, the flagship of the first long-distance colonization fleet. It was launched on September 2012, under the command of Captain Misa Hayase (Ichijyo) and hosting the famous Skull Squadron.

(The launch of the Megaroad was originally planned to be seen in the final episode of the original Japanese Macross television series, and mecha designer Kazutaka Miyatake even created an early SDF-2 design for the event. However, the creators decided not to animate this event in the final episode. Though this SDF-2 design was not used, some of the aesthetics of the updated Super Dimension Fortress design turned up in the 1984 theatrical film Do You Remember Love? The 1987 OVA music video special Macross: Flash Back 2012 presented the drastically updated design of the new SDF-2 Megaroad which is now clearly a colony vessel that has evolved from its military origins.)

The continuing story in Macross Plus and Macross 7 establishes that the first Megaroad class colony ships disappeared without a trace as it explored the center of the galaxy. The latest addition to the fleet is comprised of the New Macross class, composed of a "Battle" section somewhat resembling the SDF-1 Macross and a much larger "City" section, housing a city in a clamshell armored pod.

In 2040, the virtual idol AI Sharon Apple was made sentient, and at the 30 year memorial of the end of the Earth-Zentradi war, it hacked into the systems of the entire Earth defense system, including the Macross. Further more, it used it's abilities to take over the minds of nearly everybody on Earth. However, thanks to the efforts of Isamu Alva Dyson and Guld Goa Bowman, Sharon Apple was destroyed, and the Earth was saved.

[edit] Where the Robotech universe branches off

After the kamikaze run by the disgruntled Zentraedi (named Khyron in Robotech), the SDF-1 is destroyed beyond repair. The SDF-2, the SDF-1's sister ship which was to be under Lisa Hayes's command, is also destroyed. Captain Gloval, the Bridge Bunnies, and Claudia Grant perish in the attack, but Lisa Hayes is ejected in an escape pod at the last possible moment by the Captain himself, and survives. New Macross City becomes too radioactive to be habitable, and is abandoned. The SDF-1's radioactive hulk is buried under three gigantic mounds, and the city surrounding it is completely leveled.

The storyline of Robotech remained pretty consistent with Macross up to this point, with the exception of points already highlighted here and other details. But from here on, Robotech branches on its own separate way, using existing and some new anime footage from other Japanese series to introduce the SDF-3 and later the SDF-4 in the Robotech universe.

[edit] Features

The SDF-1 Macross has numerous notable features including:

  • Gravity control system (although the system burst through the ship in Episode 2, the system was restored later on, and as of March 2040 they suffered no further problems)
  • Space-fold Drive - allows faster than light travel (the original, repaired Supervision Army drives vanished in episode 3, taking with it energy conduits that fed the main cannon)
  • Macross City - a complete city built within the ship to shelter and bring normality to the lives of over 50,000 civilians within (rewritten to over 70,000 in Robotech). It also inadvertently provided an invaluable psychological advantage against the Zentradi, who were profoundly confused by civilian society.
  • Modular transformation - The main gun was connected to its energy source through the fold drive, which was now missing. Lacking any spare conduit, the engineers realized they could reconfigure the modular blocks that formed the ship so the main gun could be connected to another energy hub. This was called the modular transformation, which changed the shape of the ship into a configuration resembling a humanoid shape. The ship did not stay in this configuration at all times and would often be configured back into its "cruiser" mode. Unfortunately, these transformations were the cause of much destruction and many casualties within the city (first seen in Episode 5) until the city buildings were arranged to accommodate the ship's two configurations.
  • 1 semi-submersible aircraft carrier + 1 semi-submersible assault landing vehicle - the Prometheus and Daedalus carriers, also taken in the space fold mishap, are docked onto the ship. Their semi-submersible nature allowed them to operate in space normally. When the SDF-1 Macross is in its humanoid configuration, the Daedalus and Prometheus become the arms.
  • Daedalus maneuver (ARMD Attack) - Misa Hayase develops the idea of using the pinpoint barrier with the Daedalus to punch through Zentradi ships and attack from the inside by positioning Destroids behind the front loading ramp, and opening it once inside an enemy ship. The Destroids then fire a volley of missiles before the carrier is removed. (docked in Episode 4; Daedalus Maneuver first seen in Episode 5) Though, in episode 22, this maneuver was turned against the Macross when the enemy enabled a boarding operation by advancing up the attacking arm.

[edit] Armament

  • Main cannon - a "super dimension energy" cannon capable of taking out multiple large Zentradi spacecraft in a single shot. It cannot be fired often because of the severe strain it puts on the Macross's energy supply. (The main cannon is called the Reflex Cannon in Robotech)
  • 4 1780mm rail cannons
  • 8 Beam Cannons
  • Additional missile launchers and defensive laser cannons.

[edit] Defenses

  • Pinpoint barrier - Developed in Episode 6, these were three small energy disks made from the energy residue left behind by the missing spacefold drive. Three crew members control these three disks with trackballs to move across the ships surface to intercept enemy fire. They were not always successful in catching an enemy missile before it hit the ship. If necessary, they can position together for maximum protection against a particularly powerful attack. During the Daedalus maneuver, all three disks are concentrated at the front of the Daedalus, preventing the seaship from being damaged when it punches through enemy ships.
  • Omni-directional barrier - An energy sphere that envelopes the whole ship. Though it was meant to replace the primitive pinpoint barrier system, this system overloads under too much stress resulting in a massive energy shockwave that affects all nearby objects. This was used as an effective defense weapon in the final battle of the war. (Introduced in Episode 19; used in Episodes 19 and 27.)

[edit] Aircraft and mecha complement

[edit] External links

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