There were also some Doctor Who expanded-universe tie-in novels that established that in some era of human civilization, there were subway trains going through wormholes to distant planets.
The usual SF handwave about starships is that there's some reason the jump drive has to be used in space. It won't work too far into a planetary gravity well, or it involves going to a specific point in space or a specific rest frame or both, or it involves dangerous astrophysical phenomena that are not healthy for children and other living things. Or some combination of the preceding, as in The Forever War. Of course, the out-of-universe reason for this is usually just that the author wants to still have spaceships.
The least handwavy explanation IMO is that "hyperspatial jump" (or whatever you call it) is just not very precise. No reason not to initiate it on a planet's surface, but if your target area is light-hours across, you'll end up in vacuum and need an appropriate vehicle. Unless you are really, really unlucky :)
Edited 2014-10-27 15:50 (UTC)
no subject
bruce munro (from livejournal.com)2014-10-28 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
It also makes things more interesting in space warfare. If your enemy can just teleport their heck-bombs directly from their planet to yours as soon as they find it, there's not much room for pseudo-Napoleonic maneuvers! in! space!
That's certainly the case in Old Man's War and sequels, in which the Skip Drive needs to be well away from planets to engage but will deliver starships or missiles anywhere the operators desire. This makes for obvious difficulties if you want to keep your planet un-nuked. Luckily for the protagonists, every single other species in the known galaxy is even dumber than the people in charge of the Colonial Union, nor do they have the blessing of the author.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
james_davis_nicoll) wrote2014-10-26 01:58 pm
no subject
(Anonymous) 2014-10-27 02:58 pm (UTC)(link)The usual SF handwave about starships is that there's some reason the jump drive has to be used in space. It won't work too far into a planetary gravity well, or it involves going to a specific point in space or a specific rest frame or both, or it involves dangerous astrophysical phenomena that are not healthy for children and other living things. Or some combination of the preceding, as in The Forever War. Of course, the out-of-universe reason for this is usually just that the author wants to still have spaceships.
Matt M.
no subject
no subject
no subject