"Fortresses are monuments to man's stupidity." -George Patton
Whenever I see these grandiose Hollywood spectacles like this space dock and Yorktown, I'm reminded of George Patton's Quote. No doubt an effect of my military years in mobile combat and expeditionary defense philosophy, but imo DS9 came about as close to a truly practical multi-role stand-alone space station that used its Peregerin fighters that was well demonstrated in the Cardassian battle scenes (too bad it didn't have a movie budget).
As proven in reality, military air force bases on earth are dependent on rapid interceptors-fighters as its first line of defense in maintaining air supremacy around the airfield - so critical! Obviously then, it stands that in space - in a three-dimensional environment - an "interceptor-like" Peregrine readiness capability (and similar to that in Battle Star Galactica) makes perfect sense in strategic military design.
Not to be a naysayer, but when I look at that Space dock - despite how cool it looks - I see something made without any military advice. I just see a disastrous military design with a huge door creating a bottleneck that any attacker would view as shooting fish in a barrel. I can't even imagine its practicality.
In comparison, I was very much satisfied (and pleased) that the new docking Ports in JJ Abrams 1st Star Trek film had a better military posture as a globe with platter docking ports. It may have looked rather dull and less creative, it served both a practical and a military purpose. And I loved how quickly the fleet mustered their craft for attack mobilization to Vulcan. It looks exceptional and is a great scene that could have lasted a bit longer. So, my 2 cents.
