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I just rewatched and it's not there. I'm not sure where I got the idea, maybe it was in the novelization. Apologies any way.

This might not be the in-universe explanation, but DS1 was flying on its own to Yavin when he rebels attacked, so it would only have the shielding capabilities that it could carry with it. DS2 was in orbit around a moon, which means that it could have had onboard shielding systems, but it could ALSO have the benefit of a ground base.

Now each Death Star would have to carry its planet-killing weapon, tons of support fighters, turrets, a tractor beam, sublight engines, and hyperdrive engines capable of moving a small moon across the galaxy. Even if one was designed to minimize on-staff personnel, those systems are going to take up a ton of space and power. When you get to adding shields, I would assume that fighter-repelling shields require more power than the kind that can protect against tubolaser fire. On top of that, a fighter-repelling shield would need gates or holes to deploy the stations fighter defenses, which would be important to support space battles.

Rogue One and The Force Awakens might support this, too. The Archives were protected by a planet-wide shield because said shield was (probably) powered on the ground (and probably from multiple locations for redundancy). Starkiller base was protected because it WAS a planet, giving it the real estate to include all types of shielding.

So basically, neither Death Star would have the ability to shield against fighters--that would have to come from a ground base. Again, this might not be the truth according to the canon, but I think it makes sense.

Forge wrote:

I just rewatched and it's not there. I'm not sure where I got the idea, maybe it was in the novelization. Apologies any way.

Well, the way everyone pulled up/out to avoid running into it when they came out of hyperdrive certainly implies that running into it would have been a Bad Thing^TM.

We're also trying to retcon something written by that "master" of dialog clarity, George Lucas.

Right, I'm not saying I was wrong, just that I don't have the smoking gun I thought I did.

It's worth noting that the DS2 was something like 10X the mass of the DS1 and 2X or more in all dimensions, and massively improved across the board. I recall some mention of needing to strike before it was completed, because the old Achilles Heel (courtesy of Galen Erso's monkeywrenching) had been removed. I assume better, anti-fighter-rated shields were thrown in as well.

The DS1 is listed in the docs as having 347 levels (floors). The DS2 is listed at 560 levels. Strangely, both are often listed as being 100 miles across. Math skills were apparently not highly valued at Lucasfilms.

Forge wrote:

Math skills were apparently not highly valued at Lucasfilms.

Just you try to squeeze the scale observed interior of the Millennium Falcon into its scale observed exterior without resorting to tesseracts or farcasters. What Lucas never expected was the rise of the uber-geeks who would call him on this stuff. Good thing Spielburg was along for the Raiders movies to keep George from another cranio-rectal inversion.

Captain Ned wrote:

Forge wrote:

Math skills were apparently not highly valued at Lucasfilms.

Just you try to squeeze the scale observed interior of the Millennium Falcon into its scale observed exterior without resorting to tesseracts or farcasters.  

It's a fugly Tardis that only does time travel when going faster than light.

Forge wrote:

It's worth noting that the DS2 was something like 10X the mass of the DS1 and 2X or more in all dimensions, and massively improved across the board. I recall some mention of needing to strike before it was completed, because the old Achilles Heel (courtesy of Galen Erso's monkeywrenching) had been removed. I assume better, anti-fighter-rated shields were thrown in as well.

The DS1 is listed in the docs as having 347 levels (floors). The DS2 is listed at 560 levels. Strangely, both are often listed as being 100 miles across. Math skills were apparently not highly valued at Lucasfilms.

Assuming a quick doubling of the sphere radius and no change in mass distribution (mass/volume), DS2 would be 8 times the mass of DS1. The extra 2 DS1 masses must have been added for the stated defense purposes and threat reduction (and more likely, propulsion).

CScottG wrote:

It's a fugly Tardis that only does time travel when going faster than light.

Well, if the chameleon circuit weren't busted ...

Captain Ned wrote:

CScottG wrote:

It's a fugly Tardis that only does time travel when going faster than light.

Well, if the chameleon circuit weren't busted ...

..hey, hey.. A little blue box is ALWAYS in fashion! 

(..disregard the fact that telephone boxes really don't exist anymore.  Yes, ironic - the Tardis has dated-itself.)

Forge wrote:

I just rewatched and it's not there. I'm not sure where I got the idea, maybe it was in the novelization. Apologies any way.

Heh, that's par for the course. I'm also prone to mixing canonical with extended content via the Internet.

Funny that. The rebels would have had a much easier time getting leaked plans from Imperial insiders if the technology had been pervasive in SW stories.

CScottG wrote:

Yes, ironic - the Tardis has dated itself.

Well, it is a couple of months older than me (first broadcast 22 NOV 1963).