I'll join in, just to throw some more ideas out there. Not to agree or disagree with anyone. in particular.
Why use explosives over lasers? (regardless of how the lasers work) My simple explaination is this. THe hull plating on a ship of war, as the Galactica is, is too thick to puncture with laser fire, unless massed. this isn't quite supported by what we see, blazing fire plumes along the surface of the gtalactica, but it makes sense, if fighter (or bomber) fire can penetrate your hull to the point of exposing enough of the inner ship to space, the ships wouldn't last very long in combat. (keeping in mind that the Raiders that did this to the Galactica were packed with Explosives)
Why use Solonite charges? I go back to the expression on the Thetas when Told the Colonials Have Solonite. It's powerful stuff. it's very possible the Charges uses were shaped so that it would focus the blast in an armor penetrating force. Ripping open large enough holes to do the trick.
All theory of course.
And here is my fix to the problem (of course, not much of a show then
)
The ship has been designed as a ship of war, with sealable compartments. Let's assume that they are "airtight" since if the hull is penetrated, this is how you save the ship from a cascading vacuum purge. Now, even withthe compartments sealed, you need to pump athmosphere into these compartments (you have crew all through the ship after all) you have a fire, and your primary systems fail. (an automatic boron system, like sprinklers) You move in with secondary systems (firefighters in suits) the fire is beyond their control for whatever reason. You seal off the compartments aroudn the fire, and stop feeding in Air. YOu risk killing anyone sealed in the compartments without breathing gear (remember, its not vcacuum, just airless) but you save the ship. 5 minutes or so and you restore air. If the fire starts up again, you go 10 minutes. etc. Now, what if you have lost the ability to do thios automatically? then how is air getting into the compartments? lol Loss of the system would probably result in loose of air circulation. But if you are locjked out of shutting down the system, you have manual overrides positioned by the bulkheads that seal the compartments. It takes longer, but you still save the ship.
That's my theory
