I think Wing Commander III, far and away. Which is sort of interesting. We were watching Revenge of the Sith last night and remarking how BAD the acting was, a result of the fact that all these great actors had no idea what they were doing in front of a green sheet and tennis ball... whereas Chris seems very much to be the opposite of Mr. Lucas, completely at ease directing in actors in front of a green screen (years before that became mainstream!) but then losing a slight something with the real sets...
I think the major difference is that WC3 required no sets. There was never really any interaction between characters and sets. They were simply talking heads, and the actors just had to concentrate on each other. It's a radically different situation to Revenge of the Sith. It's also a far more natural situation for actors - if they have theatre background, they do this all the time. And even if they don't have theatre background, they still do it all the time in rehearsals.
That was kind of the point of the midway. It was supposted to be an "all your eggs in one basket" solution that eliminated the need for escorts and supply ships... But I don't really think that is a solution that makes sense either. It seems like an awfully expensive and pointless solution to a problem nobody was having.
I don't think that's the case at all, but it does take a bit of imaginative thinking about the situation in the WCP era.
Firstly, consider that Confed still maintained a fleet of several Vesuvius carriers. These were the real battle carriers, loaded with far many more fighters than the Midway, but les capable of independent operations. This tells us what the Midway isn't - and it isn't a Vesuvius replacement, even though the manual sometimes makes it sound that way.
Secondly, consider that Confed now has to control a far greater area than before, suddenly having to "fill the void" left behind in many systems previously occupied by Kilrathi forces, and restored under nominal Confed control with the peace treaty. This area, however, does not require powerful strike operations. The big requirement is what today would be referred to as peacekeeping - basically restoring law and order, managing supply lines to isolated colonies, and so on. Normally, this would be handled by the kind of forces we see in WC2 and Privateer - In-System Security pilots operating off orbital bases. But these bases do not exist in many parts of Confed's expanded area of operations - and even more so in Kilrathi space, where occasionally Confed needs to operate. What Confed really needs, therefore, is bases, not carriers. But once you plonk down a base, it stays there, and it is probably not possible for Confed to build new bases all over the place. The Midways provide a solution where a base can be deployed in multiple systems on a rotational basis. Presumably, this also allows Confed to incorporate more resources into such a base - it's hard to imagine a typical orbital station being equipped with a science or engineering division, because it would get far too expensive. But if you have something like that on a mobile base, then you can deploy such resources as needed. And bear in mind, naval support is not only required for war and for law enforcement. We can imagine the Midway's engineers and marines being landed on a planet to assist after a major natural disaster and the like. We can also imagine the Midway perhaps being equipped with better medical facilities than a typical carrier or even a typical space station - rather than a sick bay, it may have something close to a fully fledged hospital on board. And when I say fully fledged, I mean they may even have something as unexpected as a maternity ward - not for the crew, but to handle the kind of day-to-day emergencies that would show up in isolated, resource-starved colonies. This idea has a kind of interesting follow-up in Arena, where we see the crippled Port Broughton serving as static base. None of this is imaginable with a Vesuvius.
Thirdly, note that the manual explicitly states that in war, the Midway would form the core of a battlegroup - and therefore, would be operating with escort vessels and the like. This doesn't happen in WCP, because we're seeing a completely unpredictable emergency. We can actually imagine that in a situation like that, the Midway would first offload a part of its crew to make room for others, ramping up war capabilities while reducing other capabilities. But in planning for this, the assumption would have been that there would be weeks or months to prepare for such a change. After all, when building a new warship, even in the context of a sci-fi universe, you just don't design thinking that you need to take into account the contingency of a previously unknown and very hostile race showing up unexpectedly in the middle of known territory.
But the point is that it and all of the ships are built for a different era. Without the Kilrathi or any significant foe, the priorities change significantly and we see all kinds of specialized fighters to complement the all-in-one carrier.
