I was reading The Airlords of Han, the Nowlan tale about Anthony “Buck” Rodgers, written back in the 1920s.
It has exceptionally good presentations of military tactics, miles better than TV and Hollywood nonsense.
The one that particularly caught my eye was how the Hans guarded Buck when he was captured. None of the usual TV nonsense – they had two sets of guards:
- Firstly, a guard at his side. As we can always expect, even on TV. Close enough to usually stop the prisoner. But with the risk of being overpowered, of course!
- Secondly, a layer of guards that are forbidden to get within reach, but no more than 40 feet away. Too far away to be overpowered.
Buck does not overpower these guards to escape. And my intelligence is not insulted 
.
The “Han” of this tale are evil, but they are not idiots. Unlike Hollywood writers…