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"Each of us has our own views, opinions, and tastes regarding every aspect of life, they are an important part of what separates us from all other known species (with the possible exception of dolphins), but they are all subjective and not objective. Opinions can gain credibility when expressed by an increasing number of voices, however, nothing can turn opinion into truth" - Paul Hollings, 22nd October 1998
This follow-up article is based on a series of discussions I had in newsgroups following the article "The Technology of Babylon 5" placed on the Planeteer Resurrection WebSite on 10th October 1998. It is our sincere wish not to antagonise any person or group of persons merely to defend our position with regards to the viewpoint expressed in that article. However since our viewpoint is one not shared, it would seem, by the vast majority of Babylon 5 fans it is likely to do just that.
Most of this article has been formatted as a Question & Answer style document and, with the exception of the Specific Criticisms section, the person raising the issue has not been named.
Power Ratings Babylon 5 Power Ratings Relative Ship Strength Relative Technologies
| Q. | In 250 plus years 200 MW lasers are sure to exist. |
| A. | Lasers with this power rating are available now (see next Q&A), however, the actually energy output is relatively low. In 250 years time the energy delivered will have increased substantially, but there are no figures in B5 to quantify this. |
| Q. | We already have lasers to today capable of generating higher outputs than 200MW. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory can generate 100x10^12W ... 200 times the power consumption of the US. |
| A. | The LLNL "Nova" does indeed, however it only does so for 1 billionth of a second so its total energy output is actually only 120 kilojoules. |
| Q. | The power level for the station may be a little on the high side but, in the future, people will require more energy than today. |
| A. | In principle I think this is true however it will not be that much greater … already (today) you can see the tendency to produce equipment that is more, not less, efficient … energy resources are not generally considered to be cheap or limitless. |
| Q. | The physics model 250 years in the future may be different from today. |
| A. | True, but it is unlikely. JMS appears to have founded B5 in the world of "real" physics ... a logical extension to today's technology. |
| Q. | The Enterprise would not be able to defeat a Shadow Warcruiser |
| A. | This is purely a matter of conjecture and opinion. If the current data for Babylon 5 is to be believed then "yes" the Enterprise wouldn't have a prayer BUT if our assertions concerning B5 tech are true then "no" the Enterprise would win … easily. |
| Q. | Why do you think the Enterprise is so powerful? |
| A. | We don't! All we know is that the power ratings quoted for Babylon 5 are ridiculously high and, having established this, have established what we feel are "common sense" values. Relative values (Enterprise vs. {B5 Ship/s}) are plain guesswork and plot devices. |
| Q. | Federation technology works just as well, if not better, why? |
| A. | We needed to give the Enterprise crew some advantages … they are, after all, alone in a strange universe with no way back. Essentially it's a plot device. In addition, if you consider the two universes to have developed at a similar rate, ST has had an extra 200 years to improve their technology. |
| Q. | The technology of each universe is incompatible, why? |
| A. |
From the guidelines "The technologies of federation and B5 universe are, in many ways, incompatible ... but only for historical reasons (a significant amount of work would be involved to adapt the technologies to work together)." 1
In part this is a plot device (the result of long discussions between the various editorial team members of Planeteer Resurrection) and in part logical deduction. The story implies there is a dimensional split in the early 21st century. From that point on the universes developed in very different ways (they would have to, to reach the very different technologies described in "Star Trek" and "Babylon 5") so, for historical reasons, it would take significant time & effort to make the technologies work together. Also there is the Federation Prime Directive ... Picard being the kind of man he is would take this directive very seriously indeed and would not simply hand-over Federation technology to Babylon 5. |
| Q. | Just because we don't see something doesn't mean it isn't there. |
| A. | Just because you think it should be there doesn't mean it is! |
| Q. | In "Interludes and Examinations" a Vorlon Dreadnought deflects a shadow beam with its shields. |
| A. | The beam appears to be "caught" by the Vorlon ship's main energy weapon (the ball of energy that is generated between the ships four tendrils). How it actual manages it (repelling or neutralising it) I do not know but it certainly wasn't a screen. Later in that very same sequence a shadow beam hits one of these tendrils ... there is no screening and the damage can be clearly seen on screen. |
| Q. | In "Severed Dreams" we see one of the Omegas hit another Omega in the rotating section with its plasma laser. The weapon can be seen to disperse over the hull, which prevents the weapon from puncturing through the armour and causing less overall damage. |
| A. |
There are two scenes which this can be referring to:
|
| Q. | From "Rising Star" we know that the more advanced races understand the concept of manipulating energy fields ... they use such skills to create artificial gravity. More proof that they use some type of shielding. |
| A. | The fact that they can manipulate energy fields neither proves nor disproves energy shields. |
At the suggestion of someone in one newsgroup I search the entire "Lurker's Guide" for references to the word "fields" and/or "screen" and checked every document to see in what context it was used. The following are the results of my efforts.
"Fields" None of the documents found referred to any kind of defensive energy field.
"Screen" Most references to the word "screen" were in the context of television/film screens e.g. "off-screen" or "Screen Actors Guild". Nearly all the remaining ones referred to psionic screens as in the screens or defences a telepath might put up in response to a mental attack by another.
From the Oracle Two interesting quotes by JMS were located:
Quote 1 "Starfuries serve a *lot* of functions which we've shown before on the series. They can take out a ship's defensive screens and countermeasures, allowing access by the big ships' armaments. In a group, they can take out a good sized ship on their own (a la the Centauri cruiser in "Fall of Night"). They also serve to protect the station's defense grid from aggressor starfuries.
Quote 2(in response to the question "How did the Earth ships hit the Minbari ships, if human targeting systems can't lock on?") "They targeted visually, it was close enough to do so. A hit with full guns of a major destroyer and accompanying ships will kill damn near any single ship that does not have some kind of defensive screen going (fighters or counter-lasers or missiles or the like)".
So ... the "official" JMS view would appear to be "Yes" ships have defensive screens but he regards defensive screens to be composed of a variety of components such as fighters, interceptors and beams.
| Q. | "The Technology of Babylon 5" is a veiled attack on sites such as Tigreclaw's B5 Tech Manual. |
| A. | No it is not a veiled attack … it is a straightforward and honest statement of our opinion. For the record we think that Tigreclaw's site is attractive and well organised however it appears to proclaim itself an authority on all technological matters concerning B5 and as such, there being little or no real data concerning the series, conceptually the site, just like many others, is flawed. |
| Q. | In terms of concept this story is really stupid. |
| A. | If you don't like the story, don't read it! |
| Q. | What is the point behind this story |
| A. | We wanted to design a scenario that would attract those interested in the cultural and psychological differences between the two series, people who would realise that the technological differences we're handling are secondary to those considerations, people who would (we hope) be interested in writing stories within the scenario. |
| Q. | Picard and Sheridan would never like each other. |
| A. | We think they will! |
| Q. | It is unlikely that Troi will ever gain powers in excess of a P12! |
| A. |
Quite possibly.
We needed to give the E-Crew some method of shielding itself from telepathic attack … this seemed as good a method as any other. To balance this we have made her new powers defensive and hallucinatory … in mental terms she couldn't punch her way out of a wet paper bag! |
"You of course bring up the Black Star, which was supposedly destroyed by something that a reinforced concrete bunker could survive today. In space there is NO fireball so the only bad effect is a release of soft x-rays which will deposit in the outer layers of things in space causing them to vaporize. Any armored structure will be able to easily resist that with very little damage. Also, remember that not all of the 8.372 x 10^15 joules can be directed at the ship anyway. The distance between the nukes and the Black Star should have rendered them ineffectual, if not for the massive ship accelerating into some of the launched asteroids".
In "In The Beginning" Sheridan uses two 2 megaton bombs to destroy an infamous Minbari warship, The "Black Star". Various criticisms have been raised concerning our conclusions. Specifically the following points were raised:
Today's bombs are designed to cause specific effects for example the neutron bomb was designed to kill living persons yet keep damage to a minimum. The strategic advantage would be that the enemy could be wiped out yet, given adequate decontamination, their cities and facilities might remain relatively habitable (approximately 100 to 500 years).
In the early 70's the Russians were, understandably, concerned about US naval aircraft carriers so they experimented with a series of 3 stage bombs delivered by missile. They determined that a 500 kiloton bomb, exploded 12km from target, would deliver enough heat-flash energy to heat the target vessel to cause expansion sufficient to break it's back. It should be borne in mind, however, that this was theory, in practice no full size tests were carried out … the device used in a part scale test was a 1.75 kiloton HE Neutron two stage device with iridium heat acceleration.
Based on visual estimates the Black Star was significantly closer than 2 kilometres to the first of the two bombs Sheridan exploded and within a ½ kilometre of the second. It's also worth bearing in mind that, in all likelihood, these two bombs had been specifically designed for space warfare. The first bomb would deliver 2% or more of it's total energy to the target (the "Black Star") and the second, much closer, would deliver between 8 and 12% which, quite rightly, would tear the ship into pieces. The heat energy alone would probably have melted the ship and, if it didn't, one side of it would heat so fast the stress would break the ship apart like matchwood … perhaps that is why the ship is seen to fragment as the second bomb explodes. Of course, had the ship survived there would likely have been no survivors … it would have absorbed an unbelievable amount of heat energy and heat loss is always a problem in space as there's no conduction or convection in a vacuum.
1Section 3 of the "Star Trek/Babylon 5 Crossover Rules & Guidelines" has since been modified to state:
Federation and B5 technologies will be, in many ways, incompatible but only for historical reasons. The following factors should be noted:Whilst many things are possible in terms of co-operation, logic dictates that complex Federation equipment would be relatively incompatible with that of B5. However, concepts and ideas can freely cross the tech barrier.
- In physical & chemical terms the Federation & Babylon 5 universes are identical i.e. Hyperspace exists in Federation space but has never been discovered, warp drive is theoretically possible for B5 ships but, again, have never been developed.
- The Enterprise is from a Federation universe some 120 years ahead of the B5 timeline.
- The Federation & B5 universes share common history up to and including the year 2010.
- The Federation & B5 universes have had 400 & 300 years respectively to develop along different timelines.
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