Babylon 5

[Forbin]

Anybody see "Starhyke" on Amazon? It's a goofy 2008 sci fi comedy starring Claudia Christian as the captain of a starship whose normally-emotionless crew has been hit with an emotion bomb. Eight 1/2 hour eps., with a budget of roughly toll change. But Claudia is clearly having a ball doing it.

Starhyke (TV Series 2009) ⭐ 3.6 | Comedy, Sci-Fi

26m | TV-14

www.imdb.com

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Spoiler: Spoilers for "The Shadow Within"

At some point terrorists had destroyed a jumpgate while his family was on a ship that was going through it,.

About that...

Spoiler

Terrorists, eh?

You don't think it was the Shadows themselves? Because that's totally within their wheelhouse. Create a problem then convenently offer a solution.

Kind of like Kivas Fajo in TNG's "The Lost Toys". He offered a cure for an illness that, in all likelihood, he himself caused!

And does Morden have any proof that the Shadows held up their end of the bargain and allowed his family to die in peace? It's not like he could know, right?

And do the Shadows really strike you as the kind who would actually honor a deal?

 

[DonIago]

About that...

Spoiler

Terrorists, eh?

You don't think it was the Shadows themselves? Because that's totally within their wheelhouse. Create a problem then convenently offer a solution.

Kind of like Kivas Fajo in TNG's "The Lost Toys". He offered a cure for an illness that, in all likelihood, he himself caused!

And does Morden have any proof that the Shadows held up their end of the bargain and allowed his family to die in peace? It's not like he could know, right?

And do the Shadows really strike you as the kind who would actually honor a deal?

Spoiler: The Shadow Within

I absolutely think it could have been the Shadows themselves, but the book only makes that claim via implication.

As Morden himself says, it doesn't matter to him whether the Shadows really did anything or not. He's so desperate for his family to be at peace when he has a shred of doubt that they may not be that he'll embrace even their Faustian bargain.

I think the Shadows are the type who will absolutely honor the word of a bargain. Whether they'll honor the spirit of a bargain is a different question. Morden never directly lied to Londo.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

So who do you think is more trustworthy: Shadows or Ferengi?

And let me explain:

Spoiler

Another reason I think it's the Shadows who were behind the destruction of the jumpgate is that, in the B5 universe, it's considered a gross violation of rules of engagement to attack a jumpgate directly, because the jumpgate network is needed by every spacefaring race. Not even terrorists would dare attack one.

The Shadows, OTOH, are so obsessed with chaos and disorder and death that there's NO law they would ever respect. They don't care how many people die, or how much destruction is caused. Indeed, that's their very reason for being - to cause as much chaos as possible. Destruction of jumpgates, whether or not there's anyone using them, is absolutely something they'd do.

Then again, terrorists are like that as well. They also don't care who dies, they also want to cause as much death and destruction as they can, and I doubt they'd respect rules of engagement any more than the Shadows would. So just forget it.

 

[DonIago]

Spoiler: The Shadow Within

The main argument against it having been the Shadows who blew up the gate is that the bombing occurred months before the Icarus mission. It's doubtful the mission had been planned at that point or that Morden had been assigned to it...and also it doesn't seem like the Shadows to take that much interest in one particular human who to that point hasn't done anything to distinguish himself.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Deathwalker was a cool episode...... Her speech about what humans would do to get the serum is so spot on.

I just finished season 3 and 4 and omg so many feels.. Lots of sad and I felt really sad for the Narn and wanted the Centauri to burn

 

[FredH]

Anybody see "Starhyke" on Amazon? It's a goofy 2008 sci fi comedy starring Claudia Christian as the captain of a starship whose normally-emotionless crew has been hit with an emotion bomb. Eight 1/2 hour eps., with a budget of roughly toll change. But Claudia is clearly having a ball doing it.

Starhyke (TV Series 2009) ⭐ 3.6 | Comedy, Sci-Fi

26m | TV-14

www.imdb.com

I started it, and thought it was not-bad right up till they made a sharp turn into stupid sex comedy, at which point I bailed.

 

[Tim Walker]

Earth force finds a craft from a parallel universe.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Earth force finds a craft from a parallel universe.

That would pose some interesting thoughts..... USS Enterprise type weapons against the Shadows I mean.

 

[Farscape One]

A lot of the B5 races have beam weapons. So I don't think it would be much more effective than a White Star, for example.

It's shields that would make the difference, though the NX class only had hull plating, not full on shields.

Now, put the Defiant against the Shadows... they're toast. She's got the weapons, shields, and speed and maneuverability.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

A lot of the B5 races have beam weapons. So I don't think it would be much more effective than a White Star, for example.

It's shields that would make the difference, though the NX class only had hull plating, not full on shields.

Now, put the Defiant against the Shadows... they're toast. She's got the weapons, shields, and speed and maneuverability.

Well the Defiant is a newer ship with much more up to date weapons....


Of course the ultimate weapon....... Go to another universe and find the Brady family , feed them to the Shadows and all that 70s goody goody good naturedness will kill them all from the inside.

 

[Farscape One]

Well the Defiant is a newer ship with much more up to date weapons....


Of course the ultimate weapon....... Go to another universe and find the Brady family , feed them to the Shadows and all that 70s goody goody good naturedness will kill them all from the inside.

Fair point about the Defiant.

Second choice... the NX-01 from "TWILIGHT". Essentially the same, but with shields as a gift from Shran.

I think she still edges out because of shields. She'll take a beating, but I think the Enterprise would come out winning.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Fair point about the Defiant.

Second choice... the NX-01 from "TWILIGHT". Essentially the same, but with shields as a gift from Shran.

I think she still edges out because of shields. She'll take a beating, but I think the Enterprise would come out winning.

Probably but if you set this in the TNG era the Defiant and Enterprise D would be the winners.


I also finished my rewatch of Babylon 5 and posted my last comment in my rewatch thread. I just couldn't do the whole season, I just couldn't the whole Byron arc just annoyed me, ended up only watching two of my favourite episodes "A view from the gallery" and "Day of the dead" and the final two episodes..

 

[Tim Walker]

In 5 years time, not only would the Columbia be an object of study, but also (wrecked) ships of several alien species.

Depending on what could be reversed engined, future Earth built ships could be odd conglomerations of multiple, mutually alien components.

 

[Farscape One]

Maybe even less time, given how quickly Clark was able to get those prototype Earth/Shadow destroyers made.

 

[David cgc]

Clark probably had help from the Drakh or other Shadow allies, plus we saw from the "pilots" the Shadows modified that Shadow technology is great at grabbing on to and taking over other technology. It probably wasn't as simple as just slathering some samples of black goo from the Ganymede ship on to a destroyer hull and letting it overgrow it like a Chia Pet, but I don't expect that it was that much more complicated.

 

[at Quark's]

I watched Babylon 5, but I never fell for it quite like the way I did for DS9.

Not because there's anything wrong with it- it's certainly a high quality show.

But I saw DS9 when I was around 20, and I saw Babylon 5 when I was around 40, a somewhat less impressionable age. Just had a few too many 'ok, that's nice for dramatic flair but the real world (and even Heroic Resistance) usually doesn't work like this'- moments. Had I seen it at the age of 20 as well, I might have swallowed it wholesale.

 

[Farscape One]

Clark probably had help from the Drakh or other Shadow allies, plus we saw from the "pilots" the Shadows modified that Shadow technology is great at grabbing on to and taking over other technology. It probably wasn't as simple as just slathering some samples of black goo from the Ganymede ship on to a destroyer hull and letting it overgrow it like a Chia Pet, but I don't expect that it was that much more complicated.

That's very probable, and a good point.

Also likely as 'easy' to grow the Shadow tech onto those ships, as you say, since it IS organic technology.

Which would fall in line with the thinking of the Shadows and Vorlons overall mentality... for the Shadows, growth through conflict while the Vorlons were about controlled growth. Which would also explain the White Stars... the Vorlons worked with the Minbari to build them, but they obviously wouldn't give the Minbari all their technology. As advanced as they were, they still were not massively more advanced than the other races. Otherwise, almost none would have been destroyed in the Earth civil war, like in Proxima or any of the other colony battles.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Just like Babylon 5, even in the Star Trek Universe, Organic Technology seems to be the "Pinnacle of Technology".

Just look at Species 8472.
It's Bio Ships can easily whoop Borg Vessel's arse.
They're tiny, space efficient for it's relatively small size, and only needs 1x Pilot/Operator on board to control the vessel.
The Standard Species 8472 Bio-Ship has these dimensions:
- Length.Hull ≈ 200.0 m
- Radius.Hull ≈ _20.4 m
- Radius.Fin ≈ _61.5 m
~ 1 Deck with some Corridors that veer off
That's TINY in terms of dimensions.

Any Single Bio-Ship can easily mop the floor with a Standard Borg Cube.
- It's "Lightning Bolt" like main energy weapon only takes a few shots to down a 24th century Borg Cube.
(It literally takes a Giant Fleet of Federation StarShips to even slow down a Borg Cube + Main Character Ships w/ "Plot Armor" to even realistically destroy a vessel).
- It also has "Energy Shields" on top of their super strong armor.
- 24th Century Federation Sensors couldn't penetrate the hull, we all know that StarFleet has some of the best sensors of that era, in that region of space.
- You couldn't even establish a Transporter Lock to away members within the hull of the vessel
- Tractor Beams had no effect on the Bio-Ship

It only takes 8x 'Bio-Ships' + 1x 'Energy Focusing Ship' to create "Death Star" levels of energy to blow up a planet.
- And the 'Energy focusing Ship' has on it's hull 9x Energy Receptacles, so presumably: there is one more higher step in terms of Energy Output with 9x Bio-Ships + 1x Energy Focusing Ship that we never got to see in action.

It's crazy how powerful they are with so few vessels.
And we saw them invade our Universe with a huge Armada/Fleet to fight "The Borg".
So we know there are MANY more Species 8472 within their "Fluidic Space".

Compare that to what the Shadow & Vorlon have in terms of tech, Species 8472 would be closer to "3rd Space" vessels if not more powerful then even those species.

 

[David cgc]

It only takes 8x 'Bio-Ships' + 1x 'Energy Focusing Ship' to create "Death Star" levels of energy to blow up a planet.

I've gotta dig up the old magazine article about designing the 8472 ships that makes it clear the "Energy Focusing Ship" isn't a separate design, but a different configuration one of the normal ships can morph into so I can mention and cite that on MA. It's probably too late with STO and other games establishing them as totally separate ships, but it'd make me feel better.