Text 14084, 126 rader
Skriven 2007-04-27 03:36:58 av Jeffrey Kaplan (447.babylon5)
     Kommentar till en text av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Ärende: Re: Relative ship sizes in the B5 universe (and others)
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It is alleged that Vorlonagent claimed:

> > Even the Minbari, the most advanced of the "younger races" have
> > technical breakdowns, and they have almost-god-level tech, with
> > refractive hull plating to disperse energy weapon hits, automatic
> > self-repairs, etc.
> Don't forget artificial gravity and gravitic drives.  IIRC, self-repair is a 

We know the Centauri have artificial gravity too, from which we can
presume that the Narn do, though I think they don't.  From the design
of the Brikiri ships, they probably have it as well.

> whitestar ability that it gets from its vorlon side.

Oh, right.
 
> > And we've had at least one reference to a radiation leak in a 'Fury's
> > power core.  IIRC, that's what killed Ramirez (he had a bet with
> > Franklin about the Mars baseball team).
> 
> A radiation leak from a pure-fusion core isn't going to kill anyone.  Not 
> over the short haul.  Fusion is not 100% clean but it's pretty clean.  Over 
> time the gamma and neutron radiation will take its toll.

Technically, I never said the 'Furies have fusion reactors, only that
they have "a" reactor...  Ramirez died of radiation poisoning, and it
was noted in the show, by the Starfury's own on-board computer, that it
was the reactor core of the Starfury that was leaking enough radiation
to kill him.  Make of that what you will about the power plant.
 
> There are vexing unknowns about this.  How many shots are in your average 
> PPG cap?

According to the Security Manual (page 54), the pistol can fire 4 to 12
shots, depending on the setting, and the rifle, with its larger cap,
can fire twice that.

(I also have "Dining on Babylon 5".)
 
> How many shots are in a starfury cap?

The Manual doesn't say.  It does say that a standard Starfury is armed
with not two, but four 20 megawatt pulse discharge cannons, configured
with one pair firing larger, more powerful but slower shots and the
other smaller, less powerful but faster shots in bursts.

It also says that the 'Fury has four main ion engines and four smaller
ones that run on "vaporized solid propellant".  The main engines are
the ones facing the rear, the solid propellant ones are the lateral
thrusters.
 
> Do people siphon the helium from a spent cap in order to talk funny at 
> parties?

If it's spent, then there's probably no helium left. :)  But it sounds
like the kind of thing that Ivanova would try after a few drinks.

> >> When has B5's defense grid shot projectiles?  Episode, please.  The only
> >> defense grid I can think of to use physical weapons was Earth's.
> >
> > "The Fall Of Night", for one.  The smaller guns that pop up have
> > rotating drum ammo feeds, and the barrels recoil after every shot.  If
> > they were energy weapons they wouldn't need that.
> 
> They still shot little balls of light.
> 
> With PPG technology as the standard weapons technology, I have to assume 
> it's plasma if it glows.

Could be tracers... :)

According to Michael Garibaldi, as quoted in the Security Manual, about
the station's Defense Grid:

"We have laser cannons, guns, interceptors, and pulse cannons.  These
and the sophisticated tracking systems have enabled the station to
defend itself against warships in the past.

"Although we have not called on its help yet in external defense
matters, we should also be able to call upon the use of the 
 >>CLASSIFIED<< the surface of Epsilon 3.  Its >>CLASSIFIED<< is more
than sufficient to destroy and entire >>CLASSIFIED<<.

"NOTE: Epsilon 3 had a moon before >>CLASSIFIED<<."

> I'm not a fan of retconning all sins.  I sometimes prefer the honesty of 
> accepting that somebody dropped the ball when that seems to be what happend.

Wanna know something?  When I first heard what the crew compliment of a
Nimitz class carrier is, my draw dropped.  I had no idea it was that
large.  I kept thinking, "what could they possibly need that many
people for?"  And sometimes, like now when we're debating the crew size
logistics on a fictional craft, I still wonder about that.
 
> B5 is a show that makes much of its money on the fact that it's very intense 
> and very real.  That means it's built with late-20th century precepts in 
> mind, which includes things breaking and needing repair, design and 
> construction flaws and all the rest.  That means that people are going to be 
> fixing all that broken stuff and shoring up the more serious flaws if 
> possible.
> 
> It's easy to see how the pure gargantuan size of a 1500 meter ship might 
> elude a TV production company working in constant crunch mode to crank out 
> episodes.  The 1100-crew figure is an error or the 1500 meter length is an 
> error.  In a SF world that also tried to be real the way B5 tried to be 
> real, you can't have the super-nifty tech to allow that small a crew fly 
> that big a ship.  Not and maintain the real-ness.
> 
> Me, I decided to take the 1100 crew and eject the 1500 meter ship.  Your 
> mileage may vary.

Me personally, I don't care.  I just accept both figures.  It's not the
kind of detail that jolts me out of enjoying the show.  What jolts me
out are internal inconsistencies.  And that's one reason I like B5 so
much, there are damnfew such internal inconsistencies.

-- 
Jeffrey Kaplan                                         www.gordol.org
The from userid is killfiled             Send personal mail to gordol

Peter's Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord, #80.
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