(Speicial thanks of Isoeph for these Images)

In the TV movie "In the Beginning", fans witnessed the war that had often been spoken of but never seen - the Earth/Minbari War. Unfortunately, several events happened in this movie to cause fans concern and pause, most noteably the apperance of the Omega class Destroyer THREE YEARS before the Omega's official debut. While JMS and the crew of Netter Digital were quick to edit out as many instances of the Omega as possible, some, unfortunately, slipped by and created a conondrum for many fans.

In the "Battle of Vega", as portrayed in "In the Beginning", we see that there are five warships that match the profile of Omega class Desroyers. We will first begin by analyzing and showing everyone exactly where these Omegas were present, during the course of the battle.

	First, we see the two Omega class Destroyers, originally discovered shortly after the original airing of "In the Beginning." The rotating sections on these vssels are un-mistakable and clearly show the existance of Omegas prior to the Earth/Minbari War.
	Later, three more Omega class Destroyers were discovered by Isoeph.
	The two original Omegas that were discovered, and two of the new Omega type ships were all destroyed at the onset of the battle, as seen in the images L/R.
	Only one of the Omega type ships survived the Minbari's opening attack. Later, however, during a comercial break transition, we saw an Omega ram head-on into a Minbari War-Cruiser. This would seem to confirm the fate

All of this, unfortunately, does not explain why these Omegas are present, when all canon dialogue suggest that the Omegas did not start rolling off the assembly lines until after the Earth/Minbari war, as stated by John Sheridan in "An Now for a Word."

After much public debate, fans have rationalized away this incongruity by theorizing that these five starships are NOT Omega class Destroyers, but rather they are modified Nova class Dreadnoughts. This theory is not without merrit. After all, the USS Midway - an old World War II Aircraft Carrier - was used as a test bed for new technologies and was transformed into a modern style aircraft carrier, with a closed in bow, angled flight deck, and hydrolic catapults. All these modifications resulted in the creation of the Forestal class Aircraft Carriers.

As such, the Omega type warships seen in the TV movie "In the Beginning" were, in actuality, Nova-X class Battlecruisers - heavily modified older Dreadnoughts - that would serve as the forerunner of the Omega class Destroyer.

Last Updated 12-20-02