While I have not had much time last semester to answer questions, many a question kept coming in, and some of them which I have received are worth posting here, as they seem to be asked of me a great deal. So, while not every letter will get a response here, hopefully every question will be.

Q. How do you justify your statement that Earth has a fleet of 20,000 ships!?

A. Simple - they do. Here, take a look at the following:

As you can see, the EAS Cortez had a hull registration number of 14286, which suggests that she was the 14,286 ship build for the Eartforce military. The EAS Hyperion had a hull regestration number of 21494 IAK, suggesting that she was the 21,494 ship build by the Earth Alliance. Along her hull, port to starboard, Hyperion had the numbers 21 etched into her hull in bold, suggesting that for every large two digit number seen on the old Hyperions, it represented the first two in a five digit number. In the TV movie "In the Beginning" the highest P/S number seen on an Earth ship was during the "Battle of the Line", which had a hull registration number of 48, which suggests that said vessel was approximately the 48,000 starships built by Earthforce. Taking into account ships lost to combat, accident or age, the approximate size of the EA fleet is about 20,000 ships. Detailed explanations as to my reasoning can be found at the "Fleet Size Analysis" in the essays section under the Science & FAQ catagory.

Q. Do any of the ships or races of B5 have shields like those seen in Star Wars or Star Trek?

A. Yes. A race known as the "Abbai" do have deflector shields, according to the B5 Guide and the RPG's. The Abbai have been jump capable for about 800 years and as they are peaceful, they have developed non-lethal weapons which also include a planetary deflector shield. Minbari and ancient races like the Shadows and Vorlons are also believed to have some form of shield technology as well.

Whitestars were seen to have some sort of shield in "War Without End", as did the Shadows and Vorlons, as seen in "Interludes and Examinations" (Vorlons ships appeared to dissipate Vorlon beams around and away form their ships, Vorlon vessels were seen blocking and deflecting away incoming fire). Shield used by those races in possession of this technology, appear to consider it simply as another layer of defense, rather than their "only" defense and shields appear to be more passive in nature than the energy wall / bubble effect sported by Star War and Trek respectively.
Typically, shield technology in Babylon 5 appears to be refract energy/matter around the ship, rather than stop, block or deflect it away. Only race "seen" using shields that block/deflect were the "Third Space" aliens. It should also be noted that Energy Shields in B5 are used at the expense of thick, heavy armor, again as stated in the B5 Guide from Sierra and the RPG's, which are the only resources available on this matter.

Q. Do you plan on shutting down the B5 Tech-Manual now that B5 is off the air?

A. No, I plan on expanding it. : )

Q. In your opinion, how is it possible that Earth was able to adapt Shadow tech so quickly?

A. Well, my opinion has always been that the Drakh probably helped, as the Drakh were minions of the Shadows and President Clark was one of their strongest and completely willing allies. But according to a recent short story by JMS (which is considered cannon), appeared in the May 2000 issue #22 of the official B5/Crusade magazine, Shadow technology has the ability to merge with and adapt any technology (mechanical or biological) to fit it's needs. Consequently, with assistance from the Drakh Clark was able to completely fit existing Omega class Destroyers with Shadow armor and technology, and selectively integrate Shadow technology with the new Warlock class Destroyer. So, even without the Drakh's help Earth probably could have fitted Shadow tech to their ships, but I'm guessing that they got t the Drakh's assistance with regards to the more subtle and selective nature/control of Shadow technology.

Q. How does your site relate to Star Trek?

A. LOL... it doesn't. :o) Sorry, not to poke fun, but there's a reason this site is called the "B5 Tech Manual" and NOT the "B5 vs. Star Trek, Tech Manual." Trek, is not what this page is about. : )

Q. How do you justify the 20x and 80x armor modifiers on Earthforce and Minbari ships? Seems a little far fetched.

A. Well the 80x armor modifier for Minbari ships comes from cannon, specifically the TV movie "A Call To Arms". 20x modifier is an estimate based on the technology level of the Earth Alliance and the fact that Earth leapt ahead about 200 hundred years upon meeting the Centauri back in the 22nd century, which puts their technology about 500 years ahead of us right now. Still, I posed the question to my Sith Master - i.e. Michael Wong - and this is the response I got:

• In 300 years, less than an order of magnitude. The strength of engineering matterials is dependent on their microstructural properties as well as the intrinsic nature of inter-atomic chemical bonds. Unless we can somehow figure out a way to make an entirely new form of inter-atomic bond (not too damned likely), or to produce and form neutronium (even less likely), we will not see incredible increases in matterial strength. The UTS (ultimate tensile stress) for modern engineering matterials is, at best, two or three times better than what they could produce A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
  For example, the UTS of ordinary malleable cast iron is about 340 MPa, and it was 340 MPa a hundred years ago. The UTS of a high quality modern titanium alloy is less than three times higher: about 900 MPa, and the pace of matterials strength improvement has been steadily SLOWING as the century has dragged on. The first big area of recent improvements in matterials engineering is not in the area of sheer strength, but in aggregate characteristics (looking at the overall mixture of strength, hardness, creep resistance, and toughness). The second big area of improvement relates to forming- it's one thing to make a super-strong matterial, but if you can't forge it, die-cast it, rivet it, weld it, bend it, draw it, extrude it, stamp it, mold it, or otherwise form it into usable shapes, it's utterly useless.
  If I were to look into the future, I would assume that they have a matterial which has a UTS equal to the strongest matterial known to man, toughness equal to the toughest matterial known to man, creep resistance equal to the best modern high temperature engineering matterials, and most incredibly of all, they can easily form it into whatever shape they want. That last factor is HUGE in real world engineering, but most sci-fi buffs have no idea.
  

And so, because Earthforce technology is based on Centauri technology, who have been jump capable for approximately 800 years, and given the leaps made in Earth technology in just one generation upon first contact with the Centauri and the subsequent century that followed, I figured that a 10x to 30x armor modifier wouldn't be too far fetched (10x for Iron, 30x for Titanium). After all, if we are looking at a 500 year technology jump (which is consistent in B5 as the Centauri have been out for 800 years and only developed artificial gravity technology in the past 200 years, as did earth in 2261 BEFORE joining the ISA), a magnitude jump over iron is far from being a "far fetched" notion. Given the aforementioned and the fact that Earth has learned to use molecular bonding technology in something as simple as a Palm Link, I placed the armor for Earth, Narn and League races at 20x, the Centauri at about 30x and the Minbari are happy with their official rating of 80x. Vorlon and Shadow armor modifiers are unknown, but do appear to be in excess of those of the younger races. These figures all appear to be consistent with B5/Crusade cannon and also fit with what Michael Wong stated, being only one order of magnitude greater than conventional matterials such as Iron, Titanium, Tungsten, etc.

Q. Do you hate Brian Young or something?

A. Hate Brian? Where did you get that crazy idea from? I've known Brian Young for years and have a great deal or respect for him; we correspond from time to time. While he and I obviously disagree on some aspects of Babylon 5 technology, there are lots of things we do agree on. Just because we don't agree about everything and laughingly dig one another in the ribs once in a while, it doesn't mean I "hate" him, it simply means he and I share different points of view.

Q. What is more important, what is SEEN or what is SAID in the show, when you analyze the show?

A. What is SEEN always outweighs what is said, but if possible one should try and get the two to fit. This, unfortunately, is not always possible and when it is not possible, what is SEEN overrides a character's statements. For example, during the episode "Points of Departure" Ivanova says, and I quote, "We're picking up a change in the Trigatti's fusion reactors - they're moving towards critical... oh my god."
Unfortunately nuclear fusion would not produce the necessary energy to fire the ship's weapons at the yield seen in the series, let alone propel the ship at any of the velocities stated or seen. Also, the question arises as to how Earth would even know what kind of power source the Minbari used?
Narn, Centauri, League Worlds... few people know much of anything about the Minbari before or after the war, so it isn't much of a stretch to conclude Ivanova said "fusion reactors", as she didn't know what kind of reactors the ship had and simply substituted the "X factor" with Earth common. People do this all the time in real life, applying their own thoughts and beliefs when it comes to the unknown.
Of course, it is possible, probably likely that the War Cruiser DOES have fusion reactors onboard, but that does NOT mean that nuclear fusion is the vessel's primary means of power generation. One also must take into account that, when B5 first came out JMS stated that nuclear fusion reactors in the B5 universe were capable of generation power in the googlwatt range (1*10¹⁰0 watt), which is far, FAR in excess of what a fusion reactor is capable of producing (unless they were using Hypermatter from Star Wars their first season).
Given both Lennier and Delenn's statements that Minbari engines and reactors use gravitational and magnetic technologies, and given the weapon output seen and the 18th power kinetic energy simply needed to propel a vessel of the War-Cruiser's size, it would appear that this is one of those cases where what is SEEN outweighs what was SAID. This is, of course, just one example.

Q. Do you consider yourself bias or objective?

A. In what sense of the word? Am I bias in my emotional "like" of B5, or in my analysis? If you are talking about "feelings" I admit, I do prefer "Babylon 5" to "Star Trek: Voyager", just as I prefer "Star Wars" to pretty much everything, but this site is not about my "feelings." As for the technical end of things - I consider myself quite objective. I am more than willing to listen to the point of view of other's and, if proven wrong, I'm going to admit it and make changes (no matter how wide the ramifications), but in my analysis of the technology of "Babylon 5", the only thing I'm looking for is the truth, and I try to take into account all the available facts... from the pilot bible to JMS's short stories. TRUTH is all that matters and that is what I do try to do - find the truth.

Q. Who's your favorite race in Babylon 5?

A. Minbari, because they have the best toys. :o)