Shadow Death Cloud vs DeathStar

[Ender]

this seems feesable, because jump gates have never been show to be jammed cause of radiation or anything like that

Wrong, the EA tried to Jam the mimbari with alot of ECM and radiation, the only problem was that there wasn't enough of it.

[Vympel]

As to S: AAB ... I cannot think of a single trick they'd be able to pull. They have no special tech whatsoever.

I know.... *sobs on Vympel's shoulder*

But... even *sobs*... Trek beat-t-t-ts it!

*sobs harder*

*Breaks down sobbing uncontrollably*

I share your pain!!!!

[Crown]

Hey is this the first thread hijacking by us? Yay us!

[Vympel]

B5 versus ST question:

is Walter Koenig Checkov, or Bester?

[Crown]

In my avatar he is Bester. For the most fans Chekov I think wins, but on the cool metre, Bester just rapes his way to the top!

[Darth Wong]

B5 versus ST question:

is Walter Koenig Checkov, or Bester?

Face to face, Bester can kill Chekov easily. Behind the controls of their respective starships, Chekov is The Man, and will ram a photon torpedo up Bester's ass.

[Vympel]

LOL

Is it a Cold War stereotype thing that Checkov was the guy in charge of the boom-booms?

[Patrick Degan]

Face to face, Bester can kill Chekov easily. Behind the controls of their respective starships, Chekov is The Man, and will ram a photon torpedo up Bester's ass.

But could Bester survive Chekov's screams before their volume caused an aneurysm?

[Durandal]

Chekov could just say "nuclear wessels," and Bester would say, "You say it like that too!?", and they'd both be friends and go out for a drink.

[Patrick Degan]

But JMS explained that obviously that it wasn't a natural phenominon, but the Humans at that point induced the Sun to go nova, by over the course of days (weeks?) opening JP inside Sol and unstabilising it.

JMS actually said that in public? ROTFLMAO!!! Where the fuck did this idiotic brain bug start whereby a star is presumed to be some sort of metastable system which will explode if you just tip it over?

The episode "Deconstruction Of Falling Stars" is confused as to just what is occurring with Sol. It is clear that JMS is no scientist, and may not have more than a rudimentary science education because the episode terminology contradicts the visual event.

According to the dialogue (spoken either by the Man or the computer), Sol is about to undergo a nova due to "atypical solar emissions" (the only explanation offered in the actual script). There is a distinct difference between a nova and a supernova. The former refers to an irregular burst emitted by the primary, which is usually either a variable star or a Wolf-Rayet type star, while the latter is of course the blast which occurs when a supermassive star undergoes its final death throes when it blows itself apart. As our own sun is, so far as we know, a stable G2 main sequence star, the former is highly improbable and the latter is clearly impossible.

Now, it is possible that a star such as ours could be disrupted by collision with a very massive object, which would induce a nova pulse (which I saw discussed in an article in last month's Scientific American). Or it may eventually prove that our sun is not quite as stable as first thought. In any case, it would be necessary to evacuate Earth if the sun were going to give off a nova pulse. The resulting radiation burst and momentary increase in stellar magnitude would certainly not be a good thing for our planet or anything living on it.

Unfortunately, the episode dialogue says "nova" but then shows the sun exploding. To its credit, the script gives no timeframe as to the progression from initial destabilisation to final burst, so for all the viewer knows the event could have been triggered days, months, years, or centuries before the Man completes the final download of historical records to New Earth. So either JMS confused the two processes, or the term "nova" is being used colloquially and somewhat sloppily to boot.

JMS' commentary on Usenet is after-the-fact, and is not offered as a definitive explanation as to what set Sol off. In any case, I believe the man was writing more for the symbolic value of humanity leaving its nest for the final time rather than for scientific accuracy, which is clearly absent in "The Deconstruction Of Falling Stars" and simply offered whatever excuse was on the top of his head at the moment he read the question.

At the very least, we never get a five minute discourse on instabilities in the surrounding dekion field transubstantuating with a quantum burst abnihilation of verteron node flotsam blah blah blah blahblahblahblahblahblah...

[Connor MacLeod]

They claim that, based on their order of canon, it does indeed count, yes.

And where does their order of canon come from? Does JMS say that every off-hand comment he makes at any time regarding B5, anywhere in the world counts as B5 canon?

To my knowledge, no official Canon hierarchy was established for B5 the way it exists for Trek and Wars. JMS has been accorded (as creator) ability to dictate certain sources (novels, people who worked on the show, games like B5 Wars) as having canonical status, but thats about it.

JMS has stated that he does not own the license to B5 (that WB does) and that to write in or add to the universe, he needs WB's permission (and that because of this reason he has to be careful in his interactions with fans.)

Some fans hold JMS as being higher than the show (that is, what JMS says takes precedence over what he says onscreen, being creator and all.) or at least he can tell us when things are in error (which some take as a reason to dismiss things.)

Some fans take this a step further and hold those who work on the show as being canon sources, even if JMS does not say so (an example being Tim Earls, or things he produced like his size charts.) A certain segment take this further and say that people like Tim are the ONLY reliable way to get information about B5 - one notable entity recently took to attempting to discredit Brian Young's babtech site and its use of pixel scaling by this reasoning.

With regards to the show, you usually get most fans saying that is mostly "primary" canon - although some will argue that FX errors occur which must be ignored in order to properly analyze it (particularily where scaling is concerned, but if pushed some can produce a fairly impressive list.)

Myself, I tend to take the show first and then fit whatever else there is into the overall context where ambiguity allows.

[Connor MacLeod]

hmmm

[Connor MacLeod]

What the hell? I can't see my own goddamn post!