Sci-Fi vs Physics

[SpacedTeddyBear]

Either way, it's equally stupid. Did he make an abrupt leap from amoeba to intelligent humanoid?
Of course not; there must have been previous species before him whose intelligence approached that of his own species (what happened to the rest of them, by the way?). It is impossible for anybeing to declare that he is the first intelligent being unless he pops into existence fully-formed,
with no evolutionary ancestors (again, we get into monstrous scientific realism problems).

Unless there was an incredibly huge time gap that spanned between the rise in intelligence of Lorien's race, and the development of other races to the point where they were able to travel galaxies or our entire galaxy to see that they were indeed the first sentient race. If it is in the context that he is the first sentient race in the galaxy and not the universe, or maybe our local cluster group, then it would make more sense.

However, it says something that a lot more consideration was given to this question in Babylon 5 than in Star Trek —which is why I rate their treatment of the theme considerably more realistic than in Trek; in which members of any two species can mate at the drop of a hat and never have to visit their friendly neighbourhood geneticist. At least B5 acknowledged the difficulty involved.

Well I think the odds were 10-1 against the chances of Delenn getting pregnant. One more thing I find equally amusing that no one has mentioned yet. I remember an episode of Crusade ( The Need of Earth) Gideon was watching some alien porn ( Not his by the way) when the docter walks in on him. I think she says something like " The anatomy of a pak'ma'ra is totally incompatible with..." then it trails off. I just thought it was worth mentioning.

[Enlightenment]

You're forgetting about G'Kar's proposition to Lyta Alexander for a "direct mating" as a means to hopefully breed a hybrid Narn/human telepath (though later Na'toth pursued the more viable project of combining genetic material from telepath Alyssa Beldon in "The War Prayer").

Yep, both of those are certainly into brainbug territory. There is, of course, the possibility that G'Kar didn't have a clue about biology, but that's a bit of a stretch.

And let's face it: even with the alteration of Delenn's physiology by her chrysalis transformation, the chances of a successful mating and impregnation between herself and Sheridan would still be a dicey proposition in reality. More so for any offspring of theirs to be able to successfully father or bear a child in the future.

I'm inclined to give B5 the benefit of the doubt here. Unlike the Trek anything-goes interbreeding there's no reason sufficiently advanced biotechnology couldn't be used to do a translation or hybridization between two sentient species and creating the desired fertility match in the process.

Stormbringer: I don't think Delenn or Valen really count as interspecies brainbugs recisely because of the bioengineering involved. The brainbug is interspecies breeding producing offspring without any intervening technology (or magic) whatsoever.

[ClaysGhost]

For a start, I think we can simply set aside "sound in space" and "visible laser beams" as artistic license to make for exciting TV. Hyperspace, FTL, and energy-field based artificial gravity would fall under suspension of disbelief rules for plot/production convenience.

Leaving that aside:

Bah.

Star Trek —gets totally dismembered and its bits fed into a meat-grinder. Less so with TOS and with increasing blood-spatter with TNG-onward. They've gotten to the point where they should just simply introduce wizards as starship crew performing incantations and have the Great and Terrible God Cthulhu emerging from a black hole, Dragons of the Abyss, and immense planet-eating mutant stargoats.

Yes, it's rubbish. The only point in their favour is that they once mentioned a real star.

Star Wars —has a lot which falls into the realm of engineering impossibility, but not wholesale violation of fundamental principles. Where it's on its weakest ground is in regards to the Force —but even SW admits this to be pure mysticism.

They always have their engines on. Hypermatter or hyperspace taps are almost the biggest get-out clause so far as regards energy generation. They don't appear to worry about waste heat, unless you believe those lying neutrino grilles (I don't). The explosions look like firecrackers (mind you, this is a problem that extends to all sci-fi shows). All the guns are magic. There's some pretty funny stuff going on in the first trilogy with star systems and travel times. It's not so great.

Andromeda —oh, somebody tried to get away from some of the moldier SF cliches and introduce kinetic weaponry for starship combat. Sadly, they subsequently ran it through a secondhand Trek Technobabbolator™ and came up with even goofier inventions than phasers; the Point Singularity Projector weapon springs immediately to mind as example.

Yes, it's poor. The classic ship design can't really save it. However, the weapons are certainly no goofier than ST or SW-issue.

Stargate SG1 —wins no points for its giant Secret Decoder Ring of the Gods portal device. And just where do all those teleportation rings which float down from nowhere go when nobody's using them? Also loses points for tying its SF in with the VonDaniken School of Crackpots.

They made significant astronomy errors in both the film and series. I pity the fools.

Babylon 5 —wins points on issues related to the fundamental Laws of Motion and Energy, has spacecraft limited to Newtonian inertial frameworks (even the Whitestars), rotational gravity, and has sensible ideas in regards to telepathic beings as the result of deliberate genetic engineering rather than natural evolution and issues in regards to telepaths in society. It loses in terms of having some rather odd ideas regarding evolution (though nowhere near as goofy as Star Trek), organic technology (falling into the standard cliche-level for contemporary SF), and interspecies breeding (though again nowhere near as goofy as Star Trek). There is no teleportation in B5 and no zoo of bullshit quantum particles of the week, nor is the B5 universe littered with bizarre space anomalies which Trek crews seem to stumble upon a lot these days. The show has made its share of scientific and engineering goofs, to be certain. But even its worst goofs are nowhere near as outrageous as starships attacked by sonic weapons in space, cracks in black hole event horizons, deuterium ore, de-evolvo viruses, antiradiation vaccines, or people transfomed into catfish after going ultra-FTL.

They seem to have odd ideas about the hazards involved with fusion reactors. Their hyperspace is particularly bizarre. They've even got time travel, the punks.

Of the aforementioned SF universes, I'd say its Babylon 5 and Star Wars which come off the least scarred. Stargate loses an arm, Andromeda loses both legs, and Star Trek has to be vacuumed off the floor and walls as splattered ground-round.

I'd place Star Gate above SW, but otherwise I agree.

[Stormbringer]

You're forgetting about G'Kar's proposition to Lyta Alexander for a "direct mating" as a means to hopefully breed a hybrid Narn/human telepath (though later Na'toth pursued the more viable project of combining genetic material from telepath Alyssa Beldon in "The War Prayer").

Yep, both of those are certainly into brainbug territory. There is, of course, the possibility that G'Kar didn't have a clue about biology, but that's a bit of a stretch.

Both those would have involved genetic alteration on the level of Delenn or Valen. I believe it's even mentioned by G'kar that genetic tinkering is required.