So I started watching "Babylon 5" for the first time.

[Guy Gardener]

Well as long as you're always landing in a space port, the spaceport (whether it's in space or on the ground) takes control of your ship and lands for you... And even if they didn't, I can only imagine that the autopilot is fricking amazing.

"Collision alert, collision alert, collision alert."

(I wonder if Lyta drove Kosh's ship like a chauffeur for Kosh? Yes it's alive, but you still wouldn't trust the smartest horse in the world to know where it's going if you need to be someone important on and time.)

 

[Tulin]

I always wanted there to a book or series of books about the adventures of Lyta and G'Kar.

 

[Jan]

I always wanted there to a book or series of books about the adventures of Lyta and G'Kar.

Me, too! It's almost impossible to find but there was one short story featuring them, called "Genius Loci" in the Winter 2000 Amazing Stories magazine, #599.

Jan

 

[Guy Gardener]

Just with the smallest rewrite about her origins, the Adventures of Pipi Longstockings could be exactly about a Redheaded, Narn Telepath.

 

[Reverend]

Another thought about the show....can everyone fly a starfury? are the extremely easy to fly? I think almost every human charicter was in one at one point? how or why would Garibaldi or Zach Allen need to know to fly one?

That bothered me, once. But then Garibaldi used to be a pilot (how he met Sinclair) and I don't know about Zack, but he may have trained after B5 became independent, they weren't getting any replacement pilots from Earth.

Sinclair and Ivanova were fighter pilots that went into administrative duties and Sheridan was a former ship Captain but had fighter piloting experience.

They didn't really stick any other stars in Starfuries, but Londo was a pilot for his people, G'kar was a pilot and Delenn flew her own little flyer, I think learing to fly for these people isn't as exotic as it would be for us, though. Flying these things for them is more like being able to drive a car for us.

To put it in a little context: all of these people (save Delenn) are or were at some point in a military organisation that included space travel. I don't know if it was ever mentioned directly, but given his apparent age it's a good bet that Zack was conscripted during the war (Marcus too, which was confirmed in 'To Dream in the City of Sorrows'.)
I'd bet that even for ground pounders, orbital mechanics 101 is a required course in basic training. I mean even if their only contact with spacefilght is going to be sitting on transports, at some point if one of those transports gets shot down they may be required to manually pilot an escape pod from high orbit, or even to the nearest jumpgate.

As for why Delenn can fly....yeah, I think for Minbari at least it really is just like being able to drive a car.

 

[MacLeod]

Another thought about the show....can everyone fly a starfury? are the extremely easy to fly? I think almost every human charicter was in one at one point? how or why would Garibaldi or Zach Allen need to know to fly one?

If you look you'll be able to tell who is qualified to pilot a starfury as those that can have wings on their uniforms.

 

[Tulin]

Just with the smallest rewrite about her origins, the Adventures of Pipi Longstockings could be exactly about a Redheaded, Narn Telepath.

Okay, post of the week.

You're ALMOST channelling JMS there with your humour!

 

[Forbin]

I always wanted there to a book or series of books about the adventures of Lyta and G'Kar.

I always wanted there to a book or series of books about the adventures of Lyta and G'Kar.

Me, too! It's almost impossible to find but there was one short story featuring them, called "Genius Loci" in the Winter 2000 Amazing Stories magazine, #599.

Jan

I seem to remember Pat Tallman's snail mail fan club newsletter had a series of Lyta/G'Kar stories. Can't recall who wrote them.

 

[shivkala]

As for why Delenn can fly....yeah, I think for Minbari at least it really is just like being able to drive a car.

The Minbari, perhaps due to the Vorlon influence, seemed to develop technology that was at the same time easy to use and an artform to itself. Their technology seemed to fit under the "a short time to learn, a lifetime to master" category. That is to say, it might have been very easy for Delenn to pilot her ship to get from point A to point B, but much more difficult to do some of the zero-degree turning we've seen the White Stars pull off.

 

[MacLeod]

It seemed like the Minbari ships had a high level of automation.

 

[Reverend]

Come to think of it, Lennier could fly when he was pretty much fresh out of the monestary, so clearly this is considered a required skill. Odd though in a way. You'd think it'd be something mostly left up to the worker and warrior castes.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Is the Last Starfighter really so far from the truth these days with the hyper accurate flight simulators available?

Of course Flight simulators as games were popular when all other computer games were shitty and sucked too.

Point is, that Minbari babies can probably fly a shuttle before they can walk even though they have never seen a shuttle or can say shuttle in at least half of the 97 Minbari dialects.

 

[Forbin]

If you recall, Lennier spent a lot of time talking with his ship. It appeared to be an A.I.

 

[Guy Gardener]

You'd have to consider that that the Officers/techs are continually removing sexy/dirty personalities from their starfighters.

 

[Forbin]

"Recording ship arrival, dear."

 

[Guy Gardener]

Close but hotter.

 

[Technobuilder]

I always wanted there to a book or series of books about the adventures of Lyta and G'Kar.

Me, too! It's almost impossible to find but there was one short story featuring them, called "Genius Loci" in the Winter 2000 Amazing Stories magazine, #599.

Jan

I'd forgotten about those short stories... I've got a list of them all somewhere.

I always wanted there to a book or series of books about the adventures of Lyta and G'Kar.

I always wanted there to a book or series of books about the adventures of Lyta and G'Kar.

Me, too! It's almost impossible to find but there was one short story featuring them, called "Genius Loci" in the Winter 2000 Amazing Stories magazine, #599.

Jan

I seem to remember Pat Tallman's snail mail fan club newsletter had a series of Lyta/G'Kar stories. Can't recall who wrote them.

I'd be interested (somewhat) to check these out, but I never did the snail mail fan club b.s. Anyone know who wrote them or if they're available online?

 

[Technobuilder]

Haha! Success!

Babylon 5 - Short Stories:
1) B5: The Shadow Of His Thoughts by JMS (Amazing Stories #597)

2) B5: Genius Loci by JMS (Amazing Stories #599)

3) B5: Space, Time, & The Incurable Romantic by JMS (Amazing Stories #602)

4) B5: Hidden Agendas by JMS (The Official B5 Magazine #22)

5) B5: True Seeker by Fiona Avery (The Official B5 Magazine #23)

6) B5: The Nautilus Coil by J. Gregory Keyes (The Official B5 Magazine #24)


There may be more, I honestly don't know.
Last I checked these were all canon, but I may be wrong.

 

[Reverend]

Haha! Success!

Babylon 5 - Short Stories:
1) B5: The Shadow Of His Thoughts by JMS (Amazing Stories #597)

2) B5: Genius Loci by JMS (Amazing Stories #599)

3) B5: Space, Time, & The Incurable Romantic by JMS (Amazing Stories #602)

4) B5: Hidden Agendas by JMS (The Official B5 Magazine #22)

5) B5: True Seeker by Fiona Avery (The Official B5 Magazine #23)

6) B5: The Nautilus Coil by J. Gregory Keyes (The Official B5 Magazine #24)


There may be more, I honestly don't know.
Last I checked these were all canon, but I may be wrong.

AFAIK, yes, they're all canon. 'True Seeker' felt a little too cute for my tastes because, well...

Spoiler: True Seeker

G'Kar has a teenage daughter raised on Earth now? OK...
Also it didn't help having that telepath girl who'd been played on the show by a *really* bad actress.

But the rest all felt like natural extensions.

J. Gregory Keyes's especially got into some very interesting aspects on the effect telepathy has on evolution. Short version: psi ability and sapience are mutually exclusive traits. The logic being that the rules of natural selection prevent it from happening naturally in a sapient species and if it develops in a non-sapient, it's presence precludes said sapience down the evolutionary line. It's all to do with tool use and altering one's environment IIRC.

It's just a shame there weren't more like this.

 

[Marsden]

I agree, she was the worst actress in the whole five years, plus movies and Crusade! Vanna White bad. Reading off of the script the first time seeing it bad.