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Babylon 5

Regarding Anthony Pakizer's site... When I click on some ship classes I get interesting material, but when I click on others I get "This page is not available on the web because page does not exist."
That's the Internet Archive for you, especially for an obscure, little-updated site of that age. The downloadable backup on the B5 Wars Vault's dropbox page is more complete and has all the images, though occasionally some of the links fail and you have to open the page you're looking for manually from the folder. And the ship control sheets are under separate downloads.
 
JMS has given a small update on future Babylon 5 projects in an interview promoting his new science fiction novel, The Glass Box.

"As to the future, I know there is interest in doing more animated movies. The live-action reboot had been with the CW, and now we have interest from at least two streamers, so I think we have a good chance of selling it."

Last summer, he mentioned in a tweet that WB was able to get the CW to give up their exclusivity rights on the reboot script just before the strikes hit, so it is available to be developed for any other network or streamer willing to commission it.
 
I really hope he's able to do a decently-budgeted modern version of B5. The show's very dated in a lot of ways, but if he can combine his strengths with a more modern writing style, I think a B5 revival -- be it a reboot or a continuation -- could be something special.
 
Animation would be promising, I should think. Couple possibilities come to mind:

1. Prequel-Dilgar War

2. Alternative time line; during the Dilgar War, the Centauri go into conquest mode.
 
Centauri going conquest mode during the Dilgar War pretty much brings the Narn into the game, as they were allowing Dilgar to go through their space to flank the Drazi.
 
I recall a web site I came across a few years ago, but never found again. It had a more detailed description of the Centauri in conquest mode during the Dilgar War.

Initially, both Dilgar and Centauri ignored Earth, which was in a distant, out of the way corner of the galaxy. Later, the two conquerers would distract each other (allowing the Earth Alliance to survive), and enter into a Cold War.

As I see it, the Centauri would be opportunistic conquerors, with the League worlds reeling from Dilgar attacks. At the least, the Centauri would grab worlds that seem particularly weak.

I would expect both conquerors to very carefully avoid the the middle born Tal-Kona-Sha, and of course the Mimbari and the Vorlons. Perhaps a few of the more technologically advanced League worlds would be left alone for the time being, if their defenses are formidable. But the weaker worlds would be quickly gobbled up by either Dilgar or Centauri.

I can imagine a few of the more pugnacious, such as the Narn and Drazi, being hammered by both conquerers.

I would expect that the EA government would view intervention as suicide, and try to be neutral.
 
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I would expect that the EA government would view intervention as suicide, and try to be neutral.

Wasn't Earth supposed to be technologically superior to the Dilgar?

I mean, back then, AFAIK all Earth had was those old Hyperion-class destroyers, but IIRC even these were sufficient to defeat the Dilgar.
 
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Hyperions and Nova-class Dreadnoughts. The main thing seems to be the first of the relatively modern Starfury designs based on improvements after seeing data from the Non-aligned Worlds about Dilgar fighters
 
Wasn't Earth supposed to be technologically superior to the Dilgar?
As I understand it, the Dilgar had a technological edge over Earth. But not a huge gap, so the Dilgar could be countered by tactics and/or superior numbers.

And Earth had League allies.

This edge was small enough that reverse engineering was doable, while also being fruitful/useful within a reasonable period. Say, a couple decades.
 
Wasn't Earth supposed to be technologically superior to the Dilgar?

I mean, back then, AFAIK all Earth had was those old Hyperion-class destroyers, but IIRC even these were sufficient to defeat the Dilgar.

(Noncanon musings)

80 billion Dilgar standing on a planet ripe for slaughter by their sun going nova.

The actual Dilgar top tier military, under command of the politicians, generals and billionaires, pick an unoccupied star system and take a hundred million useful people with them, because that's how many ships they have, and that's how many people they can move in a year for 60 light years, to build Dilgar II.

That leaves 79 billion Dilgar abandoned with only civilian ships and broken down military vessels that no one wants, unloved and left to die. Which is the second wave who have two missions, find enough star systems for 79 billion Dilgar to inhabit comfortably, with infrastructure, because all the people that could design or build a sewer for 30 million people are already gone in the first wave. Mission 2 is kill the first wave, because "What a pack of ####s, what a pack of amazing ###s" but because they are not the best people with only the ships that no one wanted in the first wave, they all die because they suck and their tools suck.

Wave three is the telephone sanitizers, and keyboard cleaners, and they are just glad to have made it off world before Dilgar 1 went boom, by which point every civilized society in space has kill orders for every Dilgar ship and every Dilgar face, so they just get murdered on principle and poor luck, until there are none left.

There is no wave 4. 70 billion dilgar probably die when the sun went nova.
 
I started thinking about possibly doing yet another B5 rewatch, but this time following my own Viewing Order that I'd like to share here.
Season 1:
  1. The Gathering
  2. Midnight on the Firing Line
  3. Soul Hunter
  4. Infection
  5. Born to the Purple
  6. The Parliament of Dreams
  7. The War Prayer
  8. And the Sky Full of Stars
  9. Mind War
  10. By Any Means Necessary
  11. Deathwalker
  12. Believers
  13. Survivors
  14. A Voice in the Wilderness, Part 1
  15. A Voice in the Wilderness, Part 2
  16. Babylon Squared
  17. Legacies
  18. Grail
  19. Signs and Portents
  20. TKO
  21. Eyes
  22. The Quality of Mercy
  23. Chrysalis
Season 2:
  1. Points of Departure
  2. Revelations
  3. The Geometry of Shadows
  4. A Distant Star
  5. A Spider in the Web
  6. A Race through Dark Places
  7. Soul Mates
  8. The Long Dark
  9. The Coming of Shadows
  10. GROPOS
  11. All Alone in the Night
  12. Acts of Sacrifice
  13. Hunter, Prey
  14. Knives
  15. There All the Honor Lies
  16. And Now For a Word
  17. I the Shadow of Z'ha'dum
  18. Concessions and Lamentations
  19. Divided Loyalties
  20. The Long, Twilight Struggle
  21. Comes the Inquisitor
  22. The Fall of Night
Season 3:
  1. Matters of Honor
  2. Convictions
  3. A Day in the Strife
  4. Passing through Gethsemane
  5. Voices of Authority
  6. Dust to Dust
  7. Exogenesis
  8. Messages from Earth
  9. Point of No Return
  10. Severed Dreams
  11. Ceremonies of Light and Dark
  12. Sic Transit Vir
  13. A Late Delivery from Avalon
  14. Ship of Tears
  15. Interludes and Examinations
  16. War without End, Part 1
  17. War without End, Part 2
  18. Walkabout
  19. Grey 17 is Missing
  20. And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place
  21. Shadow Dancing
  22. Z'ha'dum
Season 4:
  1. The Hour of the Wolf
  2. Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?
  3. The Summoning
  4. Falling Toward Apotheosis
  5. The Long Night
  6. Into the Fire
  7. Epiphanies
  8. The Illusion of Truth
  9. Thirdspace
  10. Atonement
  11. Racing Mars
  12. Lines of Communication
  13. Conflicts of Interest
  14. Rumors, Bargains, and Lies
  15. Moments of Transition
  16. No Surrender, No Retreat
  17. The Exercise of Vital Powers
  18. The Face of the Enemy
  19. Intersections in Real Time
  20. Between the Darkness and the Light
  21. Endgame
  22. Rising Star
  23. The Deconstruction of Falling Stars
Season 5:
  1. No Compromises
  2. The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari
  3. The Paragon of Animals
  4. A View from the Gallery
  5. Learning Curve
  6. Strange Relations
  7. Secrets of the Soul
  8. In the Kingdom of the Blind
  9. A Tragedy of Telepaths
  10. Phoenix Rising
  11. The Ragged Edge
  12. Day of the Dead
  13. The Corps is Mother, The Corps is Father
  14. Meditations on the Abyss
  15. Darkness Ascending
  16. And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder
  17. Movements of Fire and Shadow
  18. The Fall of Centauri Prime
  19. Wheel of Fire
  20. Objects in Motion
  21. Objects at Rest
  22. River of Souls
  23. Legend of the Rangers
  24. A Call to Arms
  25. Voices in the Dark (The Lost Tales)
  26. In the Beginning
  27. Sleeping in Light

I don't really like using Sleeping in Light as the B5 Series Finale because it awkwardly ignores Lochley, but it also felt weird not to include it, and so it's there despite my issues with it.
 
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The scenario presented-both Dilgar and Centauri in conquest mode-mentioned refugees. Where to go? Earth Alliance space.

There is a YouTube video on this topic-"Alien Refugees." Narrated by Isaac Arthur.
 
The worldbuilding stackexchange site has a few threads regarding reverse engineering. Look at Reverse Engineering Electronics.

Consider the comments by jorfus just under the bottom image. Quoting:

"It would be far easier to reverse engineer something out of a computer history museum, a child's toy (walking, talking robot?) or something designed to teach the fundamentals of computing."

So perhaps IPX might end up doing these:

1. Buying toys.

2. Buying dusty old text books and manuals.

3. Scavenge alien junk yards.

4. If really bold, attempting to steal from a museum.

One concept I have seen-scavenge a battlefield.
 
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So perhaps IPX might end up buying toys, and dusty old text books/manuals. If really bold, stealing from a museum.

When the AV Club was doing retro-reviews of Babylon 5, there were "gimmick" commenting accounts (maybe one person using multiple names, maybe multiple people working together) embracing the idea from the closing credits of the finale that Babylon 5 was an in-universe docudrama and offering, in-character, insights into the "real" history that the show left out for storytelling or budgetary reasons. In the review for "Eyes," "Ivanova" comments that EarthForce immediately confiscated Garibaldi's bike so they could tear down the Minbari motor Lennier installed in it. Seems plausible.

Either way, it did amuse me that for at least a couple years, the most technologically advanced vehicle built by humanity was an early '90s Japanese motorcycle.

Also, speaking of toys, I don't think we ever did find out what the "mouse," the first Shadow-tech artifact recovered by Earth, was supposed to do, at least not explicitly. What it did do was explode when scanned by a telepath and condition every other telepath for three miles mentally to prepare to be inserted into a Shadow ship, which probably wasn't exactly it's intended purpose.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if a museum had something like a high tech burglar alarm.

Alien junk yards, though? Owners might not question why the Earthlings are willing to buy, just so long as they do. Perhaps the IPX agents could say that they will turn a purchased piece of junk into art work.

Purchase toys from a thrift store. The IPX agent is of course buying for his child's birthday.

Old text books? Old manuals? Purchased from a garage sale.
 
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Also, speaking of toys, I don't think we ever did find out what the "mouse," the first Shadow-tech artifact recovered by Earth, was supposed to do, at least not explicitly. What it did do was explode when scanned by a telepath and condition every other telepath for three miles mentally to prepare to be inserted into a Shadow ship, which probably wasn't exactly it's intended purpose.

Did they ever find out what that bit of Shadow tech embedded in the Warlock class was supposed to do? Or who put it there? Is there one in every Warlock ship, or just Ivanova's?

On a completely unrelated matter, does anyone know the name for the class of Minbari ship that was in use when B4 appeared in the past? The ones that are seen approaching the station right at the end of WWE part 2.
 
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