• The new B5TV.COM is here. We've replaced our 16 year old software with flashy new XenForo install. Registration is open again. Password resets will work again. More info here.

Who Destroyed Babylon 1, 2, & 3?

D

Dayton3

Regular
We know the first three Babylon stations were apparently destroyed by sabotage when nearly completed.

I believe according to Jinx in "Grail"

Babylon station (they called it "one" later) had its superstructure collapse.

Babylon 3 exploded.

No mention how Babylon 2 was destroyed.

I seem to remember that one of the B-5 roleplaying games says something indicating that one of the anti-alien Earth first groups destroyed at least one of the stations.

Is this true and if so did they destroy the other two?

And what happened to Babylon-2?

Anyone ever done any artwork for the different Babylon stations?

And why after three failures why was Babylon-4 built so enormous? Apparently from what I've read it was about twice the size of Babylon-5 with the weapons to match.
 
According to JMS the first three stations were destroyed by different groups for different reasons. Some just hated the whole idea of the project. There was no great over-arching conspiracy.

Babylon 4 was built to the original blueprints. The Babylon Station was always supposed to be that big, that heavly armed and to have engines that would allow it to move.

The first three were all destroyed very early during their construction. None of them had assumed a recognizable shape so there are no pictures of any of them.

The upside of this is that construction materials on hand and orders in the pipeline were lost when the stations went bye-bye. Also much material even from the destroyed sections could be salvaged. So they just started over again after each station was destroyed - until B4. That was the only one that was completed and became operational. When it vanished it took millions of parts and billions of credits with it. Earth had neither the materials nor the funds to rebuild the thing from scratch. Therefore Babylon 5 was made much smaller, with cheaper materials and fewer frills, and even then the Earth Alliance had to seek financial support from other governments, which it had done done for the first four stations.

The Minbari's substantial monetary contribution bought them their veto over who would command the station. The Centauri also contributed, but presumably much less.

I believe what would have become Babylon 2 was also destroyed in an explosion. I'd have to dig around for a JMS quotation on that, though.

Regards,

Joe
 
JMS, August 1994:

They haven't built 5 Babylon stations. The first three were sabotaged/damaged during the *very* early stages of construction; they never got very far with them, so the cost was minimal. Only #4 was completed, very expensive. When that vanished, they decided to scrimp and (with Minbari additional funding) built a half-assed B5; there will never be a B6.
Click to expand...

April 1996:

"What were the designs for Babylon 1-3. Were they based on the Babylon 4 model or the Babylon 5 model? "

They were designed to eventually become what we saw in B4. None of the first 3 got much past the early stages of construction.
Click to expand...

Still haven't found anything specific on what happened to number 2, but as you can see it really doesn't seem to make much difference.

Regards,

Joe
 
I believe we saw photos of some of the earlier stations in "In the Beginning" when Londo/the Earth president are talking about the building of the Babylon Stations.

True, we see them blowing up, but they are there. One was red, as I recall...
 
I always thought the Home Guard might have been involved in at least some of the acts of sabotage .. but that's pure speculation.
 
Do I understand correctly that the alien governments did not contribute to the work on the first four stations.

That Earth only sought assistance on B-5 due to the enormous loss in materials and capital that they lost when B-4 disappeared?

Two more questions:

1) What purpose were the Babylon stations supposed to serve for Earth given that the obviously somewhat xenophobic EarthGov was willing to pull out all stops to get one built?

Was it all business? A bit of ego boosting for Earth in the aftermath of the near loss to the MInbari?

2) Just how powerful weapons wise was B-4?

I figured its weapons were more or less comparable to that of B-5 after the upgrade to the weapons grid.
 
Do I understand correctly that the alien governments did not contribute to the work on the first four stations.

Yes, EarthGov planned to build the Babylon Station entirely on its own. I don't think they ever considered asking the alien governments for help. It was their project and they wanted to make sure it was under their control.

1) What purpose were the Babylon stations supposed to serve for Earth given that the obviously somewhat xenophobic EarthGov was willing to pull out all stops to get one built?

I'm not sure where you get the "obviously somewhat xenophobic" bit. Deciding to build something and pay for it yourself is hardly evidence of "xenophobia". Or did you have something else in mind?

In any event, the purpose of the Babylon Station was what it always was and always has been - the mission outlined by the President at the end of ItB when she announced the Babylon Project: To provide a place where Humans and aliens can meet to discuss their differences and find peaceful solutions.

Was it all business? A bit of ego boosting for Earth in the aftermath of the near loss to the MInbari?

What loss? :) The Minbari surreneded to Earth, remember? They probably also paid war reparations.

2) Just how powerful weapons wise was B-4?

Given that it was so much bigger and therefore had both more area to defend and more places to mount weapons and bigger reactors to power them, I'd say it was more powerful than B5 after the uprade. If B5 could take on a warship B4 probably could have taken on a couple of them.

Regards,

Joe
 
2) Just how powerful weapons wise was B-4?

Given that it was so much bigger and therefore had both more area to defend and more places to mount weapons and bigger reactors to power them, I'd say it was more powerful than B5 after the uprade. If B5 could take on a warship B4 probably could have taken on a couple of them.

Regards,

Joe
Click to expand...

Which is good, considering how it was used by the Mimbari for in the First Shadow War....
 
I'm glad someone did the anal thing I decided I wasn't anal enough for :p :D

(I have wondered for some time why the combination of nb in the English language seems so difficult and unnatural. Having experienced Americans, with fairly decent German skills, suffering when trying to pronounce "Nürnberg" (Nuremberg) and the such .. and with the never ending Mimbari invasion, yes :D)
 
I think suggesting that Earth somehow "won" the Earth/Minbari War is a vast overstatement.

Sure, the Minbari "surrendered".

That is when they were on the verge of annihilating Earth they stopped shooting and pulled their forces back.

As it is, the Minbari virtually destroyed Earths fleet, killed a quarter of million people, apparently chased the humans from most if not all their colonies and had Earth on the ropes.

No amount of reparations is going to change that. And its obvious from the series that the Minbari never gave Earth any advanced technology as a part of the reparations.

You know, it might make a good story sometime to see just how Earth and its colonies recovered from the devastation by the Minbari.........
 
Now a few sensible questions.

Why so High a cost?

Could parts not be made on Earth or another place,taken through hyperspace and stuck together?

We know the jump gate can take some big ships so why not even a 50% station to be completed?

I would like to know if there is a official story behind it all and I reckon my lot were behind it ;)
 
Was it only 250,000 people they killed?

So much for the verge of annilation.That could be took up in military causalities alone easily.

Damn propoganda ;)
 
One might also wonder why the particular location for Babylon-5 was chosen at all.

Was it ever mentioned anywhere that the location was particularly accessible to all the major alien races?

Note, if the location of the Babylon stations was so centralized it would make an excellent military staging for operations against any of the alien races in the future.

When I talk about the Earthgov being "xenophobic" I refer to evidence including the speed at which Sinclair was replaced for being to tight with the Minbari with Sheridan who was hated by the Minbari.

As well as the speed in which Clark was able to turn his tyranny on Earth as being "against the aliens" and make seasoned military personnel believe that Sheridan was controlled by the Minbari.
 
Some great machine from an ancient race nobody had heard of just happened to be there too :)

Be boring if they had nothing to do :)
 
Was it ever mentioned anywhere that the location was particularly accessible to all the major alien races?
Click to expand...

All I remember being mentioned about it was that it was "between several major alien governments". I think it was the Earth president at the time of the end of the Minbari war saying that.
 
After "War Without End" (pts 1 and 2) I always wondered if the Shadows figured a little more into the destruction of the first three B-stations.
 
Was it only 250,000 people they killed?

So much for the verge of annilation.That could be took up in military causalities alone easily.

Damn propoganda ;)
Click to expand...

It was more the fact that they were one step from killing them all really.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

No members online now.
Total: 39 (members: 0, guests: 39)

Share this page

Back
Top