Whitestar vulnerabilities

[Brian G Turner]

In Season 1, we learned that a big reason for earth losing to the Minbari is that they couldn't lock their weapons onto the Minbari vessels.

This was emphasised in one episode when a rogue Minbari cruiser approached on attack vector towards Babylon 5 - but when Sinclair found the furies could lock on, ordered against firing because he recognised something was wrong with the situation.

Now, when Delenn introduces the Whitestar (Season 3?) doesn't she state it's a combination of Minbari and Vorlorn technology?

Cue Season 4 - Sheridan fighting Earth force. Whitestars being attacked and destroyed by Earth force destroyers.

Question is why?

Possible answers:

1. Were destroyers always able to target the Minbari? (We certainly know in the Earth-Minbari war that Earth destroyers could attack Minbari cruisers. So were Earth destroyers immune from such targeting issues?)

2. Did the Whitestar simply not include this form of anti-targeting technology for some reason?

3. Is it just a plot oversight, to allow for more fireworks?

4. Were Earth forces weapons systems upgraded due to the allegiance with the Shadows? (I believe we saw Babylon 5 itself undergo a weapons upgrade not too long before Earth force attacked the station. Could this include revised targeting technology?)

Anyway, just thought I'd ask about this.

 

[greenman]

The technical aspects of the series were always subservient to the larger plot, early on the Minbari being invincible helped were as latter on the White stars needed to be vulnerable.

I can't remember it ever being brough up in the series but advancing earth tech either independantaly or with shadow help seems like the most obvious reason.

 

[arewin]

hi in the actual in the time line there are no earth destroyers ( of the class you are talking about) in the mimbary war they are developed after
however ships that look very similar are in some of the scenes
this was a mistake
also the reason that the ships can be much more easily destroyed is that they are much smaller and in the battles in which whitestar calss attack ships fight lots of the shots from heavy battleships miss
though this might clear the subject up abit
hi all this was my first post

 

[Brian G Turner]

Thanks for the post, and welcome, arewin.

As for the destroyers comment - I'm thinking of the TV movie In the Beginning, which I was under the impression showed earth destroyers (though my memory can get a little fuzzy ).

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

Well there must have been some Earth destroyers during the conflict as Sheriden commanded the Agamemmnon and destroyed the Minbari cruiser "Black Star".
We see the Agamemmnon later again in series 4 although it may be another class of cruiser or have upgraded weapons but Sheriden's reaction to seeing it again somewhat disputes this.

 

[arewin]

there where destroyers in the movie but they must have been of a different class as there would have as in real life be multiple types of ship
most would look almost the same
i does confse me a little asto why the whitestar class ships are destroyed so quickly
i mean when do we see a vorlon ship being destroyed?
you would need to nuke em to kill them
anyway hi again

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

Well, it made sense when the Whitestars were being destroyed by Vorlon & Shadow ships as they were on a par, technologically speaking. Even the 'shadow-enhanced' Earth ships made sense but I agree somewhat that the ordinary Earth ships shouldn't have been able to do that much to Vorlon/Minbari ships although the Whitestar's relatively small size may make it more vunerable to "blunt force" impacts from the larger class earth ships.

I think Brian nailed it with point 3 (they make nice explosions and it's boring if the characters are in invunerable ships)

 

[zorcarepublic]

To be fair, the White Stars were not meant to be the best non-First One ship out there that could take on any other ship in a head-on confrontation, but is meant to be an attack ship, utilising the best aspects of Vorlon and Minbari technology to create a ship that is fast and agile. As well as the attack ship role, it can also be used as an advance unit, making sure that the path is clear before committing your fleet to the attack. A ship the size of an Earthforce destroyer, say, or a Centauri battlecruiser (the ship at the end of season 2) is not going to be the best option.

That, I think, is also why Sheriden wanted those Excalibur-class destroyers in A Call to Arms. He knew partly what the White Stars had been designed for, but now he needed a unit with advanced tech and the capability to go into a system and put out any fires, or lead a fleet into a battle like against the Centauri, say, or the Drakh. So he used the basis of the White Star and made it much, much bigger.