The Summoning: Welcome back to the 50's, kids! (Spoilers)

[B5JMS Poster]

Subject: The Summoning: Welcome back to the 50's, kids! (Spoilers)
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 No. | DATE        |  FROM
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s  1: Nov 18, 1996: kensu at pathcom.com (Chris Schumacher)
+  5: Nov 19, 1996: nfitch at popmail.ucsd.edu (Nick Fitch)
*  6: Nov 19, 1996: jmsatb5 at aol.com

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From: kensu at pathcom.com (Chris Schumacher)
Lines: 41

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Spoilers for "The Summoning"
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Well, I guess it was too much to hope for that planet-busting was in
Harlan Ellision's 'Epistle to the B5 writers.' as a plot which should
NEVER be used. Of course, maybe it was and JMS was just ignoring it.

Let me just say this, anything which has the power to obliterate a 
planet has crossed the line from technology to magic. Hell, in Deep 
Space Nine the entire Romulan-Cardassian fleet said that it would take
several weeks to destroy a planet, and here the Vorlons do it in a short
period of time! I suppose it's only a matter of time before we see 
Primodial goo devolving people, and the Shadows gets a new weapons that
turns ordinary type G stars into Supernovas. (Sigh) I still like the
show, but it's leaning far too much towards Magitech now.

				-==Kensu==-





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From: nfitch at popmail.ucsd.edu (Nick Fitch)
Lines: 108

In article <jrr7-1811962022140001 at newsstand.cit.cornell.edu>,
jrr7 at cornell.edu (Jonathan Rynd) wrote:

>In article <56ohvd$pgt at news.pathcom.com>, kensu at pathcom.com (Chris
>Schumacher) wrote:
>
>>4
>>Spoilers for "The Summoning"
>>1
>>2
>>3
>>
>>5
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>>Well, I guess it was too much to hope for that planet-busting was in
>>Harlan Ellision's 'Epistle to the B5 writers.' as a plot which should
>>NEVER be used. Of course, maybe it was and JMS was just ignoring it.
>My thought was, the Vorlons just have to kill everyone on the planet and
>sterilize the surface with radiation.  But JMS has to go and say the
>planet no longer exists.  Hmm... so the Vorlons really are that far ahead
>in tech levels?
>
>No, no, they have a tectonic plate device that will make the planet shake
>itself to pieces!  Or wait, no, they make a huge jumpgate and tow the
>planet into the nearest star!  No, they, uh, attach a grappling hook and
>swing the planet into a bigger plannet, shattering the smaller
>one!!!!!!1!1!


WATCH OFFICER: Jump point opening!  My god, it's a big one!

IVANOVA:   What the hell is *that*???

SHERIDAN:    *I* know what it is.  

KOSH-II:    <tinkletinklehiss>...._behold the Jellyfish Of Total Destruction_

SHERIDAN:    That's not a jellyfish, that's the Death Star!

KOSH-II:    <tinkletinklehiss>...._is not_

SHERIDAN:    Is too!

KOSH-II:    <tinkletinklehiss>..._it's a jellyfish_

SHERIDAN:    It's the Death Star.  You've just stuck a lot of dangly
tentacle bits underneath it.  Look!  One of them just fell off.

KOSH-II:    <tinkletinklehiss>..._jellyfish_

SHERIDAN:    Death Star!

KOSH-II:    <tinkletinklehiss>..._jellyfish!_

SHERIDAN:    DEATH STAR!!

KOSH-II:    <tinkletinklehiss>..._insolent! impudent!_

SHERIDAN:    SCREW YOU!!!

IVANOVA:    People, please!

SHERIDAN:   Where did you get it?

KOSH-II:    <tinkletinklehiss>..._a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far
away...._

SHERIDAN:   Forget it, I don't want to know.

KOSH-II:    <tinkletinklehiss>..._there was this yard sale, and..._

SHERIDAN:   I *said* forget it!

WATCH OFFICER: Sir, we're being commed by the Death...erm...Jellyfish.

IVANOVA:    There goes another tentacle.  Someone send a couple of
clean-up drones after that thing.

SHERIDAN:   This is Captain Sheridan, Independant Space Station Babylon
5.  How may I help you?

ON-SCREEN:  This is Grand Moff Tarkin abord the Death Sta-- Jellyfish! 
JELLYFISH!  Nothing to do with stars at all!  Absolutely nothing! 
Erm...is Lord Vader there?

SHERIDAN:   Kosh, it's for you...

-- 
         Nick Fitch, http://cfara.ucsd.edu/nick/home.html
"I like my sex the way I play basketball: one-on-one and with
as little dribbling as possible."
  - Leslie Nielsen, "Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult"


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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com
Lines: 27

Re: "magictech"...I believe it was Arthur C. Clarke who pointed out, "Any
sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

You wanna go argue with Clarke, feel free.

Lemme just make one point here.  In the handful of decades between the
discovery of the atom, and its use at Hiroshima, we learned how to blow up
substantial portions of the planet and render it uninhabitable.  But it
would've taken a lot of them, hundreds, to do the job.  In the 50 years
since then, with the development of thermonuclear weaponry, the job is
even easier.  It's been reckoned that you'd only need about 75 really
decent sized thermonuclear detonations to render the entire continental
United States dead and uninhabitable.

The shadows and the vorlons are *millions* of years ahead of us.  We're
talking differences in technology that are orders of magnitude beyond what
we can hope to comprehend. 

I think a planet killer eminently achievable.  



 jms




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