Fabrication Centre

Some might argue that it's a hopeless quest to establish reliable technical data for "Babylon 5".  After all, it's only a TV show!  However, anyone who has watched "Babylon 5" will appreciate how stimulating the show has been, not least because of the level of plausible technical detail.  Creator J Michael Straczynski is to be thanked for not under-estimating our intelligence. The attention to scientific realism, such as proper Newtonian mechanics in zero gravity, formed an important part of the initial attraction for afficionados of "hard" science fiction.  Other scientifically-minded people have felt the same way, including the people at NASA, who were fascinated by Tim Earls' design for the Starfury space superiority fighter and the people at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, California), who eventually became consultants to Babylonian Productions on aspects of cosmology.

The Quest for Accuracy

Here on Grey 7, we describe how we compare and contrast the different Babylon 5 sources, in order to assemble a consistent set of technical data, on which the rest of this website is based.  The data concern chiefly information about sizes and scaling of the different spacecraft, a topic of enduring speculation among the show's fans, but also information about the location of Babylon 5's different colour-coded sectors and numbered levels.  Information on other capabilities, such as spacecraft propulsion, weapons systems and similar observations will eventually be included. 

Concerning spacecraft sizing, our work is already cut out since, according to Brandon Bray [B5TM]:

The Computer Graphics Imagery (CGI) team at Babylon 5 didn't even determine the actual size of any of the craft until after the series ended and they began work on "Crusade" and Sierra Studios' CD-ROM computer games. This seriously complicates matters.

However, the TV shows themselves do demonstrate a remarkable degree of consistency and only on rare occasions have the different scales been really obvious.  J Michael Straczynski, the Great Maker himself, didn't dwell on the technical side, so long as the story came off and there were no obvious technical errors. According to Chris Huffines [Huf1]:

What happened was that there were occasional "miscommunications" regarding several things, including the size and scaling of the ships.  Another thing that happened is that weapons types and hard numbers on reactors, power systems, and just plain science rarely get shown or mentioned in dialogue in any detail; instead it's purely suggestive.  What most fans do is look at what is actually on-screen (much-vaunted canon information, which may or may not be entirely accurate due to the previously mentioned "miscommunications") and estimate.

It turns out that estimation, from visual and published data, can be quite a rewarding exercise and delivers plausibly consistent results.  But, everyone has different opinions based on different assumptions, so you sometimes get pretty divergent numbers from the same canonical information.  The key thing, therefore, is to justify your assumptions and ensure that they are as plausible as you can make them.  The purpose of this article is to establish such a set of principles for dealing with the raw technical data of Babylon 5, in the quest for scientific accuracy.

Reliability of Sources

For general scientific accuracy, J Michael Straczynski drew on his own extensive knowledge of science fiction.  He also had the advice of Harlan Ellison, conceptual consultant to the show and prolific science-fiction author.  This ensured that the scripts were of a good general technical standard, as the shows will bear out.  While the show's scripts, stage set designs and CGI effects sequences constitute the primary source of reference (often referred to as Babylon 5 canon), there is still some room for differences of interpretation.

Some critics have observed small contradictions, such as apparent (implicit) changes in the sizes of certain spacecraft, as the show evolved.  For the detailed technical specifications and ship designs (says Chris Huffines) [Huf2]:

...the final wrench-wielding monkeys were people like Tim Earls and Ron Thornton, the head of Foundation Imaging, who provided the show's CGI for the first two seasons.  Tim was the chief conceptual artist on B5 and Ron actually designed the White Star.  They have "official" numbers that reflect what they designed and put on screen.  But, the official numbers sometimes contradict canon, in which case canon should take precedence, but sometimes the canon data is wrong, and thus a vicious circle emerges.

To try to resolve this issue, we can assemble all of the sources of technical data that we believe to be at least sometimes reliable and classify these according to their precedence and consistency with other sources.

The Babylon Hermeneutic

Because of the rich and diverse source material, it is possible to find contradictions and inconsistencies in the raw technical data.  In general, the canonical sources are to be preferred over the licensed sources.  However, there is a retro-active process at work, whereby speculative information invented by Babylon 5 licensees is sometimes incorporated into the reference canon by Fiona Avery at Babylonian.  This has on occasion resulted in the re-scaling of certain ship sizes and capabilities.

Preferences and Rationalisations

Partly, this is a post-hoc rationalisation of changes seen in the TV shows.  The CGI perspectives given by Foundation Imaging during the first two seasons were remarkably consistent, although no deliberate effort was made to ensure consistent scaling.  This started to deteriorate a little when Netter Digital Entertainment took over the CGI rendering in the latter seasons.  Hyperion cruisers and especially Whitestar gunships seemed to change size in relation to other vessels.  This means that canonical information cannot always be trusted.

Because the licensed sources often provide more detail about the station and spacecraft, it is tempting to rely on these; however, they contradict the TV shows and each other in some details.  At this point, personal preferences and interpretation become relevant.  As an example of this, Brandon Bray's B5Tech Manual [B5TM] uses the later dimensions from Fiona Avery's post-hoc reference; and the more extensive weapons capabilities described in the Role-Playing Game [RPG].  On the other hand, Brian Young's BabTech on the Net [BTotN] is much more conservative, taking on-screen information and dialogue as the primary source of technical data, supplemented by other canonical and licensed sources.  Whatever approach we take to resolving these differences will necessarily admit a certain bias.

Principles of Interpretation

The best approach is to make all of our assumptions explicit. To do this, something like a hermeneutic, or philosophy of interpretation, is needed. In the Babylon 5 universe, this involves ranking a number of interpretive principles, to establish an order of precedence in which they may be applied.

We start from the basic premise that Babylon 5 intends to portray a consistent, pseudo-realistic future universe. If this were not so, the whole exercise would be pointless! In rank order, the following interpretive principles are applied:

• Future Technology: The speculative future technology described in Babylon 5 is broadly to be taken at face value, including faster-than-light travel and communications, fusion power and gravimetric drive systems;

• Existing Science: Matters capable of being modelled and predicted using contemporary science, such as tolerance of acceleration, angular velocity for simulated gravity and energy requirements for mass evaporation, should be resolved in favour of known physics and biology;

• Canonical Sources: Technical data from the canonical sources (the TV shows; the design sketches; the authorized reference material) will be preferred over other licensed sources, unless the canonical material is demonstrably self-inconsistent, or violates earlier principles;

• Intention over Example: It is more important to get the broad lines of what was intended in the future technology correct than it is to follow every last visible example slavishly, where these two concerns appear to be in conflict;

• Original over Modified: Original ship sizes and capabilities are to be preferred over modified post-hoc rationalisations, except where story elements cannot hold without some changes, in which case the least feasible modification is to be adopted;

• Explicit over Implicit: Explicit information given in the canonical sources will be preferred over implicit information obtained by measuring freeze-frames or digital screen captures, unless the explicit material is demonstrably self-inconsistent;

• Licensed Sources: Technical data from the licensed sources will be used to fill out missing details in the published canon, according to a judgement about how close the licensed material comes to the spirit of the original source materials provided;

• Complete over Partial: Areas of technical data that are treated completely and self-consistently by one licensee are to be preferred over data that is treated only partially, or inconsistently by another licensee;

• Commissioned over Speculative: Technical data from sources that were explicitly commissioned and given a strong steer on the direction to be taken will be preferred over speculative sources that exercised greater creative invention;

• Proximity to the Producers: Material created by sources that were close to the original production team is to be preferred over material created by less closely-related writers.

Taking each of these principles in order, this means that we accept the existence of future technologies like jumpgates, tachyon relays, fusion drives, particle beam weapons, gravimetric propulsion and organic technology.  However, when it comes to simulated gravity by rotation, real physics are used to establish the rate of rotation to give the desired angular velocity at the 1-gee level of the station.  Likewise, real physics is used to establish the power rating of different weapons systems, and real biology to limit the damage by acceleration to humanoid body frames.

Canonical dialogue and visible readouts are used to construct the internal map of the station, except where this is self-inconsistent, or the details conflict with the broader intention, for example, to have Grey Sector be the transfer point between the rotating and non-rotating part of the station.  Licensed sources are used to fill out the details, such as the historical evolution of EarthForce spacecraft, but the original design sketches take precedence, when it comes to dimensions and weapons capabilities, and actual craft performance seen in episodes takes precedence over anticipated performance, except where the TV shows clearly demonstrate the existence of unused features from the design sketches.

The original Foundation scales for spacecraft are in general preferred over some of the later reference scales adopted post-hoc.  Some quite detailed argument is necessary to find a satisfying scale for the Whitestar, such that this is still a small battleship (as seen in earlier episodes), but whose beam is wide enough to berth three Nial fighters (as seen in later episodes).  At the time of writing, the author does not have direct access to Fiona Avery's reference data and arguments for the revised 400-500 metre length (here, we rely on Brandon Bray's use of this data).  It would be nice to talk to Fiona and politely negotiate for a slightly more reasonable compromise in the official reference!

Measurement Guidelines

Much of the technical data researched here is based on taking measurements from published canonical sources and using this to scale various dimensions of craft taken from freeze-frames or digital screen captures.  The published images of Tim Earls' early design sketches [SM] contain ruled metre (or kilometre) scales, from which the dimensions of Babylon 5, the Starfury, the Thunderbolt, the Atmospheric Shuttle, the Nial fighter, the MaintBot, the Whitestar, the Shadow fighter and the Shadow scout can be obtained.  From these fixed reference points, the dimensions of other spacecraft can be estimated.

Working to Scale

There are two possible ways of working to scale.  The approach followed here is to take a millimetre ruler to Tim Earls' design sketches and establish a 1:N scale, similar to the Revell/Monogram or Airfix 1:72 scale for aircraft models.  This allows any other dimension, measured with the ruler in mm, to be scaled up to its supposed actual size.  The only disadvantage to this approach is the possibility of human error when measuring small distances by eye with a ruler.

A different approach, pioneered by Brian Young, is to take digital screen captures and count individual pixels [BTotN].  The basis for the scale is the length of Babylon 5, which is measured in pixels from an elevation shot, and then scaled using known canonical information about the station's length (given as 8064.5m in the episode [aNfaW]).  Again, a 1:N scale can be established and used to scale up pixel-counts to supposed actual sizes.  The advantage of this approach is that pixel-counting can be done very accurately, using screen tools.  The disadvantage is that all screen captures may introduce distortions due to perspective, so assumptions must be made about the flatness of side- or end-elevations.

In general, a number of different scales may be established by these kinds of method.  We have found that the Babylon 5 Security Manual [SM] and Sierra's Babylon 5 Reference CD-ROM [CD] provide two slightly different scales and measurements differ slightly, meaning that the elevations of the Babylon 5 Station are drawn slightly differently in these two sources.  Determining which scale to use is therefore an issue.  Here, we have tried to make multiple measurements and then settle on a compromise, an average length, which may be a mean, median or mode, where sufficient data exists, according to how the data appear to cluster.

Freeze-Frames and Screen Captures

Measuring the sizes of other spaceships depends on getting accurate screen shots of the craft concerned, with the measured craft in the same plane as the reference craft, and distances relatively undistorted by perspective.  This is almost impossible to achieve reliably; yet Brian Young has made some good progress here.

It is notoriously difficult to estimate precise distances from TV images, because of the distortion due to perspective.  Babylon 5 makes great use of exaggerated perspective shots to increase the viewer's awareness of the huge size of some of the ships and especially the station itself.  You can't rely on the linear distance across the face of the B5 docking bay when, for example, 20mm corresponds to a metre in the foreground and to 10 meters in the background.  Bear in mind that this distortion is useful, in that it saved the CGI team from having to be too careful about exact relative sizes of craft, so long as they were in the right ball-park.  It's a well-known trick, used by Gerry Anderson in Thunderbirds in the 1960s.

This gives us the freedom to attempt to estimate more accurate and self-consistent dimensions for all the vehicles in Babylon 5.  Ideally, you want to take measurements when the perspective is as flat as possible.  Sometimes this is not possible, so you have to keep on comparing things with other things whose sizing is more reliable.  A good trick is to measure something both in front of, and behind, another thing that you are more sure about.  This technique is used extensively by Brian Young, as a result of which he is able to provide high- and low-end estimates of different distances.

Another trick is to use the light and shadow, to help determine when two vehicles are in the same plane.  Wait for an EA atmosphere shuttle to flash the riding lights on its wing-tips, before measuring the wingspan.  Wait for the shadow of the Starfury RCS nacelles to be cast on the Cobra Bay doors, before estimating the width of the doors compared against the wingspan of the Starfury.  Using techniques like these, you will be able to scale all vessels in the Babylon 5 universe.