>The Ship - This looks nothing like the Minbari ships that fought on the
>line. It did not look Minbari.

The Liandra is a Ranger ship. The Rangers, if we recall our history from In
the Beginning, were not directly involved in Earth related hostilities during
the Minbari War. The EM war was under the aegis of the Warrior caste.

It is also, by design, a small, fast (crew of maybe 20) patrol ship designed to
go on the edge, it's not meant to go out there and pulverize fleets. It would
have been instantly outgunned and destroyed in the EM war's bigger battles.

(One thing I'm curious about is the assumption that we've seen all of the
Minbari ships. We've literally seen only a handful. Go to Jane's books on
military weapons, planes in particular, and you get all *kinds* of
variation...from ospreys to f16s to cargo jets to hovercraft...why should there
be less variation in a more advanced society like the Minbari?)

>The Valen - A flying brick that someone apparently forgot to add
>weapons.

Yes. That was the intent. That's why David made fun of it on the balcony.
Nobody likes it, it was a compromise between Humans and Minbari (which Dulann
also mentions), more politically motivated than structurally sound. We won't
be seeing its kind again.

jms

(jmsatb5@aol.com)
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