"A Day in the Strife" (original) (raw)

My sense is that Delenn is not a godlike font of information; I don't think anyone, alien or human, at the station would just happen to know all the information required. How much would Delenn know about molecular biology, for instance? (And if you asked Kosh a question about the subject, he'd probably come back with "The heart does not sing with its parts." Not exactly useful.)

Anyone there would have to go back to their own world for experts in the various fields...so you're back where you started. Earth *has* the info, it's just getting it, and getting it fast. If you add the overlay of going through another government, you're going to run out of time that much faster.

Logically, a probe like this would be sent off looking for information on the very cusp of technology that could pose a threat. That's why it *didn't* go off when the probe presumed them to be a less developed civilization; it was looking for civilizations that *are* sufficiently advanced to pose a possible threat; Sheridan says exactly that as he walks across C&C.

Interesting aside on this, btw, in the "where do you get your ideas?" department. The US House Science Sub-Committee held a series of hearings into the question of extraterrestrial contact during the 1970s, to determine what we should do in the event of contact. The most likely scenario, the scientists agreed, was a probe coming into our solar system. So what do we do in response to a message asking if anybody's home?

Believe it or not, it was the consensus of the Subcommittee that we should not respond...in case it was a berserker, just as shown in the episode. That is our government's official policy on the subject.