A Thin Veneer: Difference between revisions

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* [[Abusive Precursors]]: Vorlons march up one side of this trope and down the other. If it wasn't for helpful precursors on the Federation's side, this would be a much darker, and much more terrifying fanfic.

** The Shadows also have a bit of this, as part of their backstory. However, as their style is more "Infiltrate and learn," rather than "appear as gods," they more quickly learn about the Federation and its benefits, and leave not that long after they're introduced.

** The Shadows also have a bit of this, as part of their backstory. However, as their style is more "Infiltrate and learn," rather than "appear as gods", they more quickly learn about the Federation and its benefits, and leave not that long after they're introduced.

* [[Alternate Universe]]: An alternate universe [[Star Trek: Voyager|Admiral Janeway]] [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|from the future]], ''Voyager,'' and a Minbari warship travel to the ATV universe to deliver a warning about the Vorlons and provide weapons and technology from over one hundred years in the future. This scares Kirk, as Starfleet has strict rules against this sort of thing, and if Janeway is willing to break them, things must be ''very'' serious.

* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]: Inverted with the Gorn. While the first four ships listed are almost certainly an attempt to tease the Federation, being named ''Smaug'', ''Fafnir'', ''Mothra'', and ''Rodan'', the last is registered as {{spoiler|the GCF ''Fires Of Regulus''.}}

* [[Bilingual Bonus]]: A Federation commander derided for doing something stupid that got his entire strike group wiped out by the Minbari is named [[Baka|"Baca"]].

* [[Bullying a Dragon]]: The Minbari (and Vorlon) attitude toward the Federation and other Alpha Quadrant civilizations, even after the Federation wipes the floor with them several times. It essentially boils down to "How dare they be stronger and better equipped than us? We must punish them for defeating us easily!"

* [[Crossover]]

* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: Well, just about every single time the allies go against the Minbari, and even sometimes the Vorlons. The B5 powers are just that outmatched in terms of speed, firepower, durability (at least while the shields are up), and actual combat experience. It's hard not to feel sorry for the Minbari.

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* [[Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond]]: Many Federation technologies are considered normal, even weak for the setting, but are very effective against the Minbari simply because ''they have had no exposure to these technologies.''

** Of particular note are tricobalt explosives. While they've been largely phased out in the Federation due to the prevalence of more effective antimatter explosives, the tricobalt devices have the unique benefit of ''royally'' screwing up Minbari gravity drives.

* [[Shout-Out]]: The Gorn battleship program is rumored to be called ''[[Godzilla]].'' The names of two of the ships in the mini-fleet they bring include ''Mothra'' and ''Rodan,'' more Godzilla monsters.

** Another ship is the ''[[The Lord of the Rings|Smaug,]]'' named after the dragon from ''The Hobbit.''

** When Kirk is going over some of the officers participating in the war, he mentions that he used to work on a ship with [[Airplane!|Ted Stryker and Buck Murdock]], and even mentions Stryker's [[Visual Pun|Drinking]] [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Problem.]]

** One of Captain Acaltha's crew has a liking for late 20th and early 21st century pop culture. Among other things, he quotes ''[[Zero Wing]]'' ("We get signal!") on the bridge and makes more than a few jokes that would be incredibly obscure for the era.

*** When they use a quirk of Minbari ship architecture to broadcast music and sounds directly into their ships to discomfit and confuse the Minbari, one of the pieces he selects is [[Undocumented Features|the theme song from]] ''[[Kingyo Chuihou|Goldfish Warning]]''. Another is [[The Dance of Shiva|"Bob and his Chainsaw"]].

** Another of Acaltha's command staff is Aya Nakajima from the 1991 ''Star Trek'' fan manga ''[https://fanlore.org/wiki/Star_Trekker Star Trekker]''.

** An embedded reporter from the Earth Alliance has [[WKRP in Cincinnati|Bailey Quarters]] as his cameraman.

* [[Tyrannosaurus Rex]]: The Federation has labeled a Gorn dreadnought design as the ''Tyrannosaurus Rex''-class ship.