Human-Draconian War
The Human-Draconian War was a brief but devastating war between the expanding Draconian Empire and the Earth Empire. It began with a misunderstanding between human and Draconian ships.
A meeting between human and Draconian representatives had been planned, but both races' ships were damaged in a neutron storm. The Draconians arrived in a battle cruiser which had been stripped of its missiles, but their communications equipment was damaged. The human ship, commanded by Williams, was "helpless", and Williams believed that the approaching Draconian ship was planning to attack. He decided to attack the Draconian vessel, and destroyed it. Thus began the war.
Although factions on both sides of the conflict opposed negotiations, eventually a treaty was signed establishing a frontier between the two empires. The treaty also forbade subversion and espionage.
Twenty years after the peace treaty, the Daleks and the Master tried to sabotage the treaty and start a new war. (DW: Frontier in Space)
Jon Bowman was a veteran of the conflict. (NSA: Prisoner of the Daleks)
Behind the scenes
- Reviewers have observed that the precipitating incident of the first Earth-Draconia war, as depicted in this story, is very similar to the beginning of the Earth-Minbari War in the 1990s television series Babylon 5.[1][2] Both space wars begin because an Earth vessel misinterprets the approach of an alien ship as a threat, and fires on the ship based on this misunderstanding.
Footnotes
- ↑ In About Time 3, Lawrence Miles and Tat Wood write: "Fans of American TV-SF, however, will no doubt enjoy the similarities between the start of the Earth/Draconia war and the start of the Earth/Minbar war in Babylon 5. The Draconians, like the Minbari, approach the humans with their gunports open."
- ↑ Doctor Who - Frontier in Space - Video. amazon.com. Retrieved on 8 March 2012. “Sci-fi aficionados will not need much convincing that this story provided inspiration for Babylon 5's Earth-Minbari war.”
