Quote:It may look the same, but is it actually the same underneath? There can, after all, be mutiple theories explaining the same facts, only one of which is true in any one universe. For a concrete example, both standard radio and graviton pulses can be used for light speed communications, but they're certainly not the same level technology.
Warp drive, subspace, and related technologies, including shields, simply don't work in the B5 universe
Not entirely true. B5 does have FTL communications that seem to work much like Trek's subspace radio. And shield technology does exist in B5 -- but only the Vorlons have it. It is very much ultratech there.
Maybe Trek shields are standing waves of Higgs bosons while Vorlon shields are carefully engineered discontinuities in the soace-time metric - two plausible technologies that could reasonably have a shielding effect, but very different in their inner workings.
Also, for shields to be plausibly ubiquitous in Trek and yet ultratech in B5 would take more than cultural blindness to explain. There are too many people involved, geniuses from dozen alien cultures, and humans, at least, don't stop all experimenting merely because they have a theory that works well enough. Some people are never satisfied.
It would require a conspiracy, and in both universes, since Trek hasn't invented jumpgates, which I find a little much to swallow.
However, I've got some idea how the scientific community works, from personal experience. I suppose many readers, lacking such a background so reliant on stereotypes of science, may find such universal cultural blindness plausible enough.
Maybe the two universes have fully compatable laws, and their differing tech is purely a historical accident. Maybe, they don't, and a Trek shield generator in the B5-verse would be so much junk.
A fanfic author can choose whichever answer best suits their purposes, and disabling some Trek tech in the B5-verse, or vice versa, does have advantages.