Re: starships from Earth...yes, you'll be seeing a wide range of ships,
from smaller transports and trading vessels to big mothers. It is something
of an empire, and the ships come in as many varied forms as we have cars and
trucks and semis and tanks and on and on....

Re: talking vs. action...there's a shade more exposition than I'd like in
the pilot, mainly because there's so damned MUCH background to establish, so
much ground to lay...it'll be more evenly proportioned in the series. I like
action. For me, the #1 crime of any TV show or movie is that it should bore.
When in doubt, kill somebody.

Or blow something up.

Re: technology...yes, the point about the sudden jump via new
technologies is exactly dead on. It *did* have a tramautic impact, and to
varying degrees still does. The effect of technology, and the desire for
same, will be a recurrent thread. There are some technologies that are
considered too radical for some species, and are thus kept off limits, with
prison sentences or even death sentences for smuggling certain kinds of
technologies. One such tech-runner appears in the pilot. The parallel, I
suppose, would be our current concerns with the spread of nuclear technology.

jms