The old "DS9 stole from B5" thing

[Robert Maxwell]

Tosk wrote:

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JMS posts a quote from a guy on the internet who says he was told by an unnamed person that DS9 ripped off B5. Sounds watertight!

Apart from that, it's been 20 years. Do you think people will ever just let it go?

The Internet has enabled combatants in fandom holy wars to petrify their hatred and relive it over and over! Bless the miracles of modern technology.

[Icemizer]

I could have sworn I saw a Minbari on the promenade.

[Sean_McCormick]

As a big fan of both shows i find this subject fascinating purely from an intellectual point of view. I really hope, that this could be discussed in a rational and friendly manner without any wars, holy or otherwise.

IMHO there is a good chance, that the creators of DS9 took heavy inspiration from jms's pitch of B5. Similarities in early DS9 and B5 go far beyond "set on a space station" and " leader is a commander". There is an long occupation that has ended, with the occupied peoples' hatred agains the former occupation force, which is an crumbling empire longing for past greatness, and a deeply spiritual race, in whos religion the human commander is a messiah-like figure.

Also, from the DS9 DVD extras i learned, that initially the DS9 station was to be millenia old with the original builders long forgotten, which immedeatly left me wondering, if this was to be setup for an "great machine" plotline.

[junxon]

other than spacestations, a big war and the name dukat, i dont see much in common.

about as close an arguement is 'b5 stole being in space, aliens and the good guys having uniforms from space:1999!'

[Forbin]

Takeru wrote:

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1. Some random claims are not evidence.

2. It's the original posters responsibility to present evidence, not ours to disprove his claims.

3. Because you brought the story here and seem to defend the guy, the burden of proof shifted to you.

At least explain to me what parts of The Gathering were reused for The Emissary, if you can't do that this thread is done, there's nothing to talk about, it's the same old story I've heard for years and there's still zero evidence that any of it is true.

Oh is THAT how this is supposed to work?

[Forbin]

Sean_McCormick wrote:

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As a big fan of both shows i find this subject fascinating purely from an intellectual point of view. I really hope, that this could be discussed in a rational and friendly manner without any wars, holy or otherwise.

That was my intent, and that's always my hope.
Doesn't seem to be going well.
People let their anger take over.

[Robert Maxwell]

Forbin wrote:

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That was my intent, and that's always my hope.
Doesn't seem to be going well.
People let their anger take over.

What "anger" has there been in this thread? Seems to me it's you who is getting extremely defensive at the mere suggestion that the "evidence" you posted has little or no basis in fact.

[Pingfah]

Forbin wrote:

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That was my intent, and that's always my hope.
Doesn't seem to be going well.
People let their anger take over.

It is perfectly valid to question the authenticity of the claim. I don't know why people acting rationally would irritate you so much.

[MacLeod]

The way I see it you have those that

a.>like both
b.>like DSN and don't like B5
c.>like B5 and don't like DSN

If you like both great, if you like one or the other great. But do we really need to have the whole DSN stole from B5 etc... debate again. It's old and I suspect not many people really care.

TV shows have been borrowing from one another since as long as TV was around.

[JoeD80]

I think Hopstaken's timeline is a little off. Babylon 5 was already in its first season when the Chris-Craft stations decided to pull out of PTEN and form the core of UPN.

[ChristopherPike]

By the time he's done with Enterprise on Blu ray, I'll be expecting a suitably dishy documentary on the development of Deep Space Nine from Robert Meyer Burnett.

I'll imagine they'll be lawyers standing over him in the editing suite!

[Forbin]

Robert Maxwell wrote:

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What "anger" has there been in this thread? Seems to me it's you who is getting extremely defensive at the mere suggestion that the "evidence" you posted has little or no basis in fact.

Pingfah wrote:

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It is perfectly valid to question the authenticity of the claim. I don't know why people acting rationally would irritate you so much.

Are you guys just making stuff up now in some effort to belittle to topic? I'm neither defensive nor irritated. I'm observing and occasionally commenting.

[junxon]

but its about as reliable a source as seeing someone commenting under the name 'rick berman' and saying voyager's 8472 liquid space was an attempt to turn the show into SeaQuest.

[Servo]

I didn't give a shit then, and I don't give a shit now. And yeah, some random blog post from some unverified guy is no proof anyway.

[Takeru]

Forbin wrote:

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Oh is THAT how this is supposed to work?

Uh ... yes, that's how it's supposed to work.

But you already know that, this is just a lame attempt to evade answering a simple question, what parts of the Babylon 5 pilot script were copied by Paramount?
I'm making this really easy for you, I'm not even asking for evidence, just a simple list of what was reused.