Niners Unite...around Babylon 5! - The Lost Threads
- Thread starter Neroon
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Not very likely. More like the DS9 team watched a bunch of Westerns and adapted them to the Star Trek universe.
I found this someplace. I've read similar reports in the past and possibly in some B5 DVD extras (not sure):
"For years, speculation has existed that Paramount stole aspects of Babylon 5 for the premise of Deep Space Nine, owing to the fact that B5 was pitched to Paramount before being picked up by Warner Bros"
JMS doesn't trash Trek or the production staff and says he believes they didn't steal the idea themselves, but he wondered if the development people (Paramount) steered them to it.
"For years, speculation has existed that Paramount stole aspects of Babylon 5 for the premise of Deep Space Nine, owing to the fact that B5 was pitched to Paramount before being picked up by Warner Bros"
JMS doesn't trash Trek or the production staff and says he believes they didn't steal the idea themselves, but he wondered if the development people (Paramount) steered them to it.
I love both DS9 and B5, but have never bought the conspiracy theory notion that one is a 'ripoff' of the other, because aside from their both being set aboard a space station, the two shows are very different.
DS9 is essentially a "classic Western" transposed into space and given a Sci-Fi and mythological bent, whereas B5 is more a mixture of "hard Sci-Fi" and High Fantasy, being most reminiscent of stuff like Dune, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and The Lord of the Rings.
DS9 is essentially a "classic Western" transposed into space and given a Sci-Fi and mythological bent, whereas B5 is more a mixture of "hard Sci-Fi" and High Fantasy, being most reminiscent of stuff like Dune, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and The Lord of the Rings.
The only streaming service Babylon 5 is currently available on is Vudu (that's Wal-Mart's streaming service, and I believe only available in US). You either rent or pay for episodes.
Most of the episodes in the collection are the original fullscreen version rather than the redone wide-screen that is on the DVDs.
Most of the episodes in the collection are the original fullscreen version rather than the redone wide-screen that is on the DVDs.
Just finished re-watching all of the TNG blu-rays and now starting up all seasons of Babylon 5 on DVD. Watching on a 55 inch 4K TV with an Xbox One S. Hope the quality is improved because I hold even less hope that this show will ever be remastered on blu-ray.
Such a common discussion theme. Beyond the idea of having stories around a space station with multiple races, I didn't see a lot of similarities. While B5 was more epic in the scope of it's story telling, it was not as sophisticated in its execution of stories and characters (though I really liked Peter Jurasik's Londo). I think that's evident in DS9 having more staying power with fans over the years, though maybe being part of the Trekverse helps that.
The acting was a real problem in B5 at the start. Guest actors sometimes walked through their parts woodenly, not taking them seriously.
They both had space stations and they both had stable wormholes. Oh, and they both had good guys and bad guys. Other than that, there was almost nothing they had in common. I think B5 ultimately suffered from it being the creative vision of just one person, but it was an interesting show. And the LotR allusions were fun.
According to Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek was the creative vision of just one person.
It probably wasn't the first time he was wrong.
The first I saw of B5 was the trailer for The Gathering on a VHS and my original impression was of a low cost rip off of the Undiscovered Country. Galaxy at a cross roads, dignitary attacked, brink of war stuff.
I soon saw it was a lot more than that, and after a few episodes of DS9, it was easy to imagine that Paramounts response to a competitor show about a space station next to a portal was a show about a station next to a portal, with a bigger budget and existing brand recognition. There doesn’t need to be a conspiracy, or anything underhand.
Wasn’t there some possibility that what Became DS9 started as a non trek project?
I soon saw it was a lot more than that, and after a few episodes of DS9, it was easy to imagine that Paramounts response to a competitor show about a space station next to a portal was a show about a station next to a portal, with a bigger budget and existing brand recognition. There doesn’t need to be a conspiracy, or anything underhand.
Wasn’t there some possibility that what Became DS9 started as a non trek project?
I love them both also, but I don't know that you can compare BAB5 to anything else. It's unique like FarScape is.
I thought someone was ripping off somebody in the first year of watching them, but I assumed B5 was a rip off of DS9. Since I liked both of them I really didn't care that much.
But DS9 is too different from previous Treks and Roddenberry's naive utopia. Having religion as a major theme in the show after ignoring or making fun of it before and since. Yeah, B5 seems like the source of inspiration but they plagiarized it well enough.
