DISCLAIMER: Right up front, I like both of these shows. If anyone's looking for either "DS9 sucks! B5 rules!" or "DS9 rules! B5 sucks!", you're out of luck. This isn't that type of thread.
What I will say is that while I've seen all of DS9, I've only seen half of B5. So, in order to keep everything on a level playing field, I'm only going to look at the first half of both series. The cut-offs are when the closing credits roll on "Bar Association" (DS9) and "Ceremonies of Light and Dark" (B5).
******* Deep Space Nine vs. Babylon 5 *******
Preface
During the '90s, both online and from my godbrother, I heard people complain that DS9 was a ripoff of B5. I didn't want to listen to any of that, since I really liked DS9. In the early-'00s, after some distance from DS9, I began to take those claims more seriously but never bothered to check for myself. Fast-forward over 20 years, and I said on here that I would be re-watching DS9. I already did the same for TNG and VOY because of Star Trek: Picard. @Farscape One asked for me to post my take on the series. Then I decided now was the time. "If I'm going to re-watch DS9, I might as well watch B5 too, so I can finally have an opinion on the DS9 vs. B5 Debate! I've put it off long enough." So now, half of both series later, here we are.
Structure
The biggest surprise to me was Babylon 5 being as episodic as it was. At least what I've seen from the first half. For decades, I was told about how massively serialized this series was. I'd just made the assumption that the entire series had episodes that ended on a cliffhanger and that one episode would lead into the next and into the next and into the next... But nope. This is still '90s TV. An overall story arc for every season, some episodes push that overall story forward while others don't. Then the next season would build on top of the previous season with the same structure as before. Like B5, DS9 follows a similar structure typical of '90s TV with an overall arc and some episodes more crucial than others. On the surface, it looks like DS9 and B5 follow similar paths. But those similar paths are in the very broad strokes only. Things start to wildly diverge if you look at specifics.
It does seem to me like Babylon 5 gets going more quickly than Deep Space Nine. By the end of the first season of B5, Morden has begun to corrupt Londo and the path toward the Narn-Centauri War has begun. That war has come and gone by the end of the second season. Then, during the third season, there's Civil War between Humans (something I never would've imagined at the beginning) and Sheridan is preparing for a war with the Shadows.
On Deep Space Nine, it takes until the end of the second season for the Dominion to be introduced. A union between the Cardassians' and Romulans' Obsidian Order and Tal'Shair are wiped out by the Dominion during the third season. Then, during the fourth season, there are hostilities between Federation and the Klingons during the fourth season while the threat of the Dominion is lurking in the background. Except no one has yet been corrupted by Dominion, the Obsidian Order and Tal'Shair aren't main focuses on DS9, and the Federation/Klingon Conflict isn't a Civil War. And while Gowron has his moments, he's no Clark. Kai Winn is corrupt, but that has nothing to do with the Dominion. Admiral Leyton pushes for a military dictatorship but he's stopped, while President Clark actually succeeds in turning Earth into a dictatorship.
Deep Space Nine handles B-stories better than Babylon 5. Nothing's 100% one way or 100% the other, so I'm talking about in general terms. The B-stories on DS9 tend to usually be character-driven. On Babylon 5, the B-stories can be character-driven but, much more often than on DS9, its characters being thrust into more story-driven scenarios and we see how they react to whatever's in front of them. Bashir not winning an award everyone wants him to win that he doesn't even feel like he deserves is a typical example of a B-story on DS9. Lennier restoring a motorcycle for Garibaldi is what I think of as a typical example of a B-story on B5. Counter-examples for each would be when Kira and Odo get back at Quark for trying to use Kira's likeness in a holosuite program on DS9, and Garibaldi finding out about Ivanova's dying father on B5.
Sometimes, I like the B-story on DS9 even better than the A-story. On B5, I usually prefer the A-story. To be clear, when I'm talking about a B-story, I don't mean two stories that could've been an A-story where one just happened to have less focus than the other. How do I know the difference? I ask myself if said story could handle an episode entirely of its own. If yes, then it's a B-story that's really an A-story with less focus. If no, then it's a true B-story. On both DS9 and B5, sometimes I have a hard time remembering which episode a B-story belongs to.
The Premise
Even though Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5 both take place on space stations, their missions are completely different, even though both of those missions evolve over time. The mission of Babylon 5 was to be hub where Humans, Minbari, Centauri, Narn, and other races could come together to co-exist. The Vorlons as well, if they'd ever be so inclined. Babylon 5 was the last best hope for peace. The mission of Deep Space Nine was much smaller in scope and a lot more specific: provide aid and protection to Bajor and help Bajor prepare for Federation Membership. The Wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant brought over people who wanted to explore it, but the primary mission of Deep Space Nine was to support Bajor.
By the middle of their respective series: Babylon 5 has declared independence from Earth and it's the Minbari (with their firepower) and the Narn (with their security forces) who are providing the protection. Babylon 5 has to deal with a corrupt Earth, strained relations with the Centauri, and the threat of the Shadows. And Babylon 5 has to pretend they don't know about the Shadows. Deep Space Nine has become the first line of defense against the Dominion, should they strike. Everyone knows about the Dominion. There are no secrets. And paranoia has spread everywhere. The only similarity to Babylon 5's situation, as opposed to a contrast, is that the Federation has strained relations with the Klingons. Even there, there's a difference in execution. The Klingons wanted to invade Cardassia, but the Centauri were actually successful in invading the Narn.
One of the inspirations for Deep Space Nine was The Rifleman, which I've actually seen due to my uncle being a fan of westerns. The West is the frontier. Lucas McCain is raising his son alone. Sound familiar? There's a Sherrif, there are people who pass through all the time, and there's crime that needs to be stopped. Most importantly, the show takes place in a town. The main characters aren't going anywhere. The guest characters are coming to them. That sound familiar too? It was meant as a contrast to TOS being Wagon Train. I've never seen Wagon Train, so I can't comment on that one, but going by the title, I'm guessing they never stay in one place too long. They go from place to place, from one episode to the next, just like TOS.
With Babylon 5, I'm going to assume that it never had any influence from The Rifleman, since I've never read or heard that, but there are bound to be coincidences that can't be avoided. If you're going to have an entire community in space, then you're going to have someone running the whole thing. So, you have the main character who's in charge of the station/community. And if you're going to have all kinds of illegal activity going on Downbelow, then it makes sense to have a Chief of Security as the main character who has to deal with it. And if it's a space station, and ships are docking, then you're going to have people coming and going no matter what. That's just the nature of having a series about a space station.
Looking at the Wormhole on DS9 and the Jumpgate on B5, once again, two things that only have surface level similarity. They instantly move you from one part of space to another if you go through them, and that's where the similarities stop. The Wormhole on DS9 was discovered. The Jumpgate is just a normal thing even as B5 begins. The Wormhole put Bajor on the map. The Jumpgate didn't put B5 on any map. Most importantly, there are no celestial beings living in the Jumpgate. Unlike with DS9, it's just something that gets you from Location A to Location B, the end. And the Jumpgate was built.
Through these celestial beings, a.k.a. The Prophets, Sisko finds out that he's the Emissary. He's a chosen one; he has a destiny. Sinclair has a destiny and seems like someone special to the Minbari. So, Sisko and Sinclair have that in common. On the other hand, Londo and G'Kar also have a destiny! But anyway... Sheridan is harder to make out in terms of His Destiny. Like Sisko, however, Sheridan lost his wife. Although Sheridan doesn't have any children to raise. Whereas Sinclair has neither a wife nor any children. But now we're getting into character comparisons, and I'll save that for another post. This one's already getting too long and I'm taking a break.
To be continued...
What I will say is that while I've seen all of DS9, I've only seen half of B5. So, in order to keep everything on a level playing field, I'm only going to look at the first half of both series. The cut-offs are when the closing credits roll on "Bar Association" (DS9) and "Ceremonies of Light and Dark" (B5).
******* Deep Space Nine vs. Babylon 5 *******
Preface
During the '90s, both online and from my godbrother, I heard people complain that DS9 was a ripoff of B5. I didn't want to listen to any of that, since I really liked DS9. In the early-'00s, after some distance from DS9, I began to take those claims more seriously but never bothered to check for myself. Fast-forward over 20 years, and I said on here that I would be re-watching DS9. I already did the same for TNG and VOY because of Star Trek: Picard. @Farscape One asked for me to post my take on the series. Then I decided now was the time. "If I'm going to re-watch DS9, I might as well watch B5 too, so I can finally have an opinion on the DS9 vs. B5 Debate! I've put it off long enough." So now, half of both series later, here we are.
Structure
The biggest surprise to me was Babylon 5 being as episodic as it was. At least what I've seen from the first half. For decades, I was told about how massively serialized this series was. I'd just made the assumption that the entire series had episodes that ended on a cliffhanger and that one episode would lead into the next and into the next and into the next... But nope. This is still '90s TV. An overall story arc for every season, some episodes push that overall story forward while others don't. Then the next season would build on top of the previous season with the same structure as before. Like B5, DS9 follows a similar structure typical of '90s TV with an overall arc and some episodes more crucial than others. On the surface, it looks like DS9 and B5 follow similar paths. But those similar paths are in the very broad strokes only. Things start to wildly diverge if you look at specifics.
It does seem to me like Babylon 5 gets going more quickly than Deep Space Nine. By the end of the first season of B5, Morden has begun to corrupt Londo and the path toward the Narn-Centauri War has begun. That war has come and gone by the end of the second season. Then, during the third season, there's Civil War between Humans (something I never would've imagined at the beginning) and Sheridan is preparing for a war with the Shadows.
On Deep Space Nine, it takes until the end of the second season for the Dominion to be introduced. A union between the Cardassians' and Romulans' Obsidian Order and Tal'Shair are wiped out by the Dominion during the third season. Then, during the fourth season, there are hostilities between Federation and the Klingons during the fourth season while the threat of the Dominion is lurking in the background. Except no one has yet been corrupted by Dominion, the Obsidian Order and Tal'Shair aren't main focuses on DS9, and the Federation/Klingon Conflict isn't a Civil War. And while Gowron has his moments, he's no Clark. Kai Winn is corrupt, but that has nothing to do with the Dominion. Admiral Leyton pushes for a military dictatorship but he's stopped, while President Clark actually succeeds in turning Earth into a dictatorship.
Deep Space Nine handles B-stories better than Babylon 5. Nothing's 100% one way or 100% the other, so I'm talking about in general terms. The B-stories on DS9 tend to usually be character-driven. On Babylon 5, the B-stories can be character-driven but, much more often than on DS9, its characters being thrust into more story-driven scenarios and we see how they react to whatever's in front of them. Bashir not winning an award everyone wants him to win that he doesn't even feel like he deserves is a typical example of a B-story on DS9. Lennier restoring a motorcycle for Garibaldi is what I think of as a typical example of a B-story on B5. Counter-examples for each would be when Kira and Odo get back at Quark for trying to use Kira's likeness in a holosuite program on DS9, and Garibaldi finding out about Ivanova's dying father on B5.
Sometimes, I like the B-story on DS9 even better than the A-story. On B5, I usually prefer the A-story. To be clear, when I'm talking about a B-story, I don't mean two stories that could've been an A-story where one just happened to have less focus than the other. How do I know the difference? I ask myself if said story could handle an episode entirely of its own. If yes, then it's a B-story that's really an A-story with less focus. If no, then it's a true B-story. On both DS9 and B5, sometimes I have a hard time remembering which episode a B-story belongs to.
The Premise
Even though Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5 both take place on space stations, their missions are completely different, even though both of those missions evolve over time. The mission of Babylon 5 was to be hub where Humans, Minbari, Centauri, Narn, and other races could come together to co-exist. The Vorlons as well, if they'd ever be so inclined. Babylon 5 was the last best hope for peace. The mission of Deep Space Nine was much smaller in scope and a lot more specific: provide aid and protection to Bajor and help Bajor prepare for Federation Membership. The Wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant brought over people who wanted to explore it, but the primary mission of Deep Space Nine was to support Bajor.
By the middle of their respective series: Babylon 5 has declared independence from Earth and it's the Minbari (with their firepower) and the Narn (with their security forces) who are providing the protection. Babylon 5 has to deal with a corrupt Earth, strained relations with the Centauri, and the threat of the Shadows. And Babylon 5 has to pretend they don't know about the Shadows. Deep Space Nine has become the first line of defense against the Dominion, should they strike. Everyone knows about the Dominion. There are no secrets. And paranoia has spread everywhere. The only similarity to Babylon 5's situation, as opposed to a contrast, is that the Federation has strained relations with the Klingons. Even there, there's a difference in execution. The Klingons wanted to invade Cardassia, but the Centauri were actually successful in invading the Narn.
One of the inspirations for Deep Space Nine was The Rifleman, which I've actually seen due to my uncle being a fan of westerns. The West is the frontier. Lucas McCain is raising his son alone. Sound familiar? There's a Sherrif, there are people who pass through all the time, and there's crime that needs to be stopped. Most importantly, the show takes place in a town. The main characters aren't going anywhere. The guest characters are coming to them. That sound familiar too? It was meant as a contrast to TOS being Wagon Train. I've never seen Wagon Train, so I can't comment on that one, but going by the title, I'm guessing they never stay in one place too long. They go from place to place, from one episode to the next, just like TOS.
With Babylon 5, I'm going to assume that it never had any influence from The Rifleman, since I've never read or heard that, but there are bound to be coincidences that can't be avoided. If you're going to have an entire community in space, then you're going to have someone running the whole thing. So, you have the main character who's in charge of the station/community. And if you're going to have all kinds of illegal activity going on Downbelow, then it makes sense to have a Chief of Security as the main character who has to deal with it. And if it's a space station, and ships are docking, then you're going to have people coming and going no matter what. That's just the nature of having a series about a space station.
Looking at the Wormhole on DS9 and the Jumpgate on B5, once again, two things that only have surface level similarity. They instantly move you from one part of space to another if you go through them, and that's where the similarities stop. The Wormhole on DS9 was discovered. The Jumpgate is just a normal thing even as B5 begins. The Wormhole put Bajor on the map. The Jumpgate didn't put B5 on any map. Most importantly, there are no celestial beings living in the Jumpgate. Unlike with DS9, it's just something that gets you from Location A to Location B, the end. And the Jumpgate was built.
Through these celestial beings, a.k.a. The Prophets, Sisko finds out that he's the Emissary. He's a chosen one; he has a destiny. Sinclair has a destiny and seems like someone special to the Minbari. So, Sisko and Sinclair have that in common. On the other hand, Londo and G'Kar also have a destiny! But anyway... Sheridan is harder to make out in terms of His Destiny. Like Sisko, however, Sheridan lost his wife. Although Sheridan doesn't have any children to raise. Whereas Sinclair has neither a wife nor any children. But now we're getting into character comparisons, and I'll save that for another post. This one's already getting too long and I'm taking a break.
To be continued...
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