Which makes JMS's attempts to insinuate plagiarism or theft of ideas on Paramount/DS9's part particularly ridiculous.
The old "DS9 stole from B5" thing
- Thread starter Forbin
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Which makes JMS's attempts to insinuate plagiarism or theft of ideas on Paramount/DS9's part particularly ridiculous.
In the case of B5 and LoTR, one was a clear homage of the other. Not to say DS9 ripped off B5, but you can't use the obvious Tolkien parallels to make an argument that JMS was plagiarizing.
To be clear, I'm not saying JMS was plagiarizing. I'm saying JMS ought to know better than most how writers are influenced by prior works and how different writers operating in that same zeitgeist under the same influences from prior writers can produce works with similarities, since he was so obviously wearing his influences on his sleeve.
Despite the transparency of Tolkienic influence on the B5 story, JMS has tried to deny that he actually was influenced by his love of that man's works, so he's not as reliable of a narrator as people would like to think he is.
Late to the party, but this reminds me of how I'll often go into a little bit in my talks on 60s comics books, something like this:
"One of my favorite mags of the mid 60s, you've probably heard of it, stars a genius in a wheelchair leading a team of exceptional misfits. Of course, I'm talking about..."
And the audience invariably goes "X-Men" and I say at the same time "Doom Patrol". That always gets a good laugh.
Of course, Doom Patrol didn't rip off X-Men -- they both (probably) owe a common derivation from The Fantastic Four.
"One of my favorite mags of the mid 60s, you've probably heard of it, stars a genius in a wheelchair leading a team of exceptional misfits. Of course, I'm talking about..."
And the audience invariably goes "X-Men" and I say at the same time "Doom Patrol". That always gets a good laugh.
Of course, Doom Patrol didn't rip off X-Men -- they both (probably) owe a common derivation from The Fantastic Four.
That's my impression as well. And both shows are great and have their own merits and worldbuilding. Both being produced and released at virtually the same time, considering how long it takes a television show to be developed and how sci-fi wasn't too uncommon with space stations being talked about...
Also of interest: While I like both Jeannie and Samantha, I think Samantha is better than Jeannie... but Evil Jeannie is far more fun than Samantha's identical cousin Serena. Also note that there is no relation regarding Samantha/Serena to the Patty Duke identical cousins, who happened three years earlier and just how common are identical cousins to begin with...
Add in how the Man from UNCLE is really a ripoff of James Bond... except it isn't.
All these shows have superficial commonalities, but still made their own worlds/universes. Can such a baseline be so patentable? Really, both shows can be summarized as: "People come from all over the galaxy to a space station and do little more than argue and bicker."
Apparent rip-offs often aren't; a concept was pitched years earlier, then given the go-ahead when something similar was successful (eg: Ghostbusters leading to Ken Johnson's Shadowchasers finally getting the OK. And then being cancelled as a poor copy quite soon).
