I was reading JMS's posts about Babylon 5 before "The Gathering" even aired and I don't Ever remember him "behaving childishly" or posting "screaming and kicking like a wronged child".
Usually JMS posted "relax and wait, Babylon 5 will be Much Better" type messages to Other people who were annoyed on his behalf.
The following is a JMS post that addresses the subject.
Pay particular attention to his statements at the end where he Emphatically Defends Berman & Pillar.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR> Re: DS9 vs B5 comments
20 Jun 1995
Ted: I think your note is even-handed and well considered. For me, any one of the items you discuss being present isn't a big deal; it's the cumulative effect of all of them being present in both shows, at the same time, airing within weeks of one another.
The result of all this nearly killed B5 in its early stages, which I think was the desired effect. You must understand that when B5 was announced in the trades for the first time in November of that year (2-3 months prior to the announcement of DS9), in articles that described it pretty succinctly (space station, rogues, renegades, all the usual H'wood hype), it was often referred to as Warner's attempt to create a space franchise (see above re: hype).
There has *long* been bad blood between Paramount and Warner Bros. Particularly since Paramount was then already setting the blocks in place to create its own network, and PTEN was being birthed right then, setting the stage for major conflict. The number of syndicated stations is very small, and the hours available per station equally small. Faced with that kind of scenario, big guns tend to be pulled out.
Whatever the sequence of events might have been, the result was that I ended up sitting in meetings with Warner execs who said, "How am I supposed to sell this show? It's *identical* to DS9 in any way that matters, the syndicated market can't sustain two identical shows like this, and they've go the Star Trek name to entice station owners. Nobody knows from 'Babylon 5.'"
Understand, since the debuts, the shows have gone off in different directions, but we're talking the first season and the pilot. Nearly all the articles described them as nearly identical at that stage. And the details of character don't often play to TV execs who only see the broad strokes, the "quick concept."
The fact that the two shows were so similar at that time, one a nobody show from nowhere, the other bundled with the STAR TREK (tm) name, came within an inch of killing Babylon 5. (Which wasn't helped by A Certain Studio telling advertisers that B5 was going to be crap, cheaply produced, and not to bother.) That's one of the main reasons why it took nearly a period of four months before we finally got the go order for year one, after everybody crunched the ratings, and the demos, and decided to take a chance on it. And even THEN we were told, "The syndie market can't sustain two shows like this; you're gonna get creamed."
Through the clipping service, I saw one newspaper/magazine article after another calling B5 a "clone" of DS9. Because they considered them identical. Many ST fans felt the same way, and said so, openly. "Jeez, they copied EVERYthing," one noted. Now, when we point out which really came first, suddenly some of these same folks say, "Nah...they're not alike at ALL. Don't be silly."
One could get whiplash from such a thing.
To step back a second, the reality is that this sort of thing happens in hollywood all the time. When "The Abyss" was being produced, several other films with identical concepts were rushed forward (remember Deepstar 7 or 9 or whatever that was?). Consequently, one of the things you most protect are the details of your project. You don't want a possible competitor to know what you're doing. Unfortunately, right there in the files at Paramount was every last detail about how we were going to do B5, the station, the stories, everything.
{sarcasm]
Now, I'm sure that the Paramount execs said, "No, no...we won't look at it, we won't open the drawer, we'll remain pure and virginal and even though we're trying to beat Warners in creating a new network, even though they're threatening to break our monopoly on space/future shows, we won't open that file drawer, no sir."
They could not possibly have said, "Okay, open the file drawer. Let's take a peek at what they're going to do. We won't copy it, exactly, but knowing what they're doing will allow us to co-opt a little of their franchise, enough to cut them off at the knees in the marketplace. We won't tell Berman or Pillar about this, because they would never go along with it, but we'll just *guide* them here and there. We give notes all the time in development, who's to know where they came from?" [/sarcasm]
And just to be clear, so the sarcasm doesn't get in the way: I have never, *ever* felt, or believed, or thought, that Berman or Pillar EVER saw or knew about the B5 information. Had anyone suggested anything of a less than straightforward nature, they would have refused; of that I have no doubt.
No sarcasm, that's what I think.
jms <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
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Yes, I like cats too.
Shall we exchange Recipes?
