Just how similar are DS9 and B5?

[Sindatur]

I have to agree with Recoil.

We all know Paramount did steal certain things from JMS' presentation for The Gatehring. It was an evil thing to do.

Having said that, JMS did finally get all 5 years of his Arc made, and permanently raised the bar for the genre. Whatever degree of influence B5 had on DS9, looking back on it now, I have to say in the end it was a good thing. DS9 was, IMHO, the best of the Trek Series, and most episodes of at least 5 seasons were pretty darn good, as well as several episodes of the other two seasons.

On my cable system, DS9 and B5 were shown back to back, and I personally think that helped B5's viewership (with the two of them showing Back to Back). It's the areas where B5 was shown inconsistently (different night and time almost every week from what I understand some people had to go through) that hurt the viewership

Sure, I believe they stole things all the way through, but again I have to say it ended up making DS9 better. And if JMS really is offered the Star Trek Franchise, as rumors are starting to form, it will provide a little bit of satisfaction for JMS.

 

[KoshN]

Because if you guys are all trying to tell me that he had a list of names that drilled down into S1 Episode Whatever (named Survivors) and had the name of Garibladi's dead friends daughter Lianna Kemmer on it, I think you all are SMOKING CRACK.

No, that as B5 and DS9 went on, they might have picked names to be similar enough to piss JMS off, just to be SOBs.

 

[FlipperPA]

Recoil, we've all been around long enough to know that if you have more than 50 posts on B5tv.com, you must be SMOKING CRACK.

I didn't inhale.

I don't know about Shakaar / G'Kar... I always thought Garak and G'Kar had a lot more in common in many ways... and both kind of "stole the show".

-Tim

 

[vacantlook]

Emphasis on that last part.

Kind of hard to miss the emphasis since you went and typed it in all-caps.

I think you all are SMOKING CRACK.

And I think you finally crossed the line into obnoxiousness, which makes it so much more easy to disregard whatever you say regardless of any potential validity you might have.

 

[ElScorcho]

And that's when I shot him Your Honor.

 

[Recoil]

And I think you finally crossed the line into obnoxiousness

What are you talking about? I crossed that line a couple years ago here. As far as validity goes...I'm not the one posting about how Paramount stole Lianna Kemmer's name from B5 and made a DS9 character with something similar.

 

[PsionTen]

Jeez, I used to think that JFK was the story that wouldn't go away. Long story short: Either you believe that DS9 ripped off B5 or you don't ... there's really no in-between. Those that believe what they believe aren't going to be talked out of it no matter how much "evidence" you throw out there. I'm not even sure if Paramount (i.e. Star Trek) has even talked about their position on the issue -- which would be utterly stupid for them to do ... from both a public relations and legal standpoint.

 

[Recoil]

The funny thing about that...

The more I watch DS9, the more things I recognized as being "borrowed" from B5. And the more I watch Lord of the Rings...the more things I see that B5 "borrowed" from that.

The reality is that I think all 3 are great, and different enough that each can be enjoyed for what they were.

 

[Leto II]

...And, of course, there was that rather blatantly "similar" DS9 series finale, in which Sisko "goes home" to rejoin the Prophets beyond the Rim...er, I mean, "down the wormhole."

Or, here's what JMS himself said, re: the amazing parallels betwixt the two (context here dealing with someone spilling the beans about DS9's conclusion):

From: J. Michael Straczynski <71016.1644@compuserve.com>
Subject: Deep Space 9
To: CIS
Date: 5/2/1999 10:53:00 AM

David L Trahan <110714.3375@compuserve.com> asks:
> No offense, sir, but could you please put a spoiler warning next
> time you give spoilers for non-B5 shows like that?

"No offense, sir, but could you please put a spoiler warning next time you give spoilers for non-B5 shows like that? I mean, I know this is a B5 forum, but some people here, such as me, watch shows like DS9, and do not want to know stuff like that about episodes yet to air."

Sorry, figured it couldn't be much of a spoiler since we'd already done it on our show....

jms

=======

And this:

[...]

"As far as stealing your car is concerned, if your car was stolen you
would not have use of it. You still retained use of the B5 idea and the
fact that it is similar <g> to DS9 did not prevent it being produced."

Actually, it almost did. WB came within an inch of canceling
the whole thing because they weren't sure the market could sustain two space station series. It also hurt us in that fans thought that *we* were the copycats, since we aired second. And Paramount played a lot of games with the stations to try and keep us off the air so they'd have the field to themselves. It took us almost two years to really recover from the damage, it's still an annoyance that we seem to be providing DS9 with R&D free of charge, and we still have a lot of fans who think we copied them since our pilot aired second.

jms

 

[Ninja_Squirrel]

Another stretch, but another coincidence nonetheless...

There were several scenes in season 2 and 3 of Sheridan putting in some rec time at the batting field. Sisko was obsessed with baseball.


Here's another... In DS9, the Prophets are cryptic, very powerful, and time is meaningless to them. They don't know the meaning of past, present and future. In B5, the Vorlons are also cryptic, powerful and also seem to have a unique relationship with time. The are ancient, patient, and may possibly have some access to time travel technology or at least something that gives them more insight into the past and future. Marcus even theorizes that the Vorlons may age backwards (actually, he stated that theory about Merlin, but at the time, he was also comparing Merlin to Kosh).

 

[macmaccaman]

oh yeah i just remembered. The breen have encounter suits! hehe