Which came first, B5 or DS9...

[hypatia]

Well, I must say I was surprised to look at this week's worth of scifi.com letters in their "Science Fiction Weekly" area. No less than 4 letters were there contesting someone's previous claim that B5 was an 'obvious copy' of DS9.

Way to go, folks! I THOUGHT about writing them, but I don't have the facts that some others have. So, if any of you wrote a letter to scifi.com, thanks!

I'm used to seeing ONE letter of that kind when something like this happens. For there to have been 4 printed, I shudder to think how many they received!

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"I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense,
reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."-- Galileo

 

[drakh]

I found this bit very interesting: <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>(It is widely rumored, though it cannot be proven without access to Paramount's files, that Star Trek: Voyager was Paramount's original planned follow-on to Star Trek: The Next Generation. In 1990 and 1991, Paramount was issuing teaser press releases hinting that the ST:TNG follow-on series would be about the crew of a Federation starship that travels to a distant region of the galaxy. The press releases are probably still out there somewhere, if anyone feels dedicated enough to search for them. To anyone who's read the releases and seen both shows, it's hard to believe they really referred to Deep Space 9 and not to Voyager.)<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I'm going to have to look into that, and I suggest anyone else who can will do the same. It would be quite a find...


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You are not entitled to your own opinion. You are only entitled to your own informed opinion.
-- Harlan Ellison qouting Gustave Flaubert

 

[hamman]

I believe that the pilot for DS9 aired
before "The Gathering" did, BUT, JMS had been working on B5 for several years at that point. He had been shoping the show to several diferent studios, including Paramount, who turned it down and, interestingly enough, came out with their own show about a space station a few months later. Add to that the info that Drakh posted and.... Well you all can draw your own conclusions.

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"Vir, inteligence has nothing to do with politics." - Londo

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

and from the looks of early concept sketches, it looks like JMS has been working on B5 since the late 50's.

And B5 is NOT a rip off on DS9! B5 is way better.

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Don't sweat the petty things.
Don't pet the sweaty things.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>I believe that the pilot for DS9 aired
before "The Gathering" did...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The DS9 pilot did air first, but only by a matter of weeks, and only because of an extraordinary (and expensive) effort on the part of Paramount to get their show out before B5. Because the DS9 pilot started shooting after The Gathering they really had their work cut out of them. One of the reasons that so little of the pilot actually took place on the station, and so much of it aboard the Enterprise or an identical starship, was that they needed to shoot as much of it as possible on the existing TNG soundstages and sets, while the permanent DS9 stages and sets were being prepared for the series.

Don't forget, in both cases the plan was to have the series kick off the week after the pilot aired, so if Paramount was going to brand B5 as the rip-off they had to be on the air first.

Regards,

Joe



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Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net

 

[En'til'zha]

Weren't there some claims that DS9 used the original B5 plot, turning Sisko into what Sinclair would have become? I do not know whether or not this is true, and from what I can determine such rumours are unfounded (probably nothing more than idle speculation by those people who enjoy spreading such rumours).

Does anyone else have any information regarding this? I'm thinking along the lines of something a little more substantial than internet rumours.

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"Watch the Shadows, they move when you're not looking..."

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

*shrug*

We know two things: 1) Both Sinclair and Sisko were associated with an religion and its prophecies. 2) Paramount executives had access to a draft of the original B5 pilot, the "sell" bible, sketeches and other background information in the summer of 1989 (when TNG was a new series and DS9 hadn't even been conceived.) Draw your own conclusions.

Regards,

JOe

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Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net

 

[SwiftBiscuit]

Moving to the B5 forum...