Post by B5Erik on Aug 20, 2015 13:51:41 GMT
How much did Paramount borrow from Babylon 5 for Deep Space Nine?
More than I had remembered.
Watching the first handful of DS9 episodes I was reminded of things that I hadn't really compared to B5 but could have back when both shows were first shown....
1. Space Station based show instead of a ship based show. (That one is the most obvious.)
2. Oppressed former slave planet (Narn/Bajor) recently freed, it's people still bitter and angry towards their former oppressors (Centauri/Cardassians) leading to years of stories about conflict between the two races.
3. The people of the former enslaved planet are a deeply spiritual people. Much more so than the former occupiers of their world.
4. The Odo/Quark relationship is similar to the Londo/G'Kar relationship on B5.
5. DS9 adopted a serialized story arc format in the 3rd or 4th season, emulating B5.
6. The producers of DS9 created a nearly unbeatable enemy in the form of the Dominion and it's military, the Jem Hadar (led, of course, by the Founders, who could infiltrate any government or military due to their shape-shifting abilities - much like the Shadows influencing governments through Morden and the, "Favors," he has his, "Associates," do for them).
J. Michael Straczynski pitched Babylon 5 to Paramount, and gave them his overall story arc idea with several key plot points, and gave them his show, "Bible," to familiarize themselves with the characters, alien worlds, and the backstory of each. He has always said that he doesn't believe that the producers of Deep Space Nine wasn't given that material, but someone at Paramount clearly put much of the Babylon 5 concept into DS9. Straczynski is likely just being poilite and politically savvy in not criticizing anyone personally for the outright theft of many of the key plot points and backstory items from Babylon 5.
And even having acknowledged the fact that many key points were... borrowed, shall we say, Deep Space Nine is very different from Babylon 5. It is clearly a Star Trek show, where Babylon 5 is the anti-Star Trek in a lot of ways. And DS9 is a great show - arguably the best Trek series ever, so in the end we got two great shows instead of only one. That's a pretty good end result.
More than I had remembered.
Watching the first handful of DS9 episodes I was reminded of things that I hadn't really compared to B5 but could have back when both shows were first shown....
1. Space Station based show instead of a ship based show. (That one is the most obvious.)
2. Oppressed former slave planet (Narn/Bajor) recently freed, it's people still bitter and angry towards their former oppressors (Centauri/Cardassians) leading to years of stories about conflict between the two races.
3. The people of the former enslaved planet are a deeply spiritual people. Much more so than the former occupiers of their world.
4. The Odo/Quark relationship is similar to the Londo/G'Kar relationship on B5.
5. DS9 adopted a serialized story arc format in the 3rd or 4th season, emulating B5.
6. The producers of DS9 created a nearly unbeatable enemy in the form of the Dominion and it's military, the Jem Hadar (led, of course, by the Founders, who could infiltrate any government or military due to their shape-shifting abilities - much like the Shadows influencing governments through Morden and the, "Favors," he has his, "Associates," do for them).
J. Michael Straczynski pitched Babylon 5 to Paramount, and gave them his overall story arc idea with several key plot points, and gave them his show, "Bible," to familiarize themselves with the characters, alien worlds, and the backstory of each. He has always said that he doesn't believe that the producers of Deep Space Nine wasn't given that material, but someone at Paramount clearly put much of the Babylon 5 concept into DS9. Straczynski is likely just being poilite and politically savvy in not criticizing anyone personally for the outright theft of many of the key plot points and backstory items from Babylon 5.
And even having acknowledged the fact that many key points were... borrowed, shall we say, Deep Space Nine is very different from Babylon 5. It is clearly a Star Trek show, where Babylon 5 is the anti-Star Trek in a lot of ways. And DS9 is a great show - arguably the best Trek series ever, so in the end we got two great shows instead of only one. That's a pretty good end result.
