Quote from: Broken-Serenity;555246If your watching on dvd the main reason the ffects suck is that warners stupidly deleted all the high quality film it was originally shot on so they had to use the low res vhs versions which stands out something rotten, apparently strazynski has been working on a deal to completely redo the effects for a future blu ray release now that he owns the full rights again so in time no doubt there will be a remastered edition.

Quote from: Panjumanju;548866It's interesting to me how the story shifts and changes with when the producers think they're going to be cancelled, literally every couple of seasons. So, every few seasons you have this massive interesting ending that ties everything together. Then poor J. Michael Stravinsky has to come up with wholly new plots, and it happens all over again.

The series certainly benefits from the fact that J. Michael Stravinsky wrote every episode but, I think two - both of which were written by original Star Trek writers like D. C. Fontana.

Although I am a devoute Star Trek fan, I much preferred Babylon 5 - although I didn't see it all, and not consistently - to Deep Space 9, which was "Rick Berman does Babylon 5 (and Gene Roddenberry disapproves)".

//Panjumanju

QuoteSimilarities

    Both series are named after a space station name with a single-digit number

    Both series premiered in 1993, and were set aboard space stations that were hubs of interstellar trade and politics.

    Both stations were located beside portals to distant places. (B5 is near a hyperspace "jumpgate"; DS9 guarded the mouth of a wormhole.)

    Both series originally featured a shapeshifter character; however, Babylon 5 dropped that element before filming, replacing it with occasional characters using various illusory and camouflage mechanisms.

    Both started off with unmarried commanders haunted by a recent conflict.

    Commanders of each station had lost their wives before the series started. (Sisko and Sheridan)

    Both men's wives reappeared during the series under the control of a more powerful race. (Sheridan's wife returns in person under the control of the Shadows, while the Prophets speak through Sisko's wife in visions.)

    Both commanders had a girlfriend who was a freighter captain, Carolyn Sykes for Commander Sinclair and Kasidy Yates for Captain Sisko.

    The commander of each station eventually became a religious figure who fulfilled a prophecy, advised by enigmatic aliens who were regarded as spiritual beings.

    Both commanders (Sisko and Sheridan) "ascended" to become noncorporeal lifeforms in the series finale.

    In both series the spiritual beings (the Vorlons, the Prophets) had an enemy (the Shadows, the Pah Wraiths) generally viewed as evil spirits by other races, with whom they had been at war for millennia.

    Both series build up to a war between Humans and a militarily powerful, hard-to-detect enemy (the invisible Shadows, the shapeshifting Founders).

    Both series had a sarcastic, cynical but dedicated head of security who started out as perceptive and extremely competent, but later succumbed to insecurity and compulsion (Garibaldi's drinking, Odo's link with the female Shapeshifter)

    Both series had an idealistic young doctor with a hidden secret (Bashir's genetic enhancement, Franklin's involvement with the Underground). Both doctors also had strained relationships with their fathers.

    Both series involved the use of genetically engineered diseases, designed to work against a specific group (Changelings, Markab, Human and Narn Telepaths, others) as a means of control or genocide.

    The second-in-command of each station was a woman with a hot temper who had lost a family member in a war.

    Central to each series were two alien races, one of which had until recently occupied and oppressed the home planet of the other. Furthermore:
        The oppressed race was a deeply religious one.
        The oppressors in both series were later manipulated by a powerful alien race to achieve its goals.
        This manipulation occurred via a regular character in the series belonging to the oppressor race, who vacillated between 'good' and 'evil' through the course of the series, ultimately being taken over completely by powerful evil forces, which eventually led to their untimely deaths.
        The plot of each series eventually centered around a war against the oppressors and those who manipulated them.
        These wars resulted in the devastations of the former-oppressors' homeworlds.

    Each series includes a sinister organization working within the humans' government: DS9's Section 31 and B5's Bureau 13, not to mention Psi Corps and Nightwatch as well.

    Each series had a male character named "Dukat" (though B5's is spelled "Dukhat") and each series had a female character named "Lyta" (although DS9's is spelled "Leeta").

    Each Station was administered by an Earth based government (Earth Alliance in B5, the Federation in DS9) but was not in that government's territory.

    While each stations was administered by Earth, that administration depended upon the sufferance of a second, deeply spiritual, race. (Minbari in B5, Bajorans in DS9)

   
Comparison

Some Babylon 5 fans contend that DS9 plagiarized elements of the premise and details of B5. J. Michael Straczynski approached Paramount Pictures, the studio which produced DS9, with the idea of producing B5 and had given them a copy of the series "bible" in 1989, several years before production on either series began.

Straczynski has been quoted that DS9 was not developed until about 1991/1992 on the JMS message archive, and it is documented that DS9 was not announced by Paramount until nearly two months after the announcement of B5 by Warner Bros./PTEN in November 1991. Straczynski does not think that the producers of DS9 (Berman and Piller) borrowed the B5 concepts but the borrowing was done by the Paramount executives who had been given the series "bible" who directed the development of the series.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;548784Season 1 is worth the time so as to get to know the character of Jeffrey Sinclair. This becomes very important in season 3. The first season is just scene setting however.

Quote from: nightwind1;555858Interesting note:

JMS originally pitched B5 to Paramount, but they turned it down. Then, shortly after B5 started, DS9 was put on the air.

http://www.firstones.com/wiki/Similarities_between_Babylon_5_and_Star_Trek:_Deep_Space_Nine

Quote from: Spike;555918Neither Santa Claus, nor the Easter Bunny are real.

Quote from: Gib;555955Also, they are lovers.

Quote from: beeber;555953i knew of some similarities between the two shows, but not the studio backstory and how many similarities there ended up being!  :eek:

i consider myself a trek fan, but B5 beats ds9, hands down.  think i'll hit netflix streaming and watch an episode or two right now, in fact
edit--dammit, netflix has taken the series out of the streaming rotation.  guess i should finally pick up the box sets.

JG i think you win the "second wave" of avatar changes.  blazing saddles is one of my all-time favorite films, a classic.  :hatsoff:

Quote from: Spike;555918Dear god, man! THe series ended 15 years ago!

Also: In Gone with the Wind there is a big fire.  THe Wizard of Oz ends with Dorothy in Kansas since it was all just a Dream, and the Terminator is a robot from the Future.

While I'm on the subject: Neither Santa Claus, nor the Easter Bunny are real.