| drkohler said: At the time, I thought that when DS9 went fully into the Dominion war arc (no more "alien of the week" episodes), DS9 was pretty much a ripoff of B5, idea-wise. |
The setup for the series in season 1, with a fallen nation (the Cardassians) that eventually become the beachhead for a powerful outside alien force is directly ripped off of Babylon 5. The Cardassians follow the same arc as the Centauri. The difference is Babylon 5 is larger in scope and far more cohesion. Babylon 5 had more factions, more dimensions, more intrigue, and wasn’t so blatantly anti-military as DS9–which basically made military people look like a bunch of buffoons and you’re English School Teacher Benjamin Sisko substantially more skilled than all of them.
To be fair on copying, Babylon 5 is hardly without sin, JMS did take a lot from Tolkien (especially the Silmarillion) - The Vorlons, for example, follow the same arc as the Valar/Valinor mixed with a Cold War style hesitancy to engage directly with the enemy (Tolkien doesn’t really explain why they hesitate until they’re asked by Earendil before the War of Wrath). But JMS also directly acknowledges the Tolkien parallels with homages.
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
