B5 and DS9

Lindley · **Fri Oct 19, 2001 3:21 pm**

I'm not asking which was better. I'd just like to get a list of opinions, of what the fundamental differences were between Babylon 5 and Deep Space Nine.

Tyvek · **Sat Oct 20, 2001 8:04 pm**

In my personal opinion any Star Trek beats out B5! But that is my personal Opinion

Lindley · **Sat Oct 20, 2001 10:18 pm**

In my opinion B5 has a more interesting storyline, since the story arc is so well defined. However, DS9 is also good in a different way.

Dax Orien · **Sun Oct 21, 2001 1:11 am**

DS9 was cooler in my opinion

Captain Skyline · Vice Admiral Joined: 09 Aug 2001 Posts: 6646 Location: UK

babylon5 was brilliant and i think it beat DS9,
It was so interesting.

IreneJ · Lieutenant Commander Joined: 03 Oct 2001 Posts: 239

I thought this thread was about the differences between the two shows, not which one was better. There were a lot of differences.

BABYLON 5 started out as a long story arc from the beginning. I don't recall any sign of DEEP SPACE NINE's story arc until early Season 2.

B5 had two leads - Michael O'Hare & Bruce Boxleitner. DS9 had one - Avery Brooks.

The second lead in B5, Boxleitner, had a major romance with one of the other major characters. Brooks had a major romance with a recurring character.

In B5, Sinclair disappeared into the past and Sheridan died twice. Brooks died - supposedly - once in DS9.

Sisko was a widower from the beginning and his first wife remained dead. He eventually remarried. Sinclair got engaged just before he left, but never got married. And Sheridan was married three times. He divorced his first wife. His second wife, believed to be dead, reappeared, causing havoc in his life. And he married his third at the beginning of B5's last season.

I'll think of some more if I can.

Transwarp13 · **Mon Oct 22, 2001 5:50 pm**

well..... i always thought ds9 wasnt that good, too deep, not alot of action, but B5 was ok, i mean, ihave seen some, but not liking ds9, i think ds9 is better.

Lindley · **Mon Oct 22, 2001 9:16 pm**

I got hooked on B5 just recently. I was looking at the channel guide, and it was on Scifi. I thought "why not", since I'd heard good things about it. I watched that, but it was a cliffhanger....so I watched the next day, but then thought "but what will happen next?"....so I watched again....

You get the idea.

IreneJ · Lieutenant Commander Joined: 03 Oct 2001 Posts: 239

I have to admit that Babylon 5 is addictive. I managed to ignore it for nearly five years until my father started watching the reruns on TNT back in 98 or 99. I tried to resist until I saw the Season 3 episode, "Severed Dreams". Then I was hooked forever.

I didn't become hooked on DS9, until I became a regular viewer of VOY.

Captain Skyline · Vice Admiral Joined: 09 Aug 2001 Posts: 6646 Location: UK

IreneJ · Lieutenant Commander Joined: 03 Oct 2001 Posts: 239

To be precise, Sheridan and Delenn, his last wife, got married at the end of Season 4 - "Deconstruction of Falling Stars". Not in Season 3 and not, as I had previously stated, in the beginning of Season 5.

Lindley · **Mon Nov 05, 2001 1:34 pm**

The first hint of the Sheridan/Delenn romance appears in a season 2 episode, I forget the name but its the one where a plauge wipes out an alien species.

IreneJ · Lieutenant Commander Joined: 03 Oct 2001 Posts: 239

Actually, the first hint occurs earlier than that, when Sheridan and Delenn have supper at the Fresh Aire restaurant in "A Race Through Dark Places". Same season, though.

Captain Michael Pike · Captain Joined: 14 Jul 2001 Posts: 597 Location: PA

B5 had a much more stable and definitive storyline. However lacking the support and the name of Star Trek B5 was nearly doomed from the beginning. B5 played out the end of every season with the hope that they would be "picked up" by the networks again but with the fear that they wouldn't. B5 played more like a soap opera in space, or an old fashioned serial, where if you missed one it would kick you in the butt later when you ended up scratching your head and saying where did that come from? Also, B5 was much more ground breaking in its stories, which even though they were an hour long were much more character defined intricately woven, each character had his/her purpose/agenda and though we knew them all the crew of the station didn't.

Don't get me wrong I love DS9 and think it was far superior to Voyager (and Enterprise at this point), but DS9 was never definitive and rambled through show after show for at least three seasons. We had more characters as window dressing than anything else. It wasn't until the writers took a page from B5 and picked main charaters to develop and a definitive story arc to develop that the show took shape and began to actually WIN awards. Much of the first three season's episodes are almost painful to watch....

But that's just my opinion. I love DS9, but given a choice of watching the best DS9 ep or the worst B5 ep, B5 will win out every time.

IreneJ · Lieutenant Commander Joined: 03 Oct 2001 Posts: 239

I wish I could say that DS9 was superior to Voyager, but I can't. I've been watching it lately and I've noticed as many writing flaws that can be found in any other Trek series. It could have been superior to the others, but bad planning and unexploited storylines had regulated it to the quality of the others - save TOS, which was inferior to the rest, in my opinion.

As for B5 - it rose above all of the Trek series in writing and characterization. It was an original.

Lindley · **Fri Nov 09, 2001 2:16 pm**

I think there are many similarities between B5 and Star Trek.

Beaureu 13 vs. Section 31.

Several B5 eps have had a prominent use of the number 47.

The trailer for the upcoming "B5: LR" has the line "Today is a good day to die."

FlangBG · Lieutenant, Junior Grade Joined: 03 Apr 2004 Posts: 82

In my opinion, B5 is beter for following the Rules of Phisics, DS9 is better at breaking them.