Which is better: B5 or DS9...

[Mallus]

I miss both. I'm debating buying the 1st season of B5 on DVD and I'm anxiously awaiting DS9 airing in the Philadelphia market at a reasonable hour {I hate taping...}.

I love them both. I was a huge defender of B5 from the start. This was the grand ambitious {and often poorly executed} science fiction that I wanted to see on TV since I was kid. And though I stopped watching DS9 after season 1, I came back into the fold around the end of season 3 and by the end I was astounded by the quality of the show.

For me, its DS9 by a nose.

It almost pains me to say, since I began liking DS9 again at the point I swore their writers were imitating B5. But the writing and acting towards the end of DS9's run was some of the best on television at the time. And though B5 had some finely written/acted parts {Londo and G'Kar come to mind}, in addition to a vastly more epic scope, it places a very close second to DS9.

What do you all think?

 

[Femerus the Gnecro]

No question.

Buy 'em both. If you're strapped for cash, get the one that you've got the most immediate need for, then get the other one later.

-F

 

[Mouseferatu]

Babylon 5 for me, no question, no challenge.

DS9 was good. But B5 was something spectacular, something unique. And it actually influenced the way I plot my own stories for both RPGs and novels.

I've already purchased the season 1 boxed set, and I still have the entire series taped off TV.

 

[Ranger REG]

It's hard to choose. B5 have the right premise as the series developed but right at the end is when JMS kinda screwed it badly.

DS9 started off slow but end in a spectacular way. (I admit, as a grown man I cried during the series finale.) Despite having the lead character having been revealed as a half-Prophet, they downplayed that until the very end where he is destined to push Pah-Wraith/Dukat into the Cavern of Fire. Not so great nor epic, if that's what the mysterious divine/wormhole aliens want, far be it from me to argue.

Overall, B5 wins by a slight nose (a millimeter). Funny, a Trek show about a stationary space station is by far the most well-developed, well-produced of the contemporary Trek series.

 

[Hand of Evil]

It's hard to choose. B5 have the right premise as the series developed but right at the end is when JMS kinda screwed it badly.

JMS did not do that, it was the network with their on-again/off-again flip flopping on the show.

B5 is the better of the shows, DS9 had moments but anything Star Trek was 'happy mealed' out (same box, same food and much the same toy surprise).

 

[Hand of Evil]

Overall, B5 wins by a slight nose (a millimeter). Funny, a Trek show about a stationary space station is by far the most well-developed, well-produced of the contemporary Trek series. [/B]

You know JMS took B5 to Paramont as a Trek Show but was told they already had something in the works along the same lines.

Rather interesting how they both turned out.

 

[Richards]

I'm afraid I'm not qualified to make an accurate comparison, since I've seen just about every episode of DS9 and saw only two episodes of B5. I can say that I really enjoyed DS9, and that the two B5s I saw didn't really do much for me. (The only one of the two I really remember was the "Jack the Ripper" one, where I had already figured out that was Jack the Ripper halfway through the episode. Kind of lessened the "big impact" of the "surprise twist ending" when I had seen that one coming a mile away.)

So for me: DS9 by a long shot.

Not that I'm disparaging B5, though. I've heard from many people that it was a great show. And I really like the concept of the Mimbari surrendering to the humans once they realized we were the reincarnated members of their own race. (Was that an established "fact," by the way, or just what the Mimbari believed?) I suppose if I ever gave it a chance (and watched it from the beginning, so I'd know what the heck was going on) I'd probably enjoy it.

But I doubt it'd top DS9, at least not for me personally.

Johnathan

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Deep Sleep 9 at its best barely compares with Bab 5 at its worst.

There is just no contest between the two.

 

[Mouseferatu]

You know JMS took B5 to Paramont as a Trek Show but was told they already had something in the works along the same lines.

Rather interesting how they both turned out.

Actually, that's an urban myth that JMS himself has decried as false. B5 was never proposed as a Star Trek show.

However, it's partially true, in that Star Trek was the reason most of the networks turned down B5; they didn't think a non-Trek sci-fi show could survive. Shows what they know.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Complex question with a fairly complex answer.

The Mimbaru came to this conclusion from capturing and interrogating Jeffry Sinclair. While doing this they discovered that his "soul" (probaby genetic code) matched the "soul" of their equivalent to Jesus Christ, a great Mimbari from 1000 years ago known by the name of Valen.

Sounds odd and hoaky so far right? Well since they discover this they surrender and do everything they can to keep Sinclair close to them. This results in him becoming the first commander of Babylon 5. Then later in the season the Vorlons (an ancient and powerful race of aliens) orchestrate a little maneuver that ends up sending Sinclair 1000 years into the past with the lost Space Station Babylon 4. He arrives with the station to help lead the Mimbari in their war against the Shadows.

While travelling back in time the Vorlons use their advanced technology to make Sinclair look like a Mimbari. Of course Sinclair takes a Mimbari name when he appears to them 1000 years in the past.

What name did he take?

Valen of course. It turns out that their great prophet and leader is a modified human. In the end their is no odd reincarnation thing going on. Just a trick played on humans and Mimbari by the Vorlons to keep the Mimbari from destroying humanity and to use both races to defeat the Shadows both in the past and the present.

And I really like the concept of the Mimbari surrendering to the humans once they realized we were the reincarnated members of their own race. (Was that an established "fact," by the way, or just what the Mimbari believed?)

Johnathan