The DS9/B5 Parallel Thread

If you're a fan of either Star Trek: Deep Space Nine or Babylon 5 (or especially both), you are no doubt aware of the many similarities and parallels that exist between these two brilliant sci-fi epics.
You can read about quite a few of them here!
You might also want to click here!

 

From JMS' side there are more than similarities. He actually sued Paraborg and Berman for ripping off the concept of B5 from DS9. I can't remember if this delayed the launch of B5 or not. Perhaps The2ndQuest or somebody else can answer that one for me.

 

I believe that Straczynski had at first pitched his concept for B5 to Paramount, and that they had rejected it. However, his idea for a sci-fi series set on a space station may have stuck in the minds of the executives, and so DS9 was born! (Maybe I have it wrong...)
However (and I believe JMS has even stated this), while there may have been a certain level of theft on a corporate level, there wasn't any direct plagiarism on the creative and writing end. True, true, there are any number of parallels between the two shows (Defiant/White Star, no-nonsense female first officers Kira/Ivanova, Prophets/Vorlons, Dominion War/Shadow War, Sisko/Sheridan shuffling off the mortal coil in the finales), but that's probably just a matter of great minds thinking alike (Straczynski/Piller, Behr, etc.), or perhaps both shows happen to (consciously or not) dip into the same myth-pool.