5 ms·

I was playing Stellaris recently, and a few months later started a rewatch of Babylon 5. The inspiration is striking. B5, despite all its shortcomings, represen

by hyperion2010 3y ago

I was playing Stellaris recently, and a few months later started a rewatch of Babylon 5. The inspiration is striking. B5, despite all its shortcomings, represents a vision of the timeless nature of politics that is in a way distinct from e.g. TNG. Furthermore the characters have a level of depth and complexity that force one to look in the mirror and ask hard questions about what it means to be a good person in the context of titanic forces the we could easily dismiss as being beyond our control.

arrosenberg 3y ago
FWIW, the Star Trek competitor series to B5 (some would say its a ripoff) is DS9.
- OfSanguineFire 3y ago
  There is an old Human Giant sketch about a sci-fi show, the producer of which has got a lot of flack for noticing successful shows on other networks and copying them. For example, he pitched a Heroes knock-off called Superpower People. I assume that is a sarcastic nod towards the accusation that DS9 was the powerful Star Trek franchise’s deliberate attempt to steal B5’s thunder. (Sad that Human Giant isn’t on YouTube like so many other classic sketch comedies of yore. Apparently there are rights issues.)
  - dragonwriter 3y ago
    > I assume that is a sarcastic nod towards the accusation that DS9 was the powerful Star Trek franchise’s deliberate attempt to steal B5’s thunder. The accusation isn’t that DS9 was an attempt to steal B5’s thunder, its that JMS pitched what later became B5 to Paramount as a Star Trek series, they rejected it, and then turned around and built DS9 around the material they were pitched; that they literally stole it, not tried to steal its thunder.
    - OfSanguineFire 3y ago
      Thanks, I stand corrected.
    - gabereiser 3y ago
      And for this, Paramount will never be the Trek fan's friend. CBS/Paramount have done nothing but been hostile towards new Trek ideas and suing fan-films out of existence. Not cool, not cool at all. They are under the impression that it has to be TNG cast or not-at-all. Maybe that's in Jonathan Frake's contract? I dunno but it's gone the way of Mattel and not the Roddenberry way.
      - ethbr1 3y ago
        > CBS/Paramount have done nothing but been hostile towards new Trek ideas and suing fan-films out of existence. Are we watching the same Strange New Worlds?
        adamesque 3y ago
        Oof. I tried to make it through the first season and don’t think I’d put “new ideas” near the top of my list of descriptors. But I get that many people are enjoying it.
        ethbr1 3y ago
        If you're open, recommend skipping to the first 3 episodes of season 2.
        hotnfresh 3y ago
        It’s mostly remakes of earlier trek episodes and rip-offs of existing non-Trek stories (as in the The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas episode). In a familiar setting and pulling in (with varying levels of success) characters we already know. It’s had a couple original ones (or, more likely, rip-offs of stories I’m not familiar with) like the amnesia-society-planet (which isn’t quite just a Lotus Eaters type story) but that’s not the norm. The framework for it is the same as TOS and TNG, so that's not new either. Not one I’d have selected for “new ideas”. Though I am mostly enjoying it. At least it’s not the narrative train-wreck that Picard S1 was.
  - serf 3y ago
    to bring it all in on itself -- this is a premise in a later Farscape episode if I remember right. Some distant alien race is looking for television show ideas and one of them keeps pitching Earth shows until finally they decide upon creating a new Farscape. They used Stargate cast members as cameos as fan-service towards people who mentioned the likeness of actors between the two series.
    - ethbr1 3y ago
      > They used Stargate cast members as cameos as fan-service towards people who mentioned the likeness of actors between the two series. Indeed. It is weird how much Ben Browder resembles Ben Browder.
      - bewaretheirs 3y ago
        Except that in the Farscape segment of Stargate's "200", Michael Shanks played John Crichton while Browder played Stark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCNDdlCo4rA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCNDdlCo4rA
        ethbr1 3y ago
        Ah, and how could I have forgotten Claudia Black and Claudia Black? It's been a few years. It was good to see both of them get a few good SG-1 seasons on the strength of Farscape.
    - mcphage 3y ago
      And then Scalzi’s redshirts takes that idea in another really interesting direction.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

arrosenberg 3y ago

FWIW, the Star Trek competitor series to B5 (some would say its a ripoff) is DS9.

OfSanguineFire 3y ago
There is an old Human Giant sketch about a sci-fi show, the producer of which has got a lot of flack for noticing successful shows on other networks and copying them. For example, he pitched a Heroes knock-off called Superpower People. I assume that is a sarcastic nod towards the accusation that DS9 was the powerful Star Trek franchise’s deliberate attempt to steal B5’s thunder. (Sad that Human Giant isn’t on YouTube like so many other classic sketch comedies of yore. Apparently there are rights issues.)
- dragonwriter 3y ago
  > I assume that is a sarcastic nod towards the accusation that DS9 was the powerful Star Trek franchise’s deliberate attempt to steal B5’s thunder. The accusation isn’t that DS9 was an attempt to steal B5’s thunder, its that JMS pitched what later became B5 to Paramount as a Star Trek series, they rejected it, and then turned around and built DS9 around the material they were pitched; that they literally stole it, not tried to steal its thunder.
  - OfSanguineFire 3y ago
    Thanks, I stand corrected.
  - gabereiser 3y ago
    And for this, Paramount will never be the Trek fan's friend. CBS/Paramount have done nothing but been hostile towards new Trek ideas and suing fan-films out of existence. Not cool, not cool at all. They are under the impression that it has to be TNG cast or not-at-all. Maybe that's in Jonathan Frake's contract? I dunno but it's gone the way of Mattel and not the Roddenberry way.
    - ethbr1 3y ago
      > CBS/Paramount have done nothing but been hostile towards new Trek ideas and suing fan-films out of existence. Are we watching the same Strange New Worlds?
      - adamesque 3y ago
        Oof. I tried to make it through the first season and don’t think I’d put “new ideas” near the top of my list of descriptors. But I get that many people are enjoying it.
        ethbr1 3y ago
        If you're open, recommend skipping to the first 3 episodes of season 2.
        hotnfresh 3y ago
        It’s mostly remakes of earlier trek episodes and rip-offs of existing non-Trek stories (as in the The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas episode). In a familiar setting and pulling in (with varying levels of success) characters we already know. It’s had a couple original ones (or, more likely, rip-offs of stories I’m not familiar with) like the amnesia-society-planet (which isn’t quite just a Lotus Eaters type story) but that’s not the norm. The framework for it is the same as TOS and TNG, so that's not new either. Not one I’d have selected for “new ideas”. Though I am mostly enjoying it. At least it’s not the narrative train-wreck that Picard S1 was.
- serf 3y ago
  to bring it all in on itself -- this is a premise in a later Farscape episode if I remember right. Some distant alien race is looking for television show ideas and one of them keeps pitching Earth shows until finally they decide upon creating a new Farscape. They used Stargate cast members as cameos as fan-service towards people who mentioned the likeness of actors between the two series.
  - ethbr1 3y ago
    > They used Stargate cast members as cameos as fan-service towards people who mentioned the likeness of actors between the two series. Indeed. It is weird how much Ben Browder resembles Ben Browder.
    - bewaretheirs 3y ago
      Except that in the Farscape segment of Stargate's "200", Michael Shanks played John Crichton while Browder played Stark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCNDdlCo4rA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCNDdlCo4rA
      - ethbr1 3y ago
        Ah, and how could I have forgotten Claudia Black and Claudia Black? It's been a few years. It was good to see both of them get a few good SG-1 seasons on the strength of Farscape.
  - mcphage 3y ago
    And then Scalzi’s redshirts takes that idea in another really interesting direction.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]