Star Trek Favourite Series

Deep Space 9 was the only one that had a credible ongoing story arc. Although I enjoyed many episodes of Next Generation, and the original Star Trek, they were mainly standalone stories, or at best two parters. I enjoy a story that is developed over time a lot more. Voyager tried the same thing, but it was always a little hokey - fun, but hokey - and crammed to the gills with pointless filler episodes just to make up the numbers.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by LeHah

Also - fuck Neelix.

Despite the fact that I enjoy Voyager sometimes, I wholeheartedly endorse this sentiment.

Quote:

DS9 I never got into - but now wish I did.

It ain't exactly too late, what with the show having been at least partly released on DVD. I don't know for sure if they released all of it yet, though. I'm sure that eventually they will, even if they didn't already.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Denicalis

DS9 is a Babylon 5 rip off (and not as good, anyway),

I've heard it said before. I don't really see it myself. Other than both of them being set on space stations, I really don't see the similarity. They came out at approximately the same time, so it seems unlikely that either one could be a "rip off" of the other.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Denicalis

basic summation of the argument:

I'd have to say that I can see that the arguments presented aren't entirely fallacious. There are some good points made there, and some connections which I never actually made. I'm not sure why I didn't make some of those connections myself, now that you come to mention them.

I'm certainly not in agreement with the conclusion that either show is a wholesale rip-off from the other. I'd say that during the genesis of and the run of B5 and DS9 there was probably a little cross-pollination, but there were also a lot of differences, both in style and in content.

As a side-note, I used to be a pretty big fan of B5, but I've cooled off on that show a lot.

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Originally Posted by Denicalis

The biggest issue for the argument of DS9 playing off of B5 is that the studio had the "bible" for B5 in their hands for the year leading up to DS9's conception. It's just sort of odd that they'd suddenly spin away from the regular Trek concept of being episodic and incorporate that many elements that show up in B5. JMS doesn't blame the writers, he blames the studio that supplies notes. Wouldn't surprise me if they'd used some of his stuff.

Sure, I'm prepared to accept that. What I mean is that it seems like they took the concept in a direction which was diffent to Straczynsky's plan for B5. The concept is similar, as are certain elements, but the execution was different.

I found that B5 lost all sense of coherency towards the end of the Shadow War. It stayed good, but it was never as good as it promised to be. DS9 on the other hand, seemed to gain in strength as it went along. I enjoyed the denoument of the arc story immensely.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Denicalis

Oh, there I won't argue with you. And the reason it fell apart at the end of the shadow war is that JMS thought he had another year to wrap it up, and then they tell him he's being cancelled, so he rushes it, does one of the WORST story arc endings in Sci Fi history just to get some closure, and then they tell him "oh wait, we'll renew you." It boned the whole series.

Indeed. The original concept for the ending of B5 would certainly have been better than what was realised. As far as I'm concerned, we got something in the region of 3.7 excellent seasons, but I acknowledge that Straczynsky wasn't entirely to blame for the 1.3 seasons which followed.

In the end, the series as presented to us is all we have, though. So it remains a deeply flawed work of sci-fi genius. The greater the apparent potential, the higher the standard I hold a show to. This is why I can tolerate pulp sci-fi such as the early seasons of Stargate, or E:FC with pleasure, but criticise B5 for failing to fulfil the potential which was so richly in evidence during the second, third, and early fourth season.

Originally Posted by Vivace119

I completely agree with this, although I was very fond of the end of Season 4. It's ok for it to end in that quick, neat and tidy way because Sheridan pulls off some genius tactics.

I remain unhappy with the end of season four myself, but not to an extraordinary degree. I certainly don't agree with you that the end of that season was well executed. I maintain that while there were excellent individual episodes on offer, the pacing felt (as would be expected) wildly out of synch with that of the preceding seasons.

Pacing is an important matter to me, and poor pacing is often the reason why I eventually discontinue to watch a series. It affects my enjoyment immensely, although more so during the broadcast run of a series than when viewing it on DVD. I might add that if B5's pacing was a little fast, towards the end, there were times when the pacing of DS9 seemed a little too slow.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?