Both two AMAZING space shows from the 90s with wars and politics and good ol' shenanigans

Well it's known that JMS pitched a space station show and was turned down... and then poof we get ds9.
Either way both are some of the best sci-fi ever.
- Yup. DS9 originated as a rip-off of his idea once he got someone to pick it up because Paramount didn't want anyone watching sci-fi that wasn't Star Trek. But, it took on its own life and became another great series in its own right.
  I am a big fan of both and argue that they are very different shows, with DS9 being a bit of a grittier Star Trek but B5 not just being another layer of grit but really being unafraid of directly portraying the consequences of allowing authoritarianism to persist unchecked and the suffering that it causes, without softening it with an alien species acting as a stand-in for the lust for power that some humans have.
  Having re-watched B5 recently, except for the CGI, it holds up extremely well. Have been meaning to give DS9 another spin.
  Also, DS9 has my favorite theme of any Star Trek series.
  EDIT: I stand corrected.
  
  Even JMS has actually admitted years ago that DS9 and B5 being in development at the same time was a coincidence. DS9 was already in early pre-production when he pitched B5 to Paramount. They turned him down, but also asked if he would be willing to retool it as a Trek show. Most likely, they hoped to recruit him as a DS9 writer and didn't expect him to turn that down. Granted, it seemed super suspicious, but now that Paramount's documentation has been released it's pretty clear nothing nefarious happened. The DS9 showrunners weren't even informed the B5 pitch had happened and the network didn't interfere with DS9 much if at all, so the only cross contamination came from the handful of writers they shared, like D. C. Fontana.
  
  Oh boy, have I got something for you!
- B5’s security guard was supposed to be a shapeshifter. He should’ve sued, honestly. People thought he ripped them off because DS9 came out first.
- Straczynski also pitched and write one if the best comic miniseries of the early 2000's, too. Rising Stars was limited by the style of art that was popular in comics at the time, but it's one of the best, most cohesive stories ever to be seen in comics at that point. Frankly, I think it's one of the examples of why comics started to be taken seriously as a storytelling medium, and it's kind of a mystery why every other edgy early 2000's comic got the Hollywood treatment, but Rising Stars seems to have been mostly forgotten. I mean, hell, if Cowboys and Aliens can get a major motion picture release and The Boys can be a massive hit, why can't Rising Stars or Babylon 5 at least get some sort of animated series?
  
  Babylon 5 already had a series.

I'm currently listening to ST:Outpost which is a lot like DS9. It tells the story of DS3 and it's crew. DS3's captain is extreme about waste management and has the station running at extreme efficiency, leaving it a barren and forgotten place where careers come to die. The crew have learned to deal with this and to make the best of what they have, which oftentimes involves some creative solutions.
It's a full cast audio play on spotify. It has roughly 84 hours of story. I can heartedly recommend it.
- Subscribed; I'll check it out.
- Sounds really interesting, I'll check it out

DS9 I watched. What’s on the left?
- Babylon 5, a lower budget but still AMAZING sci-fi show! You should check it out, season one is kinda good but after that it's really good, especially season four (though season five is a bit slow in parts)
  It's one of my favorite sci-fi shows of all time!
  
  You also get to see Walter Koenig play a very creepy bad guy.
  
  Ah. I’ve heard great things about Babylon 5 but the first couple of episodes didn’t draw me in. I’ll have to give it another shot.
  
  I would argue that despite the great DS9 episodes and stories, B5 had better stories overall. That being said most of DS9's CGI aged pretty well. B5's CGI...not so much. Not even the remastered version.
- On the left is what DS9 was ripped off from. The creater of the TV show Babylon 5 pitched a show based on a space station with a shapeshifting security guard where many races meet. Also, there will be an epic war incoming. The creator is an amazing individual for many reason if nothing else for not being bitter toward Paramount.

They both also have Jeffrey Combs.
- and Walter Koenig!

Sisko be like "I'll make my own ship and sail across the cosmos like ancient Bajorans".
Explorers was the silliest yet most wholesome episode.
- It really was
  "Oh you say the Bajorans couldn't do this? Well too bad they could, lemmie show you"
  
  That people have done that same thing IRL to prove that ancient peoples could have made certain voyages is also neat. Across oceans rather than space, but still.

Well dang it, you've spoiled my meme for tomorrow! It uses the same template lol
- Oops haha!
- I'm down for lots of "Trek" "they're the same picture" memes.

- I probably prefer DS9 too (it's close so it's hard to say), but I still love both!

- Maybe you only saw S1, because part of Season 3/4 is honestly some of the best sci-fi I've ever watched; either that or you just didn't like it, which is totally OK! I would never attach a Drakh keeper to you to make you like Babylon 5, that would be crazy!