Deep Space 9 or Babylon 5

    B5 all the way.   I just started Downloading (46 GBs) everthing on B5, B5 movies and B5 Crusade. One thing there still many unanswered questions about the Drack, allies of the Shadows and that vase. I have missed alot of the last season too. I thought B5 was little more in depth than DS9. Anyway DS9 was a branch off of Star Trek and B5 wasn't.

   Don't get me wrong, I like all Sci-fi flicks so DS9, I would watch right after watching all B5's and StarGate's flicks. 

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The absence of faith is the mark of the weak.

The absence of faith is the mark of the heretic.

The absence of faith is the mark of damnation.

Jedi Master Yoda of Adepta Sororitas

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I'm horribly weak for sci-fi series, but I've never been able to sit through B5. That's especially frustrating to me because the setting/story is very interesting and the show was a total wunderkind in its day when it came to spaceship shots (IIRC, they were the first show to really work with how different zero-g 3D is from 3D in a gravity well. Plus, they respected the silence of space.)

But B5 also has an awful, awful concentration of mediocre dialog writing and mediocre acting. I admit part of my problem was my loathing for Bruce Boxleitner, but even without him too many scenes left me wondering if the actors had just gotten the script that morning or if the makeup folks were early Botox adopters.

I'm hoping that in another decade or so, the B5 storyline will find its own version of David Eick and Ronald Moore who can do the show right the second time.

I had to make a similar discision not too long ago about the direction of my Netflix queue(sp?), and I picked D9. I do not regret it. Wonderful, wonderful show. At the end, anyway... the characterization in the first few seasons was a little flat in my opinion.

Personally i like B5 more than DS9. But be warned if you watch the show because it will be hard not to watch the next episode. Especially season 3 is almost one story splitted in 22.

B5 pioneered the 'novel for tv' format. it is the grandfather of modern scifi/fantasy on television. do not choose DS9 over it or you'll be sorry! yeah, there are some pretty weak episodes (most of them in season 1), but with 110 eps thats to be expected. once the narrative really gets going though you'll have the best part of 60 superb episodes in a row, between season 2 and 4. season 5 is a bit of an anti climax, but you can blame the executives rather than JMS for that.

so um, yeah. choose B5!!

Scoutdog I agree that especially the final seasons of DS9 are great. 

Gabberkooij, I like that, so I dont mind. It was the same with BSG (which is also great btw)

B5, hands down.

Well, only if you like true sci-fi over fluff-crap.

The only truly good Star Trek, is the original series. Just like everything else.

The best Twilight Zone, the best Outer Limits... The originals paved the way, and they were the only ones to truly show original thinking. The remakes were only attempts, at best, of people that could not come up with something better and had to try and make leftovers into a gourmet meal.

And, no one has yet to try a remake or expansion of Bab5.

Why? I think it is because it is simply too indomitable. It stands alone, from beginning to end.

They made 13 episodes of B5 Crusade, in order to find the cure for Earth.

Yeah, and that got canceled mid-way through I think, leaving us with the Excalibur forever drifting through space in search of a cure.

That's exactly why I kept trying to get in a groove with the show (well, that and the groundbreaking space visuals).

If ubiquitous weak acting and clunky dialog don't give you problems, B5 will surely be more fun than DS9 because it is a truly sweeping space opera. DS9 was edgy when compared with TNG, but it made many compromises in the name of protecting the Trek franchise and competing with 'normal' shows. In B5, many aliens are really alien, but the only Trek series to do that right was the animated one from the '70s (also available at Netflix).

B5 all the way!!

Not only it is more "epic" dealing with the politics of an entire galaxy on a regular basis, and more so than in DS9, it also has more "good Sci-fi" episode density. Meaning you will have less "fill up" episodes where they just travel back in time and live in the 70s to play cops (basically they plug in any script from another non scifi show and pretend it is scifi by a trick like travel in time, a dream, or telepathic mental control, etc).

B5 is also more focused on the story, while DS9 is more focused on the acting... with DS9 a lot of the time I felt like I was watching a theatrical piece with theatrical actors (with theatrical gimmics like over the top acting, especially from Sisko with his random anger fits and Kira "i am so emo right now" moments), but the characters in general are too simplistic, almost to a racist level. For example all klingons are violent and bruttish, and they create characters like Worf by making exceptions to that rule. Same for Ferengi, there is little diversity in character among the individuals of a race, with the only exception of the main characters. In B5 characters are more unique, and not restricted by "expected traits" like most star trek shows feel obliged to repeat all the time.

When I finished watching all DS9 episodes, I thought "good show" then immediately jumped to something else. When I finished B5 I was very sad knowing there would be no more new adventures, and I lingered for a couple of weeks reading things about the show and the universe before moving on to something else. I also can very well consider going back and watching B5 from start to finish all over again, but I would never do that with DS9.

B5. This is one of the first series that had a complex storyline written over several episodes with characters who had to make realistic choices (with consequences). The main storyline was told in every episode even if the focus was on a side plot (and from time to time there were some dumb side plots; but usually the main storyline saved these episodes a bit). Without B5 there probably wouldn't be series like BSG (or even Dexter) who focus on a larger plot and consequences.

DS9 on the other hand is too much Star Trek as we know it from NG. There are some good episodes, but most of them still are more like a soap opera in space. It's all about the main characters who most of the time will have adventures on the holo deck (even if theres a full blown war going on, viewers might get disturbed after 2 or 3 of the heavier episodes...), getting engaged in relations, saving the world single handedly and always choose the morally right thing to do (which always will work). In this regard I think Stargate is quite similar. Single episodes may be entertaining but I usually loose any immersion as especially decisions and consequences (when there are those few episodes with big decisions) seem to be just wrong a lot of times. In the end it's like the Disney of science fiction. Try anything to not offend your viewers.

In the end, DS9 is a show with a more positive outlook while B5 gives a rather negative outlook (I do think that usually the latter makes really good SciFi, but the former can be more entertaining depending on preferences).

Hey now, the reason B5 makes people like me wish we could tolerate the bad actors and writers is that it had the potential to be the best space opera ever serialized. A grand timeline, which B5 has, is an essential backbone, but character expressed through dialog is the heart any good epic.

That said, I totally agree that the Trek franchise has bad Disney-emulator problems and the SG franchise made the Trek folks look like amateurs when it came to dumbing down their 'science fiction.'

Two words: Twin Peaks.

Thanks again for all the interesting replies. I might buy B5 soon. It only costs about 60 British pounds for all the episodes, movies, etc. That's nothing if you calculate how much it is per hour watching.

Hmm.... I seem to remember a few times when the 'right decision' cost quite a bit.  Like the death of the Tolan (SP?) civilization.

Stargate was good. Different but good if you watch it with the right mindset.

Its first quality is that it happens right now, in our world. Not 300 years in the future or something, which means you can relate to it more easily. The military aspect, the corrupt politics and secret agencies, the limited / backwards way in which they deal with alien technology. It is humanity making its first steps in space travel and first contact situations, accelerated by the stargate device. All of that while being the underdog of the universe, a hostile situation where a group of individuals and (mostly) the right choices make all the difference. 

Sure it is not as outlandish and exotic as some other series, but that is exactly why I liked it, and exactly why it deserves its place in the big picture of scifi. It would be sad if all scifi series had the same flavor, diversity is good.

Stargate Atlantis was a step in the wrong direction... it became more "farscape-ish", the rainbow colored side of scifi... but still it was not so bad. Stargate Universe was another step back, they seem to try and give it a battlestar galactica-ish flavor with the struggle for survival and the focus on the interaction between characters... but the chemistry is all wrong (bad to horrible casting mostly, with too many bland/blah actors), and it is not exactly scifi in my book. They could as well be stranded on an island, it would not change much to the story. The selfish conspirator vs the naive vs the soldier, with a flock of sheep minded characters looking for leadership... Boring.

Dude as with all post about DS9, I would go for DS9 over any sci-fi, the only thing with DS9 it doesn't get good until season 3 at least.

The only reason DS9 is always a clear winner, is that we have never seen the federation in the way it is portrayed in DS9. I mean in all of the other Star Trek, the Federation is seen as the great savior of all people. At least in DS9, the federation got a more humble we see their weak point, and to be honest who doesn't like see hundreds of ships in battle. As for the number of ships, there are more types of ships shown in DS9 than any of the Star Trek franchise. I mean the Akira, Miranda, Saber, Intrepid, Defiant, Nova, Galaxy, and of course, Excelisor.

I have never seen any of the Stargate series to judge it fairly but the idea is quite interesting. Although I like kinda the latest Stargate there is.

One other thing about stargate... It often reminds me of RPGs like mass effect or dragon age, where you have small team of 3-4 people with different backgrounds who go on adventuring, using their different skills to face any situation. Stargate SG1 is in the same spirit, you have 4 guys... a military veteran (tactics), a scientist, an archeologist (who serves as the moral compass and diplomat) and the alien who is somewhat familiar with the worlds they are visiting and doubles as a soldier / tank.

In fact I think a mass-effect inspired game based on Stargate would have much RPG potential. There is an MMO based on Stargate which is currently in the work (and that will be a major failure, I beta tested it) but really squad adventure is the only right formula for a game based on this series.

Ice, thanks for the contribution. Good arguments to watch DS9. Perhaps I should try both .

and you know who you have to thank for that? JMS and B5

It appears that at least on amazon.co.uk there is no box edition of DS9 available anymore. Instead you have to purchase all seasons separately. At least the prices are reasonable.

If you're not in a rush and not a media collector, it looks like Netflix will be launching a service in the U.K. later this year. http://www.imdb.com/news/ni1485357/ . All of DS9 and B5 are available here, and I doubt they'd leave those our of their UK libraries.

hehe, me and the rest of the B5 fans were clamouring for DVD release all those years ago, and when it finally came, i was paying $110 a season. still worth it though!

It is now much cheaper though, about 15 pounds per season.

That is more than made up for and overshadowed by Gkar and Lando