Star Trek: 11 Huge Comparisons Between Deep Space 9 And Babylon 5

Deep Space Nine's writers populated the show with established factions that the audience was already familiar with such as the Federation, Bajorans, Cardassians, Ferengi, Klingons, and Romulans. However, they further developed these groups with details about their religious beliefs, cultures, customs, and governments.

The writers also introduced some new factions including nefarious Section 31, the totalitarian Dominion, the nonlinear aliens the Bajorans worshiped as the Prophets, and the Prophets' hate-filled rivals, the Pah-wraiths.

Straczynski introduced his audience to new factions and a mythic backstory reminiscent of high fantasy. The First Ones were the first inhabitants of the Milky Way to evolve sentience. The earliest of these, the immortal Lorien and the First Born, made contact with and guided those that followed.

Eventually, much like J.R.R. Tolkien's elves departing Middle Earth, most of the First Ones passed beyond the galactic Rim, and Lorien withdrew to the planet Z'ha'dum. The Vorlons, representing order, and the Shadows, representing chaos, stayed behind to guide the so-called Younger Races.

The Younger Races included the Earth Alliance; the imperialistic Centauri; the once peaceful but now expansionist Narns; the spiritual but aggressive when provoked Minbari; and the varied races of the League of Non-Aligned Worlds.