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

The fastest 24th-century starship would have taken 67 years to make the 90 thousand light-year journey between the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants. The Bajoran wormhole, the first stable wormhole ever discovered, made the trip nearly instantaneous.

To the Bajorans, the wormhole was the home of the Prophets, other cultures saw it simply as a way to initiate first contact and trade with Gamma Quadrant species.

Unfortunately, the wormhole also made the Alpha Quadrant vulnerable to attack by the Gamma Quadrant's dominant power, the Dominion. It was also affected by the actions of the Prophets and their rivals, the Pah-wraiths.

While Deep Space Nine's wormhole connected two specific points, Babylon 5's hyperspace jump points could connect any two points in the galaxy through hyperspace.

Hyperspace travel was depicted as more dangerous than wormhole travel, adding dramatic stakes to several episodes. Ships in hyperspace followed a series of tachyon beams connecting two points, called beacons.

Ships that lost the beacon were typically lost forever. However, rescues could be attempted by a chain of ships maintaining sensor locks on each other while a final ship maintained a lock on the beacon. The longer the missing ship was off the beacon, the further it would drift.