10 Ways Babylon 5 & Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Are Basically The Same Show
6. Ongoing Narrative
One of the big things J. Michael Straczynski pitched to the Paramount executives when he went to talk to them about his concept was a highly serialized story. Prior science fiction series had some ongoing stories and recurring characters but they didn't have one core story running most of the way through. That changed with Babylon 5 and Deep Space Nine.
JMS wanted an ongoing story that would develop throughout Babylon 5. He definitely did that, particularly through the first four seasons as the second Shadow War grew and played out. Season five took a much different turn, focusing more on telepaths and the threats left behind by the Shadows. Babylon 5 kind of lost its voice in the final season.
Deep Space Nine, on the other hand, started out with more of an episodic story nature, like previous Star Trek shows. There was some build up in the first two seasons to the Dominion War that defined the series, but DS9 didn't really find its voice until season three. At that point, the serialized, ongoing story just kept building until the final episode of the series.