8 Star Trek Episodes That PISSED OFF Other Franchises

J. Michael Straczynski began working on his idea for Babylon 5 in 1986. He pitched the idea to Paramount Pictures, who declined. Warner Brothers would later give him the green light and production began on the pilot episode, The Gathering, in 1992. While the show was filmed quickly, the post-production process took longer than their Star Trek counterparts, which resulted in The Gathering airing seven weeks later than Emissary.

While Straczynski has always remained diplomatic in the way he spoke about the two shows, he felt that Paramount Pictures were certainly 'guided' by his brief for Babylon 5 when it came to Deep Space Nine. He asserts that Rick Berman and Michael Piller weren't at fault, as he believes they couldn't have known about his script for the show. However, there were some similarities he particularly singled out:

A Space Station near a transit hub

Head of the Station is a Commander, not a Captain

Female Second-in-Command

A central marketplace including a casino

The station contains diplomats, merchants, and the like

Both feature characters who could change their shape

While he stopped short of taking any sort of legal action against Paramount, the two shows were definite rivals on the television circuit in the nineties, with fans still split as to which one was the better show.