Editing Babylon 5 (section)

=== ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' and Paramount plagiarism controversy ===
Straczynski indicated that [[Paramount Television]] was aware of his concept as early as 1989,<ref>{{Cite tweet |author=Straczynski, J. Michael |user=straczynski |number=1000265468693774336 |title=We pitched the show to Paramount 6-12 months before DS9 was announced, which came right on the heels of B5 being announced first. They put their show into high gear, spending 4 times what we did so they'd make it to air first.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=18023 |title=Misinformed |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |date=December 7, 1994 |publisher=Midnight Design Productions, LLC |access-date=February 24, 2019 |archive-date=October 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026121232/http://www.jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=18023 |url-status=live }}</ref> when he attempted to sell the show to the studio, and provided them with the series [[Bible (writing)|bible]], pilot script, artwork, lengthy character background histories, and plot synopses for "22 or so" planned episodes taken from the overall course of the planned series.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=14711 |title=Actually, we've already *had* ST... |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |date=January 13, 1996 |website=JMSNews |publisher=Midnight Design Productions, LLC |access-date=February 24, 2019 |archive-date=February 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210215182054/http://www.jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=14711 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/ds9season1.php |title=Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Season One (review) |author=Judge Nicholas Sylvain (Retired) |date=April 8, 2003 |publisher=Mike Jackson/DVD Verdict|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031011154632/http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/ds9season1.php|archive-date=October 11, 2003|url-status=dead |access-date=February 26, 2019}}</ref>

Paramount declined to produce ''Babylon 5'', but later announced ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' was in development, two months after Warner Bros. announced its plans for ''Babylon 5''. Unlike previous ''Star Trek'' shows, ''Deep Space Nine'' was based on a space station, and had themes similar to those of ''Babylon 5'', which drew some to compare it with ''Babylon 5''. Straczynski stated that, even though he was confident that ''Deep Space Nine'' producer/creators [[Rick Berman]] and [[Michael Piller]] had not seen the material, he suspected that Paramount executives used his bible and scripts to steer development of ''Deep Space Nine''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=21322 |title=nic, you persist in this notion... |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |date=February 4, 1992 |website=JMSNews |publisher=Midnight Design Productions, LLC |access-date=February 24, 2019 |archive-date=November 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201128040905/http://jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=21322 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=8676 |title=Grand Theft, drama! |last=Straczynski |first=J. Michael |date=September 15, 1997 |website=JMSNews |publisher=Midnight Design Productions, LLC |access-date=February 24, 2019 |archive-date=July 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200722072219/http://jmsnews.com/messages/message?id=8676 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="GEnie">{{cite web |url=http://mirrors.ntua.gr/b5/GEnie/jms92-02 |title=B5 information from GEnie |last=Michael Straczynski |first=J. |publisher=National Technical University of Athens |access-date=July 6, 2016 |quote=If there is any (to use your term) winking and nudging going on, it's on the level of 'Okay, YOU (Paramount) know what happened, and *I* know what happened, but let's try to be grownup about it for now,' though I must say that the shapechanging thing nearly tipped me back over the edge again. If there are no more major similarities that crop up in the next few weeks or months, with luck we can continue that way. |archive-date=November 18, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201118034241/http://mirrors.ntua.gr/b5/GEnie/jms92-02 |url-status=live }}</ref> Straczynski and Warner did not file suit against Paramount, largely because he believed it would negatively affect both series. He argued the same when confronted by claims that the lack of legal action was proof that his allegation was unfounded.<ref name="GEnie"/> According to a 2017 interview with Patricia Tallman, there was a legal case and an out-of-court settlement with Paramount.<ref>{{cite AV media |date=November 6, 2017 |author=Red Carpet News TV |title=Patricia Tallman On Star Trek DS9 Copying Babylon 5 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtaDXnB1YsA | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211030/mtaDXnB1YsA| archive-date=2021-10-30|website=RedCarpetnewsTV.com |format=video |via=[[YouTube]] }}{{cbignore}}</ref>