[gregebowman]

I missed the pilot episode, but bought the dvd. But like most of my dvd purchases, I still haven't watched it yet. I've seen most of the episodes, but there are some gaps in my viewing. And I can't afford to buy the sets. Still thinking about layaway, but haven't done it yet. Alarikf, I think this show will meet most of your criteria for plotlines. The first season seems like it's just a different story each week, but you do get a lot of characterization and background of most of the characters. The rest of the seasons do build upon that, and lead up to the shadow war. From what I saw of Farscape, I think you'll like B5 much better.