I agree, those were neater than anything ST ever had.

But it was a lot more than just Star Fury or other hardware that made it such a good show.

The series had continuity, plot depth, character developement, background settings far beyond any other SF series on broadcast TV. While Stargate, Farscape and even LEXX (that was one wierd, wierd series!) came close. I still hold to my opinion B5 was the best.

One of the advantages of the B5 franchise was it was independantly produced and shot. Locally the FOX station ran it, they then sold the rights to TBN, which took it off broadcast and to cable/sat.

As for the Star trek franchise, Second Gen was about as good as it got. The series ran long enough to allow the characters to grow, and fill in background to give you a feeling for the 'world' of the Federation. The orginal series did not have that luxury. I keep remembering a comment by W. Shatner about the constant fight with the Network to keep the original from becoming just another "Monster of the Week" SF series.

BTW< for some reason I simply can't get into the new Battlestar Galactia, and lawd knoes I twied.