original star trek writing guidelines, were that every episode should be self contained, with very few 'double' episodes, the main reason for this was for syndication and because they didn't believe that viewers would want a long running storyline, as it made things harder for new viewers to pick things up. This continued even into the early series of DS9.
JMS on the otherhand, created babylon 5 with a 5 year plan in mind from the get-go, and fought to be allowed to produce it that way. Very quickly, he proved that people wanted a story done like this, and the producers of star trek very quickly realised that it brought in more viewers, because people wanted to know "what happens next?", later seasons of DS9 show this, you could almost say that the change happened along with the disappearance of Ben Sisko's hair.
The only fault with babylon 5, was that the studios lost confidence, not looking at syndication sales, and pulled the plug early in season 4, forcing JMS to fast-track the rest of the story. However, a campaign by fans, made them change their mind, and a fifth season was commissioned, however, it was really an afterthought by then, and it showed.
, why can't they kill miraculous healing girl instead! Also, who let the woman drive?
